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Pingree, DeLauro: New GAO Report Builds Case for Congressional Action on Textile Waste

| Posted in Press Releases
textile waste

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), founder of the Slow Fashion Caucus and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, released a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on developing a textile circular economy in the Unit...

Pingree Joins Bipartisan Call to Increase Home Heating Assistance Funding

| Posted in Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and a bipartisan group of 73 members called on the House Appropriations Committee to provide an additional $3 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27). In the letter, led by New Hampshire Congressman Chris Pappas, the members wrote, “As the war with Iran rem...

Op-Ed: Mainers are in for a harsh winter— thanks to Republicans

| Posted in Blog Posts

Read my Op-Ed in The Portland Press Herald Between the mountains of snow, the waves of bitter cold and the occasional Nor’easter, we Mainers are no strangers to harsh winters. This winter could be one of the hardest in recent memory. And not because of the weather. The statewide average price of heating oil just hit a record $6.02 a gallon. As of Sept. 28, it was still averaging $5.96 — up nearly...

As Trump’s War in Iran Drives Up Heating Oil Prices, Pingree Demands Administration Provide Relief for Skyrocketing Winter Heating Bills

| Posted in Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and a group of 24 Members of Congress representing Northeastern states are pressing the Department of Energy (DOE) to take immediate action to address the rapidly rising cost of heating oil, which has surged around 60 percent since the start of President Trump’s war in Iran. In their letter—led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representatives S...

Reps. Pingree, Garcia, Casar Call for Accountability After Three ICE Shootings and Body Camera Failures

| Posted in Press Releases

Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), and and Greg Casar (D-Texas), today sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director David J. Venturella calling for answers and accountability following three Immigration and Customs Enforcement shootings in their congressional district...

Pingree Presses Zeldin for Action as EPA Leaves Farmers in Limbo on PFAS-Contaminated Sludge

| Posted in Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, is pressing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin to stop delaying meaningful federal action on per-and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in sewage sludge. In a letter to Zeldin, Pingree warns that EPA’s latest draft guidance fail...

Top House, Senate Interior Appropriators Lead Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Demolition of the Kennedy Center

| Posted in Press Releases

Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, Ranking Members of the House and Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittees, today unveiled legislation to protect presidential monuments like the Kennedy Center from demolition. The bicameral, bipartisan Protecting Presidential Memorials Act would prohibit any Congressionally designated memorial honoring a U...

Pingree, Kelly Call Out Reports of Illegal Union-Busting at Prime Healthcare

| Posted in Press Releases

U.S. Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) are leading a group of their Democratic colleagues in demanding that Prime Healthcare end alleged intimidation and retaliation against nurses engaged in federally protected union activity at its hospitals in Maine, Illinois, and Nevada. In a letter to Prime Healthcare Chairman and CEO Dr. Prem Reddy, the lawmakers cite reports...

Pingree Hears Emotional Testimony from Families, Representatives of Slain ICE Victims

| Posted in Press Releases
Oversight-Shadow-Hearing_02

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) joined U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, for a bicameral public forum of fatal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shootings across the country...

On Heels of Fashion Week, Pingree Champions First-Of-Its-Kind Bill to Fight Fast Fashion Pollution

| Posted in Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), founder and chair of the Slow Fashion Caucus, introduced the Textile Waste Reduction Act (TWRA), a first-of-its-kind bill to address the harmful impacts of fast fashion-driven waste. Based on recommendations made in the first-ever Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on fast fashion pollution—originally requested by Pingree and Rep. Rosa DeL...

Pingree, Congressional Democrats Call Out Trump Admin’s Corrupt Offshore Wind Buyouts

| Posted in Press Releases
CP_Wind-Presser_02

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), joined members of Congress and labor and environmental advocates in front of the U.S. Capitol to speak out against the Trump administration’s continued attacks on offshore wind. Pingree joined Representatives Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) and Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—along with Kendall Martin, General V...

House Passes Pingree Bill to Cut Diesel Pollution, Protect Maine Families

| Posted in Press Releases
diesel emissions

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) applauded the passage of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2025, bipartisan legislation aimed at protecting public health and lowering the cost of replacing older, heavily polluting diesel engines. Introduced by Pingree and Reps. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), and Nick Longworthy (R-N.Y.), the bill reauthorizes the Diesel Emissions Redu...

Responding to Pingree Request, GAO Finds USDA Has Done Too Little to Protect Farms and Forests from Climate-Driven Diseases and Pests

| Posted in Press Releases
drought dying crops

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), a longtime organic farmer and member of the House Agriculture Committee, is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to swiftly implement recommendations from a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that examines the growing climate-related risks that diseases and pests pose to American farms and forests. In September 2019, Pingree a...

Ranking Member Pingree Slams Interior Plan to Carve Up Yosemite for Private Development

| Posted in Press Releases
Yosemite National Park

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, is pushing back against the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) proposed land exchange in Yosemite National Park. The project is listed as DOI’s sixth most important priority—even though Interior has acknowledged that it has not identified the parcel it int...

Pingree: Trump’s Arch Tests Whether Congress Will Defend Its Own Power

| Posted in Blog Posts

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, is calling on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) to file a lawsuit on behalf of Congress to block construction of President Trump’s 250-foot arch. Pingree’s letter comes after the Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced they’d be...