Articles
By Jerry Seper, The Washington Times
July 3, 2013
Link to story
With Congress vowing to secure the nation's borders as part of an immigration bill that proposes hiring 20,000 new Border Patrol agents, several former immigration officers say border agents have been inhibited in their efforts to patrol the Southwest border by other agencies.
IN THE NEWS: Questions swirl around spending cuts to national parks, lax controls in travel spending
by Amy Joi O'Donoghue, Deseret News
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SALT LAKE CITY — An independent audit of the U.S. Department of Interior shows the agency spends $250 million a year on travel in a "lax" system that lets employees frequently approve their own trips or have it done after the fact.
By Thomas Burr, Salt Lake Tribune
April 16, 2013
Washington • Tired of the gridlock over how to manage federal lands, Rep. Rob Bishop is attempting to bring together all sides of the issue to find common ground to either preserve or drill.
The Utah Republican is one of Congress' top cheerleaders for oil and gas development and a dogged critic of environmentalists — but he says it's time to tone down the rhetoric and seize on a change at the Interior Department to get beyond the bitter feud in the public-lands debate.
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POLITICO
Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt pressed President Barack Obama on Tuesday to set aside an acre of public land for conservation for every acre that is leased for oil and gas development.
Babbitt, who served under former President Bill Clinton for eight years, said establishing the "one-to-one" principle is a modest action that would help repair Obama's lagging legacy on conservation.
by Phil Taylor, E&E News
House Republicans are forcing votes on amendments to restrict the Interior Department's use of Superstorm Sandy relief funds, part of a broader GOP effort to ensure disaster money is limited to areas directly affected by the October storm.
One amendment by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, would bar Interior or the Forest Service from using any money to acquire new federal lands.
The House Natural Resources committee will devote more attention to environmental reviews and their effects on advancing energy development in a new subcommittee next Congress.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) evaluations will now be wrapped into the newly formed subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation.
Currently called the subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) will remain its chairman.
[read online here]
A Mountain Crest government and history teacher was surprised to be honored by U.S. Rep Rob Bishop on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives last week while she was visiting the nation's capital with students.
Phil Taylor, E&E News
Increased energy development on public lands would generate new jobs and revenue needed to tackle the country's fiscal crisis, a pair of GOP lawmakers said in a letter yesterday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
By Charles F. Trentelman, Standard Examiner
OGDEN — Efforts to set up a veterans mental health center in the Top of Utah have run into a brick wall of silence from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rep. Rob Bishop's office said this week that three separate attempts stretching back to the George W. Bush administration have failed to get an Ogden center approved.
Bishop's office said the last attempt, an Aug. 23 letter directed personally to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki from Utah's entire congressional delegation, is apparently being ignored.
By Jackie Hicken, Deseret News
Published: Nov. 27 2012
While Congress and the president wrestle over fiscal cliff negotiations, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce see one area of untapped potential for reducing the deficit, helping the economy and boosting revenues: energy development.