Political Quotes

“I rise today in favor of my bill, H.R. 677, the Expedited Appeals Review Act, or EARA. This bill addresses the backlog of appeals before the Interior Board of Land Appeals, or IBLA. The IBLA is an appellant review board within the Department of the Interior, and it is tasked with resolving disputes involving public lands and natural resources under the Department's jurisdiction. This includes appeals involving the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Office of Natural Resources Revenue, and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. It considers appeals dealing with grazing, mining, energy development, wildfire management, timber harvesting, trespass, and more. The IBLA's stated mission is: "to provide an impartial forum within the Department of the Interior for the fair resolution of disputes involving public lands and natural resources under the Department's jurisdiction." There are, however, longstanding inefficiencies in the appeals process. When combined with the high volume of cases, it has resulted in a backlog of over 650 pending appeals dating all the way back to 2014. The IBLA receives on average 290 appeals per fiscal year. Of those cases that are not resolved on jurisdictional or procedural grounds, only 2 percent are decided in favor of the appellant and against the agency.”