House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today unveiled a draft proposal to address the expiration of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program. The draft proposal, Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, renews the federal government’s commitment to manage forest resources for the benefit of rural schools and counties by allowing active forest… Read more »
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) and a bipartisan group of 30 Members of Congress sent a letter today to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Office of Management and Budget Director Jeffrey Zients questioning why the Obama Administration is retroactively subjecting Secure Rural School (SRS) payments, which were made to counties in… Read more »
Dear Secretary Vilsack and Director Zients,
We have been informed that the Forest Service has recently proclaimed that funds already distributed under the most recent extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) or payments based on revenue generated in fiscal year 2012 are subject to the fiscal year 2013 sequester, and the agency will be requesting… Read more »
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement after President Obama announced his intentions to unilaterally designate five new National Monuments using presidential powers granted under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
“The Obama Administration not only sees the sequester as an opportunity to make automatic spending reductions as painful as… Read more »
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement after the U.S. Forest Service announced that Secure Rural School (SRS) payments, which went out to counties in January, will be subjected to sequestration cuts:
“Several months before President Obama’s sequester was scheduled to go into effect, Congress approved - and President Obama signed… Read more »
Reporting H.R. 716 Out of Committee (Passed 20-14. View Roll Call Vote)
This bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey and return jurisdiction of the 7-acre Pearson Aviation Museum Complex to the city of Vancouver, Washington with the City of Vancouver covering all costs of the conveyance.
* For complete legislative action for the March 20, 2013 Full Committee Markup, click here. Read more »
Today the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation held a legislative hearing on H.R. 1126, the “Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Completion Act.” The legislation introduced by Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01) implements a new design competition and provides a three year extension of the memorial site designation, which is… Read more »
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04), Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (TN-03), and Congressman Ben Luján (NM-03) today introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R. 1208) in the House of Representatives to establish a Manhattan Project National Historical Park that will encompass facilities in Hanford, Washington; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The… Read more »
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today introduced H.R. 1159, The Cabin Fee Act of 2013. The bill, which was passed by the House last year, would establish a fair, predictable fee-setting system for families who own cabins in our National Forests.
Cabin owners have recently been faced with arbitrary, skyrocketing fees as a result of a faulty appraisal system… Read more »
Today the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation held a hearing examining, “State Forest Management: A Model for Promoting Healthy Forests, Rural Schools and Jobs.” The hearing was an opportunity to hear from state leaders, local land managers and timber experts on the inadequacies and burdens of current federal forest management practices that have contributed to… Read more »
