Press Releases
Grijalva on Trump’s Mexican Wolf Announcement: “This Decision and Building the Border Wall Ensure Mexican Wolves’ Extinction”
Washington, D.C. - House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) announcement on recovery planning for the endangered Mexican gray wolf: "I'm disappointed that the Trump administration has once again allowed politics to override science. Research shows clearly that areas in southern Utah and Colorado are within the historic range of the Mexican wolf and contain suitabl… Continue Reading
06.29.17
Grijalva, McEachin Urge Trump to Appoint Interior Department Inspector General – Post Has Lacked Permanent Appointee for 8 Years
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter to President Trump today urging him to appoint an inspector general (IG) at the Department of the Interior (DOI), which has gone more than eight years without a full appointee in the position. The full letter is available at http://bit.ly/2ttPybk. Republicans have politicized the position for years, as Grijalv… Continue Reading
06.28.17
Democrats Debunk Republican False Claims that the Obama Administration Stopped Fossil Fuel Development on Public Lands
Washington, D.C. - Republicans are pushing their "oil above all" agenda at yet another Committee hearing tomorrow at 10 a.m., an agenda that favors the oil and gas industry's interests ahead of all other uses of our public lands. The Trump administration, with the help of Republicans in Congress, have been working at lightning speed to grant every wish of the fossil fuel industry and roll back commonsense health, safety, and environmental protections while removing all drilling and digging restr… Continue Reading
06.28.17
Grijalva: Puerto Rico Board Right to Reject PREPA Restructuring Agreement – Priority Must be Sustainable Growth, not Bondholders
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement this morning on the Financial Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico's decision to reject the proposed restructuring of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. The restructuring proposal would have increased rates for Puerto Rico's already financially overburdened residents and prioritized bondholders - some of whom have taken an openly predatory stance toward the island's finances - and… Continue Reading
06.27.17
Grijalva: Trump’s Paranoid Decision to Withdraw National Park, Other World-Class Sites From U.N. Reserve List Puts America Last
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement today on the Trump administration's decision to withdraw 17 U.S. sites, including Virgin Islands National Park, from the United Nations World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) protected list. The changes occurred at a recent meeting in Paris of the U.N. International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme. As National Geographic first reported, "Prior to this year, a tota… Continue Reading
06.27.17
Natural Resources Committee Republicans Still Attacking Public Lands, Needlessly Doing Industry Favors
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of today's Natural Resources Committee markup of more than 20 bills, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) pointed to several problematic Republican proposals that run the gamut from weakening public lands protections to slashing royalties for the soda ash industry. An explanation of the shortcomings of each bill is available below. H.R. 218 - Building a Road Through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Offered by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the bill is the lates… Continue Reading
06.23.17
Grijalva Pushes for Data As Administration-Approved Overfishing of Red Snapper Gets Underway – Bishop Ignores Request for Help
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter today to NOAA Fisheries, the Commerce Department's fisheries management and regulatory agency, pressing for information on why the agency recently extended the red snapper fishing season in the Gulf of Mexico from three days to 42 days - an approach that the agency's own Federal Register notice admits is potentially perilous for the species. The letter is available at http://bit.ly/2s3MRb9. Because it is the polic… Continue Reading
06.22.17
Grijalva: Yellowstone Grizzly Delisting Ignores Science, Disrespects Tribes
Washington, D.C. - House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and several tribal leaders spoke out today against the Trump administration's announcement that it plans to remove Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. "The Interior Department has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by delisting Yellowstone grizzlies prematurely and without adequate tribal consultation or safeguards to ensure th… Continue Reading
06.22.17
House GOP Supports Disastrous Trump Budget That Never Balances - Zinke Says Office of Govt. Ethics, not Dems, Delays Nominations
Washington, D.C. - The House Republican majority on the Natural Resources Committee openly embraced the Trump administration's extremist budget proposal for the Department of the Interior (DOI) at this morning's just-concluded hearing - a proposal Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke repeatedly assured the Committee is "balanced" despite the overall Trump budget having been dismissed by outside observers as a "hilarious accounting fraud" (Slate) and "a $2 trillion mystery" (CNBC). Despite reports that… Continue Reading
06.22.17
Ahead of Zinke Hearing, Grijalva Highlights Administration Budget’s Cuts to Public Access, Total Failure to “Balance”
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of this morning's 9:30 a.m. hearing with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on the president's proposed fiscal year 2018 budget, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) highlighted the budget's total failure to balance, despite its authors' rhetoric to the contrary, and the many ways in which it would reduce public access to public lands and services. Grijalva underscored that the overall budget's widely mocked $2 trillion accounting error - variously identified in t… Continue Reading
06.20.17
Grijalva Calls on Bishop to Hold NOAA Budget Hearing to Examine How Deep Cuts Would Harm Ocean Protections, Species Programs
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) today urging a hearing for Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to testify on the Trump administration's proposed fiscal year 2018 budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In line with the drastic cuts proposed across natural resources, environmental and science agencies, the administration's budget reduces NOAA funding by 17 percent compared to the FY17 co… Continue Reading
06.16.17
Velázquez, Grijalva Call for Puerto Rico Oversight Board to Reject Electric Authority Debt Agreement
Washington, DC - Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) and Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) today wrote to the Financial Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico, arguing that the Board should not certify the current Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority's (PREPA) Restructuring Support Agreement (RSA), which the lawmakers say would benefit wealthy creditors at the expense of the Island's residents. "Higher electricity costs are detrimental to the local economy, causing businesses both large a… Continue Reading
06.15.17
Grijalva Bill Reverses Giveaway of Sacred Tribal Land to Foreign-Owned Mining Company – Sen. Sanders Offering Senate Companion
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva today introduced the Save Oak Flat Act, which repeals an unjustified congressional giveaway of sacred Native American land to a mining company called Resolution Copper co-owned by multinational mining conglomerates Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is introducing a companion bill in the upper chamber today. Section 3003 of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the transfer of 2,422 acres in Arizona'… Continue Reading
06.14.17
Grijalva Highlights Job-Killing Risks of Trump’s Red Snapper Plan as Federal Register Admits it Presents a Severe Overfishing Threat
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement today in response to the Trump administration proposal to extend the 2017 private boat red snapper season in federal Gulf of Mexico waters from 3 days to 42 days: "The red snapper population in the Gulf has been recovering from years of overfishing. Our priority now has to be maintaining and continuing that recovery. Gulf Coast businesses literally cannot afford a fishery management fiat that el… Continue Reading
06.14.17
Grijalva Traveled to Appalachia This Weekend to Witness Environmental & Health Degradation Caused by Mountaintop Removal Mining
Washington, D.C. – House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) traveled to Southwest Virginia this weekend to tour mountaintop removal coal mining sites near the town of Big Stone Gap, Va., and to meet with residents of Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee who are directly affected by the destructive impacts of mountaintop removal mining. On Saturday Grijalva held a forum in Big Stone Gap, where he heard stories from dozens of Appalachian r… Continue Reading
06.13.17
Republicans Betray Hunters and Anglers, Let Gun Lobby Hijack Sportsmen’s Bill
Hearing Cancelled Until Further Notice Washington, D.C. - In a brazen and callous effort to help gun peddlers pad their bottom lines at the expense of the safety and security of American families, House Natural Resources Committee Republicans are holding a hearing tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. on a National Rifle Association (NRA)-backed bill that would weaken rules governing the importation of dangerous firearms, preempt state and local gun safety laws and deregulate silencers and armor-piercing bul… Continue Reading
06.13.17
Grijalva Presses Zinke for His Travel Itinerary, Data on Public Comments for National Monuments Review – Bishop Declines to Join
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today sent Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke a letter requesting an account of public comments received so far through the Trump administration's controversial national monuments "review" process and a description of Zinke's travel and meeting itinerary for trips taken as part of the process. Grijalva asked Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) last Friday to join today's letter, due in part to the fact that Trump officials have said publicl… Continue Reading
06.12.17
Ranking Member Grijalva Statement on Zinke Report on Bears Ears National Monument: “Not Worth the Paper It’s Printed On”
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's report to President Trump recommending major changes to the protected status and conserved acreage of Utah's Bears Ears National Monument: "The Secretary's report is nonsense. The memo released today doesn't give any accounting of the public comments the Interior Department received as part of this review process. It doesn't reference any maps or specify legisl… Continue Reading
06.07.17
Ignoring Widely Understood Need to Remove Deadbeat Dams, GOP Will Push Sea Lion Slaughter at Thursday Salmon Hearing
Washington, D.C. - Republicans at tomorrow's 10:00 a.m. Natural Resources Committee hearing on Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler's H.R. 2083 will argue that the best way to rescue the Pacific Northwest's ailing salmon runs is to kill approximately 1,000 area sea lions rather than breach, bypass, or remove a series of four outdated dams along the Snake River, as a federal judge and the vast majority of stakeholders and scientists have called for. The fact that these dams pose the greatest threat to the… Continue Reading
06.06.17
As Republicans Demand More Drilling & Mining on Public Land, Grijalva Presses Zinke on Delaying Extractive Industries Transparency
Washington, D.C. - As Republicans in Washington demand increased oil and gas drilling and expanded coal and minerals mining on public lands, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke today pressing for information on Zinke's decision to delay the upcoming meeting of the U.S. advisory committee for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international framework on fighting corruption and increasing transparency in the extr… Continue Reading