In the News
Marin-area projects slated for $4.75M in federal earmarks
by RICHARD HALSTEAD
Projects benefiting Marin County will receive $4.75 million in federal earmarks as a result of the congressional appropriations bill for 2024. “It was a hard battle to get here,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat who lives in San Rafael. “After months of failing to pass their extreme appropriations bills, Republicans finally accepted help from House Democrats to create a sensible funding bill and pass it through the House, bringing us one step closer to ending their constant whiplash of … Continue Reading
April 02, 2024
The agency vexing Biden on climate
by James Bikales
The Export-Import Bank is considering putting billions of dollars behind two massive foreign gas projects as the independent agency finds itself increasingly at odds with the Biden administration on climate. EXIM FACES CLIMATE TEST: The Export-Import Bank has increasingly become a thorn in the side of the Biden administration on climate, our Zack Colman reports this morning. As an independent agency operating outside of the White House’s decision-making process, ExIm has defied the … Continue Reading
April 01, 2024
Johnson’s natural gas-for-Ukraine gamble might not pay off
by Jordain Carney and Anthony Adragna
GAS GAMBLE, PT. 2: WHAT DEMS ARE THINKING As explained earlier, Johnson’s likely going to need widespread Democratic backing to pass a foreign aid package rather than anything approaching unanimity from his own conference. Bringing in the energy provisions risks that support. But so far, Democratic leaders aren’t killing the idea. For those just tuning in: Only nine House Democrats supported a bill in February that would have overridden Biden and unpaused liquefied natural gas exports. Even … Continue Reading
March 29, 2024
Congressman Huffman, Gipson address strategic plans for Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind project
by Adelmi Ruiz
U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, Assemblymember Mike Gipson, along with local lawmakers, held a press conference on Friday to discuss the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project, which aims to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy by the year 2030 and 110+ GW of offshore wind by 2050. "In some ways, we are creating an entirely new industry and we just had a very important kind of strategic conversation about what that entails; how we're going to get from here … Continue Reading
March 27, 2024
Jared Huffman introduces bill to incentivize sharing information with tribes
by Sage Alexander
Billed as a step towards addressing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis, U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Adam Schiff introduced legislation Tuesday that would incentivize notification of restraining orders between tribal and non-tribal law enforcement. “The tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People is an epidemic, and jurisdictional red tape and communication breakdowns fuel this crisis. Tribes in my district have been putting in the hard work to protect their people and … Continue Reading
March 26, 2024
Legislation Address Crisis of Missing & Murdered Indigenous People, Promote Communication Between Tribal & State/Local Law Enforcement
by Native Health Desk
Legislation has been introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) to address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) on tribal lands by encouraging record sharing between tribal and state/local law enforcement. The legislation, entitled the Tribal Community Protection Act, is aimed at addressing the complicated jurisdictional overlaps between federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies that exacerbate the MMIP crisis. The … Continue Reading
March 25, 2024
Over $600,000 of federal funds secured for Petaluma Emergency Operations Center
by Ezra Wallach
Two local projects will receive a combined total of more than $1 million in federal funding allocated by the US House of Representatives appropriations bills. On March 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the six final 2024 appropriations bills. Congressman Jared Huffman secured a total of $1,274,390 in Community Project Funding, half of which will go to the City of Petaluma, and the other half of which will go toward the Blue Lake Rancheria. The funding going to Petaluma will be … Continue Reading
March 22, 2024
NOAA, Dems push back on Republican rigs-to-reef bill
by Rebekah Alvey
Members of a House Natural Resources subcommittee were at odds Thursday about legislation that aims to boost national rigs-to-reefs conversions. During a hearing, the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries heard from witnesses about four bills, including H.R. 6814, the “Marine Fisheries Habitat Protection Act.” The bill, sponsored by Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), would require NOAA to review more offshore oil and gas platforms as potential artificial reefs. Subcommittee ranking member … Continue Reading
March 21, 2024
House approves Republican fracking, drilling bills
by Kelsey Brugger
The House on Wednesday passed two bills promoting oil and gas drilling: one that would support fracking and another that would lower costs to drill on public lands. The bills are a part of the GOP's "energy week." While Republicans said the effort was meant to highlight "the value of American energy," most Democrats dismissed the proceedings as unserious. The House passed H.R. 1121, the “Protecting American Energy Production Act,” from senior Energy and Commerce Republican Jeff Duncan of … Continue Reading
March 21, 2024
Republicans question offshore wind’s reliability, impacts
by Heather Richards
House Natural Resources Republicans harangued an Interior Department official Wednesday over whether offshore wind is a reliable source of energy off the nation's coasts. One of several hearings on the House GOP's “energy week” agenda, the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee meeting explored a wide range of complaints about the Biden administration’s push for offshore wind power — and that industry's environmental impacts — while also lambasting the White House for not understanding the … Continue Reading
March 21, 2024
Corporate Accountability Lab, AP, Outlaw Ocean reports allege forced labor, antibiotics used in Indian shrimp production
by Cliff White
Separate reports from the Corporate Accountability Lab, the Associated Press, and the Outlaw Ocean Project published on 20 March have painted a grim portrait of India’s shrimp industry. The report from the Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL), a nongovernmental organization dedicated to addressing “the failure of domestic and international legal regimes to hold companies accountable for abuses in their global supply chains,” presents evidence of forced labor, child labor, and environmental … Continue Reading
March 18, 2024
‘Help our kelp’: Lawmakers promote aid for underwater forests
by Rob Hotakainen
Seaweed could get a boost on Capitol Hill this week when a panel of the House Natural Resources Committee considers legislation that would provide more federal aid for underwater kelp forest ecosystems. H.R. 5487, the “Help Our Kelp Act,” is one of four set for a hearing Thursday before the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries. When Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) introduced the bill last September, he said that the changing climate, overfishing and poor water quality had damaged … Continue Reading
March 18, 2024
Biden Promised Not to Finance Fossil Fuels. So Why Is the US Backing a Huge Gas Project?
by Russ Choma
At a Glasgow climate summit in 2021, the Biden administration offered a commitment to the world: The United States would stop the public financing of oil and gas projects. There would be no more American tax dollars for new natural gas pipelines or wells, the White House said The pledge drew praise from climate change activists. But there was one big problem—it was an empty promise. In the years since Glasgow, the US has continued to finance fossil fuel projects around the world. The latest … Continue Reading
March 15, 2024
Congressional Democrats, industry group seek Biden administration boost in plastics treaty talks
by Jordan Wolman
Democratic lawmakers and the American Chemistry Council sent dueling letters Friday urging the Biden administration to take up their plastics treaty priorities as international negotiations near a critical juncture. What happened: The letters, written independently of each other, spell out the competing domestic policy pressures complicating U.S. efforts to help hammer out a U.N. treaty to address plastic pollution by the end of this year. Democrats' letter: Senate and House members implored … Continue Reading
March 14, 2024
Lawmakers warn Export-Import Bank against fueling ‘climate chaos’
by Sara Schonhardt
Six lawmakers expressed opposition to potential U.S. investments in a Bahrain oil and gas project that they say would harm the climate and undermine a pledge by President Joe Biden to end public financing of overseas fossil fuel developments. In a letter led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and sent to the board of directors of the U.S. Export-Import Bank on Wednesday, the officials urged the agency not to move forward with financing the project “because of its negative impacts on the … Continue Reading
March 12, 2024
Bipartisan group of lawmakers push Biden to do more on IUU fishing
by Chris Chase
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives has sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden urging him and the administration to take increased action against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The letter, sent by House Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries Subcommittee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-California) and House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Arizona), was signed by 26 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. … Continue Reading
March 07, 2024
Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman’s State of the Union guests highlight gun violence and extremism
by Marisa Endicott
U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, sought to highlight the specters of gun violence and religious extremism respectively in their choice of guests for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech. Thompson’s pick, Liz Russell, is the former manager of The Pathway Home in Yountville, where on March 9, 2018, an Army veteran suffering from serious mental health issues and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder showed up at the residential treatment center with an … Continue Reading
March 07, 2024
Huffman: Funding package includes money for Coyote Dam feasibility study
This week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the first six Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills, which Rep. Jared Huffman (D - San Rafael) described as including “significant victories for California’s Second Congressional District (and) over $9 million in federal funding for projects that (Huffman) nominated as part of the Community Project Funding process.” Huffman also noted in a press release that the spending bills include “historic funding for Native American Housing Assistance … Continue Reading
March 07, 2024
Interior official speaks out against Republican wildlife bill
by Michael Doyle
A Republican-authored wildlife conservation bill that would rearrange the Endangered Species Act elicited sharply conflicting assessments and a few hints of potential accord Wednesday. Introduced as an alternative to the bipartisan but long-stalled "Recovering America's Wildlife Act," the new measure is dubbed the "America's Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act." The two plans share certain broad goals as well as the name "wildlife," but differ in dramatic ways. The new bill would authorize … Continue Reading
March 05, 2024
Freethought Caucus’ Huffman invites Christian nationalism critic to State of the Union
by Jack Jenkins
Amanda Tyler, lead organizer of Christians Against Christian Nationalism, will attend the State of the Union address Thursday (March 7) as a guest of U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, co-founder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus. Tyler has become one of the loudest voices in Washington and in the country speaking against the Christian nationalist movement, a decentralized but insistent collection of preachers, politicians and self-appointed champions of ideas that fuse church and state, with … Continue Reading