MIL USHOR-2b Engine

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02)

Letter to HHS Secretary RFK Jr. calls for department to release funds as soon as Sunday

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02)

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) today celebrated the House Natural Resources Committee’s passage of his bipartisan Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, which he first introduced with Republican Chairman Bruce Westerman (AR-04) in July. 

The bill, which would modernize the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to accelerate federal approval of energy development and other construction projects, was approved with bipartisan support by a vote of 25-18.

“America’s broken permitting system is delaying investments in the basics we need — energy, transportation and housing. These delays keep costs high and hold back America’s economy,” Golden said. “Both parties have agreed on this problem for years, and today’s support from the Committee gives me hope that Congress is finally ready to take the win. I’m grateful to Chairman Westerman for his commitment to earning bipartisan support for our bill, and I’m ready to get this passed on the House floor.”

In an effort to create certainty for all forms of energy production, Golden also submitted an amendment that would block the executive branch from revoking energy permits after approval. Both Presidents Trump and Biden have embraced this tactic to block projects they disapprove of — even if the projects are in the final stages of completion. His amendment passed the Committee unanimously.

Before the vote, the City of Bangor submitted a letter of support to the Committee, describing how many of the bill’s provisions would benefit airport operations around the country, including at Bangor International Airport (BGR):

“These reforms would directly support airports such as BGR by enabling timely progress on projects ranging from traditional safety-and capacity-driven infrastructure to energy-resilience initiatives such as our planned on-airport solar farm,” wrote Airport Director Jose Saavedra, C.M. “Streamlining NEPA requirements, while preserving necessary environmental protections, will help ensure that airports can advance essential improvements that support safe operations, economic competitiveness, and the aviation needs of the communities we serve.”

Golden has previously spoken at length about the need to fix America’s broken permitting system, including during the bill’s initial hearing in September. 

Full text of the legislation can be found here, and an analysis of the bill — as well as a recent history of permitting reform — from the Bipartisan Policy Center can be found here. 

BACKGROUND:

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a procedural statute that established parameters for assessing the environmental impacts of all major federal actions and created the Council on Environmental Quality. The procedural requirements in NEPA apply to all major federal actions, including but not limited to the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, highways, ports, irrigation systems, forest management, transmission lines, energy projects, broadband and water infrastructure.

While well-intentioned, NEPA has evolved into a cumbersome and lengthy process that has increased costs and permitting timelines. Additionally, NEPA has become a tool used by special interest groups to block critical infrastructure across the country, as it is currently the most litigated environmental statute.

This litigation is most often initiated not by communities or individuals, but by national NGOs. According to the Breakthrough Institute, NGOs filed more than 70 percent of all lawsuits filed under NEPA in recent years. 

According to the report, litigants lose their challenges 80 percent of the time. But what they lost in court, they made up for in delays; Litigation under NEPA added an average of four years to a project’s timeline. These kinds of delays can kill a project even when the litigation against it fails.

The SPEED Act will modernize NEPA to help streamline the permitting process and return the law to its intended purpose. The bill will shorten permitting timelines and reduce the frequency of frivolous litigation. This legislation will simplify the analysis required in NEPA documents, thereby easing the burden on agencies. The bill will also clarify when NEPA is triggered by clarifying the definition of “Major Federal Action.” Lastly, the bill will establish judicial review limitations for NEPA claims, including a 150-day deadline for filing claims, a new standard of review and the elimination of procedural moves that stop projects from moving forward.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02)

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) voted today for H.R. 4405, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would require the Department of Justice to publicly release all unclassified materials from its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. The bill passed the House by a vote of 427-1. 

Today’s vote was forced by a discharge petition signed by Golden and a majority of the House after months of resistance from President Trump and House Republican leaders.

“These files should obviously be released. And it never should have been this hard,” Golden said.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act mandates the Department of Justice to publish a searchable, downloadable compilation of all its files on Epstein within 30 days. Within 15 days, the Department must report to Congress on any information redacted to protect victims’ personal information and active federal investigations.

Golden has long called for the release of the Epstein files as a means of transparency and accountability. He praised a subpoena against the Department of Justice by a House Oversight subcommittee this summer, and later reiterated the need for a public release while questioning the Trump Administration’s resistance to doing so. 

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR-04)

As we reflect on this year, I’d like to take a moment to recognize our Arkansas National Guard and the exceptional discipline and dedication they have brought to their service not only for the Natural State, but nationwide. 

When tragedy struck central Texas this summer, our Arkansas Guard answered the call of duty, providing integral service to the communities that were facing devastating loss and infrastructure challenges. The help they were able to provide in a dark chapter for the state of Texas was undoubtedly a lifeline of hope that was desperately needed, and I was incredibly proud to see the true Arkansas spirit represented so well by our Arkansas National Guard.

We saw our own share of devastation this year as winter weather and spring storms brought destruction to communities across the Natural State. Once again, the Arkansas National Guard answered the call of duty, bringing their exceptional training and skill where and when it was needed most.

The Arkansas National Guard’s 142nd Field Artillery Brigade touched down in Washington D.C. this week as they will be conducting patrols and providing support for local law enforcement in designated areas. I look forward to personally connecting with some of the Natural State’s finest men and women in the coming days while they are here to thank them for their service.

On December 13, the National Guard will celebrate 389 years of service. You may be wondering how that math works out, as our own nation is only 250 years old. Before our Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, the National Guard has had a presence in our country since the colonial days of 1636, playing a consistent role in the story of our nation’s founding and the defending of our freedom. 

Before the adoption of its official name, the National Guard acted as our colonial militia founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These founding fathers were at first a great concern for the colonists who feared tyrannical rule and abuses of military power. However, George Washington argued strongly for the need of a “well-organized Militia; upon a Plan that will pervade all the States, and introduce similarity in their Establishment Maneuvers, Exercise and Arms.”

Thus, the 1792 Militia Act was enacted, opening the door to centuries of men, and now women, to be divided into divisions, brigades, battalions, and companies as they serve their communities in the National Guard.

I’m grateful each day for the men and women who put on the uniform to serve their country, sacrificing the comfort and safety of their own personal lives to go where they are called to protect our communities and provide help when tragedy strikes. Regardless of their circumstances, these Guardsmen and women stay the course, remain steadfast, and do their duty to serve their country.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR-04)

As we celebrate a holiday centered on our gratitude and thankfulness for all the blessings we have been given, we must also reflect on our nation’s history and the significance behind Thanksgiving Day.

Most often associated with the feast depicted in our history books from colonial days, we recall the first harvest shared by the pilgrims to thank God for their blessings and the abundant harvest they received during a time marked by great uncertainty. While this feast was celebrated at Plymouth colony in 1621, and loosely maintained by the generations to follow, it wouldn’t be for almost two more centuries that our nation would properly observe this day.

During the Revolutionary War, our Founding Fathers observed a day of thanksgiving that took on a whole new meaning. After the British army surrendered to the Americans at the Battle of Saratoga, General George Washington agreed to the Continental Congress’ suggestion of observing a national day of thanksgiving to commemorate this victory. The proclamation was signed, designating December 18, 1777, as our nation’s first Thanksgiving Day.

It wasn’t until the Civil War era, however, that Thanksgiving Day was regularly observed, when President Abraham Lincoln established the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in 1863. For 162 years, our nation has set aside this day as a day of thankfulness.

May we continue to be thankful for the blessings we have been given: our nation’s farmers who are responsible for providing food for our tables, our teachers who pour into and shape the minds of future leaders, and our troops who defend the freedoms we are so blessed to have.

When we take a moment to reflect on all that we have been given, my hope is that we will be reminded of how blessed our nation truly is. And that we will never forget the generations who have come before us to secure these gifts, urging us to press forward and do the same for future generations. I am certainly thankful for the opportunity to serve the Fourth District of Arkansas, and I wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. 

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman John Garamendi – Representing California’s 3rd Congressional District

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-08), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Readiness Subcommittee, released the following statement in response to the Department of Defense Inspector General’s report on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leaking of classified information on Signal earlier this year:

“This report confirms what we’ve known all along: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s incompetence and reckless behavior put our national security and the lives of our servicemembers at risk. On the very first page of the report, the IG makes clear that the information Hegseth sent in a Signal chat with a news reporter was classified. Despite what the Trump Administration claims, this report does not ‘exonerate’ Hegseth in the slightest- it’s damning.

“If any other member of the military had committed this same grave breach of protocol, they would have been immediately removed from their position. But because Pete Hegseth’s sole qualification is loyalty to Trump, he’ll continue serving in a role he is indisputably unqualified to hold. Hegseth and Trump may preach accountability, but their actions tell an entirely different story.

“I call on Secretary Hegseth to appear before a televised House Armed Services Committee hearing next week to answer for his reckless leaking of classified information and his allegedly criminal order to kill unarmed survivors off the coast of Venezuela. If he has nothing to hide, he should explain his actions in full view of the American people rather than hide behind closed doors.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman John Garamendi – Representing California’s 3rd Congressional District

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman John Garamendi (CA-08), senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Readiness Subcommittee, called for public hearings with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to address the Department of Defense’s actions in Venezuela and its ongoing military strikes off the country’s coast, including allegations that he violated domestic and international law by ordering forces to “kill them all.”

“I am demanding that Hegseth and all those responsible for these strikes come before Congress and testify in front of the American people. For months, I have raised serious concerns about the administration’s actions in the Caribbean, including the legality of these strikes and their potential to drag us into another war.

“Now, with recent reporting that Hegseth ordered our military to ‘kill’ survivors of an airstrike, it’s clear that the administration has a callous disregard for the rule of law. To be clear: If the reporting is accurate, Secretary Hegseth’s alleged orders directly violated U.S. law, international law, and the Department of Defense’s own Law of War Manual.

“I’ve had enough. We must have a full, open, and transparent hearing before the House Armed Services Committee. Anything less would be a disservice to the American people. If Hegseth believes his actions were lawful, he should not be afraid to explain himself to Congress in full view of the nation, instead of burying this potentially criminal activity in closed-door meetings.

“A closed-door classified briefing is not good enough for me, not good enough for the three million servicemembers who could be subjected to unlawful orders, and certainly not good enough for the 700,000 people I represent in Contra Costa and Solano Counties.

“If Trump and Hegseth can commit such horrific acts in peacetime, just think what they’ll do if they plunge us into another unnecessary war.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California

Washington D.C. – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joined Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) and 25 members of the California Democratic Congressional delegation in condemning the Trump Administration’s official draft 2027-2032 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that includes six lease proposals off the coast of Northern, Central, and Southern California. The plan proposes opening vast swaths of previously protected federal waters—including the California coast—to new oil and gas drilling for the first time in over 40 years, disregarding bipartisan opposition.

The Trump Administration’s overwhelmingly unpopular proposal directly targets areas former President Joe Biden withdrew from future leasing in January 2025, when he protected 625 million acres. In their letter to President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the lawmakers stressed that this plan would undermine state laws that prohibit new offshore drilling along its 1,110-mile coastline and ban new leases for oil and gas infrastructure in state waters.

“We stand united with the overwhelming majority of Californians who fundamentally oppose any proposal that would expand offshore drilling and risk our state’s invaluable, ecologically unique coast,” wrote the lawmakers. “This proposal, coupled with ongoing efforts to reduce federal staffing and funding for agencies that protect our environment, including for safety and oil spill response, is not only dangerous but outright reckless.”

“As we have repeatedly seen in California and other parts of the country, offshore drilling is a ticking time bomb,” continued the lawmakers. “Any expansion of offshore drilling in the waters off the coast of California and the spills that would inevitably accompany it would be devastating to the communities we represent.”

The lawmakers emphasized the devastating impacts new oil and gas leasing would have on California’s environment, military readiness, and diverse coastal economy, threatening the state’s tourism, recreation, fisheries, deepwater port commerce, and defense infrastructure industries. California’s marine economy accounted for $51.3 billion in GDP and $26.7 billion in wages, and pollution off its coast would significantly damage the state’s world-leading economy, hurting the entire country.

California began efforts to block offshore drilling in 1969 when an oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, blanketing beaches with a thick layer of oil and killing thousands of marine mammals and birds. It was the largest oil spill in U.S. history until the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years later. In the past decade, the 2015 Refugio State Beach oil spill and the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spillhave further demonstrated the immense risks of offshore drilling expansion.

Full text of the letter is available here.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California

Washington, D.C. – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the House Floor condemning President Trump’s decision to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández—the former President of Honduras who was convicted in U.S. federal court for trafficking cocaine into the United States.

In her speech, Pelosi recounted witnessing Hernández’s abuses firsthand during a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Honduras, where Members refused to meet with him due to his violent and criminal conduct. She underscored how Trump’s pardon disrespects American families devastated by narcotics, endangers law enforcement officers risking their lives to stop drug trafficking and undermines the rule of law.

Pelosi also condemned the hypocrisy of Trump pardoning a convicted drug trafficker while simultaneously justifying the bombing of small boats he claims are carrying drugs.

Watch Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s Floor remarks here.

Read the transcript of Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s Floor remarks below:

Speaker Emerita Pelosi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with deep concern at the President’s outrageous and shameful pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, a man an American jury convicted of trafficking tons of cocaine into the United States and of corrupting his own government in the process.

I saw this firsthand when I brought a bipartisan delegation to Honduras when he was president. We refused to meet with him because he was and is a thug.

This is not a minor case. This is not a close call. This was a decisive conviction for crimes that have devastated American families and fueled violence and instability abroad.

And yet President Trump chose to use one of the most powerful powers of the presidency to wipe it all out.

This is so hypocritical as he’s bombing small boats that he describes as full of drugs coming to the United States.

And perhaps they are. And that’s a different thing.

But if he’s doing that, why would he pardon a thug?

Hernández once boasted at a meeting of narco-traffickers that ‘together they would shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.’

What message does pardoning this criminal send to parents who have lost children to narcotics, to law enforcement officers risking everything to stop the flow of deadly drugs?

This disgraceful pardon should be met with bipartisan condemnation as an affront to our values, our safety, our rule of law, our democracy.

Those who do not join in that condemnation are either pro-crime or do not care.

It’s another reminder: the American people must be vigilant. I yield back.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California

San Francisco – For World AIDS Day, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi reflected with Vogue on her nearly four decades of advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Pelosi recalled her first moments as a new Member of Congress in 1987, when she declared on the House Floor that she came to fight against HIV/AIDS.

Pelosi highlighted key milestones in that work, including helping to pass the Ryan White Care Act and contributing to the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. She noted how dramatically treatment and prevention have advanced since those early years, strengthened by initiatives like PEPFAR and USAID. But she warned that recent funding cuts and rising misinformation threaten to reverse decades of progress.

“On World AIDS Day, we reflect on its devastating toll and honor the beautiful souls stolen by this virus,” Speaker Emerita Pelosi said. “As we continue the fight to banish AIDS to the dustbin of history, we refuse to be deterred by the Administration’s efforts to abandon this life-saving work. We are not going back to an era of stigma, fear and cruelty.”

Speaker Emerita Pelosi delivers remarks today during an event marking World AIDS Day hosted by the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco.

Read the full story below:

Vogue: Nancy Pelosi Reflects on World AIDS Day and Continuing the Fight

[By Margaux Anbouba, 12/1/25]

When Rep. Nancy Pelosi was sworn into Congress on June 2, 1987, she was told to keep her personal statement short.

“Some of the members that I knew said, ‘Nobody wants to hear from a freshman member,’” Pelosi says. She was the only person being sworn in that day, after winning a special election following the death of Rep. Sala Burton. “But after I was sworn in, the Speaker of the House at the time, Jim Wright, asked, ‘Does the gentlelady wish to address the house?’ I didn’t want to say no. I thanked my parents, my constituents who sent me there, and said, ‘Sala sent me and I came to fight against HIV and AIDS.’ Period.”

Pelosi, who announced last month that she will not seek reelection when her term in Congress ends in 2027, has represented San Francisco throughout her career—one of the cities hit hardest by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It’s estimated that close to 20,000 people died from AIDS in San Francisco during the 1980s and early ’90s, as Pelosi entered elected office.

Her remarks to her peers in Congress lasted less than a minute, but they would set the tone for Pelosi’s work going forward. “AIDS affected everybody we knew at the time,” she tells Vogue during a phone interview. “Largely, it was in the gay community at first. But then it became more and more people. In those days, we were going to a few funerals a week, sometimes two a day. It was a death penalty to have a diagnosis of HIV and AIDS.” In 1990, Pelosi helped to pass the Ryan White Care Act, which remains the largest federal care program for people with HIV/AIDS. She also contributed to the historic NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, made of hand-sewed panels of fabric commemorating more than 700,000 people who have died from the disease.

When LGBTQ+ rights activist Cleve Jones first came to Pelosi and proposed the quilt project, she thought the idea was crazy. “Nobody sews anymore,” she says. “I’m a mother of five and went to convent school, where they taught me how to knit, crochet, darn, everything. And I didn’t sew!”

But, she admits, she was wrong. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt quickly grew into the largest piece of American folk art in the world—and got Pelosi to pick up a needle and thread herself. Pelosi designed and made a square for the flower girl from her wedding, Susie Piracci Roggio. “Susie was a champion for the cause,” Pelosi says. “She used her diagnosis to help prevent other people from dying, [while] actually dying from it at the time.” (Pelosi knows other people memorialized on the quilt, too, including her former aide Scott Douglass, who lost his battle with AIDS at age 34.)

In the 38 years that Pelosi has served this country, the narrative around HIV/AIDS—as well as its course of treatment—has changed dramatically. That has a lot to do with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program, as well as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the latter of which Pelosi worked with Republican President George W. Bush to create in 2003.

Some of that progress, though, has recently been imperilled. Among the first things President Donald Trump did upon taking office for the second time was to dismantle USAID, and an anti-condom movement has taken root among American 20-somethings.

Pelosi’s message on this is clear: “You don’t want this disease.” The funding cuts, she urges, don’t mean that HIV/AIDS is no longer an issue. UNAIDS anticipates that this discontinuation of AIDS-related education and programming will lead to an additional 6.6 million HIV infections and 4.2 million AIDS-related deaths between now and 2030.

“Young people need to understand that while we have been able to improve the quality of life of those with HIV/AIDS,” Pelosi says, “the fight isn’t over.”