Hill Heat

Hearing page

Witness:

• Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency

The FY 2024 budget request is $30.2 billion, including $20.3 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund and $4.8 billion for the National Flood Insurance Program.

The FY 2024 Budget includes an increase to create a full-time, dedicated policy and coordination office to lead FEMA’s focus on climate adaptation, impacts, and lead coordination with FEMA program offices, the Federal Interagency, and SLTT partners in support of FEMA’s programs.

Hearing with the title “Spending on Empty: How the Biden Administration’s Unprecedented Spending Increased Risk of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at the Department of Energy.”

Chair Pat Fallon (R-Texas), Ranking Member Cori Bush (D-Mo.)

Fallon: “In one instance, DOE awarded $200 million available under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to a lithium battery company despite the company’s primary operations taking place in China.”

The company mentioned, Microvast, has been the target of Fox News stories.

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security will hold a hearing entitled “American Nuclear Energy Expansion: Powering a Clean and Secure Future.” The hearing will examine issues associated with expanding nuclear energy for power generation and industrial use and for international competition and security, including issues concerning advanced reactor deployment and licensing, industrial infrastructure and fuel supply chains.

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Jess C. Gehin, Ph.D., Associate Laboratory Director, Nuclear Science and Technology, Idaho National Laboratory
• Regis Repko, Senior Vice President, Generation and Transmission Strategy, Duke Energy
• Jeremy Harrell, Board of Directors Chair, U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, and Chief Strategy Officer, ClearPath
• Armond Cohen, Executive Director, Clean Air Task Force

The House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies will hold a hearing entitled, “FY24 Navy and Marine Corps Military Construction and Family Housing Budget Request” on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. (ET), in Room 2362B of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is on the FY24 budget request for Navy and Marine Corps military construction and family housing.

Witnesses:

• Lieutenant General Edward D. Banta, Deputy Commandant, Installations and Logistics, United States Marine Corps
• Meredith Berger, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Energy, Installations, and Environment
• Vice Admiral Ricky Williamson, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Readiness and Logistics, N4, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations

The budget request for military construction for the the Navy and Marine Corps is $6.1 billion, including a $1 billion dry dock at Pearl Harbor raised above expected sea level rise.

This is a hearing of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

Witnesses:

• Admiral Linda L. Fagan, Commandant, United States Coast Guard
• Master Chief Heath B. Jones, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, United States Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard FY2024 budget request is $13.5 billion, including $150 million for a commercial polar icebreaker because “the Arctic is becoming more accessible due to climate change.” This is in addition to the $450 million Polar Operations Research and Development budget.

Hearing page

Witness:

• Gina Raimonda, Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce

The Department of Commerce’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget proposes $12.3 billion in discretionary funding and $4 billion in mandatory funding. $6.8 billion is for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The budget also includes $97 million for NIST’s activities on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. EDT in room 1334 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:

• H.J. Res. 29 (Rep. Mann), Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service relating to “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Lesser Prairie-Chicken; Threatened Status With Section 4(d) Rule for the Northern Distinct Population Segment and Endangered Status for the Southern Distinct Population Segment”;
• H.J. Res. 46 (Rep. Bentz), Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service relating to “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat”.
• H.J. Res. 49 (Rep. Stauber), Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service relating to “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for Northern Long-Eared Bat”; and
• H.R. 1213 (Rep. Grijalva), “Restoring Effective Science-based Conservation Under Environmental laws protecting Whales Act of 2023” or the “RESCUE Whales Act of 2023”.

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

Panel I

• Member witnesses TBA

Panel II

• Gary Frazer, Assistant Director for Ecological Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (H.J. Res. 29, H.J. Res. 46 and H.J. Res. 49);
• Rick Horton, Executive Vice President, Minnesota Forest Industries, Grand Rapids, Minnesota (H.J. Res. 49);
• Fred Flippance, Board President, Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Hines, Oregon (H.J. Res. 46);
• Robert Fischman, Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana (H.J. Res. 29, H.J. Res. 46 and H.J. Res. 49) (Minority witness)
• Don Hineman, Past President, Kansas Livestock Association, Dighton, Kansas (H.J. Res. 29)

Panel III:

• Sam Rauch III, Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Spring, Maryland (H.J. Res. 46 and H.R. 1213);
• Norman Semanko, Chief Counsel, Family Farm Alliance, Boise, Idaho (H.J. Res. 46);
• Dr. Michael J. Moore, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts (H.R. 1213) (Minority witness)
• Curt Brown, Marine Biologist, Ready Seafood, Cape Elizabeth, Maine (H.R. 1213);
• Ginny Olsen, Political Director, Maine Lobstering Union, Stonington, Maine (H.R. 1213)

Hearing examining the implementation of the Great American Outdoors Act and the growing National Park Service deferred maintenance backlog.

Hearing memo

Federal land management agencies’ deferred maintenance backlogs have nearly doubled from roughly $22 billion in 2019 to $38.6 billion in 2022.

Witness:

• Charles F. “Chuck” Sams, Director, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

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

US Forest Service Congressional Budget Justification: $9.7 billion. The 2024 Budget dedicates $323 million toward management for “hazardous fuels reduction”, an increase of $116 million from the 2023 enacted level. The 2024 Budget request for workforce salaries and expenses is $1.42 billion, a $509 million increase above the 2023 enacted level to fund the costs of pay reforms for Federal wildland firefighters and increase Federal firefighting capacity.

The Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee hearing on the U.S. Forest Service took place last month.

Hearing page

Chair Jon Tester (D-Mont.)

• Frank Kendall, Secretary, Air Force
• General Charles Brown, Jr., Chief of Staff, Air Force
• General B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, Air Force

Of the $215.1 billion Air Force budget request, $942 million (0.4%) is seen as mitigating climate risk.

Of the $30 billion Space Force budget request, $6 million (0.02%) is seen as mitigating climate risk