Now that the GOP-dominated 109th Congress has adjourned for the last time, the new Democratic majority is moving forward towards the transition in January 2007. The chairmanship of the House Resources Committee, formerly (!) held by Congressman Richard Pombo (CA-11) will be taken over by Nick Rahall (WV-03). One of the first changes is that the committee’s name will revert to Natural Resources Committee. It was changed to Resources under Don Young (AK-AL) in 1995 as part of the so-called Gingrich Revolution. From the AP:
The name change is meant to reflect a departure from the industry-friendly policies of current Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., who tried to increase oil and gas drilling, reduce protection of endangered species and privatize public lands.
Cross-posted to ePluribusMedia.
The link given is from the San Jose Mercury News in California, but the story has quickly been picked up internationally. Google news search returns this same story from the International Herald Tribune (France), Washington Post, Guardian International (UK), Forbes (New York), Wyoming News, and of course Rahall’s hometown press, the Charleston Gazette (amongst many others).
Rahall called a press conference to announce his agenda for the House Resources Committee, in line with a vision for the nation’s public lands:
Rahall's goal will be "not to engage in the wholesale destruction of pristine federal lands, sacrificing them on the altar of energy development," he told a press conference, but instead to "protect those resources which Americans cherish as places to recreate, hunt and fish."
Perhaps the best summary of the agenda can be found in a Gannett article from another WV paper, the Huntington Herald-Dispatch in addition to AP (linked above):
- Limiting new oil exploration on federal lands in favor of alternative energy development (good news for ANWR)
- Revising 1872 Mining Act to require environmental protections and royalty payments by hard rock mining companies
- Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program revival, including fees on coal companies to help pay for it (a big issue in Rahall’s home state)
- Rolling back royalty breaks for oil & gas companies extracting from public lands
- No more Endangered Species Act rollbacks in favor of "property owners" (e.g. developers)
- Maintaining all existing bans on offshore drilling for oil & gas
- Oversight of Interior Department activities, which have been neglected.
Revision of 1872 will be tough. It has remained, unchanged, since President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law for the purpose of encouraging the nation’s westward expansion. An effort to rework it during the Clinton years failed, and it’s hard to imagine that a razor-slim Senate majority and the Bush Administration in the White House will make it easy (or even possible?) to accomplish.
As to the oversight: It’s about time! Quoted in the AP story:
Rahall also promised a sharp focus on oversight of the Interior Department. "There's a lot of questions that have not been asked of the Interior Department for the last six years, and we're going to ask them," he said.
Areas worthy of attention, in addition to the above mentioned royalty issues, are matters related to the ongoing Indian Trust problems, and long overdue protections for the "guest workers" in the Marianas Islands which up till now have been blocked from consideration by Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Dennis Hastert and Richard Pombo. Of these, only Hastert retains his seat in the House, but now without the power that goes with being Speaker. I have some optimism about this moving forward.
Also, there’s been several proposed wilderness areas around the country which Pombo has been blocking. Presumably, that obstruction will now be gone, and some of those shall move forward as well.
This will certainly an improvement over Pombo. To say the least.
In fact, compared to the constant stream of horrid measures requiring "emergency defensive" measures, prospects are much improved for the upcoming 110th Congress under Democratic control. In that regard, I’d like to call readers’ attention to greenreflex’s diary from the other day about the Congressional Committees Project. The exciting news is that Speaker-elect Pelosi’s office is interested in the project, and in our input:
Our discussion has made me feel, even further than before, that most of us have no idea just what it is that we've won. A majority isn't just more votes. We'll have the chairs of the committees, a majority in each committee, a bigger budget for each committee, and more staffers for each committee.
...
Speaker-to-be-Pelosi's office is interested in seeing our suggestions about how Congressional Committee websites are set up, and also on how they can most effectively share information with the netroots and the public.
I suggested the best I could think of: transcripts of all hearings that are open (some are closed due to what has to remain secret in them) available as soon as possible after they occur, along with audio or video of the hearings and meetings available nearly immediately if not live, with public archives available, and all of this available from a centralized location.
:)
Not all of that is going to happen. Not right away at least. The response, however, made me as happy as the ability to make the request. Pelosi and her staff seems to me to be completely committed to transparent government, and also sees the internet as essential to that goal. (That's a paraphrase.)
We discussed two things that are more likely to be doable in the near future without severely changing the way things are done. First, we talked about a House Committee RSS feed, which could signal the availability of things as they're public: transcripts, testimony, the text of bills up for consideration. We also discussed making the information not posted in .pdf format whenever possible.
...
We're looking for your suggestions. They're going to be heard. Now is the right time to enact these changes, since the new power of the democratic congressional majority can now give us the power to see into and interact with our government like never before! As the staffer said, what was the internet in 1994?
It’s a project and a development worthy of more of our attention. It’s worth reading the whole diary, which (sadly) fell just short of making the Rec List while we were all engaged in a bit of meta-navel-gazing. Even though that diary’s a few days old now, it’s still worth a look. Because it’s really good news! And it’s a whole suite of things we can do which will make our lives, our nation and our world all better than they have been in recent years.
In a exquisite bit of understatement, the Gannett story reports:
Justin Tatham, preservation advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said he expects Rahall to be an improvement over outgoing chairman, Richard Pombo, R-Calif. Pombo supported drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and weakening the Endangered Species Act, Tatham said.
"We’re really excited about Congressman Rahall," Tatham said.
Amen.