Press Releases
Grijalva: If Secretary Zinke Wants to Protect the Grand Canyon, He Should Support Permanent Ban on New Uranium Claims and Full LWCF Funding
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), an original cosponsor of the bipartisan bill funding the National Park Service (NPS) maintenance backlog recently approved by the Natural Resources Committee, said today that if Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke truly wants to improve Grand Canyon National Park - as he is signaling with his trip this weekend to discuss maintenance needs - he should work with Congress to end new uranium mining in the park's watershed and fully fund … Continue Reading
09.21.18
Ranking Member Grijalva: Trump Officials Have No Good Reason to Permit Black Rhino Trophy Import – Or Make Taxpayers Subsidize Rhino Hunts
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) decision to permit a Texas billionaire who paid $275,000 at auction to hunt a critically endangered black rhino in Namibia and bring it as a trophy back to the United States is an insult to taxpayers and the very idea of environmental protection. There are fewer than 5,500 black rhinos in the wild, and Namibia has fewer than 2,000. "We shouldn't allow critically endange… Continue Reading
09.20.18
Ranking Member Grijalva, Leading Committee Democrats Urge BLM to Protect Vulnerable Arctic Habitat from Aggressive Oil Development
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Reps. Jared Huffman and Alan Lowenthal, both Democrats of California, wrote to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Deputy Director Brian Steed this morning urging him to maintain critical wildlife and caribou habitat protections near Teshekpuk Lake on Alaska's North Slope, which a new ConocoPhillips master plan targets for aggressive development despite existing restrictions in the area. Huffman is ranking member of the Subcom… Continue Reading
09.19.18
Grijalva, Bordallo Lead Letter to Cabinet Officials Urging Focus on Seafood Industry Slavery in SE Asia – Grijalva Requests GAO Study
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and eight House Democratic colleagues, including Del. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), sent a letter today to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen urging them to crack down on human trafficking in the seafood industry. The authors note that despite multiple activist and media exposés in recent years and a heightened level of public interest, litt… Continue Reading
09.19.18
Grijalva, Bordallo Lead Letter to Cabinet Officials Urging Focus on Seafood Industry Slavery in SE Asia – Grijalva Requests GAO Study
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and eight House Democratic colleagues, including Del. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), sent a letter today to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen urging them to crack down on human trafficking in the seafood industry. The authors note that despite multiple activist and media exposés in recent years and a heightened level of public interest, litt… Continue Reading
09.17.18
Natural Resources Committee Democrats Launch #SaveLWCF Countdown, Urge Vote On Bipartisan Bill Before LWCF Expires
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and the House Natural Resources Committee Democrats launched an online #SaveLWCF initiative today highlighting successful Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) projects implemented across the country in the more than 50 years since the program was established in 1965. Natural Resources Democrats will tweet an LWCF success story every hour until Sept. 30, when the program is set to expire. Each tweet will tell the story of how… Continue Reading
09.17.18
Natural Resources Committee Democrats Launch #SaveLWCF Countdown, Urge Vote On Bipartisan Bill Before LWCF Expires
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and the House Natural Resources Committee Democrats launched an online #SaveLWCF initiative today highlighting successful Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) projects implemented across the country in the more than 50 years since the program was established in 1965. Natural Resources Democrats will tweet an LWCF success story every hour until Sept. 30, when the program is set to expire. Each tweet will tell the story of how… Continue Reading
09.13.18
Natural Resources Committee Democrats Kick Off “Wasted Resources” Series Highlighting GOP Oversight Failures, Misplaced Priorities
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and the House Natural Resources Committee Democrats today launched Wasted Resources, a new multimedia series highlighting the major natural resources policy issues the Republican majority ignored over the course of the 115th Congress and the misguided hearings they chose to hold instead. The series kicks off today by highlighting a Committee hearing on July 13, 2017, featuring Republican witness testimony accusing multiple Nati… Continue Reading
09.13.18
Grijalva: Historic Bipartisan Agreement Reauthorizing LWCF, Paying for Park Maintenance Should Advance Quickly
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today that measures just passed by the House Natural Resources Committee permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and dedicating new funding to National Park Service maintenance represent a historic bipartisan moment and should move forward quickly. "This is a taste of what's possible when people work together in good faith," Grijalva said today. "Days like these are far too rare in Congress, a… Continue Reading
09.13.18
Grijalva: Historic Bipartisan Agreement Reauthorizing LWCF, Paying for Park Maintenance Should Advance Quickly
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today that measures just passed by the House Natural Resources Committee permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and dedicating new funding to National Park Service maintenance represent a historic bipartisan moment and should move forward quickly. "This is a taste of what's possible when people work together in good faith," Grijalva said today. "Days like these are far too rare in Congress, a… Continue Reading
09.13.18
Natural Resources Committee Democrats Kick Off “Wasted Resources” Series Highlighting GOP Oversight Failures, Misplaced Priorities
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and the House Natural Resources Committee Democrats today launched Wasted Resources, a new multimedia series highlighting the major natural resources policy issues the Republican majority ignored over the course of the 115th Congress and the misguided hearings they chose to hold instead. The series kicks off today by highlighting a Committee hearing on July 13, 2017, featuring Republican witness testimony accusing multiple Nati… Continue Reading
08.16.18
Ranking Member Grijalva: Yesterday’s IG Finding Overlooks Attempted Behind-the-Scenes Politicization of NPS Climate Report
Washington, D.C. - In response to a request from Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Reps. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.), Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), the Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) yesterday afternoon released its conclusions on how a recent National Park Service (NPS) report on human contributions to climate change was produced. The lawmakers requested the investigation in early April to determin… Continue Reading
07.25.18
Grijalva, House Democrats Urge Trump to Offer Same Tariff Relief to Fishing Communities He’s Now Offering to Farmers
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and three key House Democratic colleagues sent a letter to President Trump today urging him to extend financial relief to American fishermen and women reeling from his failed tariff battle with China. The letter points out that Trump's tariffs on steel have impacted the price of boats, fishing hooks, and lobster and crab traps, and that China's 25 percent retaliatory tariff on 170 American seafood products has had an already cri… Continue Reading
07.25.18
Ranking Member Grijalva Introduces Suite of Bills to Protect Southern Arizona Historic, Environmental Sites
Washington, D.C. - Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva today introduced a set of bills designed to promote Arizona public land conservation, including the Great Bend of the Gila National Monument Act to designate a national monument on approximately 85,000 acres of federal land in Southern Arizona. The monument will be managed as part of the Bureau of Land Management's National Conservation Lands. The area identified by the bill is filled with cultural and histori… Continue Reading
07.19.18
Ranking Member Grijalva: Trump’s Endangered Species Act Changes Put Species at Risk as Favor to Industry
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on the Trump administration's newly announced weakening of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) through three separate rulemakings that will be announced in the Federal Register early next week. The changes were posted moments ago on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website. "The Trump administration doesn't seem to know any other way to handle the environment than as an obstacle to industry profi… Continue Reading
07.18.18
Grijalva: GOP Just Voted to Protect Secretary Zinke From Accountability by Denying Full Funding for DOI Inspector General
Washington, D.C. - Moments ago the House Republican majority voted down Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva's (D-Ariz.) amendment to the Department of the Interior (DOI) funding bill that sought to increase the DOI Office of Inspector General's (OIG) funding by $2.5 million. Grijalva said the vote shows how stubbornly Republicans refuse to hold Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke or the rest of the Trump administration's DOI appointees accountable for their multiple scandals, policy failures and em… Continue Reading
07.17.18
Ranking Member Grijalva: Gosar Attack on Ironwood Forest Shows Little Respect for Historic Conservation, Local Input
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today said Rep. Paul Gosar's (R-Ariz.) amendment to the Department of the Interior funding bill prohibiting the use of funds to manage Ironwood Forest National Monument - which is entirely within Rep. Grijalva's district - shows no respect for historic conservation or local input. The public strongly supports maintaining national monuments in Arizona, as the Trump administration learned in the midst of its 2017 push to shrink na… Continue Reading
07.17.18
Ranking Member Grijalva Leads Letter With More Than 100 Democrats Opposing GOP Defense Bill’s Attacks on Endangered Species
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a member of the House-Senate conference reconciling the two chambers' versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sent a letter with 118 of his House Democratic colleagues this morning urging House and Senate lawmakers to remove language in the House version of the NDAA that weakens the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The letter, signed by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-M… Continue Reading
07.12.18
Grijalva: Republicans Still Scamming the Public on Endangered Species Act, Pushing Destructive Corporate Favors as “Reform”
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva today said that House Republicans' announcement this afternoon of a suite of nine bills that gut the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is part of their undisguised years-long pattern of pushing unpopular, environmentally destructive favors for corporate supporters. Grijalva questioned the thinking behind Republicans' in-your-face partisan destruction of one of America's bedrock environmental laws. Without the ESA, Grijalva pointed out, specie… Continue Reading
07.05.18
Grijalva: Congressional GOP Owns Pruitt’s Scandals as Much as Trump, Must Conduct Oversight or Public Will Expect More Ripoffs
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on Scott Pruitt's resignation as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. "The sad truth is that Mr. Pruitt is exactly the kind of person President Trump believes should run our government: someone who lies, abuses his office, enriches himself and his family at taxpayer expense and thinks his job is to keep CEOs happy rather than make Americans' lives better. From day one of his shameful ten… Continue Reading