Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today supported legislation protecting Americans’ ability to hunt, fish, and shoot on public lands. H.R. 4089, the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012, would ensure that public land managers facilitate access for fishing, sport hunting, and recreational shooting on federal land managed by the BLM and Forest Service. Simpson, who chairs the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, has cosponsored a number of components of the bill. “Access to hunting...
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Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson issued the following statement today regarding the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the district court’s decision to uphold legislation barring judicial review of the delisting of wolves in Idaho and Montana. “I’m pleased to see the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals uphold my wolf delisting language. Continued efforts to put wolves back on the endangered species list simply don’t hold up in light of the robust wolf populations in Idaho and the ...
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Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson took issue with proposals to cut BLM range management funding in the President's FY13 budget request during a hearing on the BLM's budget proposal in the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday. Simpson chairs the subcommittee, which oversees BLM’s budget. In addition to expressing his concern about budget cuts to the grazing program, he focused on the BLM's sage grouse conservation initiative. The BLM has struggled under a huge grazing...
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Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today questioned Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe regarding invasive species and wolves. The Director testified to the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, which Simpson chairs, regarding the agency’s FY13 budget request. “In Idaho it is difficult to think of the Fish and Wildlife Service without thinking first and foremost of threatened and endangered species,” Simpson said at the beginning of the hearing. “Whether it’s to save sn...
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In subcommittee hearing, Simpson questions Salazar on PILT, the Department’s national sage-grouse conservation strategy, energy development, and wildland fire funding
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“As the debate about the Endangered Species Act rages in Congress and around the country, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that a decision to list or delist a species should be based on science, not on politics. I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, the ESA, which was originally enacted in a successful effort to save the iconic bald eagle from extinction, has been hijacked by those whose goal is not to recover species but to control public land and water. As a result, wildlife and lan...
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