Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing on four bills focused on securing the southern border, preventing environmental degradation on the border, and ensuring our national parks are not used for housing illegal migrants. Subcommittee Chairman Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) issued the following statement in response:

“Our federal lands are being used and abused by the thousands of illegal aliens crossing over our wide-open southern border every week. As the Biden border crisis spills into our nation’s parks and lands with trash pileups, migrant shelters, and even illegal marijuana grow sites, Republicans on the Federal Lands Subcommittee are determined to reverse the damaging environmental consequences and ensure our public lands can be enjoyed by Americans for years to come.” 

Background

Since President Joe Biden took office, the southern border has rapidly declined into a state of chaos, with record-breaking numbers of illegal crossings each month. Biden's failing border policy has been detrimental to Americans everywhere and is now threatening our best idea: national parks. The bills considered at today's hearing will secure our border and prevent any further actions from the administration that would impede Americans’ ability to recreate on federal lands. 

H.R. __ The Ensuring Border Access and Protection on Federal Land Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), would direct the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to install navigable roads on all federal lands along the southern border. The bill requires at least 584 miles of road, the most conservative estimate of federal land along the border.

H.R. __ The Trash Reduction And Suppressing Harm from Environmental Degradation at the Border (TRASHED Border) Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), would require federal land management agencies to develop policies and protocols to prevent and mitigate environmental damage caused by the border crisis and migrants leaving behind trash. 

H.R. 1727, introduced by U.S. Rep. David Trone (R-Md.), would amend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Development Act to extend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Commission.

H.R. 5283, introduced by U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), would prohibit the use of federal funds to provide housing to specified aliens on any land under the administrative jurisdiction of the federal land management agencies.