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Wednesday, February 12, Noon local time
CFPB HQ: 1700 G St NW
NYC: 26 Federal Plaza
Atlanta: 401 W. Peachtree St.
Chicago: 230 S. Dearborn St. (1 PM EST)
San Francisco: 301 Howard St. (3 pm EST)
Full committee hearing.
The nominees appearing will be:
Nominees before the committee include:
There will be a markup of the Committee on the Budget on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 10 AM & Thursday, February 13, 2025, 10 AM in Room SH-216 (Day 1) & SD-608 (Day 2) to consider the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025.
From Roll Call:
The plan, to be marked up by the committee Feb. 12 and 13, assumes $342 billion over four years divided between border security, the Pentagon and Coast Guard: $175 billion for the border, $150 billion for defense and $17 billion for the Coast Guard.The new funding would be fully paid-for, but how they do that specifically is up to the authorizing committees charged with drafting the implementing bill. Committees given instructions to come up with the offsets are given low targets — at least $1 billion — to provide them with maximum flexibility. But the expectation is those committees will exceed those targets.
Provisions to expand domestic energy production through making more areas available for oil and gas drilling has long been part of the plan. Graham on Friday also said the budget assumes repeal of the methane emissions fee on oil and gas producers that was enacted as part of the 2022 clean energy reconciliation package.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the methane fee will cost the industry about $6 billion over 10 years, so the Environment and Public Works panel would have to account for that cost in its reconciliation submission due next month.
Graham said the budget assumes the reconciliation package will provide funding to finish a southern border wall and upgrade border security technology, increase the number of detention beds for those who cross the border illegally, and expand staffing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol agents, attorneys who prosecute immigration-related offenses and immigration judges.
The funds provided for defense would go to expanding the Navy and strengthening the industrial base needed to build ships, developing an air and missile defense system and overhauling the nation’s nuclear defense.
The reconciliation instructions direct the following Senate committees to increase or reduce the deficit over 10 years in the following amounts:
- Agriculture: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
- Armed Services: Increase deficit by no more than $150 billion.
- Commerce: Increase deficit by no more than $20 billion.
- Energy and Natural Resources: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
- Environment and Public Works: Increase deficit by no more than $1 billion.
- Finance: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
- Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: Reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
- Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Increase deficit by no more than $175 billion.*
- Judiciary: Increase deficit by no more than $175 billion.* *The two committees share jurisdiction on border and immigration policy and the total figure they will report out combined is $175 billion, not twice that amount.
Although the Senate blueprint is more of a “shell” budget to set the table for the initial reconciliation package, it does make some assumptions about the 10-year spending and revenue trajectory of the federal government.
The blueprint’s tables show an aggressive $11.5 trillion net spending reduction from the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent 10-year baseline. Coupled with $3.7 trillion in revenue losses from an eventual tax cut package, Graham’s resolution targets nearly $8 trillion in lower deficits over a decade.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Nuuk and Cranny: Looking at the Arctic and Greenland’s Geostrategic Importance to U.S. Interests” on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 10:00 am EST. This hearing will examine the strategic significance of Greenland to the American economy and national security, focusing on the island’s cache of rare earth elements and U.S. research presence on the island, as well as the potential threats due to the growing influence of Russia and China in the Arctic.
Cruz:
“Acquiring Greenland would have enormous economic benefits for the United States. The island’s natural resources like rare earth elements would strengthen American supply chains and industries. The island’s strategic location in the Arctic would provide huge advantages in monitoring growing Russian and Chinese bellicosity in the region. I believe this hearing will show the growing geopolitical importance of Greenland and why it is in the U.S.’s best interest to explore potential opportunities for the territory.”
Witnesses:
Full committee hearing. Just before hearing was about to begin, it was rescheduled for February 19th.
Nominee:
Full committee hearing.
Witnesses:
On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. EST, the Committee on Financial Services will hold a hearing in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building titled “The Federal Reserve’s Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report.”
Witness:
The Federal Reserve Act, as amended by the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 (Humphrey-Hawkins Act), requires the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (Federal Reserve) to present semi-annual reports and testimony to Congress. Each report, named the Monetary Policy Report (MPR), contains discussions of the conduct of monetary policy and economic developments and prospects for the future. The MPR includes:
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The hearing, “The Censorship-Industrial Complex,” will examine the Committee’s role in “uncovering the Biden-Harris Administration’s unconstitutional censorship campaign” and will examine upcoming threats to free speech including from AI and foreign governments.
This is a reprise of a similar 2023 hearing on the “Twitter Files”, an Elon Musk-directed attack on the Biden administration using archives from the Twitter databases he acquired with his purchase of the company.
Witness Michael Shellenberger is a notorious climate denier.
Witnesses:
Subcommittee hearing on the Department of Energy national laboratories.
Witnesses:
Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren has sent letters to the heads of the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation requesting answers about the administration’s unconstitutional assault on federal science.
On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. ET in 2247 Rayburn House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency will host a hearing titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud.”
Witnesses:
The Government Accountability Office estimates that since 2003 the federal government has made approximately $2.8 trillion in improper payments.
CRS reports that the error rate for the School Lunch program decreased from 16.3% in FY2004 to 2.4% in FY2023, and the error rate for the Pell Grant program declined from 4.9% in FY2008 to 2.8% in FY2023.
The error rate for FFS decreased from 10.1% in FY2004 to 7.4% in FY2023, and Part C’s error rate decreased from 10.6% in FY2008 to 6.0% in FY2023. Part D’s error rate increased from 3.2% in FY2011 to 3.7% in FY2023.
In FY2004, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program reported an error rate of 6.6%, which steadily declined until it reached 3.8% in FY2011. The error rate remained below 4.0% for five consecutive fiscal years, then grew quickly, reaching 6.8% in FY2019 and 11.6% in FY2023. Similarly, the error rate for the Children’s Health Insurance Program declined from 14.7% in FY2008 to 6.5% in FY2014, and then increased steadily until reaching 15.8% in FY2019.