The House today is expected to take up the Salmon Extinction Act, HR 3144. The bill will roll back critical protections for endangered salmon, derail salmon recovery alternatives, and undermine bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. Thirteen wild salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia and Snake River Basin are currently at risk of extinction, none of which have recovered under the inadequate plans the Salmon Extinction Act would continue.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- House Republicans today released the FY2019 farm bill. The bill weakens the SNAP anti-hunger program and includes provisions undermining bedrock environmental safeguards for clean water, wildlife and forests.
Interior Secretary Zinke was on Capitol Hill again today testifying before the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee defending the proposed budget for the Department of the Interior. Sec. Zinke’s answers to Congressional questions largely mirrored those he gave earlier in the week when he blamed the elderly, disabled, veterans, and children for failing to pay for the National Park maintenance backlog, changed his story on opening the country’s coasts to offshore drilling, lectured members he disagreed with, and made clear nothing will be allowed to get in the way of the Trump administration’s vision for the country’s public lands - fossil fuel profits above all else.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on his agency’s proposed budget. Sec. Zinke was visibly angered by Congressional questioning of agency decisions, including rollbacks of national monument protections and expensive private flights, even going so far as to challenge Senators to call his bluffs.
More than 240 environmental, animal welfare and conservation organizations sent a letter to House and Senate leadership today, calling on them to reject riders in 2018 Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency appropriations legislation that would erode the Endangered Species Act and other safeguards for wildlife. The letter comes as Congress is poised to pass yet another continuing resolution that could pave the way for negotiations to begin on a final omnibus appropriations bill for FY 2018.
This year’s House and Senate bills currently include provisions that would strip away federal protections for wolves and several other species, choke off funding for listed species if wildlife agencies cannot complete their five-year species reviews on time and block protections for sage-grouse, among many others.
The House Natural Resources Committee today will hold a hearing on Rep. John Curtis’ H.R. 4532 “Shash Jaa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument Act.” The bill would not only codify President Trump’s illegal cuts to Bears Ears National Monument but also delegate management of the monument to local officials and tribal representatives hand-picked by the Utah delegation, foregoing input from Tribal governments. Management plans laid out in the bill exclude three of the five tribes that advocated for Bears Ears protection.
Today, the Washington Post reported that, in addition to passing a tax bill containing enormous giveaways to the oil and gas industry, Congressional Republicans quietly gave yet another gift to Big Oil when they allowed a tax on oil companies that funded federal oil-spill response efforts to expire.
Protect the Arctic Refuge. The message illuminated Trump International Hotel sending a hard to miss directive to Republican leaders in Washington, D.C. currently rushing through the tax scheme. The plan seeks to offset tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate polluters with revenue from drilling in the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain-- an area vital for the survival of the Gwich’in Nation, and one of the country’s last remaining wild places.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The House Natural Resources Committee today will hold a hearing on the Grand Staircase-Escalante Enhancement Act, HR 4588. Contrary to what the name implies, the bill would codify President Trump’s illegal proclamation cutting Grand Staircase-Escalante by half.
In anticipation, Dalal Aboulhosn, Sierra Club deputy legislative director, issued the following statement:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- According to reports, Sen. Murkowski has confirmed that a provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling is included in the final tax scheme proposal. The provision would effectively remove the sensitive coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the refuge system, opening the entire 1.5 million acres to drilling. The provision ignores the importance of the area to the Gwich’in Nation, as well as a host of environmental safeguards, and cost realities that make raising the estimated revenue from drilling in the Arctic Refuge nearly impossible.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Gallego today introduced legislation to preserve the Bears Ears National Monument and to expand safeguards for areas important to Tribal Nations that were left out of the original designation. The legislation comes as leaked documents show the Trump administration is planning massive reductions to Bears Ears National Monument, cutting the monument by 85%. Also on the chopping block is Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which could be cut by half.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bill undermining bedrock environmental safeguards protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as well as the Superior and Chippewa National Forests. The bill, HR 3905, would automatically grant mineral leases near the Wilderness boundary in perpetuity, while undermining guarantees for public process and water quality among others.