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Welcome to California District One Media.
I'm Meri Mohr.
This is your weekly watchdog news report on your District One elected officials in Congress,
their votes, and public actions.
Here's the latest.
This week, congress returned to Washington from their April recess and local town hall
meetings.
Returning to work, our leaders in Congress delivered the nation a near-budget shutdown,
the return and retreat of Trumps Tea-Party-care, and a cavalcade of executive orders from President
Donald Trump.
On Trump's executive order to roll back the public land protections of the 1906 Antiquities
Act, Congressman Doug LaMalfa came out in full support of the President's lifting one
of the one hundred and eleven year old protections.
LaMalfa stood in the room during the signing which eliminated public stewardship of federal
lands, turning land over for use by private corporations and the oil industry.
Over two dozen National Monuments signed into law since 1996 are at risk.
In California alone, there are six national monuments affected by LaMalfa's YES vote.
In other environmental news, LaMalfa has co-sponsored a bill that eliminates federal safety-nets
on capturing methane gas leaks from fracking wells on public lands.
These oil-well gas-leaks pollute the air and contribute to global climate change.
The bill benefits oil companies while putting the responsibility of leak monitoring back
on the EPA, which continues to be gutted by Trump's budget cut proposals.
The recent 'March for Science' public protests, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered
at over six hundred marches worldwide, demonstrated the public's position.
The message was lost on Congressman LaMalfa.
Affirming his anti-science stance, LaMalfa voted Yes to gag EPA scientists with a restriction
that keeps "the EPA from proposing any action or regulation that uses science which is not
publicly available".
While sounding pro-transparency, LaMalfa's YES vote prevents the EPA from using medical
and environmental research data only available through medical records or some peer-reviewed
research.
He voted YES again to cripple the management structure of the EPA and who is allowed to
advise it.
His YES vote prevents those receiving EPA grants from serving on the EPA advisory panel
within a three year period.
Now that sounds pro-transparency, but what it actually does is prevent scientist that
use grant money from the EPA to advise the EPA on the research they are doing with the
EPA's money at least for three years.
On the home front, District One has seen the emergence of a record number of congressional
candidates setting their sights on 2018.
This group of young, game-changing candidates are rolling out their own campaigns this week,
with a message of unity and listening to their constituents.
Be sure to keep an eye out for them.
For California District One Media, I'm Meri Mohr.