17 Democratic attorneys general, including two governors-elect, notified the U.S. Senate that they oppose BAAJA’s threat to state and tribal sovereignty, and do not want the legislation considered during the lame-duck session. They sent the letter in response to the Saturday release of the managers’ amendment and before the first vote to bring the legislation, now attached to H.R. 2347, to the floor.
“We ask that Senate leadership delay the upcoming vote,” the states’ top legal officers wrote, “to allow for continued discussion and stakeholder engagement to protect our natural resources, historic and tribal sites, and state regulatory prerogatives.”
The signatories are Attorneys General Letitia James (N.Y.), Rob Bonta (Calif.), Governor-elect Philip J. Weiser (Colo.), Kathleen Jennings (Del.), Kwame Raoul (Ill.), Anne E. Lopez (Hawaii), Aaron M. Frey (Maine), Andrea Joy Campbell (Mass.), Anthony Brown (Md.), Dana Nessel (Mich.), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Governor-elect Aaron Ford (Nev.), Dan Rayfield (Ore.), Jay Jones (Va.), Charity Clark (Vt.), Nicholas Brown (Wash.), and Brian Schwalb (D.C.)
They warned: “BAAJA would harm states’ and tribes’ abilities to protect water, historic, cultural, and natural resources under the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act, and would impinge on state and tribal sovereignty.”
Thirteen of the 73 senators who voted on Monday in favor of bringing BAAJA to the floor represent these 17 states. They are: Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Christopher Coons (Del.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Susan Collins and Angus King, Jr. (Maine), Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), Governor-elect Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen (Nev.), and Mark Warner (Va.).
In addition to Klobuchar, Collins and Peters are leaving the U.S. Senate. Klobuchar plans to appoint her temporary successor before a special election; Collins and Peters will be succeeded in January by Abdul El-Sayed and Troy Jackson.
As Washington, D.C. is a federal district with much of its land under direct federal control, BAAJA poses a particular threat to A.G. Schwalb’s cases against Trump. Hill Heat has published the series BAAJA Follies on that threat.
Download the full letter.