Press Releases
Currently showing results related to Federal Lands
Natural Resources Dems to Trump: Ocean Monuments Report Belongs to the American People
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and 19 House Democrats sent a letter to President Trump today urging him to release the Department of Commerce report sent to the White House last week on Secretary Wilbur Ross' review of 11 National Marine Sanctuaries and Marine National Monuments. Secretary Ross promised to consider the 100,000 public comments the Department received, but has failed to inform the American people of his plans. In the interest of bipartisanship… Continue Reading
11.02.17
Democrats Ask Commerce Secretary Ross about Marine Monuments Report
Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and 19 House Democrats sent a letter to President Trump today urging him to release the Department of Commerce report sent to the White House last week on Secretary Wilbur Ross' review of 11 National Marine Sanctuaries and Marine National Monuments.… Continue Reading
11.01.17
Ranking Member Grijalva on Trump Potentially Opening Grand Canyon to Uranium Mining: “No Boundaries to His Spite”
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recently published report to President Trump, which recommends - among other measures - rescinding the 20-year uranium mining moratorium around the Grand Canyon. "President Trump wants to turn one of the world's greatest natural wonders into a strip mine. There are no boundaries to his need to spite President Obama's legacy and everyone he perceives as his… Continue Reading
11.01.17
Grijalva: GOP Forest Fire “Management” Bill Just Sacrifices Trees to Logging Companies, Doesn’t Solve Fire Funding Problems
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today questioned House Republicans' expected passage this evening of H.R. 2936 - Rep. Bruce Westerman's (R-Ark.) "Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017" - given its failure to address the structural funding problems that cripple the U.S. Forest Service. Just as seriously, he pointed out, the bill undermines the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to elevate logging over all other uses, i… Continue Reading
10.27.17
Grijalva Criticizes the Return of “Sight-Unseen” Leasing Policies
Washington, D.C. - The Department of the Interior (DOI) released a report today that stated it will repeal the 2010 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) onshore oil and gas leasing reforms and stop developing Master Leasing Plans. Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva condemned the release of the Final Report: Review of the Department of the Interior Actions that Potentially Burden Domestic Energy, and points out that Leasing reforms and Master Leasing Plans are necessary to guarantee a safe land ma… Continue Reading
10.27.17
Grijalva: Trump Trying to Shrink Utah National Monuments is Illegal and Unpopular – and Republicans Admit It
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on today's news that President Trump will sign an order next week unilaterally attempting to shrink Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bears Ears National Monument. Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who has pressured President Trump for months to shrink both sites, recently introduced a bill that creates presidential authority to shrink or eliminate monuments - an admission that n… Continue Reading
10.24.17
Ahead of Sage-Grouse Hearing Even Republicans Don’t Want, Grijalva Highlights Lack of Military or Local Demand for “Reform”
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of Wednesday's hearing on the Republican effort to tear up the multi-state conservation plan for greater sage-grouse habitat - a negotiated product meant to forestall the bird's listing through the Endangered Species Act - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) questioned in whose interests Republicans are acting, given the lack of demand from the military branches they claim to be helping or from Western states that support the conservation plan. John Tubbs, … Continue Reading
10.24.17
Ranking Member Grijalva Statement on Committee Democrats’ Meeting With Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement today on Committee Democrats' meeting this afternoon with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. "It's not clear to me why this meeting needed to be shrouded in secrecy. The Interior Department under this administration has been characterized by a troubling lack of transparency and a strange tendency to treat the Interior Department like it's the Pentagon. Democrats wanted to talk about things like Secr… Continue Reading
10.24.17
Grijalva Condemns Trump Administration Plan to Hike Entrance Fees at 17 National Parks After Proposing Massive Cuts to NPS Budget
Washington, D.C. - House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) criticized today's National Park Service announcement regarding increased entrance fees at seventeen highly-visited parks. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke claims the fee hikes are necessary to address the deferred maintenance backlog, but Grijalva points out that the Trump administration's FY2018 budget proposed a 12.9% cut to NPS funding. If the Trump administration is serious about updating park… Continue Reading
10.12.17
Six Dem Ranking Members to GOP Leaders: Allow Our Committees to Consider Border Wall Bill, Don’t Jam it Through the House
Washington, D.C. - The ranking members of six House committees today sent a letter to their Republican counterparts and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan urging them to allow H.R. 3548 - the Republican bill authorizing the costly, destructive expansion of the border wall - to be considered for amendment in each of their respective committees before the bill goes to the full House for consideration. Moving the bill through each committee with jurisdiction, the authors note, would be the only way to … Continue Reading
10.11.17
Democrats Force Committee Markup on Secretary Zinke’s Secret National Monument Review Process
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and 30 House Democrats have set the agenda for today's 4:00 p.m. ET markup by forcing Committee Republicans to consider Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's "review" of our national monuments. Secretary Zinke's lack of transparency in the monument review process moved Democrats to introduce a House resolution (H.Res. 555) last week - a tactic used by the Minority to demand information from the Trump administration - to obtain the fin… Continue Reading
10.04.17
Ranking Member Grijalva and 25 House Democrats Demand Details on Secretary Zinke’s Monument Review Process
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and 25 House Democratic cosponsors are using a House resolution (H.Res. 555) to force the Trump administration to be more transparent about its review of national monuments. The Democrats introduced the resolution of inquiry (ROI) today, a House resolution that requires the administration to provide Congress a final version of the secret monuments report and all supporting documents related to the executive order President Trump… Continue Reading
09.13.17
Democrats Speak Out Against Sham Markup of Gun Deregulation Measure Disguised as “Sportsmen’s Bill”
Note: The quotes attributed to Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) were added online after the initial version of this release was publicized. Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Democratic members of the House Natural Resources Committee joined in condemnation of today's just-concluded markup of a bill that weakens public safety, unnecessarily deregulates gun silencers and makes it harder for federal authorities to regulate arm… Continue Reading
09.12.17
Ranking Member Grijalva: This Week’s Bills Are a Sign That Republicans Will Sacrifice Sportsmen to the National Rifle Association
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today said that the slate of Republican bills set to receive votes on Wednesday are a sign that Republicans will do any amount of damage to public safety, to sportsmen and to the outdoors to keep the National Rifle Association (NRA) happy. Today's hearing on the notorious SHARE Act - nominally a bill to advance sportsmen's outdoor policy priorities that has become a laundry list of NRA demands - is the first of the week's many … Continue Reading
08.22.17
New Ranking Member Report Documents Industry Influence, Lack of Public Transparency in Trump Admin National Monument Review
Washington, D.C. - A new report released by House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) documents the strong influence of the oil and mining industries over the soon-to-be-completed Trump administration "review" of 27 national monuments around the country and sheds new light on the review's unpopularity. The report - Fossil Apostles: Fossil Fuels, the GOP, and the Fate of Our National Monuments - is available at http://bit.ly/2iofeBx. Today's report finds … Continue Reading
07.27.17
Grijalva: Zinke Threats Against Alaska Over Trumpcare Vote Raise Ethical Questions, Threaten Environment
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today said Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's willingness to deliver threats against the state of Alaska, in retaliation for Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) principled stance against Trumpcare, was an alarming sign of how far the administration's ethical standards have fallen and how irresponsible the Interior Department has become. Grijalva plans to request a formal investigation later today. As Alaska Dispatch News first report… Continue Reading
07.27.17
Ranking Member Grijalva Questions Today’s GOP Attacks on Antiquities Act, Boundary Waters and Federal Use of Climate Science
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of this morning's 10:00 a.m. hearing in the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) questioned Republicans' insistence on blocking federal agencies from accounting for the social cost of carbon - an important measure of the cost to society of each ton of carbon pollution - in regulatory analysis. Grijalva also questioned Republican efforts to block the president from establishing new national monuments in Minnesota. H.… Continue Reading
07.20.17
Ahead of Today’s King Cove Road Floor Vote, Grijalva Says to Listen to Scientists
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of today's House floor vote on the Republican-backed King Cove Road Land Exchange Act (H.R. 218) - a bill that greenlights construction of a habitat-destroying road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) pointed out that claims that the people of King Cove have been ignored by Congress are completely false. In fact, American taxpayers have handed over more than $30 million to help the town develop a relia… Continue Reading
07.19.17
As Today’s House Budget Markup Kicks Off, Grijalva Highlights “Flagrantly Outdated” GOP Oil Estimates, Touts Alternatives
Washington, D.C. - As today's 10:00 a.m. House Budget Committee markup of the House Republican fiscal year 2018 budget proposal gets underway, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) questioned Republican estimates of revenue generated by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and touted clean alternative energy development as a more popular and more economic option. The budget proposal includes instructions to the Natural Resources Committee to generate $5 billion… Continue Reading
07.18.17
Grijalva Highlights False GOP Talking Points, Budget Option to Drill in Arctic Refuge Ahead of “Drill, Baby, Drill” Alaska Hearing
Washington, D.C. - As House Republicans prepare to publish budget reconciliation language today that could lead to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling - continuing a decades-long ideological effort to drill in one of the nation's most pristine protected habitats - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) highlighted the almost total lack of GOP imagination on energy and economic policy. The budget language comes ahead of today's hearing at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time i… Continue Reading