Legislative Actions:

• I cosponsored a resolution designating the week of May 15th as National Police Week.
  
  • Wyoming’s law enforcement officers keep our communities across the state safe. They deserve to be honored and recognized for the difficult, dangerous work they perform everyday. I am grateful for the efforts of local police, sheriffs’ offices, and the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
• I cosigned U.S. Senator Steve Daines’s (R-MT) letter demanding that the Biden administration disband its recently-created Disinformation Governance Board.
  • Any threat to our First Amendment rights should be stamped out immediately. I heard outrage from so many across Wyoming regarding this ‘Disinformation Board.’ I am glad the Biden administration quickly cleaned up their mistake and disbanded this board. The government was created to protect the rights of Americans, not to monitor their words.
• I cosponsored Senator Barrasso’s (R-WY) Lease Now Act that would require the Department of Interior to resume and maintain onshore and offshore federal oil and gas lease sales.
  • Wyoming has lost millions of dollars in revenue due to the Biden administration’s cancellation of lease sales on federal lands. This bill would make this important source of revenue and energy independence reliable again.

Committee Hearings:

Committee on Environment and Public Works

• Hearing on “U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Proposed 2023 Budget"
  
• I questioned U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Director Martha Williams on the impact the Biden administration’s 30x30 initiative would have on Wyoming people, communities and industries. To watch the hearing, click here.

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Development

• Nominations Hearing on The Honorable Michael S. Barr, Mr. Jaime Lizarraga and Mr. Mark Toshiro Uyeda
  
• I questioned the panel of Federal Reserve and Securites and Exchange Commission (SEC) nominations on their interactions with America’s banks and how they plan to uphold longstanding principles of banking law. To watch the hearing, click here.

Major Votes

• Motion to proceed on H.R. 7691, Ukraine Supplemental Aid Package
  
• Opposed
  • I am fully in support of Ukraine and its efforts to push back on Russian aggression. I am, however, concerned about this particular request. President Biden requested $33 billion, yet we voted on on a $40 billion package. It’s important to give Ukraine the support they need, but we also need to be pragmatic about the amount of money we are spending.

I wrote a letter to Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland asking her to review the hiring process for forestry and fire management positions at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Wind River Agency. The Wind River Agency is responsible for 1.8 million acres of tribal land. Heading into wildfire season they only have enough crew to manage a single fire engine. This must be addressed to protect tribal land and tribal members.

News Around Wyoming:

EPA grants ~$3.09M to help clean up former Acme Power Plant, assess polluted sites in Wyoming
Oil City News
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it is providing $3.085 million to agencies in Wyoming to help assess and clean up polluted sites.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality will receive a $2 million Brownfields Program assessment grant that it will use for at least environmental site assessments, according to the EPA. The City of Cheyenne will receive a $500,000 Brownfield assessment grant and the Sheridan County Conservation District will receive a $585,000 Brownsfield cleanup grant.

Medicine Bow National Forest to get planned fires in order to avoid bigger blazes
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Federal wildfire experts are intentionally burning a small part of Medicine Bow National Forest, in order to avoid larger conflagrations down the line, the Forest Service has announced. Because you may see smoke from these fires now and in the future, try not to be alarmed.

Beginning Tuesday, the agency's fire staff were to begin to "take advantage of windows of opportunity to conduct a cumulative 978 acres of prescribed burns on the Pole Mountain unit" of the national forest, according to a Monday news release. By comparison, according to the website of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland, these areas span a total of almost 2.9 million acres in northern Colorado and eastern Wyoming.

Wyoming Air National Guard C-130s get an upgrade
Wyoming News Now
The Wyoming Air National Guard upgraded its 30-year-old, C-130s on Tuesday. The 153rd Airlift Wing helped outfit C-130s with new engines, propellers and glass cockpits, all in preparation for fire season.

Mechanical teams from Texas and Aircraft from Nevada came to get their 30-year-old engines replaced with new modified engines that provide more power, quicker climb and better fuel efficiency.

Petroleum Association of Wyoming files formal protest of BLM’s final environmental analysis for oil and gas lease sale
Oil City News
The Petroleum Association of Wyoming has submitted a formal protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s final environmental analysis for its second quarter 2022 oil and gas lease sale.

The BLM’s final environmental analysis “slashes more than 76% of the acreage originally nominated for leases without sufficient explanation — despite being deemed available for leasing by the BLM’s own Resource Management Plans (RMP) across Wyoming,” PAW said in a Wednesday press release.