November, 15 2022, 01:15pm EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kathleen Sullivan, SELC federal press contact, (919) 945-7106, ksullivan@selcnc.org
Lam Ho, SELC Georgia press contact, lho@selcga.org
Jon Andrew, NWRA, (941) 961-3698, jandrew@refugeassociation.org
Kyle Groetzinger, National Parks Conservation Association, (202) 893-3391, kgroetzinger@npca.org
Katie Arberg, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-0258, karberg@defenders.org
Elise Bennett, Center for Biological Diversity, (727) 755-6950, ebennett@biologicaldiversity.
Lawsuit Challenges Army Corps Decision Imperiling Wetlands Near Okefenokee Swamp
Agency's Unlawful Reversal Leaves Nearly 600 Acres of Wetlands Without Federal Protection Against Strip Mine
WASHINGTON
On behalf of four conservation groups, the Southern Environmental Law Center today challenged, in federal court, a decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to unlawfully reinstate jurisdictional determinations that removed Clean Water Act protections from almost 600 acres of wetlands on the doorstep of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
Today's lawsuit, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes that the Corps' action opens wetlands that are critical to the health of the iconic Okefenokee Swamp to destruction by a strip-mining operation.
"The Corps' decision to reinstate the jurisdictional determinations runs counter to its internal guidance, reasoned decision-making, and common sense," said Megan Huynh, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents the conservation groups in the lawsuit. "Not only are the at-risk wetlands valuable in their own right, but they are important to the health of the irreplaceable Okefenokee Swamp. To comply with the Clean Water Act, the Corps must require Twin Pines to obtain a federal permit and complete a full environmental review of the mining project."
The suit challenges the Corps' reinstatement of its jurisdictional determinations made under the Trump administration's now-vacated "Navigable Waters Protection Rule." The August reinstatement contradicted the agency's own internal guidance and the Administrative Procedure Act, and it was made despite officials having rescinded the determinations two months earlier, according to the filed complaint.
"From imperiled red-cockaded woodpeckers to alligator snapping turtles, the Okefenokee supports astounding biodiversity that the Army Corps is failing to protect," said Elise Bennett, Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "That's why we're fighting to safeguard this incredibly precious place from strip mining."
"There is only one Okefenokee Swamp and we treasure it as one of the crown jewels of the National Wildlife Refuge system," said Geoffrey Haskett, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association. "It is simply too valuable to risk for a mineral that can be found in many other places. This is clearly the wrong place for a mine."
The Southern Environmental Law Center represents the National Wildlife Refuge Association, National Parks Conservation Association, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity in this challenge.
"The science is clear: Large-scale industrial mining right next to the refuge could forever scar the Okefenokee and threaten the existence of more than a thousand species that find sanctuary on these lands," said Christian Hunt, senior federal lands policy analyst with Defenders of Wildlife. "Georgia simply cannot afford to let Twin Pines gamble with the health of these world-renowned wetlands."
Projects like the massive titanium mine proposed by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, benefitted from the short-lived Navigable Waters Protection Rule's gutting of longstanding federal clean water protections. The Corps, under the rule's regulatory rollbacks, issued two jurisdictional determinations to the mining company that stripped federal protections from nearly 600 acres of wetlands near the Okefenokee.
The Corps rescinded those determinations in June 2022. But the agency then unlawfully reinstated the determinations without notice or explanation, following an out-of-court settlement in August between the agency and Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals.
"Titanium may be valuable, but you can find it almost anywhere. In contrast, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is priceless and unique, and there is no metal on earth worth damaging it," said Chris Watson, Ph.D., campaign director, southeast regional office, National Parks Conservation Association. "Mining should not be allowed in and around this wild place, which provides protections for thousands of species and recreational opportunities for birders, fishers, hikers, kayakers, photographers and more. The Clean Water Act provides key safeguards for the Okefenokee, keeping the waters we drink, fish and swim clean for all. Why jeopardize that for a mining operation? We look forward to the court's affirmations of these safeguards."
Now wetlands critical to the Okefenokee Swamp's hydrology and ecology are again slated to be destroyed by a proposed strip mine without federal clean water and other protections.
The Okefenokee Swamp is one of the largest remaining intact freshwater ecosystems in the world. In addition to its ecological significance, the refuge is critically important to local communities, supporting more than 750 jobs and nearly $65 million in annual economic output per year. As recognized by the Corps, the swamp is also important to Native American nations with ancestral homelands in the region.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
Latest Possible Israeli 'War Crime' in Gaza Used 500-lb US-Made Bombs: Report
The attack on a crowded café has been described by international law experts as wildly disproportionate, following new reporting about the munitions used.
Jul 03, 2025
International law experts are describing Israel's Monday attack on a Gaza café as a potential war crime after an investigation in The Guardian revealed that the attack was carried out using a 500-lb bomb supplied by the U.S. government.
Reporters photographed fragments of the bomb left behind in the wreckage of the al-Baqa Café. Weapons experts identified them as parts of an MK-82 general purpose bomb, which it called "a US-made staple of many bombing campaigns in recent decades."
The attack killed anywhere from 24 to 36 Palestinians and injured dozens more. Casualties included women, children, and the elderly. A prominent photojournalist and artist were also killed.
Experts have called the use of such a weapon on an area full of civilians wildly disproportionate and a likely violation of the Geneva Convention, which outlaws military operations that cause "incidental loss of civilian life" that is "excessive or disproportionate" to the military advantage to be gained.
"It is almost impossible to see how this use of that kind of munition can be justified," said Marc Schack, an associate professor of international law at the University of Copenhagen in comments to The Guardian. "If you are talking about 20, 30, 40 or more civilian casualties, usually that would have to be a target of very great importance."
After the attack drew heavy criticism, an army spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike had killed "several Hamas terrorists" and that "prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance."
Gerry Simpson of Human Rights Watch criticized that defense.
"The Israeli military hasn't said exactly whom it was targeting, but it said it used aerial surveillance to minimize civilian casualties, which means it knew the café was teeming with customers at the time," Simpson told The Guardian. "The military would also have known that using a large guided air-dropped bomb would kill and maim many of the civilians there. The use of such a large weapon in an obviously crowded café risks that this was an unlawful disproportionate or indiscriminate attack and should be investigated as a war crime."
Since Monday's bombing, the attacks against civilians in Gaza have only intensified. According to a Thursday report from the Gaza Government Media Office, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed within the last 48 hours in "26 bloody massacres."
According to reporting Thursday from Al Jazeera, these have included attacks on "shelters and displacement centers overcrowded with tens of thousands of displaced people, public rest areas, Palestinian families inside their homes, popular markets and vital civilian facilities, and starving civilians searching for food."
At least 33 people were killed Thursday at a Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) aid distribution site, adding to the hundreds of aid seekers who have been killed in recent weeks. In a Haaretz investigation last week, soldiers described these aid sites, administered by the U.S. and Israel, as a "killing field," where they have routinely been ordered to fire on unarmed civilians who posed no threat.
Two American contractors at a GHF site told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that their colleagues fired their guns wildly, including in the direction of Palestinians. They provided a video which shows hundreds of aid-seekers crowded between metal gates, being assaulted with stun grenades and pepper spray, while gunshots echo in the background.
On Tuesday, Amnesty International and hundreds of other humanitarian NGOs called for an end to the Israeli government's blockade of food and other necessities entering the Gaza Strip. They also called for an end to the "deadly Israeli distribution scheme" and for a return of aid distribution to the United Nations and other international organizations.
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"Republicans haven't passed their bill yet, but if you live in Nebraska you can thank them for making you less healthy," wrote Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.).
Jul 03, 2025
The devastating cuts to Medicaid contained in Republicans' budget bill have not yet gone into effect but are already having negative consequences for American healthcare.
Nebraska Public Media reports Thursday that the Curtis Medical Center, a clinic located in a rural Nebraska community with a population of under 1,000 residents, will soon shut down thanks in part to the expected impact the GOP's cuts to Medicaid will have on its finances.
Troy Bruntz, the president and CEO of Curtis Medical Center owner Community Hospital, said in a news release that the coming Medicaid cuts are tipping many financially challenged health clinics into insolvency.
"The current financial environment, driven by anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid, has made it impossible for us to continue operating all of our services, many of which have faced significant financial challenges for years," he explained.
Nebraska Public Media notes that the Curtis clinic is likely just the first domino in the state's rural healthcare system to fall thanks to the Medicaid cuts and it speaks to recent warnings from people like Jed Hansen, executive director for the Nebraska Rural Health Association, about how many other hospitals are in real danger.
"We currently have six hospitals that that we feel are in a critical financial state, three that are in an impending kind of closure or conversion over to the rural emergency hospital model," Hansen said earlier this week during an online forum about the state's crisis. "We would likely see the closures within a year to two years of once [the Medicaid cuts are] fully enacted."
Other experts have sounded similar alarms on the budget bill's impact on rural hospitals. Sharon Parrott, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), wrote earlier this week that Senate Republicans' efforts to create a fund of money earmarked for rural hospitals would prove woefully inadequate to the problems these institutions will face in the coming years.
"Senate Republicans know the bill would hurt rural hospitals—that's why they added a face-saving temporary fund, but it won't rescue rural providers when the funding runs dry and the permanent cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace coverage remain," explained Parrott. "This is particularly true because the revised Senate fund gives the Health and Human Services secretary significant discretion in how the funds would be allocated. Rural providers need people in their communities to have health coverage they can count on. Without that, more rural hospitals will close and more people with and without coverage will be cut off from care they need."
In an analysis released last month, the American Hospital Association (AHA) estimated that 1.8 million individuals in rural communities would lose their Medicaid coverage under the Republican Party's plan while rural hospitals would receive $50.4 billion less in Medicaid funds over the next decade, putting many of them at severe risk of shutting down completely.
"The Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would devastate rural hospitals across the country" if the bill became law, warned AHA president and CEO Rick Pollack. "Many rural hospitals would be forced to choose between maintaining services, keeping staff and possibly closing their doors. Patients would be forced to travel hours for basic or emergency care, and communities would suffer."
Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) cited the story about the Nebraska clinic on X Thursday morning and predicted it was just the beginning of bad things to come for rural hospitals.
"Republicans haven't passed their bill yet, but if you live in... Nebraska you can thank them for making you less healthy," he wrote. "There will be many more."
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the GOP budget bill would slash spending on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program by more than $1 trillion over a ten-year-period and would result in more than 10 million Americans losing their health insurance coverage.
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt misleadingly touted tax deductions for overtime and tips—while neglecting to mention the bill's much larger tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.
Jul 03, 2025
As the Republican reconciliation bill barrels toward final passage in Congress, the Trump White House is misrepresenting the measure's tax provisions in an attempt to paint the unpopular legislation as a boon for workers and ordinary seniors rather than a massive handout to the wealthiest Americans.
In an X post late Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared that any lawmaker who opposes the 887-page bill is voting against "no tax on tips," "no tax on overtime," and "no tax on Social Security" benefits.
Leavitt's post was sufficiently misleading as to draw a "community note" on the Elon Musk-owned platform, which clarified that the Republican bill "does not fully eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, or Social Security as claimed; it offers limited deductions with caps (e.g., $25,000 for tips, $12,500 for overtime) and excludes high earners, with no provision to remove taxes on Social Security."
As Axios reported Thursday, the Republican legislation does include "an increased tax deduction for tax filers age 64 and older," but the benefit "leaves out the poorest seniors" and expires in 2028, when President Donald Trump is set to leave office.
The tax deductions for overtime and tips also expire in 2028.
That's unlike the major tax breaks for the wealthy that are included in the legislation, which extends soon-to-expire provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law. For example, the new Republican bill would permanently raise the estate tax exemption, allowing ultrawealthy individuals and married couples to give their heirs up to $15 million or $30 million without paying any federal taxes.
"A married couple worth $30 million where both spouses die in 2026 would pay some $6 million less under the bill compared with current law," The Wall Street Journal observed.
Brendan Duke, senior director for federal budget policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, estimates that the GOP reconciliation bill's tax breaks for the richest 1% are roughly 10 times larger than the tax deductions for tips and overtime combined.
You left something out. https://t.co/LwMFX2nbyM pic.twitter.com/9Dn2FoBZNH
— Brendan Duke (@Brendan_Duke) July 3, 2025
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) noted in a recent analysis that the Senate-passed legislation also "includes permanent corporate tax breaks (involving more generous versions of tax rules for bonus depreciation, research, and limits on interest deductions) that lawmakers have attempted to enact in recent years."
Contrary to the Trump White House's characterization of the reconciliation bill as a historic "middle- and working-class tax cut," ITEP found that "the richest 1% of Americans would receive a total of $117 billion in net tax cuts in 2026."
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Survey data released Wednesday by Data for Progress shows that the Republican legislation is unpopular with a majority of likely U.S. voters. The new poll, conducted between June 27 and July 1, found that 62% of Americans are either somewhat or very concerned about the bill's "cuts to income taxes on wealthy Americans."
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