Press Releases
Natural Resources Committee Approves 16 Bills, Including Key Legislation to Protect Wildlife, Improve Ocean Mapping, Better Manage Fisheries
Washington, D.C. - The House Natural Resources Committee approved 16 bills at a two-hour markup yesterday. Among other measures, the Committee advanced Chair Raúl M. Grijalva's (D-Ariz.) CECIL Act, which would strengthen the standards under which sport hunted trophies of endangered and threatened species could be imported, and Rep. Gregorio Sablan's (D-CNMI) bill to prohibit the sale of shark fins. Bill texts and amendments in the nature of a substitute can also be found by visiting the … Continue Reading
09.19.19
Chair Grijalva Blasts Trump Admin Handover of 560 Acres of Federally Protected Public Lands to Army Control for Border Wall Construction
Washington D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) issued the following statement on the news that President Trump's Department of the Interior will transfer 560 acres of federally protected public lands to the U.S. Army for the construction of 70 miles of Trump's unpopular border wall, paid for with taxpayer money. Grijalva recently released a video with exclusive footage of border wall construction in Arizona and interviews with residents. "The Trump administration has treated our bord… Continue Reading
09.18.19
Chair Grijalva, Rep. Lowenthal Release GAO Report on Taxpayer Exposure from Inadequate BLM Oil and Gas Bonds, Look Ahead to Hearing on Reform Bill
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan S. Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, today released a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finding that oil and gas bonds held by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are insufficient to clean up orphaned wells, putting U.S. taxpayers potentially on the hook for reclamation costs ranging from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. The GAO report, Oil and Gas: Bureau … Continue Reading
09.17.19
Chair Grijalva, Senator Udall Introduce Bill to Protect Endangered Species, Reverse Trump’s Changes That Will Add to Extinction Crisis
Washington D.C. - Natural Resources Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), lead Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, introduced legislation today to repeal all three Trump administration final rule changes to the Endangered Species Act, which taken together will fundamentally change the way we protect threatened and endangered species. Under Trump's rules, the administration can ignore long-term threats to wildl… Continue Reading
09.17.19
Chair Grijalva, Rep. Huffman Hosting One-Hour Livestreamed Conversation With Youth Climate Activists on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), chair of the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, will host a one-hour livestreamed conversation with several panels of youth climate activists on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 3:30 p.m. The event - In Their Own Words: Listening to Youth Climate Change Activists - will be streamed at http://bit.ly/2kQuw3I. The lawmakers will hear from three panels (lineup subject to change): Stronger Wildfires, Mo… Continue Reading
09.12.19
Chair Grijalva Hails Historic Passage of This Week’s Bills to Protect Coasts, Arctic Refuge From Drilling – “We Need a Better Way of Doing Things”
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today hailed the House passage of three bills to protect the Atlantic, Pacific, and Eastern Gulf of Mexico coastlines from offshore drilling and to block the Republican push for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The House just passed Rep. Jared Huffman's (D-Calif.) Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act, and yesterday approved Rep. Joe Cunningham's (D-S.C.) Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act and Rep. Fra… Continue Reading
09.10.19
Chair Grijalva, Rep. Huffman Request Documents From Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross on “Sharpiegate” Political Interference, Threats Against NOAA Staff
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), chair of the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, wrote to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross today requesting a series of documents on his reported threats against long-time National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials in connection with President Trump's inaccurate, widely debunked claim that Hurricane Dorian would put Alabama at risk of storm damage. The Natural Resources Comm… Continue Reading
09.09.19
Chair Grijalva, Leading Democrats, Tribal and Conservation Advocates Holding Wednesday Press Conference on Impending Arctic Drilling Prevention Vote
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and other leading Democrats will speak at a press conference with Alaska Native and conservation advocates at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning outside the U.S. Capitol on the need to pass Rep. Huffman's Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act, a bill set for a Thursday vote in the House. The bill prohibits the Bureau of Land Management from administering oil and gas leasing in and from the Coastal Pl… Continue Reading
09.06.19
Chair Grijalva Asks Inspector General to Expand Probe of DOI FOIA Handling to Include “Supplemental Awareness Review” for Top Political Appointees
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today sent a letter to Inspector General Mark Greenblatt at the Department of the Interior (DOI) asking him to assess DOI's "Supplemental Awareness Review" process as part of its ongoing probe of how Interior responds to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The supplemental review process, begun by the Trump administration, is an opaque internal directive that seems to mandate heightened scrutiny of any response to a FOIA request … Continue Reading
09.05.19
Chair Grijalva Statement on New GAO Ruling That Trump Admin Illegally Moved Money During Government Shutdown
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz) released the following statement on the new Government Accountability Office ruling that the Trump administration illegally used federal money during the recent government shutdown to mitigate damage to National Park Service sites. According to the report, the Interior Department did not cooperate with GAO's investigation. "Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and his advisors consider federal laws a nuisance, not a set of standards. Noth… Continue Reading
08.23.19
Chair Grijalva on New Grand Staircase-Escalante Management Plan: “Never Mind the Law – The Trump Administration is Destroying Protected Places”
Washington, D.C. - Today the Trump administration released a new Monument Management Plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that seeks to open hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands to new oil, gas, and coal extraction and other destructive uses. The new plan is a direct result of President Trump's illegal decision unilaterally to shrink monuments established under the Antiquities Act - a decision that faces an ongoing court challenge in which more than 100 members of Congr… Continue Reading
08.12.19
Chair Grijalva: President Trump’s Assault on Endangered Species Will Add to Extinction Crisis as a Favor to Industry
Washington D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released the final changes to three proposed rules of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These changes undermine the intention of ESA and put thousands of species at risk of extinction at a time when scientists aresounding the alarms that we are losing species at unprecedented rates. Following the release Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) releas… Continue Reading
08.07.19
Chair Grijalva Statement on Report of Puerto Rican Accounting Firm’s Potential Document Destruction Amidst Calls for Investigation
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on a recent report that BDO Puerto Rico, a financial services and accounting firm with multiple Puerto Rican government contracts, may be shredding documents following his and Rep. Nydia Velázquez's request for a formal investigation of the firm's audits and work products. "The Puerto Rican people are tired of corruption, tired of being taken advantage of, and tired of wrongdoing going unpunished.… Continue Reading
08.06.19
Chair Grijalva, Rep. Velázquez Call on Puerto Rico Oversight Board to Investigate Accounting Firm’s Contracting Work Following Recent Indictment
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) sent a previously unreported letter to Natalie Jaresko, executive director of the Puerto Rico Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), on Aug. 2 urging the Board to investigate BDO Puerto Rico, the firm contracted to prepare audits or accounting services for many Puerto Rican government agencies. The letter, available at http://bit.ly/2OIEHpd, comes shortly after BDO Puerto Rico managing p… Continue Reading
08.02.19
Comprehensive New IG Report Highlights Urgent Need for Interior Dept. to Take Greater Action Against Sexual Harassment
Washington, D.C. - The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of the Interior (DOI) today released a new report, Opportunities Exist To Improve the U.S. Department of the Interior's Efforts To Address Sexual Harassment, that confirms in detail the need for the department and its agencies to take stronger action against sexual harassment of employees. Committee on Natural Resources Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement: "The OIG has done a gre… Continue Reading
07.30.19
IG Investigation Requested by Chairs Grijalva, Cummings of Former Secretary Zinke’s Email Use is Now Part of Larger Justice Department Criminal Probe
Washington, D.C. - The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of the Interior (DOI) has confirmed that its investigation of former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's email use - an investigation requested by Committee on Natural Resources Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) - has been folded into a larger criminal probe being coordinated with the Department of Justice (DOJ). On April 19, 2018, the lawmaker… Continue Reading
07.30.19
Chair Grijalva, Rep. Lowenthal Push Interior Secretary for Documents as DOI Ignores Taxpayer Risks of Offshore Oil and Gas Decommissioning Costs
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan S. Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, sent a letter today to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt seeking documents on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) decision to cancel regulatory measures that would have protected U.S. taxpayers from billions of dollars in costs to remove disused offshore oil and gas infrastructure. The letter questions BOEM's failure to develop n… Continue Reading
07.29.19
Chair Grijalva and Leading Democrats Push Interior Secretary for Documents, Urge Arctic Leasing Pause Pending Investigation of Political Pressure
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and three senior Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee sent a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt today seeking documents that might explain the rewriting of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) - initially prepared by career staff at multiple agencies within the Department of the Interior (DOI) - to downplay the risks of new oil and gas drilling along the coastal plain of Alaska. The letter - also signed… Continue Reading
07.26.19
Leading Democrats Reject Trump Administration Management Plan for Bears Ears National Monument – Chair Grijalva Calls Release “Cynical”
Washington, D.C. - Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and other leading Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee today questioned the untimely release of the Department of the Interior's update to the Bears Ears National Monument Management Plan (MMP), which comes in the wake of President Trump's illegal decision to reduce the Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent. Trump's reduction of Bears Ears and the illegal reductions made to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monume… Continue Reading
07.25.19
Natural Resources Committee Will Hold Sept. 10 Hearing on Interior Secretary Bernhardt’s Order to Relocate Bureau of Land Management to Colorado
Washington, D.C. - The House Committee on Natural Resources will hold a hearing at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, Sept. 10 - shortly after the House returns from the August recess - on the Trump administration's decision relocate the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo., and to move other offices and functions of the agency to offices across the West. The hearing will address the Trump administration's failure to offer any meaningful justification for the move, t… Continue Reading