Climate science, policy, politics, and action
Business meeting to consider the nomination of:
Kashyap “Kash” Patel, to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Vote: 12-10 on party lines to favorably report Patel.
A full committee hearing entitled “The USAID Betrayal.” Brian J. Mast (R-Fla.), Chairman
Witnesses:
Educators, parents, community leaders, and elected officials are coming together to stand up for students and public schools. The push to dismantle the Department of Education isn’t just politics—it’s a direct attack on students’ futures. If successful, it will mean overcrowded classrooms, fewer resources for vulnerable students, cuts to services for students with disabilities, the loss of job training programs, higher costs for college, and weakened civil rights protections.
We refuse to stay silent. As Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearings approach, join us Wednesday, February 12, at 4:00 PM on the Capitol Grounds (corner of Independence Ave SE & First Street SE) to make our voices heard.
Every student deserves the resources to succeed. Be there, dress warmly, and stand with us in this fight for our schools.
A full committee oversight hearing.
The Trump’s administration’s unconstitutional funding freeze is disrupting “funding streams through multiple federal agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Native American Programs.”
The federal government provided $32.6 billion in direct funding last year to federally recognized tribes through various programs and agencies.
Among the programs frozen by the Trump administration are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s tribal assistance programs and grants for Tribal Historic Preservation Offices.
As the freeze was enacted, Gov. Doug Burgum (R-N.D.) was confirmed overwhelmingly by the U.S. Senate on January 30th by a vote of 80-17.
The Democrats who joined the Republicans were Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Bennet and Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cantwell (D-Wash.), Cortez Masto and Rosen (D-Nev.), Durbin (D-Ill.), Gallego and Kelly (D-Ariz.), Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Hassan and Shaheen (D-N.H.), Heinrich and Lujan (D-N.M.), Kaine and Warner (D-Va.), King (I-Maine), Klobuchar and Smith (D-Minn.), Padilla (D-Calif.), Schatz (D-Hawaii), Slotkin (D-Mich.), Warnock (D-Ga.), Welch (D-Vt.), and Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Stand up for CFPB workers who were illegally fired.
Save Our CFPB
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: