Press Releases
Internal Documents Refute GOP Narrative on Interior Department Consultation on Bears Ears National Monument
Washington, D.C. - A new memo detailing internal documents produced by the Department of the Interior in response to a request by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform shows a years-long record of extensive contact between agency officials and a wide array of federal, state, and local stakeholders leading up to the designation of Bears Ears National Monument-directly contradicting the Republican narrative that Bears Ears and other federal monuments designated pursuant to the Ant… Continue Reading
04.12.17
Ranking Member Grijalva, Center for Biological Diversity File Lawsuit Against Department of Homeland Security Over Border Programs
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly; Kevin McAleenan, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP); and CBP as a whole seeking a court order for a supplemental programmatic environmental impact statement for the U.S.-Mexico border enforcement program. If successful, the suit will force a federal assessment under the National Environmen… Continue Reading
04.12.17
Rep. Grijalva Questions BLM’s Energy Priorities, Asks for Updated Data on Unused Permits
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter today to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Acting Director Michael D. Nedd expressing his deep disappointment in the agency's plans to prioritize leasing and permitting for oil, gas, and coal above all other uses on America's public lands. The letter expresses concern that the agency intends to focus on energy development at the expense of conservation, wildlife protection, recreation, air and water quality, an… Continue Reading
04.07.17
Grijalva Highlights Ongoing Environmental Troubles at Grand Canyon Mine as Evidence of Need to Continue Mining Moratorium
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today highlighted ongoing environmental problems at the Canyon Mine near the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park as evidence that the 20-year moratorium on new mining claims in the region instituted by the Obama administration needs to be maintained. Calls to lift the moratorium have increased since the beginning of the Trump administration despite the fact that, according to Interior Department information, approximately 3,… Continue Reading
04.07.17
After Four Weeks of Infrastructure-Related Hearings Heavy on Deregulation, Grijalva Asks Where GOP Infrastructure Plan is Hiding
Washington, D.C. - Following a month's worth of Natural Resources Committee hearings in which Republicans and their invited witnesses argued falsely that major environmental deregulation is the only way to improve our nation's infrastructure, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today asked where the Republican infrastructure plan is hiding and why the GOP is using infrastructure as the latest cover story for its unchanging pro-polluter agenda. Throughout the month, Republican lawma… Continue Reading
04.05.17
Decades After First GOP Attempts to Destroy Izembek Refuge Failed, Grijalva Asks Why Majority Still Pushing it at Today’s Hearing
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today questioned Republicans' insistence on holding this morning's hearing on Rep. Don Young's (R-Alaska) bill to build a habitat-destroying road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Alaska decades after the failed idea was first proposed and years after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) formally declared the idea not in the national interest. Izembek is the nation's first designated Wetland of Interna… Continue Reading
04.05.17
Democratic Lawmakers Call for Hearing on GOP Miner Pensions Bill as Committee Reviews Mining Community Assistance Measures
Washington. D.C. - At today's 10:00 a.m. hearing in the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee on H.R. 1731, the RECLAIM Act, Reps. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Donald McEachin (D-Va.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) will deliver a letter to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) calling for a hearing on H.R. 179, the Miners Protection Act, a Republican-authored bill to ensure miner pensions and health benefits are protected for the long term from the coal industry's ongoing collapse.… Continue Reading
04.03.17
Ranking Members of Nat. Resources, Science and Ed & Workforce Committees Condemn Group Misleading Students on Climate Science
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Members Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) of the Committee on Natural Resources, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) of the Committee on Education and the Workforce today condemned the Heartland Institute's distribution of politically motivated and scientifically inaccurate materials on climate change to science teachers at the nation's public schools. The campaign was recently uncovered by the PBS … Continue Reading
03.30.17
Ranking Member Grijalva, Rep. Lowenthal Request GAO Assessment of Oil and Gas Royalty Enforcement to Improve Taxpayer Returns
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, today requested a Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) to determine whether its royalty collection program properly holds oil and gas companies accountable for revenues those companies owe to the American public. ONRR collects mon… Continue Reading
03.29.17
Grijalva Calls on Interior Secretary to Lift Gag Order on Fish and Wildlife Service’s Communications With Congress
Washington, D.C. - In the latest of a growing list of requests to improve communications with Congress, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke urging him to reverse a recently discovered Department of the Interior (DOI) policy of blocking communication between Democratic Congressional staff and the Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCLA) about hearings before the House Natural Resources… Continue Reading
03.29.17
Grijalva: Trump Must Explain Why Rural America, not Mexico, is Paying for His Border Wall – And Whether He’s Building it in Mexico
Note: The online version of this press release includes an extended quote from Ranking Member Grijalva. The final paragraph was not included in the originally publicized version. Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today called on President Trump to explain why his budget plan forces rural and Native American communities to pay for his border wall rather than following through on his false promise to make Mexico pay for it. Grijalva also called on Trump to provid… Continue Reading
03.28.17
Ahead of Republican Briefing on Weakening Our Public Lands Protections, Grijalva Challenges Bishop to Propose and Debate a Bill
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said ahead of tomorrow's American Enterprise Institute briefing on the Antiquities Act that Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who will offer opening remarks at the event alongside Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), needs to bring a bill on the Antiquities Act up for debate in the House Natural Resources Committee and make his case to fellow lawmakers that protections for federal lands should be weakened or eliminated. Bishop for years has led… Continue Reading
03.28.17
Grijalva: Trump Order Ending Federal Climate Planning, Opening New Federal Coal Leases is “Major Self-Inflicted Wound”
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today called the Trump administration's impending executive order canceling federal climate change planning and mitigation efforts and ending the federal coal leasing moratorium "a major self-inflicted wound" and pointed out that it would likely harm communities, in Appalachia and elsewhere, that the White House has promised to help. Today's order rolls back current rules mandating that federal agencies plan for the realities o… Continue Reading
03.28.17
Republicans Bring Extinct Talking Points Back from the Dead in Zombie ESA Hearing
Washington, D.C. - In their latest attempt to manufacture opposition to popular and effective environmental laws, House Republicans are holding a hearing at 10 a.m. today to attack the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and wrongfully blame the Act for delaying development and infrastructure projects. Republican witnesses are expected to resurrect claims that were debunked long ago, such as the myth that ESA consultation caused the catastrophic levee failure along California's Feather River in 1997, a… Continue Reading
03.27.17
THIS WEEK IN COMMITTEE - Republicans' Attacks on our Wildlife
In an ongoing effort to dismantle bedrock environmental laws, House Republicans are holding a hearing at 10 a.m. tomorrow to attack the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and wrongfully blame the Act for delaying development projects. Ranking Member Grijalva and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.) will stick to scientific facts and remind Committee Republicans that since its passage 99 percent of species listed under the ESA have survived and 90 percent … Continue Reading
03.24.17
Grijalva on Keystone Approval: “This Wasn’t Done to Help the Country, It Was Done to Spite Native Americans and our Environment”
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today said the Trump administration's formal approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project was a slap in the face to Native Americans and an intentional blow against our nation's environment that would not benefit the American people. "You'd think this administration would have learned by now that you can't govern just by rushing through terrible ideas," Grijalva said. "This wasn't done to help the country. It was done to spite … Continue Reading
03.22.17
Grijalva Presses Bishop to Call Interior Secretary Zinke for Hearing on Department’s Future in Light of Budget Cuts, Other Needs
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today sent a letter to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) urging him to call a hearing for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to testify on the future of the Interior Department, in light of the Trump administration's proposed 12 percent budget cut, and on other issues Zinke has yet to address. "Given the lack of detail provided in the President's proposal," Grijalva writes, "it is critical that Secretary Zinke appear before the Committee … Continue Reading
03.21.17
Rep. Grijalva: Offshore Drilling Agency Needs to Live Up to Its Name and Hold Drillers Accountable
Washington, D.C. - The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report today reaffirming Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva's (D-Ariz.) position that stronger oversight of offshore oil and gas development is critical to preventing another Deepwater Horizon-type disaster. The report states that the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is failing to meet key environmental stewardship and drilling oversight goals. The House Overs… Continue Reading
03.21.17
Grijalva, Democrats Will Press for Answers on How Administration Can Push Infrastructure While Ignoring Climate Change
Washington, D.C. - Amid mounting reports from Bloomberg and other outlets that the Trump administration will soon release an executive order reversing a range of Obama-era climate change policies, and in light of the recently released administration budget proposal that eliminates nearly all federal funding for climate research and impact mitigation, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today questioned how this morning's imminent infrastructure hearing in the House Natural Resources… Continue Reading
03.16.17
Committee Republicans Hold Hearing on Addressing Parks Infrastructure Needs as the Trump Administration Proposes to Slash DOI’s Budget
Washington, D.C. - In the wake of the release of the Trump administration's budget, Committee Republicans are holding a hearing this morning to explore "innovative ideas" to address the infrastructure needs of the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), a problem created because of congressional neglect and underfunding. Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) pointed out in a press release yesterday the real-world impacts the Trump administration's proposed 12 … Continue Reading