Representative Duncan (R-SC) offered amendment #143 to H.R. 3055, the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies omnibus appropriations bill, which would help turn the pristine and sacred Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into an oil field. The Duncan amendment would have struck a provision in H.R. 3055 that would block oil and gas lease sales in the Refuge by ensuring that the sales are compliant with the 2017 Tax Act and therefore unattractive to Big Oil. This amendment would do irreparable damage to one of America’s most magnificent and wildest landscapes that is home to polar and brown bears, muskoxen, and birds that migrate from all 50 states and 6 continents. The indigenous Gwich’in people call the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain “the sacred place where life begins,” reflecting the importance to them of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, which calves in the area and which they rely on for subsistence food and their spiritual needs. Unamended, H.R. 3055 is a strong rebuke of the Trump Administration’s efforts to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. On June 20, the House rejected the Palmer amendment by a vote of 198-233 (House roll call vote 384).  NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The Duncan amendment was not included in H.R. 3055 that was subsequently approved by the House.