©2025 League of Conservation Voters
2012 Scorecard Vote
177
247
8
Issues
Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) offered an amendment to H.R. 2578, the so-called Conservation and Economic Growth Act, which would strike a provision in the bill that would give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authority to waive dozens of environmental laws in a 100-mile zone along the Mexican and Canadian borders. The provision, Representative Rob Bishop’s H.R. 1505 (Title XIV), is an overreaching bill that would force the American people to surrender their right to hunt, fish, and camp on public lands so that federal agents could have unprecedented new policing authority. Some of the environmental laws that could be ignored under the provision are the National Environmental Policy Act, the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. While border security would not be advanced by the legislation – as evidenced by DHS’s opposition to the bill – Americans’ right to enjoy their natural heritage would be severely threatened. On June 19, the House rejected the Grijalva amendment by a vote of 177-247 (House roll call vote 385). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. H.R. 2578 subsequently passed the House, but the Senate took no action on this legislation.
©2025 League of Conservation Voters