Washington, D.C. (April 23, 2013) – Last week, Senator Durbin (D-IL) and Congressman Holt (D-NJ) introduced a bill that would designate 9.1 million acres in Utah as wilderness . These 9.1 million acres, referred to as the ill-named Red Rock Wilderness Act, would designate large swaths of land as wilderness without the support of the people that actually live there. While we admire the Senator from Illinois and the Congressman from New Jersey for their efforts to involve themselves in the local land-use planning process, it is not their job to step on the people of Utah in the process. This bill does not have the support of any members of Utah’s Congressional delegation, the governor, or locally elected officials. Nevertheless, Eastern Democrats introduce this bill year after year, and it has become yet another example of Eastern Democrats viewing the West as their playground without any regard for the people who live there. Read more »
Washington, D.C. (April 16, 2013) – Thursday, May 2, 2013, Congressional Western Caucus Co-Chairmen Steve Pearce (R-NM) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), along with the Colorado Members of the Congressional Western Caucus will hold a hearing entitled “Seeking State Solutions: Forest Health, Wildfires, and Habitat Protection” in Denver, CO. Read more »
Washington, D.C. (April 11, 2013) – President Obama released his budget Wednesday, which included $1.1 trillion in new tax revenues over the next 10 years, an additional $8.2 trillion in debt during the same period, and countless new bureaucratic hurdles for small businesses to leap through. Congressional Western Caucus Co-Chairs Steve Pearce (R-NM) and Cynthia Lummis (R-NM) released the following statements in response to the President’s budget: Read more »
Washington, D.C. (April 10, 2013) – Congressmen Steve Pearce and Cynthia Lummis, Co-Chairs of the Congressional Western Caucus, announced Wednesday that they would be introducing an educational component to the Western Caucus. Western Caucus University will cover a variety of issues that are critical to the West, such as energy development, modernizing the Endangered Species Act, and forest management best practices, among others. The first topic to be covered will be public lands, and the impact of federally owned land on the West. Co-Chairs Steve Pearce and Cynthia Lummis released the following statements regarding the launch: Read more »
Washington, D.C. (April 9, 2013) – Earlier this week, the San Jose Mercury News reported a story about a bird that supposedly needs wildfires to survive. The black-backed woodpecker feeds on insects that inhabit standing dead trees after a wildfire, and radical environmental groups are pushing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for protection of this bird under the Endangered Species Act. The John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute, along with the Center for Biological Diversity, claim that this bird warrants protection because fire suppression, salvage logging, and forest thinning to reduce the intensity of wildfires harms the habitat of the black-backed woodpecker. In 2010, the John Muir Project released a report entitled “The Myth of ‘Catastrophic’ Wildfire,” which attempted to convince the public that wildfires are not, in fact, a danger to us. Chad Hanson, a staff ecologist at the John Muir Project, even said that he hopes the Forest Service will be proactive about “educating people that when fire happens, it is not a bad thing.” Read more »
Washington, D.C. (March 28, 2013) – This week, the Obama administration announced a new nationwide initiative. Its goal? To help wildlife adapt to the threats of climate change. The National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, which falls under the jurisdiction of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, plans to “reduce the negative impacts of climate change on fish, wildlife, plants, and the natural systems upon which they depend.” The plan lists off seven goals, ranging from increasing awareness to safeguard wildlife from climate change and “enhancing capacity for effective management in a changing climate” to “reducing non-climate stressors to help fish, wildlife, plants, and ecosystems adapt to a changing climate.” Read more »
Washington, D.C. (March 27, 2013) – The Obama Administration notified states Monday that there would be significant deductions in federal mineral royalties paid to states due to the effects of the sequester. The decision to cut these payments come at a great cost to Western Caucus member states, who will bear 99.3% of the burden of these cuts, totaling $109 million. This money is used by states to finance K-12 education, highways funds, community colleges, and flood protection projects, among other things. Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Steve Pearce, and Western Caucus member and Republican Study Committee Chairman Steve Scalise released the following statements in response: Read more »
Washington, D.C. (March 14, 2013) – After the-sky-is-falling proclamations from the Obama Administration that sequestration would harm National Parks, delay oil and gas permits, and cost jobs in the Department of the Interior, Senate Democrats this week introduced a FY13 spending bill that would impose further cuts to the Parks, severely curtail funds to fight wildfires, and reduce resource development dollars used for permitting. In both the FY13 Continuing Resolution (CR) and in the FY14 budget proposal, Senate Democrats prioritized new land acquisition over protecting and efficiently operating our current federal estate. Read more »
Washington, D.C. (March 13, 2013) – As the U.S. Forest Service prepares for the start of fire season, they received bad news from the Senate Democrats today- another round of cuts were proposed in the Senate. The most recently proposed cuts come just weeks after the agency’s budget was affected by the 5% across-the-board cuts known as the sequester, which already posed significant threats to the agency’s ability to successfully fight wildfires in the upcoming year. Read more »
Washington, D.C. (March 6, 2013) – On the eve of the Senate’s confirmation hearing, Members of the Congressional Western Caucus sent a letter to the President highlighting questions and concerns about Sally Jewell’s nomination for Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI). In the letter, caucus members emphasized the impact the DOI has on the West, and laid out the basic qualifications any Secretary of the Interior should possess. Read more »
