Click to view entire image

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva has died following complications from treatment for cancer/House Democrats

U.S. Raúl Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who was a fierce champion for national parks, passed away Thursday from complications related to cancer treatments. He was 77.

"More than two decades ago, Rep. Grijalva embarked on a journey to be a voice for Southern Arizonans in Washington, D.C. Driven by his community values and spirit, he worked tirelessly and accomplished so much — for Arizona and for the country," a release from his office read.

Grijalva announced last spring that he had been diagnosed with cancer, although he didn't specify what kind. "This diagnosis has been difficult to process, but I am confident in the vigorous course of treatment that my medical team has developed, and I’ve begun my journey to fight this cancer," he said at the time.

Until he stepped down in December, Grijalva had been the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee for five years. While the Democrat had won re-election in December, he also said it would be his last term.

Grijalva had a successful run as the committee's ranking member. He helped usher through passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, which permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund. He also was an advocate for the the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 (Dingell Act), which designated 1,300,000 acres as offical wilderness area, and grew the borders of several national parks.

Before his time on the committee, Grijalva wrote the National Landscape Conservation System Act and the Federal Lands Restoration Act, both signed into law by President Obama as part of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.

His work on behalf of the environment led to environmental and conservation groups urging in 2008 that he be nominated for Interior secretary in the President Barack Obama administration.

His work leading up to that call included publication of a scathing report on some of the George W. Bush administration's public lands decisions; examinaton of the problems of uncontrolled off-road vehicle use; an accusation that then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne was pandering to the National Rifle Association when it came to rewriting gun regulations for national parks and national wildlife refuges (the congressman also called for a full Environmental Impact Statement on that rule change); and he teamed with then-Rep. Nick Rahall, D-West Virginia, on legislation to provide $1 billion to help the National Park Service prepare for its centennial in 2016.

In a letter to Obama, more than 100 groups called for Grijalva, who at the time chaired the House parks subcommittee, to be considered for the job.

"The new secretary of the Interior must bring strong, focused leadership to the position in order to ameliorate the devastating effects of the Bush administration’s eight years of failed environmental policy. We strongly believe that Congressman Grijalva’s background and record show him to be a leader ready for this challenge," read the letter sent to Obama. "As Arizona’s congressional representative, Congressman Grijalva has shown a broad range of passion and expertise for conservation and management of public lands. He has highlighted the Bush administration’s attempts to undercut science in favor of industry interests and sought ways to work with agencies and environmental groups to better protect public lands. For this, Grijalva has gained respect in the environmental community for his clear and decisive positions on sometimes complicated issues."

More recenly, Grijalva in 2017 called on House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop to invite then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to testify on how he would spread a 12 percent budget cut, if directed so by Congress, across his department and its agencies, including the National Park Service.

"It is imperative that you invite Interior Secretary Zinke to appear before our committee as soon as possible," wrote Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the committee. "Given the lack of detail provided in the president's proposal, it is critical that Secretary Zinke appear before the committee to explain how the department plans to fulfill its responsibilities to manage our national parks and other federal lands, oceans, endangered wildlife, cultural resources, and honor the federal government's trust responsibilities to Native American tribes using $1.5 billion less in funding."

In 2018, when Democrats reclaimed the House and Grijalva became chairman of the committee, he wrote an op-ed column for USA Today in which he called on Zinke to resign. That column prompted Zinke in turn to tweet that Grijalva  was a drunk wasting taxpayer money trying to cover up his missteps.

Leading up to the 2018 election the congressman worked to challenge management plans the Bureau of Land Management was developing for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah; voiced concerns over a lack of transparency around Interior plans for reorganizing that agency that oversees most of America's public landscapes; pushed legislation that would end the prospect of uranium mining near Grand Canyon National Park by creating a million-acre national monument, the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument; fought efforts to weaken or kill the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and; sought clarity on Secretary Zinke's decision to dispatch Park Service law enforcement personnel to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona and Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border in the name of national security.

Grijalva also called on Rep. Bishop, unsuccessfully, to hold a full committee hearing into sexual harassment and other types of workplace harassment at Interior and its agencies. And he spoke out against Interior's directive to the Park Service to relax regulations on hunting predators in national preserves in Alaska.

Last September the Democrat along with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, introduced legislation to provide permanent protection for wolves, grizzly bears, and bison and to expand recovery efforts for them. The Tribal Heritage and American Bison, Grizzly Bear, and Wolf Restoration and Coexistence Act would also "enhance existing tribal management authorities over these species by creating oversight committees that work in unison with tribes to identify tribal lands suitable for possible reintroduction efforts."

That measure came eight months after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to provide ESA protections for the wolves in the West and the Northern Rockies, a decision Grijalva criticized, stating that "[D]enying ESA protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies ignores the existential threat—which the Service has acknowledged—that reckless state laws, like those in Montana and Idaho, pose to the species. From allowing the killing of wolf pups to authorizing kills of more than 40 percent of their state’s wolf population, these state regulations have proven to be anti-science, anti-conservation, and cruel. And now they’ve gotten the rubber stamp from FWS to maintain this status quo."

Information on services for the congressman was not immediately available.