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Empowering Tribes and Territories

Bishop Response to Interior's Secretarial Order on Alaskan Energy

| Posted in Press Release

Yesterday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a Secretarial Order to jump-start oil and gas production in Alaska and update resource assessments in the North Slope. Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement: “This Order further demonstrates the Trump administration’s commitment to harnessing America’s domestic energy resources to support economic growth, empower local…

Interior Official: Land Consolidation Program Failing Native Americans, Taxpayers

| Posted in Press Release

Today, the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs held a hearing on the Department of the Interior’s  (DOI) Cobell Land Consolidation Program. The program authorizes DOI to purchase highly fractionated allotments and consolidate them in tribal ownership. After an expenditure of over $1 billion, it remains unclear that the program has greatly reduced Indian land…

Senate Passes CRA to Restore Wildlife Management Authority to State of Alaska

| Posted in Press Release

Today, the Senate passed H.J. Res. 69 sponsored by Rep. Don Young (R-AK). The joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act will overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rule on “Non-Subsistence Take of Wildlife, and Public Participation and Closure Procedures, on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska.” “This CRA ensures that the role of states will not be…

Bishop Reacts to Disastrous Alaska Announcement

| Posted in Press Release

Today, President Obama issued Executive Order 13689 on the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience. The order withdraws 40,300 square miles from oil and natural gas leasing using the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) released the following statement:   “This administration has obeyed every directive from environmentalists to starve the Trans-Alaska…

Obama Administration Ignores Record of Federal Paternalism, Mismanagement on Tribal Lands

| Posted in Press Release

Last week, Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Sally Jewell issued a secretarial order to encourage cooperation with federally recognized tribes in the management of federal lands. Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement: “This announcement gives the appearance that DOI is committed to tribal self-determination, when in fact it’s more obfuscation that fails to…

Bloomberg: Fight Pipeline, Drill for Oil: Either Way, Tribes Want Control of Their Lands

| Posted in In Case You Missed It

By: Catherine Traywick The Southern Ute Indian Tribe of southwestern Colorado has a higher long-term credit rating than Wells Fargo & Co., and more oil and natural-gas wells than it has members. Welcome to the other side of the tribal land energy conundrum. While the Standing Rock Sioux have drawn considerable media coverage for their fight against the Dakota Access…

Committee Passes Rep. Zinke’s “Certainty for States and Tribes Act”

| Posted in Press Release

Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held a markup on four bills including H.R. 5259 (Rep. Ryan Zinke), the Certainty for States and Tribes Act.  The bill will reestablish the Department of the Interior’s Royalty Policy Committee. H.R. 5259 passed by a vote of 22-13.  “With the Obama Administration’s moratorium on all new federal coal leases, it is important…

Bishop: Energy is Essential to Puerto Rico’s Future Prosperity

| Posted in Press Release

Today, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a hearing on the circumstances leading to the current financial crisis faced by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the state-owned, self-regulated monopoly that operates as Puerto Rico’s  public utility. “Today we took a step forward to uncover the origins of Puerto Rico’s fiscal failures and identifying…

Bishop: Senate Passage of Tribal Energy Development Bill Lays Path Forward for Final Package

| Posted in Press Release

Yesterday the Senate passed S. 209, the “Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act Amendments of 2015,” a bill similar to H.R. 538, the “Native American Energy Act” that passed the House on October 8, 2015.  Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) released the following statement: “I am pleased the Senate has followed suit and acted on legislation to alleviate barriers that…