News Releases

After what was a long week in Washington, D.C., I'm happy to be back home and spending time with normal people. We're crisscrossing Northern Nevada, from Owyhee to McDermitt, from Elko to Carson City.

Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) today announced he will hold a veterans' town hall meeting in Fallon on Friday, January 11, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., in the Fallon City Council Chambers, 55 West Williams Avenue.

I respectfully decline to support a measure that raises $41 in revenue for every dollar of spending cuts (Congressional Budget Office). This is not a balanced approach. The status quo on the federal budget deficit and federal debt is not acceptable.

U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) and Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) today announced language will be included in this year's defense authorization bill requiring the Department of Defense (DOD) to detail and address upcoming changes to TRICARE Prime.

Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) today introduced, as an original cosponsor, the TRICARE Protection Act, to protect thousands of Northern Nevada's military retirees and their families from changes to TRICARE Prime

Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) this week expressed his concerns to the Department of Defense (DoD) about its reported decision to discontinue TRICARE Prime health coverage for military retirees and their families throughout much of rural Nevada.

Government should not be in the business of gambling the taxpayers' money on risky bets that in some cases seem to have been on the basis of political connections to the administration rather than merit, said Amodei.

I continue to marvel at the Nevada BLM Office's unilateral policy of shutting down multiple hundreds of thousands of acres from responsible leasing programs, which give no right to do anything on the area leased without additional BLM applications

IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             Contact:        Brian Baluta, 202-225-6155

September 13, 2012                                                           

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) today expressed profound disappointment with the Nevada State Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after receiving the agency news release announcing the exclusion of more than a quarter of a million acres in the Ely District from its most recent oil and gas competitive lease sale. The presence of the sage hen habitat is cited by the BLM as the basis for excluding two thirds of what was to be a 376,618 acre lease offering.

He released the following statement:

"I continue to marvel at the Nevada BLM Office's unilateral policy of shutting down multiple hundreds of thousands of acres from responsible leasing programs, which give no right to do anything on the area leased without additional BLM applications and permits, under the auspices of sage hen habitat protection.

"Nevada is not losing sage hen habitat due to competitive lease sales by Nevada BLM. It is losing habitat acres to wildfire. The misguided notion that regulating agribusiness, energy leasing and exploration, and the minerals industry will solve Nevada's habitat loss history is bureaucratic fantasy.

"In a fire season to date, which has resulted in nearly half a million additional acres of sage hen habitat destroyed by wildland fire, I continue to hope that Nevada's federal land managers will deal with the true habitat threats instead of focusing on a headlong rush to preclude responsible economic development and multiple use polices.

"Sage hen habitat in Nevada is not being overrun by mines, cows, or American energy development. It is burning up in wildland fires on BLM-owned acreage. That circumstance should be the primary focus of our federal land managers.

"It's time to manage fuels around the remaining habitat first rather than activities that account for almost none of the habitat threat."

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