On Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at 10:15 a.m. in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold an oversight hearing titled “Bureaucratic Delays and the Costs to Ratepayers and Electric Power Systems.”
Ralph Armstrong, Senior Assistant Business Manager, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, Vacaville, CA
Jim Anderson, CEO and General Manager, Midstate Electric Cooperative, La Pine, OR (member company of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association)
Jason Bowling, CEO, Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, Inc., Sierra Vista, AZ (member company of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association)
Mason Baker, CEO and General Manager, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, Salt Lake City, UT (member company of the American Public Power Association)
Randy S. Howard, General Manager, Northern California Power Agency, Roseville, CA (member company of the American Public Power Association)
Jesse Murray, Senior Vice President of Energy Delivery, NV Energy, Reno, NV
Dr. Carolyn Mahan, Professor, Biology and Environmental Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, PA; Member, Right-of-Way Stewardship Council [Minority Witness]
Christina Hayes, Executive Director, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, Washington, DC [Minority Witness]
Title II of the “Fix Our Forests” Act strengthens existing expedited authorities for electricity rights-of-ways by allowing hazard tree removal within 150 feet of power lines, rather than the current 10-foot limit. The legislation also requires automatic approval, after 120 days, of vegetation management plans
submitted by electric utilities, while section 204 establishes a new categorical exclusion for the
approval of vegetation management plans and routine activities carried out consistent with such
plans. Additionally, FOFA authorizes USFS to approve hazard tree removal for maintenance
purposes near power lines without requiring a separate timber sale.
The Subcommittee on Environment will hold a hearing on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at
10:15 a.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “From Source
to Tap: A Hearing to Examine Challenges and Opportunities for Safe, Reliable, and Affordable
Drinking Water.”
Eric Hill, General Manager, Russellville Water & Sewer Board, Russellville, Ala., on behalf of the National Rural Water Association;
Nicole Murley, Deputy Inspector General performing the duties of the Inspector General, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
Lindsey Rechtin, CPA, President & CEO, Northern Kentucky Water District, on behalf of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies
Erik Olson, Senior Strategic Director for Health & Food, Natural Resources Defense Council
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), signed into law on December 16, 1974, by
President Ford, is the main federal law regulating drinking water and protecting drinking water
sources. The law directs the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
to establish national primary drinking water regulations to protect public health and to administer
federal funding mechanisms for drinking water infrastructure. This authority includes regulating
contaminants that pose health risks in public water systems and establishing the Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).
The SDWA applies to Public Water Systems (PWS), defined as systems that provide
water for human consumption to the public through pipes or other constructed conveyances. A
system qualifies as a PWS if it has at least 15 service connections or regularly serves at least 25
individuals. Systems below this threshold, including individual private drinking water wells, are
not covered by the SDWA and instead are regulated at the state and local level. Today there are
approximately 150,000 public water systems nationwide that provide drinking water service to a
vast majority of the U.S. According to the EPA’s Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey
and Assessment, public water systems nationwide face substantial challenges in replacing aging
pipes, modernizing treatment facilities, improving storage, and enhancing system resilience.
The recent Potomac Interceptor sewage spill has underscored the broader deterioration of
aging water and wastewater infrastructure nationwide. The incident resulted in the release of
hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac River, a primary source of
drinking water for communities across Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. This sewer
break raises concerns about downstream contamination and how untreated sewage can impact
sources for drinking water.
Subcommittee hearing titled “Powering America’s AI Future: Assessing Policy Options to Increase Data Center Infrastructure.” This hearing will examine the structure, implementation, and oversight of federal permitting frameworks governing the development of energy and data center infrastructure that support artificial intelligence (AI).
Paige Lambermont, Research Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Marsden Hanna, Head of Energy and Sustainability Policy, Global Affairs Team, Google, LLC
Dr. Eric Masanet, Professor and Mellichamp Chair in Sustainability Science for Emerging Technologies, Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UC Santa Barbara
H.R. 4626, formerly the ‘‘Don’t Mess With My Home Appliances Act,’’ will
raise electricity costs. The bill amends the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) to add burdensome, duplicative, and contradictory procedures to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) processes for issuing energy efficiency standards. It also
gives future administrations the ability to revoke existing standards, potentially violating the statute’s anti-backsliding provisions. The bill
would also prohibit the banning of a product based on a type of fuel
and ban DOE from factoring in social costs of greenhouse gas emissions in its determination. H.R. 4626 was amended in the Subcommittee Markup to further
weaken energy efficiency standards. Language was added to the
bill to extend compliance dates for all products, delaying cost savings for consumers. Moreover, additional cumbersome considerations were included for DOE to examine when issuing efficiency
standards.
H.R. 4758, the
Homeowner Energy Freedom Act, repeals three programs created
by the Inflation Reduction Act: the High-Efficiency Electric Home
Rebate Program, the State-Based Home Energy Efficiency Contractor Training Grants, and Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code Adoption. The bill also rescinds all unobligated
funds for the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program and
Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code adoption.
Dr. Wesley Brooks, of Florida, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
Jeremy Carl, of Montana, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (International Organizations)
Billy Long, of Missouri, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iceland
Robert Sweeney, of Texas, to be United States Director of the Asian Development Bank, with the Rank of Ambassador
Brooks has been the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory & Scientific Affairs, Office of Water, EPA since May 2025. He was the Director of Federal Affairs for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (2020-2021) and then the Chief Resilience Officer, in charge of programs to respond to sea level rise, (Nov. 2021-May 2025) under Gov. Ron DeSantis. Previously, he was a staffer for a series of Florida Republicans, first for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (2013-2017, then Rep. Brian Mast (2017), then Sen. Marco Rubio (2017-2020). He first joined Ros-Lehtinen’s staff as a congressional fellow funded by Shell. He received a Ph.D. in 2013 from Rutgers University in ecological science. His academic work has included assessments of ecosystem damage caused by climate change, invasive plants, invasive fish, and citizen-science initiatives.
In his testimony, Brooks advocated for deep-sea mining and protecting the U.S. plastics industry from global regulation.
Billy Long is an auctioneer and former Republican congressman who had a brief and ignominious tenure as IRS Commissioner from June 16, 2025 to August 8, 2025.
Robert Sweeney was the CEO of Mission National Bank and is an executive with Texas-based Accelex Resources. He is an advocate of geothermal energy and modular nuclear reactors.
The purpose of this hearing is to examine the current state of U.S. surface transportation research
and to better understand the research and development issues relevant to authorizing surface
transportation programs. The hearing will explore the breadth of existing surface transportation
research efforts. Reviewing the scope of this work will help inform future legislative actions the
Committee may consider to advance surface transportation innovation
Location: 2318 Rayburn House Office Building
Subcommittee: Subcommittee on Research and Technology
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at U.S. Department of Transportation former Director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, The Heritage Foundation
Greg Winfree, Agency Director, Texas A&M Transportation Institute
Dr. Henry Liu, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation, Mcity and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)
A Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology hearing entitled “Surveying the Threat of Agroterrorism, Part II: Assessing Federal Government Efforts.”
Witnesses:
Suzette Kelly, Acting Executive Director, Agriculture Programs and Trade Liaison, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Matt Allen, Director, Office of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Jeff Cooper, Program Manager, Probabilistic Analysis for National Threats Hazards and Risks, Science and Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Dr. Ashley Grant, Senior Health Security and Biodefense Advisor, Office of Health Security, U.S. Department of Homeland Security