March 25, 2014 TO:              Members, Committee on Natural Resources FROM:          Doc Hastings, Chairman RE:               Subpoena issued I hereby give notice that I have issued a subpoena… Read more »

Dear Secretary Vilsack: More than a month has passed since the Committee on Natural Resources ("Committee") sent a letter on February 14 requesting that the Department of Agriculture ("USDA") abandon any plans to withhold a portion of the FY 2013 Secure Rural Schools ("SRS") payments as a way to recover the FY 2012 SRS money that the USDA ordered States to return last year. The letter… Read more »

Dear Mr. Dodaro: Since 1996, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been directed to close down and sell off the Federal Helium Reserve. The sale of the helium contained in the Reserve has been subject to multiple Department of the Interior Inspector General reports, an examination by the Government Accountability Office, and a major National Academy of Sciences report. All of these… Read more »

Dear Ms. Kendall: On December 23, 2013 the Committee on Natural Resources ("Committee") sent a letter to the Office of Inspector General ("OIG") for the Department of the Interior ("Department") requesting a complete and unredacted copy and underlying attachments for an OIG report of investigation into the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement's ("OSM") efforts to… Read more »

March 11, 2014 TO:              Members, Committee on Natural Resources FROM:          Doc Hastings, Chairman RE:               Subpoena issued I hereby give notice that I have issued a subpoena… Read more »

Dear Mr. Berg: On December 20, 2013, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ("FWS") published a revision to the final rule that listed the White Bluffs bladderpod, Physaria Douglasii subspecies Tuplashensis, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act ("ESA") and designated over 2,000 acres as critical habitat. The White Bluffs bladderpod was one of the many species included… Read more »

Dear Secretary Vilsack: On January 14, 2013, the Committee on Natural Resources ("Committee") held an oversight hearing on the Obama Administration's decision to retroactively apply the FY 2013 sequester to FY 2012 payments made to states under the Secure Rural Schools ("SRS") program and the subsequent decision to demand repayment of a portion of those funds. At that hearing, the… Read more »

Dear Interested Helium Party, As you know, Congress has passed, and the President has signed H.R. 527, "The Helium Stewardship Act" (P.L. 113-40). This bi-partisan law will reform and close operations at Federal Helium Reserve over the remainder of this next decade. While this action was necessary to preserve the supply of helium flowing from the Federal Helium Reserve, the bill does not… Read more »

Dear Secretary Vilsack: The Committee on Natural Resources ("Committee") invites you, as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA"), to testify at an oversight hearing regarding (1) the Obama Administration's decision to sequester money paid to states under the Secure Rural Schools program ("SRS") and (2) your compliance with a subpoena served September 4, 2013, on you, as… Read more »

Dear Director Mathews Burwell: The Committee on Natural Resources ("Committee") invites you, as Director of the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB"), to testify at an oversight hearing regarding (1) the Obama Administration's decision to sequester money paid to states under the Secure Rural Schools ("SRS") program and (2) your compliance with the subpoena served September 4, 2013 on… Read more »