Press Releases
Currently showing results related to Water, Wildlife and Fisheries
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
04.07.17
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
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
03.22.17
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
03.15.17
At Corporations’ Behest, Republicans Launch Coordinated Legislative and Legal Attack on Marine Monuments at Today’s 10:00 a.m. Hearing
Washington, D.C. - In an effort to undermine the Antiquities Act, Committee Republicans are holding a hearing this morning to attack Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush's uses of the Act by falsely claiming they overreached when they designated national marine monuments in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) points out that the hearing is part of Chairman Rob Bishop's (R-Utah) larger plan to push his anti-public lands agenda through Congress.… Continue Reading
03.07.17
Grijalva Urges Army Corps, Nuclear Regulators to Stop Cutting Corners for Nuclear Plant in Hurricane Alley’s Biscayne Bay
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released a letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) today requesting information about the agencies' plan to permit the construction of two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, a site adjacent to Biscayne and Everglades National Parks. According to formal comments filed by the National Park Service (NPS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the Nati… Continue Reading
03.01.17
Grijalva to Zinke: Succeeding as Secretary Means Protecting Interior’s Mission and Budget, Staying True to Your Word on Public Lands
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today urged newly confirmed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to reject the White House's threat to cut 10 percent from the Department of the Interior (DOI) budget in fiscal year 2018, to reject extreme proposals to give away millions of acres of public land to state and local entities, and to invest in the DOI mission of protecting our country's natural resources. "Happy talk about making this country great doesn't make up for gut… Continue Reading
03.01.17
Hearing on 21st Century Water & Power Infrastructure Projects Fails to Acknowledge Climate Change Impacts
Washington, D.C. - Ahead of today's first Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee hearing on modernizing our nation's water and power infrastructure for the 21st Century, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) pointed out that the Republican hearing memo fails to acknowledge climate change as a growing threat and does not take into account the impacts our changing climate will have on our water infrastructure. In anticipation of the White House's infrastructure proposal, House Republican… Continue Reading
02.07.17
Democrats Call for Continued Action as Republicans Reject Transparency, Terrorism Reforms to Rules and Oversight Plan
Washington, D.C. - At today's recently concluded organizing meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee, the Republican majority voted down a number of Democratic proposals that, among other reforms, would have mandated financial disclosure by politically appointed Trump administration witnesses; strengthened language in the Committee's oversight plan to acknowledge the human causes of climate change; and added terrorist funding through natural resources trafficking to the Committee's overs… Continue Reading
02.07.17
As GOP Votes Down Transparency Rule at Another Committee, Leading Dems Highlight Need to Expose Trump-Style Conflicts of Interest
Note: The headline of this press release has been slightly changed from its original version to reduce confusion. The qutoe from Rep. Bennie Thompson was added to the online version and was not included in the initial release. Washington, D.C. - The Republican majority on the House Committee on Natural Resources just voted down a Democratic proposal to require that hearing witnesses working for the Trump administration disclose financial conflicts of interest before appearing to testify, contin… Continue Reading
02.02.17
Fishing Industry Groups Join Grijalva, Huffman in Opposing Trump’s Economically Damaging Executive Order on Regulations
Washington, D.C. - House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Water, Power, and Oceans Subcommittee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) sent a letter to President Trump today urging him to rescind the "one in, two out" executive order on regulations issued earlier this week and an earlier memorandum instituting a regulatory freeze. These two actions have the combined effect of preventing the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from opening or … Continue Reading
01.24.17
Grijalva, Whitehouse to Trump: Keep Climate Denying Industry Shill Away from NOAA
Washington, D.C. - Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to President Donald Trump today, urging him to remove a notorious climate change denier from his landing team at the Department of Commerce (DOC), which includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Kenneth Haapala, president of the oil industry funded Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) at the Heartland Instit… Continue Reading
12.13.16
Ranking Member Grijalva Leads Letter Demanding Federal Enforcement Against Human Trafficking in Hawaiian Fishing Industry
Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and three other key Democratic lawmakers late yesterday sent a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) demanding overdue enforcement against widely reported incidents of human trafficking in U.S. waters by commercial fishing vessels. The letter, available at http://bit.ly/2gDweCw, points out that the well-known labor exemptions used by the Hawaii longline fleet were not de… Continue Reading
03.11.16
Grijalva to EPA: Keep Nuclear Waste out of our National Parks
Washington, D.C. - Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter this morning to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy urging her to take immediate action to stop the flow of radioactive water from the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station into Biscayne National Park. The National Park Service and local officials in South Florida identified the Turkey Point cooling water canal system at as an environmental hazard and… Continue Reading
02.24.16
Hearing Wrap-up: House Republicans Use California Drought as Excuse to Gut the Endangered Species Act
Witnesses Mr. Richard Pool, President and Owner of Pro-Troll Fishing Products, Concord, California Mr. David Murillo, Mid-Pacific Regional Director of the Bureau of Reclamation, Washington, DC The Honorable Brett Barbre, Director of the Municipal Water District of Orange County, Yorba Linda, California Mr. Thad Bettner, General Manager of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, Willows, California Mr. Tom Birmingham, General Manager/General Counsel of the Westlands Water District, Fresno, C… Continue Reading
01.12.16
Ranking Member Grijalva Ahead of Tomorrow’s Clean Water Rule Debate on the House Floor: “This Is Not Serious Work Product”
Washington, D.C. - Tomorrow the House will debate a Republican resolution nullifying the Clean Water Rule proposed last year by the Obama administration, which is currently not in effect due to ongoing litigation. As a result of the ongoing delay, farmers and communities around the country continue to rely on the previously existing Clean Water Act guidance document - an outdated, confusing, and arbitrary regulatory process established by the Bush administration - which even the conservative Ame… Continue Reading
12.07.15
Republicans Spend Entire Fisheries Hearing Ignoring Economic Impacts, Denying Climate Change and Rejecting Consumer Requests
Riverhead, N.Y. - Natural Resources Committee Republicans took their climate denial show on the road today for the benefit of freshman Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.). At a just-concluded field hearing in Zeldin's eastern Long Island district, Republicans and their invited witnesses criticized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) efforts to promote ecosystem-based management and other precautionary management tools to ensure economically sustainable fisheries harvests in the fa… Continue Reading
10.29.15
New NOAA Report States Sustainable Fisheries Management Policies are Making U.S. Fisheries Profitable and Sustainable; Grijalva Says, “The Magnuson-Stevens Act is Working”
Sustainable fisheries management policies have allowed America's commercial and recreational fisheries to be powerful economic contributors, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) annual Fisheries of the United States report released today. The report also states that the value of fishery landings held steady in 2014 and match those of the past decade. NOAA estimates that rebuilding stocks, which remain overfished, would add $31 billion and 500,000 new jobs to th… Continue Reading
10.07.15
Grijalva, Huffman Call for Overdue Hearing on NOAA Plan to Protect Coastal Economies, Build Climate-Resilient Fisheries
Washington, D.C. - House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) sent a letter this morning asking Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee Chairman John Fleming (R-Louisiana) to hold a hearing on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) recently released Fisheries Climate Science Strategy. The request comes just over a m… Continue Reading
10.05.15
Ranking Member Grijalva Supports White House Marine Conservation Announcement, Urges Senate to Act on Stalled Pirate Fishing Bill
Washington, D.C. - Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement this morning on President Obama's announcement of two new national marine sanctuaries - the first in 15 years - in Maryland and Lake Michigan. "Our system of National Marine Sanctuaries and Monuments protects our natural and cultural heritage just as much as our National Parks, and I applaud President Obama's establishment of two new Sanctuaries today. I also support … Continue Reading