This week, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) sent a letter to Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Brenda Mallory, seeking further information on the use of 30x30 initiative funds. The letter comes after CEQ failed to comply with the committee's initial oversight requests on the matter. In part, the members wrote:

"As you are aware, on March 22, 2024, the Committee sent you a letter requesting information, documents, and records critical to our ongoing oversight activity. Since then, CEQ has failed to comply and provide a substantive reply or production responsive to the Committee’s requests...

"Your silence and lack of a response to the Committee Letter suggests that CEQ is deliberately engaging in obstruction to frustrate the oversight power of Congress. This is unacceptable. The American public deserves transparency, and the Committee will use every tool at its disposal to administer effective oversight and fulfill the Committee’s responsibility to the American people."

To read the full letter, click here, and the committee's initial, unanswered request, click here. 

Background

The Biden administration's 30x30 initiative is a proposal that would put 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters under restrictive management and strict environmental regulations by 2030. The Biden administration has failed to answer basic questions on exactly how the 30x30 scheme would impact U.S. lands and the families and communities that rely on them, despite numerous requests for more information from both Congress and various stakeholders for the past three years. The administration has repeatedly cited the most restrictive land use designations, including national monuments and wilderness areas, as consistent with the 30x30 goal. 

On April 11, 2022, CEQ announced a "$1 billion America the Beautiful Challenge" to further President Joe Biden’s 30x30 agenda. More than two years later, the administration has failed to provide any transparency about how funding will be allocated or how projects are selected. The administration has advertised their 30x30 slush fund as containing $1 billion, and subsequent briefings have revealed the administration has identified $440 million for this fund to date.

The House Committee on Natural Resources is continuing to seek information from CEQ regarding the Biden administration’s 30x30 initiative. On March 22, 2024, the committee sent a letter requesting information on how funds will be spent and tracked.

To date, the administration has failed to answer basic questions about their agenda, the source of the remaining hundreds of millions of dollars for their slush fund, and the cost to taxpayers to advance the vague and unscientific 30x30 agenda.