In the News
Prized public lands on California’s North Coast at risk under Senate proposal to sell off up to 3 million public acres
by Austin Murphy
Cow Mountain Recreation Area, 52,000 acres of oak and pine forest straddling Mendocino and Lake counties, has something for everyone: fishing, target shooting, 120 miles of trails for ATVs and four-wheeling, and a separate, nonmotorized area for hikers and mountain bikers. This rugged refuge of federal land in the Mayacamas range, east of Ukiah, was officially conserved as a recreation area in a 2006 wilderness bill whose chief sponsor was Rep. Mike Thompson. So it’s not surprising that the … Continue Reading
June 24, 2025
Close to Home: Vulture capitalism threatens public land
by Jared Huffman
As Republicans muscle their “Big Ugly Bill” through Congress, many Americans are rightfully worried about its immediate impacts. Like potentially crashing our health care system by stripping health insurance coverage from 16 million people, triggering deep Medicare cuts, ending food assistance for millions and driving up electricity costs. Targeting family budgets to fund tax breaks for billionaires is bad, but there’s more: now we’re learning the bill is coming for public lands — our shared … Continue Reading
June 22, 2025
‘Congress exists’: Bay Area lawmakers deride Trump’s decision to bomb Iran as unlawful, risky
by Molly Burke
Bay Area congressional Democrats condemned the U.S. bombing of nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday, saying President Donald Trump overstepped his authority and thrust the country into another risky Middle East conflict. • ‘Hands off Iran’: Hundreds of S.F. protesters condemn Trump for bombing “Tonight, the President ignored the Constitution by unilaterally engaging our military without Congressional authorization,” House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi posted on X. “I join my colleagues in … Continue Reading
June 17, 2025
Sonoma County joins lawsuit against Trump administration’s new ICE mandate and anti-DEI limits on federal funding
by Emma Murphy
Sonoma County has joined a lawsuit by dozens of local governments across the country accusing federal departments of coercing them to comply with the White House’s political agenda via new requirements attached to federal funds. The lawsuit, led by Washington’s King County (Seattle), comes in response to notices issued earlier this year by several federal departments, including those overseeing transportation and housing, that outlined new criteria for pending and future grants distributed to … Continue Reading
June 14, 2025
‘Political violence is a sickness’: Elected officials worry that attacks will escalate
by Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing, Ben Jacobs, Natalie Fertig, Jessica Piper
Republican and Democratic politicians are warning about rising violence targeting elected officials in the aftermath of a series of attacks, including the killing of a state official in Minnesota on Saturday. Within the last year, there have been multiple assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, an arson attack on Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence, and the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington — setting a new cycle of violence in the … Continue Reading
June 13, 2025
Burgum spars with Dems over Alcatraz, parks, wildfires
by Heather Richards
Democrats on the House National Resources Committee pummeled Interior Secretary Doug Burgum with questions about the Trump administration’s management of public lands in a combative hearing Thursday. They probed the reopening of Alcatraz as a federal prison and whether the department has lost firefighters to the administration’s cuts. Ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) compared Burgum’s public statements on public lands to vulture capitalism: “Strip the asset, extract the value and … Continue Reading
June 12, 2025
Democrats' fears of Trump admin violence erupt after Padilla incident
by Andrew Solender
Democratic lawmakers' fears of violence and arrest at the hands of the Trump administration spiked Thursday after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was aggressively detained by Department of Homeland Security Personnel. Why it matters: The concerns among Democrats were already on the rise amid the prosecution of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) — with members even buying liability insurance. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), the chair of the Progressive Caucus, said the level of concern is "higher than … Continue Reading
June 11, 2025
Resident Commissioner introduces bill to evaluate the impacts of coastal erosion
Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández Rivera, member of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, introduced the Puerto Rico Business & Economic Assessment of Coastal Hazards and Erosion Study Act—also known as the Puerto Rico BEACHES Act—along with the Democratic leader of the Natural Resources Committee, Jared Huffman. The Puerto Rico BEACHES Act would direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of coastal erosion along … Continue Reading
June 10, 2025
Energy, enviro agencies eager to resume layoffs
by Robin Bravender, Ellie Borst, Hannah Brownley, Jennifer Yachnin
Trump administration officials are anxious to resume sweeping layoffs inside energy and environmental agencies as they push the Supreme Court to green-light their plans. The administration’s push for large-scale layoffs are on hold across much of the government due to a lower court’s sweeping order. But the administration — arguing that it’s being forced to keep “large numbers of employees on the payroll without necessity” — is making a case to the Supreme Court that it ought to urgently … Continue Reading
June 09, 2025
Donald Trump’s plan for pirate mining
by David Helvarg
On April 24, President Trump issued another questionable executive order, this one calling for deep-sea mining in both federal and international waters. The former is within his control; the latter would be a violation of international law. Although the U.S. is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - the 1982 treaty ratified by 169 other nations that regulates maritime activities, including deep-sea mining, on and in the high seas - the U.S. has always abided … Continue Reading
June 09, 2025
SUBSCRIBER ONLY ‘Safeguard our oceans’: Jared Huffman revives update to fisheries bill
by Robert Schaulis
Lawmakers from the House Natural Resources Committee last week announced that they were reintroducing the “Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act,” a reauthorization of and update to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), “the country’s primary statute governing fisheries management in federal waters.” The legislation, a bipartisan effort put forth by U.S. Representatives Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), James Moylan (R-Guam), and Ed Case (D-Hawaii), represents “a culmination of a … Continue Reading
June 09, 2025
Natural Resources to mull wildfire, forestry bills
by Marc Heller
A House Natural Resources subcommittee will take testimony on four wildfire- and forestry-related bills Tuesday, including a measure to speed communications-related projects on land hit by natural disasters. The communications bill, called the “Wildfire Communications Resiliency Act,” H.R. 1655, would exempt certain infrastructure projects from reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act if they’re carried out within five years of a declared disaster such as wildfire. Rep. Cliff … Continue Reading
June 05, 2025
Lawmakers clash over NOAA fisheries rules
by Daniel Cusick
House lawmakers struggled Wednesday to reconcile President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to bolster the U.S. fishing industry while simultaneously gutting the nation’s fisheries agency. A hearing before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries offered seesawing interpretations between Republicans and Democrats over how NOAA should regulate the fishing industry. Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, focused on what critics … Continue Reading
June 05, 2025
Bills introduced in US House will end offshore drilling protections
by Mary Benjamin
A Federal Congressional bill targeting the reversal of offshore drilling protections, first introduced by U.S. Rep. Higgins (LA) on January 16, 2025, had its first hearing before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on May 20. 2025. The bill was proposed on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which is interested in opening areas along the California coast to new offshore drilling. The bill includes the U.S. coastline areas and the Gulf of Mexico, which currently … Continue Reading
June 05, 2025
New bill seeks to strengthen U.S. fisheries with MSA updates
by Carli Stewart
Once again, the U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers have introduced legislation to reauthorize and update the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). The MSA was last revised in 2006, and being the primary legislation governing U.S. fisheries, it is critical to ensure that federal law reflects today’s fisheries challenges across the country. Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA), James Moylan (R-Guam), and Ed Case (D-HI) reintroduced the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act. The bill … Continue Reading
June 03, 2025
Can a bipartisan offshore wind caucus survive Trump?
by Nico Portuondo
Republican support for offshore wind has flatlined across the federal government, but Capitol Hill's only bipartisan caucus dedicated to the energy source is hoping to reverse that trend. The House Offshore Wind Caucus, created in 2022, was pitched as a way to find bipartisan solutions to address the industry’s challenges and create policies to spur further growth of the renewable energy source. It's main leader, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), said in a recent interview that the caucus … Continue Reading
May 22, 2025
Bitterly divided House passes 'big, beautiful' tax bill. Here's what it means to California
by David Lightman
The winners from the tax and budget bill the House passed Thursday morning: Californians’ federal income tax rates and their state and local deduction. The losers: Consumers who buy electric vehicles and people who rely on Medi-Cal for health coverage. That’s a quick snapshot of who will benefit and who won’t from what President Donald Trump labeled the “Big, Beautiful” bill that squeezed through a bitterly divided House after an all-night session by a 215-214 vote. All 43 of California’s … Continue Reading
May 21, 2025
House Republicans strike bigger blow against Democrats’ clean energy tax credits
by Josh Siegel, James Bikales, Kelsey Tamborrino
House Republicans escalated their effort to gut Democrats’ clean energy tax credits, releasing updated text Wednesday night of their mega-reconciliation bill that would eviscerate former President Joe Biden’s trademark climate law despite resistance from moderates within their own party. The revised bill expected to receive a floor vote — likely Thursday — contains language pushed by hard-line conservatives speeding up the phaseout of tax credits after they protested the Ways and Means … Continue Reading
May 15, 2025
Staffing cuts to National Weather Service river forecast center could leave Sonoma, Napa counties ‘flying blind’ ahead of storms
by Austin Murphy
The closer you live to the Russian River, the likelier it is you’ve spent time on this no-frills website, whose wavy, colored lines alert users when the river is approaching flood levels, and when it will recede. The site is maintained by the California Nevada River Forecast Center, or CNRFC, under the umbrella of the National Weather Service. It’s one of 13 forecast centers preparing “timely river and flood forecasts” for some 4,000 river locations across the nation. The California Nevada … Continue Reading
May 14, 2025
Mike Thompson, Jared Huffman slam Republicans’ budget bill, impacts on health care, clean energy measures
by Phil Barber
It was 10 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday when Rep. Mike Thompson finally found a moment to chat. The House Ways and Means Committee had been marking up its portion of the Republicans’ budget bill for hours, and they weren’t anywhere close to resolution. As ranking member of Ways and Means’ Tax Subcommittee, Thompson, a St. Helena Democrat, has a huge stake in the debate over what President Donald Trump has been heralding as a “big, beautiful bill.” And he has opinions. ... For complete article, … Continue Reading