Republicans Send Letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Regarding the Administration’s Use of Categorical Exclusions Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) delivered the following opening statement at today’s full committee legislative hearing on two bills (H.R. 3742 and H.R. 3697) to address the Carcieri v. Salazar Supreme Court decision, which found that the Secretary of the Interior does not have the authority to acquire land in trust for tribes not under federal… Read more »

Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) responded to a letter from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack regarding the Forest Service’s use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding. In his response, Hastings requests specific information to his unanswered questions regarding the use of taxpayer dollars, the effectiveness of the ARRA and… Read more »

Rep. Hastings Letter to Secretary Vilsack regarding Forest Service American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Read more »

Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4th, the Insular Affairs Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee will host a legislative hearing on The American Samoa Protection of Industry, Resources, and Employment Act (H.R. 3583), a “tuna bailout bill” that would subsidize the last remaining tuna cannery in America Samoa while imposing new taxes on competitors. Ironically, Democrats only have themselves to… Read more »

Today, Josh Gerstein of Politico has a piece entitled “Obama: Time to get to work on jobs.” He states: “President Barack Obama on Monday pushed his economic advisers to come up with job-generating ideas that can be hustled up to Capitol Hill.” Well, it’s about time. Since January, Republicans have hustled job creation suggestions to the White House – but unfortunately, not many of us… Read more »

Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) sent the following letter to Committee Chairman Nick Rahall objecting to the Democrat Majority attaching reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page government takeover of health care. Text of the letter: Dear Chairman Rahall: I’ve read your press release on the fact… Read more »

Yesterday, Bill Klesse, President & CEO of Valero Energy Corp., testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the Democrats’ job-killing National Energy Tax legislation. He stated that the bill could add 77 cents to each gallon of gasoline. That’s about 30% above today’s prices! This increase will affect every American household across the country. When our… Read more »

Yesterday, Wall Street Journal blogger Keith Johnson wrote an interesting post about a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that was released. The poll highlights America’s declining support for cap-and-trade legislation. Only 48% of the public would approve of a proposal that “would require companies to reduce greenhouse gas that cause global warming, even if it would mean higher utility bills… Read more »

During today’s House Natural Resources Full Committee markup, Democrats voted to authorize an additional $22.5 million for neotropical birds and against a fiscally responsible Republican amendment to eliminate the funding increase. The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (H.R. 2213) is designed to conserve and protect neotropical birds that migrate between their breeding grounds… Read more »