POLITICO | Democratic lawmakers are asking the association of government watchdogs whether it has vetted a controversial candidate who is slated to become the Interior Department’s inspector general and take over the ongoing probes into Secretary Ryan Zinke. The letter from Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee to the head of the inspectors general group questions whether Suzanne Tufts, a GOP political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is qualified to ove... Read more

Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and leading Democratic Committee members sent a letter today to Michael E. Horowitz, chairman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), raising concerns about the replacement of Department of the Interior (DOI) Deputy Inspector General (IG) Mary L. Kendall with Suzanne Israel Tufts, a political appointee from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This move is particularly troubling considering the... Read more

Today Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Ranking Member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Environment Subcommittee, and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), Ranking Member of the Science Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, led 96 of their colleagues in calling on Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler to abandon his plans to dissolve the Agency’s independent office for scientific analysis. The Office of the Science Advisor (OSA) is charged with sta... Read more

Today, the Congressional Safe Climate Caucus sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler urging him to rescind the Agency’s proposed so-called Affordable Clean Energy Rule, or at least allow for additional public hearings and time to comment. The Members cited the abundance of scientific evidence, including EPA’s own analysis, which indicated the rule would be detrimental to public health and climate change. According to the EPA, the proposed rule w... Read more

Associated Press | Galvanized by court rulings protecting grizzly bears and gray wolves, Congressional Republicans on Wednesday pushed sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act despite strong objections from Democrats and wildlife advocates who called the effort a “wildlife extinction package.” Republicans began with a morning vote in the House Natural Resource Committee to strip protections from gray wolves across the contiguous U.S. Courts restored safeguards for wolves in the Great Lakes... Read more

Today, Reps. Don Beyer, Debbie Dingell, and Raúl M. Grijalva led a group of 105 Democrats in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross urging them to withdraw recently proposed changes that weaken the Endangered Species Act. The changes would weaken protections for endangered species and their habitats and impair the consultation process between federal agencies. As America’s most effective law for protecting wildlife, ninety-nine percent of species listed unde... Read more

The Hill | The EPA’s Office of the Inspector General will not investigate weather EPA’s former head of Superfunds was unqualified for the job, according to a letter sent by IG head Arthur Elkins to Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) dated Sept. 13. Beyer first requested the IG look into EPA’s Albert Kelly in late April. It was first reported last December that Kelly was banned from working in the banking sector for life. Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt hired Kelly as an adviser for the Superfund progr... Read more

POLITICO | Democrats pounded the Trump administration on Friday for ignoring climate change, warning that failing to take action would leave the U.S. at the mercy of more extreme weather events like Hurricane Florence. Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and Al Gore all ripped the Trump administration for gutting the efforts to curb the burning of fossil fuels and reneging on U.S. promises to work with other nations to combat climate change, even as the price tag for powerful storms grew into the hundreds ... Read more

U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) and U.S. Representatives Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), and Don Beyer (D-Va.) joined scientists, faith leaders, environmental advocates and the public to gather in support of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the nation’s most effective tool to safeguard wildlife facing extinction. The event highlighted the threat of the Trump administration’s attacks on the ESA before the end of the public comment period in less tha... Read more

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its plan today to gut safeguards on methane and other pollutants from the fossil fuel industry. Safe Climate Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Don Beyer (VA-08) and Alan Lowenthal (CA-47) released the following statement in response: “Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler confirmed that an EPA under his leadership will not miss a beat in carrying out Trump’s plan to sell out to the fossil fuel industry. Methane is a significantly more powerful greenhouse ga... Read more