Vote on nominations of Mine Safety, Labor, and Education Nominees

Business meeting to consider the nominations of

  • Julie Hocker, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy, Department of Labor
  • Wayne Palmer, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health, Department of Labor
  • Henry Mack III, of Florida, to be an Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor
  • Marco Rajkovich, Jr., of Virginia, to be a Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
  • Kirsten Baesler, of North Dakota, to be Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Education
  • Kevin O’Farrell, of Florida, to be Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education, Department of Education
  • Nicholas Kent, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary, Department of Education

Rajkovich previously served as the chairman for FMSHRC during Trump’s first term. Before joining the commission he was a lawyer in Kentucky and worked for the U.S. Steel Mining Company, Inc.

Palmer was principal deputy assistant secretary at MSHA from December 2017 to January 2021 and the agency’s acting head until David Zatezalo’s confirmation in November 2017. Palmer was most recently a senior advisor in the Department of Labor Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
S-216 Capitol

05/22/2025 at 11:45AM

First Street National Risk Report: Climate, the Sixth "C" of Credit

Historically, financial institutions have mandated risk transfer products such as homeowners insurance and, where required, flood insurance, as a protective buffer to avoid credit losses—that buffer has quickly eroded.. Through observed insurance premiums increases and the ever widening coverage gap between FEMA special flood hazard areas and actual disaster locations, lenders are facing a new and urgent financial reality: major weather events and dramatic premium increases are resulting in credit losses and foreclosures.

Join First Street’s climate implications team for a deep dive into the findings of the 13th National Risk Assessment, Climate, the Sixth “C” of Credit, the first national-scale analysis to quantify the connection between flooding, wildfire, and wind—and loan performance. You’ll learn how conventional credit models are missing hidden risk, particularly in areas outside FEMA-designated flood zones, where foreclosure rates are spiking after disasters.

Key finding: in a severe year, weather-driven mortgage foreclosures could lead to $1.2 billion in lender losses, with that number projected to grow to a potential $5.4 billion a year by 2035.

This webinar is essential for financial institutions, investors, insurers, and regulators seeking to understand the evolving credit landscape and apply climate-adjusted risk strategies.

First Street Foundation
05/22/2025 at 11:30AM

A Dire Crisis in Sudan: A Global Call to Action

Subcommittee hearing. Rescheduled from 9 am to 10:30 am.

Witnesses:

  • Ken Isaacs, Vice President, Programs & Government Relations, Samaritan’s Purse
  • Cameron Hudson, Senior Fellow, Africa Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
  • Kholood Khair, Founder and Director, Confluence Advisory
House Foreign Affairs Committee
   Africa Subcommittee
2200 Rayburn

05/22/2025 at 10:30AM

Rally at the Capitol: Stop Clean Energy Bans and Polluter Giveaways!

Over the next few weeks, we’re watching the House closely as Republicans kick off voting on their budget reconciliation bill, which is chock-full of handouts to polluters and billionaires and is on track to be one of the most harmful, costly, and sweeping pieces of legislation in recent history.

On Wednesday, May 21st starting around 4pm we’re rallying at the U.S. Capitol steps to fight back against Republicans’ attempts to pass massive cuts to essential programs to provide handouts to billionaires and polluters. RSVP now.

League of Conservation Voters
Capitol
05/21/2025 at 04:00PM

Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the Department of Energy

Subcommittee hearing.

Chair John Kennedy

Witness:

  • Christopher Wright, Secretary, Department of Energy

Budget request

Department of Energy
Program Name $ Change from 2025 Enacted (in millions) Brief Description of Program and Recommended Reduction or Increase
Cuts, Reductions, and Consolidations
IIJA Cancellation -15,247 The Budget cancels over $15 billion in funds committed to build renewable energy, removing carbon dioxide from the air, and other technologies. The Budget also ends programs for electric vehicle and battery makers and cancels the Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) -2,572 The Budget reorients EERE programs to early-stage research and development programming, eliminating funding for Justice40. This proposal would support technologies that promote fossil-fuel and nuclear power and bioenergy.
Office of Science -1,148 The Budget reduces funding for climate change and renewable energy research. The Budget maintains priority areas such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, fusion, and critical minerals.
Environmental Management (EM) -389 The EM program performs activities at 14 active cleanup sites and operates a geologic disposal facility (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico). The EM topline is being reduced by $389 million, which reflects a reduction of about $178 million for the transfer of responsibility from the EM program to the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Savannah River site in South Carolina, where plutonium pit production capabilities would be developed. The Budget maintains the Hanford site in Washington at the 2025 enacted level but reduces funding for various cleanup activities at other sites.
Advanced Research Project Agency‒ Energy (ARPA-E) -260 The Budget reduces funding for ARPA-E, limiting support to research advancing fossil-fuel technologies and other technologies. Pollution-reducing technologies are not supported.
Office of Nuclear Energy -408 The Budget reduces funding for research on nuclear energy. Funding priorities include innovative concepts for nuclear reactors, researching advanced nuclear fuels, and maintaining the capabilities of the Idaho National Laboratory.
Office of Fossil Energy -270 The Budget restores the name and function of the Office of Fossil Energy to its original purpose, which is funding for the research of technologies that could produce an abundance of domestic fossil energy and critical minerals.
Senate Appropriations Committee
   Energy and Water Development Subcommittee
124 Dirksen

05/21/2025 at 02:30PM

Budget for U.S. Department of State

Subcommittee hearing.

Witness:

  • Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State

Budget request

Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Program Name $ Change from 2025 Enacted (in millions) Brief Description of Program and Recommended Reduction or Increase Enacted
Increases
America First Opportunity (A1OF) Fund +2,900 Support India and Jordan; repatriations; counter China and other near-peer rivals; and fund new activities.
Development Finance Corporation +2,820 The Budget increases the U.S. International DFC. This investment includes $3 billion for a new revolving fund to allow DFC to recycle any realized returns from its initial investments without further appropriation.
Cuts, Reductions, and Consolidations
Economic Support Fund, Development Assistance, Democracy Fund, and Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia -8,326 The Budget eliminates funding for these programs and replaces them with the single A1OF and the DFC. International Disaster Assistance,
Migration and Refugee Assistance, and Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA)—International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA) -3,207 The Budget reduces disaster assistance. The Budget provides $1.5 billion in ERMA for the President to use at his discretion and consolidates accounts into a new $2.5 billion IHA account.
State and USAID Operations -2,462 Consistent with Executive Order 14169, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” the Budget reorganizes USAID into the Department of State.
International Narcotics Control & Law Enforcement (INCLE) -1,160 The majority of INCLE funds go to reforming criminal justice systems in foreign governments, rather than to narcotics enforcement, which is primarily undertaken by: Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Central Intelligence Agency; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and Department of Defense (DOD) elements. The Budget eliminates rule-of-law programs, while providing $125 million to fund programs that support counter-drug, organized crime, and border security missions.
Peacekeeping Missions -1,614 The Budget does not provide funding for United Nations (UN) and other peacekeeping missions.
Assessed and Voluntary Contributions to International Organizations -1,716 The Budget pauses most assessed and all voluntary contributions to UN and other international organizations, including for the UN Regular Budget, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the World Health Organization. This is consistent with Executive Order 14199, “Withdrawing the United States From and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and Reviewing United States Support to All International Organizations.” The President can choose to fund these international organizations out of the A1OF if he chooses.
Educational and Cultural Exchanges -691
Transition Initiatives (TI) -75 TI funds short-term assistance that aims to shape political outcomes in countries. The Budget eliminates the TI account.
Complex Crisis Fund -55 The Complex Crisis Fund is a fund for nation-building projects. The Budget eliminates this account and redirects crisis funding to the IHA and ERMA accounts.
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) -315 The Budget eliminates funding for NED.
Global Health Programs/Family Planning -6,233 The United States is the largest global contributor to programs that provide family planning. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding is preserved for any current beneficiaries.
Food for Peace (Title II) -1,619 The Food for Peace program spends $1.6 billion to ship food overseas.
Contribution to the Global Environmental Facility and Climate Investment Funds -275 The Budget proposes to eliminate contributions to the Global Environment Facility and the Climate Investment Funds.
Contributions to Multilateral Development Banks (African Development Bank, African Development Fund) -555 Consistent with Executive Order 14169, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” the Budget proposes to eliminate contributions to the African Development Fund. The Budget also includes $3.2 billion over three years for the U.S. Government contribution to the International Development Association.
Other Treasury International Reductions -86 The Budget proposes to eliminate several of the Department of the Treasury’s international assistance programs, including the Debt Restructuring account, and contributions to the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.
House Appropriations Committee
   National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee
2359 Rayburn

05/21/2025 at 02:00PM

Subsidizing Data Centers on Federal Lands

On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold an oversight hearing titled “Unleashing a Golden Age: Examining the Use of Federal Lands to Power American Technological Innovation.”

Witnesses:

  • Kyle Hart (minority witness), Mid-Atlantic Program Manager, National Parks Conservation Association
  • Emily Arthun, CEO, American Coal Council
  • Paige Lambermont, Research Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
  • Greg Osuri, Founder and CEO, Akash Network

Foundation for American Innovation brief

House Natural Resources Committee
   Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
1324 Longworth

05/21/2025 at 02:00PM

Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the Department of the Interior

Subcommittee hearing.

Chair Lisa Murkowski

Witness:

  • Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior

Budget request

Cuts, Reductions, and Consolidations
Department of the Interior (DOI)
Program Name $ Change from 2025 Enacted (in millions) Brief Description of Program and Recommended Reduction or Increase
Bureau of Reclamation and the Central Utah Project -609 The Budget provides $1.2 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation and the Central Utah Project.
Operation of the National Park System -900 The Budget would transfer most properties to State-level management. Achieving a $900 million cut to operations would require eliminating funding for roughly 350 park sites, 75 percent of the total.
NPS Historic Preservation Fund -158 The Budget eliminates almost all funding except for projects in partnership with HBCUs.
NPS Construction -73 This reduction complements the Administration’s goals transferring most parks to State and tribal governments.
NPS National Recreation and Preservation -77
Bureau of Indian Affairs Programs that Support Tribal Self-Governance and Tribal Communities -617 The Budget eliminates the Indian Guaranteed Loan program for tribal business development. The Budget also terminates the Indian Land Consolidation Program. In addition, the Budget also reduces funding for programs that directly fund tribal operations such as roads, housing, and social services.
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Public Safety and Justice -107 The Budget cuts the tribal law enforcement program by 20 percent.
Bureau of Indian Education Construction -187 The Budget eliminates funding for construction of tribal schools.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Surveys, Investigations, and Research programs -564 USGS provides science information on natural hazards, ecosystems, water, energy and mineral resources, and mapping of Earth’s features. The Budget eliminates programs that provide grants to universities and crucial climate science initiatives and instead focuses on support for minerals and fossil fuel extraction.
Bureau of Land Management Conservation Programs -198 The Budget proposes deep reductions. The Budget also reduces the Wildlife and Aquatic Habitat Management program.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) State, Tribal, and NGO Conservation Grant Programs -170 The Budget eliminates USFWS grant programs that fund conservation of species managed by States, Tribes, and other nations.
Renewable Energy Programs -80 The Budget proposes to eliminate support for renewable energy deployment.
USFWS Ecological Services -37 USFWS’ Ecological Services program and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Protected Resources are jointly responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Budget consolidates these two programs into a single program housed within DOI with significantly reduced funding.
Federal Wildland Fire Service (consolidation of USDA and DOI Wildland Fire Management programs under a unified agency within DOI) -- Federal wildfire risk mitigation and suppression responsibilities currently are split across five agencies in two departments: the U.S. Forest Service in USDA and BIA, Bureau of Land Management, USFWS, and NPS in DOI. The Budget consolidates the Federal wildland fire responsibilities into a single new Federal Wildland Fire Service at DOI, including transferring USDA’s current wildland fire management responsibilities.
Senate Appropriations Committee
   Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee
124 Dirksen

05/21/2025 at 10:30AM

Nominations of Dudley Hoskins to be Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, and Scott Hutchins, to be Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, both of the Department of Agriculture

Full committee hearing.

Nominees:

  • Dudley Hoskins, of the District of Columbia, to be Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs
  • Scott Hutchins, of Indiana, to be Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics

Hoskins is a Republican staffer for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry. Before serving as chief of staff to USDA’s undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs in Trump’s first term, Hoskins worked as public policy counsel at National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, manager of regulatory policy at CropLife America-RISE, and director of health and regulatory affairs at the American Horse Council.

Dr. Scott Hutchins was the deputy under secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Research, Education and Economics mission area, which is comprised of the Agricultural Research Service, Economic Research Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture during Trump’s first term. Hutchins retired from Corteva AgriScience after almost 32 years, where he held many roles in Program Management, Human Resources, Six Sigma, R&D Portfolio Management and Global Administration.

Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
106 Dirksen

05/21/2025 at 10:30AM

Critical Mineral Supply Chains

Subcommittee hearing entitled “Examining Ways to Enhance Our Critical Mineral Supply Chains.”

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

  • Abigail Hunter, Executive Director, SAFE Center for Critical Minerals Strategy
  • Katie Sweeney, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, National Mining Association
  • Casey Hammond, Principal, Capitol Pillar LLC
  • Alexander Herrgott, President, Permitting Institute
  • David Howell, Director of Strategy, Battery Advocacy for Technology Transformation Coalition (BATT Coalition)
House Energy and Commerce Committee
   Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
2123 Rayburn

05/21/2025 at 10:00AM