Press Releases

05.04.17

Grijalva Presses Zinke to Explain Potentially Illegal Delay of Oil, Gas and Coal Valuation Rule That Has Already Sparked Lawsuits

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today sent a second letter, available at http://bit.ly/2pdiyhH, to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pressing for information on the potentially illegal delay of an Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) rule on how to value oil, natural gas, and coal for royalty purposes. While the rule became effective on Jan. 1, the Trump administration put it on hold in February, letting oil, gas, and coal companies avoid compliance. As E&a… Continue Reading

05.04.17

Grijalva Invites Trump on Tour of NPS Civil War Sites to Explore History, Legacy of American Slavery

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today invited President Trump on a tour of Civil War sites protected by the National Park Service (NPS), offering Trump a chance to learn more about a defining moment in American history. "While excellent programming relating to the War Between the States is available on cable television," Grijalva writes, "visiting sites that conserve and interpret Civil War history could provide a more informative and lasting experience." The… Continue Reading

05.02.17

Ranking Member Grijalva, Rep. McEachin Press Sec. Zinke to Clarify Regulatory “Task Force,” Deputy’s Regulatory Role

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Ranking Member Donald McEachin (D-Va.) sent a pair of letters to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke today pressing him for clarification on a recently announced Department of the Interior (DOI) "task force" charged with abolishing DOI regulations (available online at http://bit.ly/2p60QN6) and on the role of Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior James Cason in the awarding of grants … Continue Reading

05.02.17

Tomorrow’s Water, Power & Oceans Hearing Will Feature GOP Arguing Against Tribal, Environmental Protections for Hydro Permitting

Washington, D.C. - Democrats at tomorrow's Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee hearing on hydropower development will reject Republican demands to weaken protections for tribes and the environment in the hydropower licensing process. Given the length of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hydropower licenses - which are typically valid for 50 years - many hydropower projects coming up for relicensing are operating on permits granted prior to the passage of modern environmental laws. As… Continue Reading

04.28.17

Trump’s Offshore Drilling & Marine Sanctuaries Executive Order Puts Coastal Communities at Risk

Washington, D.C. - Ahead of President Trump's signing of an executive order that will try to open up more of our oceans to offshore drilling, weaken safety regulations, and launch a review of all national marine sanctuaries designated in the last decade, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.) released the following statement condemning the administration's actions. "Opening up our oceans to more of… Continue Reading

04.27.17

In Sign of a Growing Trend, Republicans Again Using Infrastructure as Cover for Standard Deregulation Agenda at Today’s Markup

Washington, D.C. - Today's Natural Resources Committee markup features multiple environmental deregulation bills disguised as infrastructure planning - a continuation of a trend that became clear earlier this month. Committee Republicans spent the month of March holding ostensibly "infrastructure-related" hearings that consistently repeated decades-old talking points about laws they have sought to weaken, including the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and othe… Continue Reading

04.26.17

Grijalva: If Trump Order on Monuments is About Public Engagement, When Does Secretary Zinke’s Nationwide Listening Tour Begin?

Washington, D.C. - After reading the fine print on President Trump's new executive order mandating an ill-defined Interior Department "review" of certain national monuments, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today questioned whether Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has enough time to hold a series of public meetings - which are typically held between federal officials and local stakeholders before a national monument is designated - at each of the more than 20 national monuments… Continue Reading

04.26.17

Grijalva on Antiquities Act Order: “Reviewing Natl. Monuments Will Show What We Already Know – They’re Popular and Beneficial”

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today released the following statement on the newly announced executive order directing the Department of the Interior to review the establishment history and current status of national monuments created since 1996 under the Antiquities Act. The order comes as Republicans in Congress, including Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), urge Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Trump administration unilaterally to wipe out or shrink Utah's … Continue Reading

04.20.17

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

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