U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

11/19/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/19/2024 14:34

Barrasso Highlights Wyoming Wins

Barrasso Highlights Wyoming Wins

November 19, 2024

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Advances Legislation Important to the West <_o3a_p>

Click here to watch Senator Barrasso's remarks.

WASHINGTON, DC- Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), delivered remarks at a committee business meeting to consider pending legislation. In his remarks, ranking member Barrasso highlighted five bills that were reported out of committee.

  • S. 2867, the Promoting Effective Forest Management Act, improves the transparency and accountability of investments to address the wildfire crisis and sets clear expectations for federal forest management (Agenda Item #19).
  • S. 1553, the Resiliency for Ranching and Natural Conservation Health Act, promotes effective grazing management across the West by allowing the temporary use of vacant grazing allotments during extreme events or disasters like wildfires or droughts (Agenda Item #7).
  • S. 4454, the Operational Flexibility Grazing Management Program Act, provides greater flexibility in the management of livestock on federal lands to help permit holders more quickly respond to natural disasters impacting federal rangelands like drought or wildfires (Agenda Item #55).
  • S. 5125, the Land Manager Housing and Workforce Improvement Act, addresses housing and workforce challenges affecting the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and other land management agencies by cutting bureaucratic red tape and leveraging outside investments (Agenda Item #73).
  • S. 3123, the Modernizing Access to our Public Waters Act standardizes, consolidates, and publishes the digital data related to public recreation on America's federal waterways on a single platform (Agenda Item #22).

Click here for the text of the bills as amended or to watch the business meeting in full.

During today's business meeting, ranking member Barrasso also issued his farewell to chairman Joe Manchin (I-WV) who will retire on January 3, 2025. During his remarks, ranking member Barrasso highlighted some of their joint accomplishments while leading the committee. Click here to watch ranking member Barrasso's farewell.

Ranking member Barrasso's remarks on Wyoming-related legislation:

"Thanks, Mr. Chairman. First of all let me make a couple of comments about the markup that we just had…

"I wanted to talk about a couple of Wyoming bills.

"S. 2867, the Promoting Effective Forest Management Act - it's going to help us improve forest management practices and address our nation's wildfire crisis.

"A couple of other bills on today's agenda were S. 1553, the Resiliency for Ranching and Natural Conservation Health Act as well as S. 4454 Operational Flexibility Grazing Management Program Act.

"These are bills that are going to ensure ranchers have access to adequate forage when drought or wildfire pushes them off of their federal grazing allotments.

"Another is, S. 5125 the Land Manager Housing and Workforce Improvement Act - a bill addressing the lack of affordable and quality housing for employees of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and land management agencies. Lack of affordable housing has become an especially acute problem in Wyoming, in Jackson and in Cody.

"And lastly on today's agenda, S. 3123 - the MAP Waters Act.

"The bill directing the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service to publicly disclose, in a single database, federal waterway access points, navigation information, and fishing…"