WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress should swiftly enact the bills the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources passed today to protect coastal wildlife, communities and habitat from catastrophic oil spills and environmental disasters caused by unfettered offshore drilling.

“The Interior Department’s decision to temporarily halt work on its plan to open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to unfettered drilling still leaves our coastal communities, economies and wildlife at risk. The House Natural Resources Committee took an important step today — in line with the bipartisan and unanimous position of Atlantic and Pacific coastal state governors — by passing several bills that would permanently end the threat of expanded drilling and a catastrophic oil disaster in critical aquatic habitat and along our shores,” said Laura Daniel Davis, vice president for conservation strategy at the National Wildlife Federation. “Passing these bills into law should be a no-brainer given the broad, bipartisan support for protecting our coasts in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.”

The National Wildlife Federation and its coastal affiliates have worked to highlight the risks of unfettered offshore oil and gas drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Collin O'Mara has urged the Department of the Interior to "permanently scrap" its new five-year offshore drilling plan. The Federation also has raised concerns about how weakening safety standards for offshore oil and gas wells could threaten the health and safety of coastal communities and wildlife.