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Chellie Pingree To Lead Appropriations' Interior Subcommittee

Ed Morin
/
Maine Public file
Chellie Pingree speaks in Portland at a rally against repealing the Affordable Care Act in Jan. 2017.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District has been named chair of the Interior subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. Her first hearing will examine the role of the federal Park Police in responding to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol earlier in the month.

The Interior subcommittee has broad jurisdiction, including oversight of budgets for the Environment Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the U.S. Park Police. Pingree says she has called a hearing to review the role of the Park Police in restoring order after the deadly riot at the Capitol.

“Why wasn’t there more security, what happened, where did it fall apart? And the Park Police, which you don’t think about, has a lot of jurisdiction over Washington, D.C.,” she says. “A great deal of the positions at the Department of Environmental Protection are actually directly funded though federal funding. So, that’s important. National parks, were we have a huge maintenance backlog and a lot of work to do there.”

Pingree says as chair of the committee, she will be in the middle of budget negotiations for these major agencies.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.