Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA) offered an amendment to H.R. 2406, the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2015, which would grant the highest level of protection—a wilderness designation—for the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Following extensive scientific study and public input, the Fish and Wildlife Service released a Comprehensive Conservation Plan in 2015, which recommended that the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge should receive the highest level of protection to preserve the land’s unparalleled wild character. This amendment would ensure that this majestic landscape would remain untouched by industrialization and drilling operations, thus protecting a landscape that is home to large populations of caribou, polar bears and more than 135 species of migratory birds. On February 26, the House rejected the Huffman amendment by a vote of 176-227 (House roll call vote 99). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.