WEEKLY UPDATE ON WESTERN CAUCUS MEMBERS TAKING ACTION FOR RURAL AMERICA
CONGRESSIONAL WESTERN CAUCUS FIELD TOUR – BAKERSFIELD, CA
Members of the Congressional Western Caucus visited Bakersfield, CA to learn about agriculture, food production, water infrastructure, and more. Members also participated in a House Energy and Commerce Committee field hearing on rural access to broadband. Thank you to Rep. David Valadao (CA-13) for hosting this field tour.
LAKE TAHOE FIELD TOUR
Learn about the importance of public utility infrastructure as communities grow in rural areas, and how public utility organizations can help to increase wildfire mitigation. Listen to some of the opening remarks from our Lake Tahoe trip below.
WESTERN CAUCUS UPDATES
Senate Western Caucus Chair Sen. Cynthia Lummis (WY), Vice Chair Sen. Dan Sullivan (AK), and member Sen. Pete Ricketts (NE) “introduced three Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions to overturn the Biden administration’s reversal of key reforms to the Endangered Species Act (ESA)…”
“The [ESA] has been a failed and flawed piece of legislation for more than 50 years. With a less than 2% recovery rate, the Trump-era reforms finally represented a real and meaningful step in the right direction.” – Sen. Cynthia Lummis
Western Caucus Chairman Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04), Vice Chairs Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04) and Rep. Ryan Zinke (MT-01), and members Rep. Matt Rosendale (MT-02) and Rep. Harriet Hageman (WY at-large) put statements out on the Bureau of Land Management’s resource management plans for Montana and Wyoming. Under these RMPs, millions of acres of federal land would be barred from coal leasing for the next 14 years.
Western Caucus member Rep. Harriet Hageman (WY at-large) and 7 other members are demanding answers to questions surrounding the BLM’s reintroduction of the Western Solar Plan.
“This Western Solar Plan is nothing but another massive land grab designed to harm our legacy energy industries that have been under constant attack by this administration, and the Bureau of Land Management’s own proposal demonstrates the immense legal gymnastics they have gone through to wall off as much land as possible…” – Rep. Hageman