Hill Heat

Hearing to review President’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget request for the Army.

Chair Jon Tester (D-Mont.)

Witnesses:

• Christine Wormuth, Secretary, United States Army
• General James C. McConville, Chief of Staff, United States Army

The FY2024 Army budget request is $185.5 billion, of which $1.4 billion (0.7%) is climate-related.

Hearing on international conservation programs.

Chair Chris Coons (D-Del.)

Witnesses:

• Gillian Caldwell, Chief Climate Officer and Deputy Assistant Administrator, United States Agency for International Development
• Kaddu Sebunya, President and Chief Executive Officer, African Wildlife Foundation
• Dr. Andrew Steer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bezos Earth Fund

Budget request for USAID: $2.3 billion

• $1.9 billion for operating expenses, including $183 million for the Global Development Partnership Initiative
• $0.3 billion for the USAID Capital Investment Fund

The Committee on Banking will meet in open session to conduct a hearing on “Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program: Improving Community Resilience.”

Chairman Sherrod Brown (D, Ohio) and Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-S.C.)

Witnesses:

• Dr. Carolyn Kousky, Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy, Environmental Defense Fund
• Roy Wright, President & CEO, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
• Patty Hernandez, Executive Director, Headwaters Economics

The purpose of this hearing is to examine the President’s budget request for the U.S. Department of the Interior for Fiscal Year 2024.

Witnesses:

• Deb Haaland, Secretary, Department of the Interior
• Tommy Beaudreau, Deputy Secretary, Department of the Interior
• Denise Flanagan, Budget Director, Department of the Interior

The Department’s 2024 budget totals $18.9 billion in current authority ($18.3 billion in net discretionary authority)—an increase of $2.0 billion, or 12 percent, from the 2023 enacted budget.

The budget for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management provides $72.3 million for conventional energy programs to support OCS planning, leasing, and oversight.

The 2024 budget for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement includes $217.1 million for conventional energy programs to support OCS permit application reviews, regulation and standard development for offshore activities, verification and enforcement of operator compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations, technical reviews of planned operations and emerging technologies to properly identify and mitigate risks, a robust inspection program employing an annual inspection strategy that includes risk-based inspections, and incident investigations. BSEE’s budget also includes $30.0 million to fund the decommissioning of orphaned offshore oil and gas infrastructure.

The 2024 budget includes $123.5 million for the Bureau of Land Management’s Oil and Gas Management program, an increase of $10.6 million from the 2023 enacted amount. The BLM budget also includes $51.0 million for Oil and Gas Inspection Activities and proposes to offset the cost of this program through the establishment of onshore inspection fees.

The 2024 BOEM budget includes $6.6 million in Conventional Energy and $2.3 million in Environmental Programs to establish a dedicated team, train existing staff, hire additional specialized experts, and fund environmental studies, scientific research, data collection, and other activities critical to the establishment and implementation of the new program. The 2024 BSEE budget includes $1.5 million to prepare for regulating and overseeing safe and effective offshore carbon sequestration activities. The budget includes $3.4 million to start an onshore carbon sequestration program in BLM.

Subcommittee hearing on producer perspectives on the farm safety net.

Witnesses:

Panel 1

• Zippy Duvall, President, American Farm Bureau Federation
• Rob Larew, President, National Farmers Union

Panel 2

• Greg Ackerman, Past Chair of the Michigan Bean Commission; Delegate to the U.S. Dry Bean Council
• Kody Carson, Past Chairman, National Sorghum Producers
• Brent Cheyne, President, National Association of Wheat Growers
• Blake Gendebien, Vice Chair, Agrimark Family Dairy Farms Co-op, Testifying on behalf of the National Milk Producers Federation
• Rich Hillman, Farmer, Hillman Farms, Testifying on behalf of USA Rice Federation
• Patrick Johnson, Producer and Director, National Cotton Council
• Caleb Ragland, Secretary, American Soybean Association
• Neil Rockstad, Vice President, American Sugarbeet Growers Association
• Karla Baker Thompson, Vice President, J.E.T. Farms and Georgia Integrity Farmers, Testifying on behalf of the U.S. Peanut Federation
• Harold Wolle, First Vice President, National Corn Growers Association

We will blockade the White House Correspondents Dinner to demand an end to fossil fuel extraction on public lands.

We recommend that you plan to arrive in DC before 4 p.m. on 4/29 to ensure you receive direct action training day-of-action and are fully prepared. However, we’d love for you to arrive the day before, 4/28, and attend our in-person trainings! Exact program timing will be announced closer to the day of action (sign up for our mailing list).

The White House Correspondents Dinner will take place the evening of April 29th at the Washington Hilton. The Hilton is located near Dupont Circle at 1919 Connecticut Ave NW. We will meet at a separate location before converging on the WHCD, tba. You will receive an update with our training locations closer to the day-of-action as long as you have signed up to take action with us.

You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at @climatedefiance.

Oversight hearing on tribal perspectives on housing and transportation.

Witnesses:

• Gary Bohnee, Special Assistant, Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
• Barbara Little Owl, Executive Director, Standing Rock Housing Authority
• Tonya Plummer, Director of Native American Housing Programs, Enterprise
• Leo Sisco, Chairman, Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi-Yokut Tribe
• Russell Sossamon, Executive Director, Comanche Nation Housing Authority
• Alex Wesaw, Treasurer, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians

Hearing on the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Witness:

• David Maurstad, Assistant Administrator, Federal Insurance Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Hearing memo

Floods are the most common, most expensive, and most deadly natural disaster that communities across the United States experience. Reports reveal approximately 90 percent of all U.S. natural disasters also involve flooding from any number of sources, including inland flooding, flash floods, and flooding from seasonal storms.

While such events have long been a concern, recent experiences have shown that flooding has become both more frequent and severe. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) 50+ year old National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is by far the nation’s leading provider of flood insurance coverage, has experienced two of its top five, four of its top ten, and ten of its top 20 costliest flood events all in the last decade alone.

Previously, the NFIP dealt with only two $1+ billion flood events prior to its most costly flood, which was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since then, the NFIP has experienced eight $1+ billion flood events.

The NFIP’s last formal 5-year reauthorization expired at the end of September 2017. Since then, the NFIP has been subject to three brief lapses and 25 short-term extensions, nearly all of which have been enacted as a part of the congressional appropriations process and not through legislation initiated by the Financial Services Committee.

The committee holds a hearing to receive testimony from the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps on the Department of the Navy’s budget request for fiscal year 2024.

Witnesses:

• Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy, U.S. Department of the Navy
• Admiral Michael M. Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Department of the Navy
• General David H. Berger, Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps

The FY2024 Navy budget request is $255.8 billion, of which $1.5 billion (0.7%) is climate-related.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) presents findings of the new report from the Mindaroo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Public Health.

Please join for a briefing to review the findings of the new report on the impacts of plastics on human health. The authors of the report will describe the health and environmental implications of plastic at every stage of its lifecycle, including recommendations for the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty.

Thursday, April 27th, 2:00pm ET 406 Dirksen Senate Office Building

RSVP