News List

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reps. Kristi Noem (R-SD/AL), Jim Costa (D-CA/16), Adrian Smith (R-NE/3), and Mike McIntyre (D-NC/7) today led 83 members from both sides of the aisle in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez urging the agency to stop using funds to regulate small farming operations. Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) defended small family farms against unnecessary regulation by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA is prohibited by law from using funds to regulate growing, harvesting, and “related activities” of farms with 10 or fewer employees. However, the agency published a memo in 2011 indicating that grain “handling” did not meet the definition of an activity directly related to growing and harvesting and could thus be subject to OSHA regulation. The memo has since been broadly interpreted to allow OSHA inspectors to regulate the activities of small farms. Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Daines’ North Fork Watershed Protection Act of 2013, bipartisan and locally driven legislation to protect the North Fork watershed, today was approved without opposition by the House Natural Resources Committee, clearing the way for a full vote by the U.S. House of Representatives. Read more »

Washington, D.C. – Today, the House Natural Resources Committee passed H.R. 2657, the Disposal of Excess Federal Lands Act of 2013, legislation sponsored by Congressman Jason Chaffetz. This bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to sell nearly 3.3 million acres of federal land deemed suitable for disposal. Read more »

WASHINGTON—Congressman Rob Bishop (UT-01), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee, announced the approval of a comprehensive public lands package that will create new wilderness areas, release unnecessary wilderness study areas (WSA), convey federal land to local governments, provide land for economic development, and offer new outdoor recreation opportunities in Northern Nevada. Read more »

Amodei took issue with comments made by Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-4) and some of his colleagues during today’s markup, which seemed to be informed by an outside environmental special interest rather than consideration for the facts. Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) today announced that Jennifer Phillippi, co-owner of Rough and Ready Lumber in Josephine County, will be his guest at President Obama’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. Rough and Ready was the last remaining sawmill in Josephine County when it closed its doors last April due to a lack of available federal timber. Read more »

WASHINGTON, DC – Alaska and Hawaii’s Congressional delegations today introduced legislation that would exempt residents of the two states –and communities that rely on essential air service as subsidized by the U.S. Department of Transportation – from the increase in air travel fees included in December’s budget deal. This exemption would protect interisland flights from increased air travel fees, which would more than double from $2.50 to $5.60. Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID) announced today that he is cosponsoring H.R. 3377, the Defense of Environment and Property Act. This bill would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from aggressively expanding its regulatory authority over local bodies of waters and surrounding property. Read more »

WASHINGTON -- Congressman Joe Heck (NV-03) today applauded House passage of H.R. 2166, the Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act, which passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming vote of 394 to 0. The bill, which Rep. Heck introduced in June, allows expedited access to public lands for Good Samaritan search and recovery organizations so that they may conduct searches for missing persons. Read more »