Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources began marking up the Natural Resources title of the House's Fiscal Year 2022 budget reconciliation legislation. Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement:
"This reconciliation package is a bad bill with bad timing, plain and simple. During a time when Congress should be united and addressing the… Read more »
Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) led the committee's Republican leadership in a letter urging Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) to postpone the upcoming full committee markup in light of the urgent crises facing Americans. In part, the members wrote:
"We have grave concerns about the extremely partisan budget reconciliation package… Read more »
Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) led a special order on the House floor, where members showcased the devastating consequences this administration's inaction on western water is having during a severe drought season.
"For months now, we have sounded the alarm, only to be met with inaction from both the administration and our… Read more »
Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) joined Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other Republican members in a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, urging them to take swift action to address the… Read more »
Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued a proposed rule to withdraw a 2021 Trump administration rule that would have excluded 3.4 million acres of critical habitat for the northern spotted owl.
"Yet again, this administration is backing an anti-science proposal that will only make the problem worse. The Fish and Wildlife Service has already proven that declining… Read more »
Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held a markup, reporting a total of 14 bills out of committee. Twelve of these bills were bipartisan - including U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks' (R-Iowa) recently-introduced Veterans in Parks (VIP) Act - and passed by unanimous consent.
However, committee Democrats also advanced legislation that would be detrimental to… Read more »
Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced it will be rolling back a significant portion of Endangered Species Act (ESA) reforms put in place by the Trump administration. House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement in response:
"Today's ESA announcement is yet another example of how out of touch the Biden… Read more »
Today, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) released its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2022. House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement in response:
"It's very telling that the administration chose to roll out their budget more than three months behind schedule on a Friday before a holiday weekend, right when many… Read more »
Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held a markup, reporting a total of eight bills out of committee. Several of these bills were bipartisan, and passed by unanimous consent:
H.R. 438, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), amends the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act to extend the deadline for a report by the Alyce… Read more »
Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) led a forum on the catastrophic drought situation across the American West.
"It says a lot that we have a diverse collection of western members and witnesses who can speak firsthand about the drought’s impacts,"… Read more »