The Obama Administration has spent years invading broad parts of the economy from finance to health care, but less noticed is the takeover of, well, actual land. Witness the standoff over a 50-year-old public land program that has devolved into a watering hole for seizing private property.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund, whose Congressional authorization expired on Sept.… Read more »
The Obama administration is now facing pressure from Democrats to be more open about a possible marine monument off New England.
Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Obama yesterday asking for more public input into the possible monument. The Conservation Law Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Charitable Trusts and other groups launched a… Read more »
A bill approved by the House this week aims to end what one senior Republican calls the Obama administration's "double standard" when it comes to growing pot, an illegal act under federal law, and producing oil and gas from fracking on tribal lands.
"What's bizarre is that for energy production, the administration interprets Indian lands as federal lands, but for pot production, these… Read more »
The severe fire season in western U.S. forests has intensified calls for funding changes so that the U.S. Forest Service does not have to borrow money from other accounts to finish out a fiscal year of wildfire suppression.
The situation has revived the question of whether a solution can be accomplished through fiscal changes alone or whether a stepped-up level of active forest… Read more »
Federal regulators refused to share water-quality data for weeks following a blowout of toxic wastewater from a Colorado mine that fouled rivers across the Southwest, a New Mexico official said Thursday.
The move by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed to downplay the severity of the spill, hobbling the state's response, said Ryan Flynn, New Mexico secretary of Environment and… Read more »
Top administration officials wrote Congress on Tuesday to urge it–once again–to change the way it budgets for firefighting in light of the disastrous wildfire season in the western U.S.
The Agriculture Department just informed lawmakers this week that it will have to transfer $250 million to fighting the forest fires now raging, which brings this fiscal year’s emergency spending total to… Read more »
“It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”
— Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
Sordid, always. And sometimes lethal, as some Native American children could attest, were they not, like Declan Stewart and Laurynn Whiteshield, dead. They were victims of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which as construed and applied demonstrates how identity politics can leave… Read more »
The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee is demanding that the Obama administration hold off on new rules that could make it easier for Indian groups to win federal recognition as tribes.
American Indians have been pushing for years to revise the process, but proposed regulations nearing the finish line have deeply divided existing tribes, and Congress.
Rep. Rob Bishop,… Read more »
November 20, 2013 Committee approves bipartisan bill to stop duplicative federal hydraulic fracturing regulations.
July 31, 2013 Committee approves bipartisan bill to prevent duplicative federal hydraulic fracturing regulations.
July 19, 2013 Committee holds hearing on hydraulic fracturing legislation.
May 21, 2013 Committee requests additional time to review and comment on… Read more »
Politico: “Bishop has already moved to increase the panel’s oversight, opening the door for probes on the Endangered Species Act and federal reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. ‘[NEPA] is a law that has an impact on every aspect of American life,’ Bishop said. And ESA ‘is a perfect example of an act that is not working,’ he said. ‘If it’s for control, then ESA is… Read more »
