congress

Avalanche centers across our region were exempted from a U.S. Forest Service hiring pause for seasonal workers.

For now a third time, Congress has extended temporary pay increases for federal wildland firefighters with a continuing resolution. This time they go through just early March.

Federal officials are debating how to balance the economics of scenic air tours with the serenity of popular national parks. A committee in the U.S. House of Representatives discussed commercial management plans in areas like Mt. Rushmore and Glacier National Park.

Committees in the U.S. House and Senate recently discussed abandoned mine policies, with some lawmakers calling for faster rollouts of federal money for cleanups.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Kamila Kudelska talked with reporter Will Walkey about the past, present and future of the Endangered Species Act, how it affects Wyoming and some of the controversies surrounding the law.

More than 100 Democrats in Congress want to restore federal protections for wetlands and streams. Lawmakers are responding to a Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year that gutted protections for many small waterways.

Congress has voted nearly unanimously to protect hunter, archery and sport shooting safety education in schools. Many lawmakers have been worried that these programs would lose federal funding due to recent legislation signed by President Biden.

Recent federal laws have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding for the National Park Service. Yet some members of Congress say the agency isn’t moving fast enough on construction projects and improvements for visitors.

The Senate on Wednesday, March 29 approved a resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s expanded protections for waterways. President Joe Biden has said he will likely veto the measure, which also passed the House in mid-March.

The National Park Service is behind on studying 28 potential sites to add to its system. Two of them are in the Mountain West.