Hill Heat

On Thursday, September 9, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. EDT via Webex, and livestreamed on the Committee’s YouTube pages, the Committee on Natural Resources will meet to consider the following postponed recorded votes that were requested at the Committee’s most recent business meeting, and to continue its consideration on legislative proposals to comply with the reconciliation directive included in section 2002 of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2022, S. Con. Res.14.

The votes will be on the following Republican amendments:

• Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) amendment designated Boebert #2
• Rep. Lauren Boebert amendment designated Boebert #3
• Rep. Lauren Boebert amendment designated Boebert #4
• Rep. Lauren Boebert amendment designated Boebert #5
• Rep. Jerry L. Carl (R-AL) amendment designated Carl #1
• Rep. Jerry L. Carl amendment designated Carl #2
• Rep. Don Young (R-AK) amendment designated Young #1
• Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) amendment designated Tiffany #1
• Rep. Jenniffer González Colón (R-PR) amendment designated González Colón #1
• Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) amendment designated Moore #1
• Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) amendment designated Moore #2
• Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) amendment designated Moore #3
• Rep. Jenniffer González Colón (R-PR) amendment designated González Colón #2

The committee will then vote on the legislation put forward by the committee chair.

On Thursday, September 2, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. EDT via Cisco Webex and livestreamed on the Committee’s YouTube page, the Committee on Natural Resources will meet to consider legislative proposals to comply with the reconciliation directive included in section 2002 of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2022, S. Con. Res.14.

At the markup, the Committee will decide on provisions in the bill that will raise revenue and protect American taxpayers from unnecessary industry subsidies and giveaways.

The markup is expected to include:

• $3 billion to support the Civilian Climate Corps through the Department of the Interior
• $1 billion for tribal climate resilience and adaptation
• $900 million for national wildfire management
• $500 million for a unique Tribal Civilian Climate Corps
• $225 million for climate resilience and restoration
• $100 million for mitigating climate-induced weather events
• $100 million for tribal wildfire management
• $2.7 billion for overdue Indian water rights settlements
• $2.5 billion to clean up abandoned hardrock mines and redevelop them for productive use
• $2 billion for health facility construction, maintenance, and improvement in Indian Country
• $993 million for hospitals and health infrastructure in U.S. territories
• $500 million for tribal housing improvements

Download the bill text here.

The purpose of the hearing is to examine the role of and programs within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

This hearing will consider the nomination of Dr. Homer L. Wilkes to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment.

Dr. Wilkes was the state conservationist for Mississippi from 1994 to 2010. Since 2010, he has served at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From 2013 to present, he has been the Director of the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Restoration Division at USDA, part of the federal government’s long-term response to 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

• Dr. Homer L. Wilkes, USDA

On Wednesday, August 4, at 10:00 AM ET, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing on three of President Biden’s nominees to key positions at the Environmental Protection Agency.

• Amanda Howe to be Assistant Administrator for Mission Support of the Environmental Protection Agency
• David Uhlmann to be Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Carlton Waterhouse to be Assistant Administrator of Land and Emergency Management of the Environmental Protection Agency

Uhlmann, nominated to be the chief enforcement officer at EPA, served for 17 years as a federal prosecutor, including seven years as chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the U.S. Department of Justice.

At the end of the 2020 election season, Uhlmann wrote of the urgency to enact sweeping climate legislation:

The United States may soon have the chance, for the first time in more than a decade, to enact urgently needed legislation to address global climate change—but only if Democrats don’t repeat the mistakes they made at the start of the Obama administration.

The top corporate-polluter law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth warned that Uhlmann’s nomination “is a very strong signal of how serious” the Biden administration’s intention to “increase environmental enforcement” is, and that “companies should prioritize review of environmental compliance and performance and remain vigilant.”

Waterhouse, a Howard University law school graduate and professor, is an “an international expert on environmental law and environmental justice, as well as reparations and redress for historic injustices.” He served as an EPA lawyer from 1991 to 2000. If confirmed, he will oversee the Superfund and related programs.

Markup of the “Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2022.”

Markup of the “Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2022.”

Markup of the “Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2022.”

The purpose of the hearing is to consider the nominations of:

• Dr. Geraldine Richmond to be Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy
• Cynthia Weiner Stachelberg to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior (Policy, Management, and Budget)
• Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe to be Director of the Office of Science, Department of Energy

Dr. Geri Richmond is a renowned water chemist who has written:

Environmental concerns about adequate clean water resources have increasingly become more global with the recognition that unwanted chemicals in the atmosphere, in our soils and in our surface waters often transport well beyond the national boundaries of origin. As a result, there is a growing international urgency to understand environmental issues that can cross boundaries with climate change, healthy air quality and clean water resources being the most obvious. The focus of the studies in the Richmond Laboratory is to provide fundamental insights into molecular processes that underlie some of the aforementioned global concerns, with a particular focus on understanding environmentally important processes that occur at water surfaces and aqueous-oil boundary layers.

Winnie Stachelberg is a long-time executive at the Center for American Progress. Previously she was the political director for the Human Rights Campaign.

Dr. Asmeret Berhe is a soil biogeochemist who studies climate change. She was born and did undergraduate education in Eritrea before receiving a master’s degree in political ecology from Michigan State and her PhD from UC Berkeley. She is a professor and assistant dean at UC Merced.

The main goal of her research is to understand the effect of changing environmental conditions on vital soil processes, most importantly the cycling and fate of essential elements in the critical zone. She studies soil processes in systems experiencing natural and/or anthropogenic perturbation in order to understand fundamental principles governed by geomorphology, and contemporary modifications introduced by changes in land use and climate.

Markup of the “Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2022.”

The President and The Vice President meet with Governors to discuss ongoing efforts to strengthen wildfire prevention, preparedness and response efforts, and hear firsthand about the ongoing impacts of the 2021 wildfire season, which are growing more severe.

From CNN:

The virtual meeting will last an hour with governors whose states are experiencing wildfires and drought: Govs. Greg Gianforte of Montana, Jay Inslee of Washington, Gavin Newsom of California, Brad Little of Idaho, Kate Brown of Oregon, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.

Biden and Harris will discuss efforts to strengthen wildfire prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response efforts, and will hear how an early and severe wildfire season is impacting residents and land in the states. The group is also expected to discuss funding and investing in wildland firefighters, including increasing pay for federal firefighters who are battling blazes, and extending hiring for temporary firefighters.

The White House on Friday will also announce two new interagency working groups pointed at the impact wildfires and extreme heat. Biden’s National Climate Task force, which is chaired by National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, will announce a Wildfire Resilience Interagency Working Group, and an Extreme Heat Interagency Working Group.

The Wildfire Resilience Interagency Group will be chaired by US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, while the Extreme Heat Interagency Working Group will be chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Dr. Richard Spinrad, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan. There are 82 large fires burning in the West this week. Around 3.4 million acres have been burned in wildfires so far this year.

The Red Road to DC is an online and on-the-ground mobilization happening in July connecting 20 Native-led struggles to protect sacred lands, waters, and wildlife from threats posed by dams, climate change, and extractive industries.

Members of Lummi Nation carved a 25 foot totem pole that is being transported from Washington State to Washington DC, visiting tribal nations and Native communities leading efforts to protect sacred places along the way. The journey ends in Washington, DC, with a totem pole blessing, press conference, exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and delivering the pole to Secretary Deb Haaland at the Department of the Interior.

The House of Tears Carvers and our partners cordially invite you to the culmination of the #RedRoadtoDC Totem Pole Journey in Washington D.C., after thousands of miles traveled visiting dozens of Native-led struggles to protect sacred places. On the 29th, Secretary Deb Haaland will receive the totem pole at a 2pm blessing ceremony on the National Mall, followed by a rally featuring tribal leaders, organizers, and Congressional representatives.

On the 30th, the public is invited to view the totem pole outside the National Museum of the American Indian.

Join us in action, in prayer, or in person to demand:

• The Biden administration must support and uphold Native People’s Free Prior & Informed Consent, as guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• Support the demands and struggles of our frontline partners at each and every journey stop starting June 30.