Local Issues
More on Local Issues
April 23, 2020
When we passed the Paycheck Protection Program, I warned that serious flaws would deliver a windfall to businesses that do not need it, at the expense of those that do. That is exactly what happened, exhausting the fund within days...
March 24, 2020
The anguish in people’s voices as they call our office every day is heart-breaking. Many are wondering how they can pay their bills, whether their job will still exist in a week, whether their retirement savings have been decimated or whether they’ll lose the shop they’ve spent their lifetimes and life savings to build.
November 21, 2019
California Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-04) and 11 members representing western states today introduced legislation designed to reform water policy in the west. “Western water policy is a bureaucratic nightmare designed to delay and deny the storage, delivery and use of our abundant water by farmers and residents. Environmental groups have used the law to block construction on new reservoirs, resulting in man-made droughts that have devastated entire communities. This legislation provides a common-sense approach to allowing water to flow quickly and efficiently to the communities that need it, while maintaining environmental protections,” McClintock said...
October 9, 2019
I realize that PG&E is caught in a Hobson’s choice, but I do not support its decision for preventative power cut-offs due to high winds. They are balancing the possibility of a wildfire ignition due to wind damage against the certainty of deliberately causing millions of dollars of damage to their customers and creating major public safety hazards...
Issues:Local Issues
March 12, 2019
For many years, our nations’ water policy was one of abundance and our nation’s lands policy was one of sustainable, scientific management. These policies served the betterment of both humanity and nature.
February 26, 2019
This is a massive document encompassing 147 individual bills, including mine on establishing a permanent fund for medical clinics in our National Parks. It reduces total federal land ownership at a time we can’t take care of the land we currently hold, shares considerably more LWCF money with states which have proven better land stewards, and relaxes public use restrictions on 168,000 acres of federal land. I am greatly concerned about adding 1.3 million acres of federal land to wilderness designation which greatly restricts public access, but more than half of this amount is in exchange for opening up other federal lands to greater recreation and economic development and has the support of the local governments most directly affected. I am also concerned over permanent reauthorization of the LWCF without reforming it to assure that maintenance needs are met before we acquire new lands. However, it does provide for 40 percent revenue sharing with state governments.
January 9, 2019
The President is absolutely correct that poor forest management has condemned our forests to morbid overcrowding and ultimately catastrophic wildfire. However, the principal blame for California’s wildfires lies with federal agencies and laws which govern most of our state’s forests and brushlands. Laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, which have made scientific forest management endlessly time consuming and ultimately cost prohibitive...
January 7, 2019
Congressman Tom McClintock today praised the decision of Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to release Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act funds for garbage collection, restroom servicing and other emergency maintenance at national parks during the government shutdown.
Issues:Local IssuesCalifornia
January 4, 2019
Rep. Tom McClintock today sent a letter regarding maintenance of parks during the shutdown to Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. The letter is attached:
(click for pdf)
January 4, 2019
Issues:Local Issues
September 6, 2018
When we talk of PILT funding, we should never lose sight of the fact that it is a very, very poor substitute for revenues generated locally by healthy economic activity and federal revenue sharing. Our ultimate objective should be not to institutionalize PILT, but to restore active management of our federal lands and a healthy balance between federal land ownership and productive private ownership of the lands within each county in the nation.