In the News
The delisting of grizzly bears in Wyoming and the surrounding Yellowstone region is grossly overdue, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Brian Nesvik told members of Congress.
“The reason (grizzly bears) remain listed is not based in biology, but rather in administrative complexities and technicalities espoused by federal judges and court decisions,” Nesvik said during testimony Thursday at a legislative hearing before the U.S. House Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee.
The Western wildlife experts testifying before Congress confirmed the recovery of grizzly bears and wolves, and cautioned against transferring control to states where legislators might disregard science-based management plans.
At issue were two congressional bills to remove grizzly bears from the endangered species list in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. A third bill delisted the gray wolves. All three excluded the actions from judicial review. The hearing was livestreamed.
Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming grilled a witness during a Thursday hearing, asking if she believed preventing teachers from showing first graders pornographic magazines was “censorship.”
A Wyoming official testified this week that he supported using “whatever means is necessary” to obtain management authority over the Yellowstone area’s federally protected grizzly bears.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming hand delivered news from her work in Washington, D.C. during her Town Hall meeting at the Ten Sleep Senior Center on March 16.
Hageman, who was sworn into office in the early morning of Jan. 3, has returned to Wyoming to keep the people that she represents filled in on the proceedings of the United States Congress. She has been working to hold a town hall meeting in each county during the early part of her term.
GILLETTE, Wyo. — Wyoming politicians and industry representatives have expressed support for a federal bill that’s supposed to lower energy costs.
H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, is supposed to achieve that goal by increasing American energy production, exports, infrastructure, and critical minerals processing; promoting transparency, accountability, permitting, and production of American resources; and improving water quality certification and energy projects.
Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., who's also a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said she doesn't view the various investigations into President Joe Biden, son Hunter, and other Biden family members as political payback for how local and federal government officials have been probing into former President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, was formally introduced in the House of Representatives. This legislation combines multiple bills that focus on America’s ability to be energy independent and reduce the punitive regulatory burden that has been enacted on the energy industry since Joe Biden was sworn into office.
SHERIDAN — Rep. Cyrus Western, R-Big Horn, said BNSF Railway is failing to meet contracted terms.
Western said he sent a letter to the CEO of the company asking for answers.
“We need answers, we need solutions and we need them now,” Western said. “... (BNSF is) fundamentally not fulfilling the contractual obligations to ship this coal to their customers.”
Western said BNSF has blamed labor negotiations for the situation but circumstances are yet to improve.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, said Wyoming railways are of concern.
For the second year in a row, Wyoming is being shut out from U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that offer wildfire protection services.
It was recently announced Wyoming is not being included in the USDA and U.S. Forest Service’s 10-year strategy to combat wildfires across the American West in 2023. Wyoming is the only Western state that has been left out of the strategy since its inception.
Wyoming has also been left off a recently formed Congressionally mandated wildfire commission. It was the second year in a row for both snubs.