TO: The Honorable Dan Ashe FROM: Rob Bishop, Chairman Dear Director Ashe:  At the joint hearing before the Subcommittees on Water, Power, and Oceans and Federal Lands held on March 19,2015, you confirmed that the Fish and Wildlife Service ("FWS") has not consulted with the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") on whether two major forthcoming EPA Clean Air Act… Read more »

House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01) today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) announcement of its decision to list the northern long-eared bat (NLEB) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  The population loss of the bat is primarily caused by a disease called white nose syndrome (WNS)… Read more »

TO: The Honorable Dan Ashe FROM: Rob Bishop, Chairman Dear Director Ashe:  On March 4. 2015, I sent you a letter requesting certain information regarding the proposed listing of the Northern Long-Eared Bat ("NLEB"). Specifically, the letter requested that you provide, among other things, "data, population models, or any other analytical tools used which demonstrate (1)… Read more »

House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01) issued the following statement this evening on the Obama Administration’s release of its first Report on the Implementation of the National Ocean Policy:  “The Administration's ocean policy is similar to its approach to federal lands, particularly in the West, in that it champions new layers of federal bureaucracy… Read more »

TO: The Honorable Jeh Johnson FROM: Rob Bishop, Chairman Dear Secretary Johnson, The Department of the Interior ("DOI") manages millions of acres on our Southern border under a variety of restrictive law and regulations.  The Committee on Natural Resources ("Committee") has continually expressed concerns that the resulting impediments to access available to the Department of… Read more »

TO: The Honorable Sally Jewell FROM: Rob Bishop, Chairman Dear Secretary Jewell, The Department of the Interior ("DOI") manages millions of acres on our Southern border under a variety of restrictive laws and regulations.  The Committee on Natural Resources ("Committee") has continually expressed concerns that the resulting impediments to access available to the Department of… Read more »

Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources made the following opening statement at today's oversight hearing entitled "Effect of the President’s FY 2016 Budget and Legislative Proposals for the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service’s Energy and Minerals Programs on Private Sector Job Creation, Domestic Energy and Minerals… Read more »

House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs Don Young (R-AK), along with Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), and Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) sent a letter today to Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, requesting that the Department refrain from issuing a final… Read more »

Committee on Natural Resources Vice Chairman Cynthia Lummis (WY-At large) today questioned BLM Director Neil Kornze on how the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between BLM and the states will operate. “Who will approve well bore integrity issues? Will you approve those? Who will do the inspections? Will [states] be brought in? Who is… Read more »

Below is an exchange between exchange between Chairman Bishop and Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. MOUs? Chairman Bishop: “Have the states…screwed up? Are the state [water] engineers incompetent? Is that what the Forest Service is trying to say?” Bishop asked Chief Tidwell:  “No...” Lawsuits? Chief Tidwell: “We can maybe… Read more »