Press Releases
Grijalva Shows Secretary Zinke’s Goal for Interior Reorganization has Already Been Met
Washington, D.C. - House Republicans are holding a hearing this morning to justify Secretary Ryan Zinke's efforts to drastically reorganize the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) without Congressional or public support. Secretary Zinke has been vocal about his plans to shift more department resources and personnel from Washington, D.C. to field offices across the country, but has not shared the scope and details of his plans. To prove that there isn't a need to reorganize the Department and … Continue Reading
12.07.17
Rep. Grijalva Releases Updated Trophy Hunting Report as Trump-Zinke Moves Threaten Future of Multiple Endangered Species
Washington, D.C. - Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today released an updated version of a report on trophy hunting and endangered species protection that his staff initially released in 2016 in response to the tragic killing of Zimbabwe's famed Cecil the Lion. The release comes in the wake of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's recent announcements that he plans to create a federal advisory committee to promote the hunting of imperiled wildlife and to allow the … Continue Reading
12.04.17
Grijalva: Trump Destruction of National Monuments No More Legal Than Muslim Ban
Washington, D.C. - President Trump is expected to announce at 2:30 p.m. EST today that he will attempt to drastically shrink Utah's Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument through a presidential order with no legal basis. President Trump will likely move forward with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's recommendation to shrink the two Utah monuments by approximately 85 percent, making this the largest reduction of national monuments in history and could open the … Continue Reading
12.01.17
Memo to Reporters: Utah National Monuments Story Includes History of Republican Lying About Public Outreach, Legal Record
Washington, D.C. - President Trump is expected to travel to Utah on Monday and announce plans to modify the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. President Trump's actions - which are illegal and will face a series of court challenges - are based on blatant falsehoods and misrepresentations of the legal history and monument designation process. In addition to a long history of now well-known fabrications and misstatements, Republicans must contend with the f… Continue Reading
11.30.17
House Republicans Vote to Imperil a Minnesota Wilderness Area for Foreign Mining Company
Washington, D.C. - On a largely party line vote, the U.S. House advanced a Republican bill that would resurrect two expired leases in the Superior National Forest for a Chilean mining conglomerate seeking to build a copper sulfide mine near one of America's most visited wilderness areas. The bill (H.R. 3905) would overturn a 2016 U.S. Forest Service finding that building a copper sulfide mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Northern Minnesota could result in "extreme" a… Continue Reading
11.30.17
Reps. Thompson, Grijalva Introduce Gun Violence-Free Sportsmen’s Legislation as Alternative to Failed SHARE Act
Washington, DC - Former Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus Chairman Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today introduced H.R. 4489, the Authorizing Critical Conservation for Sportsmen and Sportswomen (ACCESS) Act. The bill comes on the heels of House Republicans' failed attempts to advance the SHARE Act (H.R. 3668), a bill riddled with anti-conservation and anti-gun safety provisions. The ACCESS Act expands access for fish… Continue Reading
11.29.17
Trump, House Republicans Fail to Deliver Infrastructure Package, Scapegoat Environmental Review Instead
Washington, D.C. - In an attempt to divert attention away from their inability to craft and advance legislation that would provide much needed funding to repair our country's crumbling infrastructure, House Republicans are holding a hearing this morning to blame the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for their failures. NEPA is a bedrock conservation law that requires federal agencies to consider potential environmental impacts of projects they undertake or permit. According to a report by… Continue Reading
11.17.17
Trump Administration Fulfills Donald Jr.’s Wish List Amidst Escalating Military Action in Zimbabwe
Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) posted in the Federal Register today that they're reversing an Obama-era policy on allowing elephant hunting trophies from two countries, with shaky governance and conservation policies, to be shipped back to the United States. Under the new rule, elephants hunted in Zimbabwe and Zambia between 2016 and 2018 can now be imported. Earlier this week at a forum co-hosted by the Safari Club International Foundation - an organization that fre… Continue Reading
11.16.17
Grijalva, 16 Democrats Introduce Comprehensive Energy Reform Legislation to Increase Taxpayer Benefits, Promote Conservation
Washington, D.C. - As House Republicans continue to promote enormous oil and gas industry giveaways as their vision for energy policy, and as Senate Republicans move to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as part of an unrelated tax bill, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) laid out a smarter way forward by introducing the Sustainable Energy Development Reform Act (SEDRA) today with 16 House Democratic cosponsors. The bill protects the Arctic Refuge, allows ener… Continue Reading
11.14.17
Grijalva Calls Out Committee Republicans for Failing to Address the Humanitarian Crisis in Puerto Rico & USVI
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of today's 2 p.m. ET hearing, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) pointed out that Committee Republicans are taking advantage of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) vulnerable state by focusing on expanding federal control over the island's recovery efforts, instead of talking about providing immediate relief for the territories. The Committee invited Governor Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico and Governor Kenneth Mapp of USVI to discuss thei… Continue Reading
11.08.17
Grijalva: Ironic That Zinke Now Spends Public Money to Boost Trophy Hunting While His Wife’s Client Broke Hunting Permit Laws
Washington, D.C. - In the wake of today's news that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is forming a new federal advisory committee to promote trophy hunting overseas, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said that Zinke should drop the project and focus on overseeing hunting regulations here in the United States - including the permitting laws his wife's political client, Troy Downing, stands accused of violating in Zinke's home state of Montana. Grijalva and the staff of the Natural Res… Continue Reading
11.08.17
Grijalva: Today’s Republican Oil and Gas Giveaway Same as the Last One – And They’re Not Even Trying to Justify It
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said ahead of today's 10:00 a.m. markup of H.R. 4239, the latest in a never-ending string of Republican oil and gas deregulation efforts, that the entire premise of the bill has already been debunked and Republicans are only proceeding because they have no other ideas. "This bill has all the signs of mental exhaustion," Grijalva said. "It's the same polluter industry wish list they've presented for years dressed up in yesterday… Continue Reading
11.06.17
Ahead of Tuesday’s Puerto Rico Hearing, Grijalva Asks GOP to Seriously Address Human Suffering Before Pushing Deregulation
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of Tuesday's hearing on the reconstruction of Puerto Rico and the response to Hurricane Maria, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) urged Republicans in Washington to make reducing human suffering on the island their first priority rather than large-scale deregulation schemes and sweeping privatization efforts. "The people of Puerto Rico have been asking for more than a month now why the lights are still off and the water is too dirty to drink," Grijalva sai… Continue Reading
11.03.17
Grijalva Pushes for Answers, Committee Hearing As Forest Service Suggests New Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon
Washington, D.C. - In a letter to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) today, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) repeated his previously ignored request for a hearing on his bill - H.R. 360 - to create the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument, an effort that has new resonance in the wake of a U.S. Forest Service report to the president opening the door to new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. Grijalva first requested a hearing on the bill in January, which Chairman Bishop ig… Continue Reading
11.02.17
Grijalva Rejects Clovis Excuse for USDA Withdrawal, Calls on Senate to Show Independence and Respect for Government
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement today on the news that science and climate change denier Sam Clovis withdrew his name from consideration to be the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientist due to his involvement in the Trump campaign's Russia investigation. "Everyone knows Mr. Clovis withdrew because he's up to his neck in the Trump-Russia scandal, not because of the 'political climate in Washington.' President Trump ne… Continue Reading
11.02.17
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