Hill Heat

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, will convene a full committee executive session on Thursday, May 16, 2024, at 10:00 AM EDT to consider the following legislation and nomination:

Agenda:

• S. 275, Rural Broadband Protection Act of 2023
• S. 690, Network Equipment Transparency Act
• S. 1570, Bottles and Breastfeeding Equipment Screening Enhancement Act
• S. 1956, Invent Here, Make Here Act of 2023
• S. 2086, Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance Act of 2023 (Markey)
• S. 2233, Youth Poisoning Protection Act
• S. 2498, Hotel Fees Transparency Act of 2023
• S. 3277, Marine Debris Program Reauthorization (Sullivan, R-Alaska)
• S. 3475, Strengthening the Commercial Driver’s License Information System Act
• S. 3788, National Landslide Preparedness Act Reauthorization Act of 2024 (Murkowski)
• S. 3879, Illegal Red Snapper Enforcement Act (Cruz)
• S. 4207, Spectrum and National Security Act
• S. 4213, The Kids Off Social Media Act
• Nomination of Samuel Slater to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (PN112, PN113)

05/16/2024 at 10:00AM

The purpose of this hearing is to examine the President’s budget request for the U.S. Forest Service for Fiscal Year 2025. The budget request is $8.9 billion; $6.5 billion for base programs and $2.39 billion for the wildfire suppression cap adjustment in the Wildfire Suppression Operations Reserve Fund.

Witnesses:

• Randy Moore, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Accompanied by:

• Mark Lichtenstein, Director of Strategic Planning, Budget & Accountability, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

The request includes:

• $58 million for recreation, heritage and wilderness (+$18M from 2024)
• $33 million for vegetation and watershed management (+$3M from 2024)
• $207 million for hazardous fuels reduction (+$31.55M from 2024)
• $315.6 million for forest and rangeland research (+$15.6M from 2024)
• $25 million to address the urgent need for maintenance of employee housing.

05/16/2024 at 10:00AM

Subcommittee hearing. The President’s FY 2025 budget request to Congress includes $10.183 billion for NSF, an increase of 3.1% over the FY 2023 total budget.

Witnesses:

• Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, National Science Foundation
• Dr. Dan Reed, Former Chair, National Science Board

05/16/2024 at 10:00AM

Subcommittee hearing on the FY2025 budget request for the Department of Commerce. The budget proposes $11.4 billion in discretionary funding and $4 billion in mandatory funding.

Chair Shaheen

Witness:

• Gina M. Raimondo, Secretary, Department of Commerce

The Budget includes $6.6 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), $188 million or 3% more than the FY 2024 Annualized CR. This NOAA Budget prioritizes operations, infrastructure, and continuing initiatives that provide the environmental intelligence necessary to make informed oceans, coastal, fisheries, weather, and climate decisions. The Budget is bolstered by funds previously provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. The Administration continues its commitment to the Nation’s weather and climate satellite enterprise by providing $2.1 billion for the Nation’s weather and climate satellites, $430 million above the FY 2024 Annualized CR level. FY 2025 funding will enable NOAA to maintain all current satellite programs by including $84 million for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites R Series (GOES-R), $342 million for Polar Weather Satellites (PWS), and $40 million for Space Weather Follow On (SWFO). The Budget also continues strategic investments in the next generation of climate, weather, and space weather satellites to continue development of world leading, mission-driven weather satellite programs that will offer new state-of-the-art capabilities to improve forecasting.

The Budget provides $798 million for Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO), $68 million for Low Earth Orbit Weather Satellites, and $237 million for Space Weather Next. The Budget further invests in NOAA’s weather and climate enterprise. Specifically, it funds the National Weather Service (NWS) at $1.4 billion. At this level, the NWS will continue to operate and maintain 122 Weather Forecast Offices (WFO), 13 River Forecast Centers (RFC), 18 Weather Service Offices (WSO), and associated employee housing units, and 9 National Centers. NOAA’s Budget also includes $212 million for NOAA’s climate research programs to support the ongoing work of the National Climate Assessment and continue high-priority long-term observing, monitoring, researching, and modeling activities.

The Budget also includes an additional $10 million for Mitchell Act Hatcheries in the Columbia River Basin, complementing the resources previously provided in the Inflation Reduction Act. These additional funds are part of the Administration’s commitment to prioritize the restoration of healthy and abundant wild salmon, steelhead, and other native fish populations to the Columbia River Basin, and honor the United States’ obligations to tribal nations. The Budget also invests in expanding offshore energy while conserving and protecting high-priority natural resources.

The Budget provides NOAA $53 million to expand offshore wind permitting, a $31 million increase above the FY 2024 Annualized CR. This funding will enable NOAA to use the best available science to help support the goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore energy by 2030 while protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable ocean co-use. It also provides $86 million, a $18.2 million increase above the FY 2024 Annualized CR, to support National Marine Sanctuaries and Marine Protected Areas as part of the Administration’s America the Beautiful initiative, which aims to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. With this funding NOAA will expand critical conservation work and support the designation process for additional sanctuaries.

Additionally, the Budget provides the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) a net increase of $71 million above the 2024 Annualized CR. These include increases across Marine Operations and Maintenance, Aviation Operations and Aircraft Services, and NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, to support expanded marine and aviation operations to support increased efforts to collect high quality data, enhance public safety, and improve understanding of climate-induced impacts on communities and ecosystems. OMAO’s budget also includes $21 million, an increase of $17 million above the FY 2024 Annualized CR, to finalize a second specialized high-altitude G-550 Hurricane Hunter to meet national needs.

05/15/2024 at 02:30PM

Subcommittee hearing. $11.8 billion budget request.

Witness:

• David Pekoske, Administrator, Transportation Security Administration

05/15/2024 at 02:30PM

Subcommittee hearing.

Chair Coons

Witnesses:

• Scott Nathan, Chief Executive Officer, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation
• Reta Jo Lewis, President and Chair, Export-Import Bank of the United States
• Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer, Millennium Challenge Corporation

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation requests $1 billion. In FY2023, DFC committed $3.7 billion for climate financing.

EXIM requests $130.1 million for administrative resources plus $15.0 million in program budget. The EXIM FY 2025 Budget Request will support an estimated $11.3 billion in new authorizations. EXIM requests an exemption from its default rate calculation for defaults on the development of nuclear power projects and for the entire China and Transformational Export Products program, which includes renewable energy, storage, and efficiency.

EXIM currently has more than $1.6 billion in clean energy and climate infrastructure projects in the FY 2024 pipeline. The updated climate change mitigation project classes now include projects related to energy storage, grid efficiency, battery production and recycling, clean hydrogen and ammonia production and storage, low emission manufacturing, zero and low emission transport, and clean energy minerals and ores.

MCC’s FY 2025 budget proposal to Congress includes $937 million in discretionary funding. From promoting conservation activities in Mozambique or delivering low-carbon economic development models in Kosovo, to supporting countries’ efficient energy transition by expanding renewable energy in Indonesia, MCC helps many of the world’s most vulnerable communities address the impacts of climate change in alignment with its climate strategy.

05/15/2024 at 02:00PM

Subcommittee hearing on the $7.9 billion foreign operations budget request for Africa.

Witnesses:

• Molly Phee, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Department of State
• Monde Muyangwa, Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development

05/15/2024 at 02:00PM

On Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 10:15 a.m., in Room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold an oversight hearing titled “Examining the President’s FY 2025 Budget Request for the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.” The BLM budget request is $1.56 billion and the NPS discretionary budget request is $3.58 billion.

The FY 2025 BLM budget request proposes $53.1 million for the Renewable Energy Management program to support siting, leasing, processing rights-of-way applications, and oversight of renewable energy projects and transmission lines on BLM-managed public lands. In addition, the request for the BLM includes $2.1 million in Deferred Maintenance and CapitalImprovements for Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs)to support vehicle fleet lifecycle replacement, fleetrequirements analysis, charging infrastructure planning and deployment, and fleet capabilities assessments.

05/15/2024 at 10:15AM

Subcommittee hearing. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Budget provides $7.2 billion for the Civil Works program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The fiscal year 2025 proposal for the Bureau of Reclamation is $1.6 billion.

Chair Patty Murray

Witnesses:

• Michael L. Connor, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works
• Lieutenant General Scott A. Spellmon, Chief Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Camille Calimlim Touton, Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation

Civil Works FY 2025 budget justification information

The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 for the Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program reflects the administration’s priorities to grow the nation’s economy, decrease climate risk for communities, increase ecosystem resilience to climate change, and promote environmental justice in disadvantaged communities in line with Justice40.

In developing the Budget, consideration was given to advancing three key objectives: 1) decreasing climate risk for communities and increasing ecosystem resilience to climate change based on the best available science; 2) promoting environmental justice in underserved and marginalized communities and Tribal nations in line with the Justice40 Initiative and creating good paying jobs that provide the free and fair chance to join a union and collectively bargain; and 3) strengthening the supply chain. The FY 2025 Budget investments will work to confront climate change by reducing flood risk, restoring ecosystems, and promoting community resilience across the nation. The Corps is working to integrate climate preparedness and climate resilience planning in all of its activities, such as by helping communities reduce their potential vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change and variability.

The climate crisis is challenging Reclamation’s ability to both produce energy and sustain reliable water delivery. The Nation faces undeniable realities that water supplies for agriculture, fisheries, ecosystems, industry, cities, and energy are confronting stability challenges due to climate change. Reclamation’s projects address the Administration’s conservation and climate resilience priorities through funding requests for the WaterSMART program, funding to secure water supply to wildlife refuges, and proactive efforts through providing sound climate science, research and development, and clean energy. To address these challenges, Reclamation has implemented its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, which affirms Reclamation will use leading science and engineering to adapt climate-based situations across the West.

Reclamation’s FY 2025 budget for Research and Development (R&D) programs includes $22.6 million for the Science and Technology Program, and $7.0 million for Desalination and Water Purification Research—both of which focus on Reclamation’s mission of water and power deliveries. Climate change adaptation is a focus of Reclamation’s R&D programs, which invests in the production of climate change science, information and tools that benefit adaptation, and by yielding climate-resilient solutions to benefit management of water infrastructure, hydropower, environmental compliance, and water management.

Reclamation owns 77 hydroelectric power plants. Reclamation operates 53 of those plants to generate approximately 14 percent of the hydroelectric power produced in the United States. Each year on average, Reclamation generates approximately 40 million megawatt hours of electricity and collects over $1.0 billion in gross power revenues for the Federal Government. Reclamation’s FY 2025 budget request includes $4.5 million to increase Reclamation hydropower capabilities and value, contributing to Administration clean energy and climate change initiatives and enhancing water conservation and climate resilience within the power program. Reclamation’s Power Resources Office oversees power operations and maintenance, electric reliability compliance, and strategic energy initiatives.

05/15/2024 at 10:00AM

Full committee hearing.

Witnesses:

• Dennis V. McGinn, VADM USN Ret., Former Assistant Secretary Of The Navy For Energy, Installations, And Environment, And Former Deputy Chief Of Naval Operations For Warfare Requirements And Programs
• Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., RDML USN Ret., Former Oceanographer Of The Navy, And Former Assistant Secretary Of Commerce For Oceans And Atmosphere
• Erin Sikorsky, Director, The Center for Climate and Security, And The International Military Council On Climate and Security
• Rick Dwyer, Executive Director, Hampton Roads Military And Federal Facilities Alliance
• Mackenzie Eaglen, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute [Republican witness]

05/15/2024 at 10:00AM