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:
Alexander B. Gray, Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs, American Foreign Policy Council
Anthony Marchese, Chairman, Texas Mineral Resources
Dr. Jennifer Mercer, Section Head for the Arctic Sciences Section at the Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation
Dr. Rebecca Pincus, Director of Polar Institute, Wilson Center
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
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.”
Jerome H. Powell, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
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:
Statement on longer-fund goals and monetary policy strategy;
Recent economic and financial developments (domestic, financial, international);
Monetary policy discussion;
Summary of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) member economic projections; and
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:
Matt Taibbi, Twitter Files journalist; author; Founder, Racket News
Michael Shellenberger, Twitter Files journalist; CBR Chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech, University of Austin; Founder, Public News
Rupa Subramanya, Canada-based journalist, The Free Press
Subcommittee hearing on the Department of Energy national laboratories.
Witnesses:
Dr. John Wagner, Director, Idaho National Laboratory
Dr. Thom Mason, Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dr. Paul Kearns, Director, Argonne National Laboratory
Dr. Kimberly Budil, Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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.”
Dawn Royal, Director, United Council on Welfare Fraud
Haywood “Woody” Talcove, Chief Executive Officer, LexisNexis Special Services Inc.
Stewart Whitson, Senior Director of Federal Affairs, Foundation for Government Accountability
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Project on Government Oversight
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.
On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources will meet to consider:
H.R. 231 (Rep. Hageman), “Colorado River Basin System Conservation Extension Act of 2025”;
H.R. 249 (Rep. Pallone), To redesignate certain facilities at Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in honor of Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr.;
H.R. 331 (Rep. Fulcher), To amend the Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act to clarify a provision relating to conveyances for aquifer recharge purposes.
H.R. 618 (Rep. Horsford), To amend the Apex Project, Nevada Land Transfer and Authorization Act of 1989 to include the City of North Las Vegas and the Apex Industrial Park Owners Association, and for other purposes.
H.R. 1001 (Rep. Hageman), To provide for a memorandum of understanding to address the impacts of a certain record of decision on the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund.
H.R. 1044 (Rep. Valadao), To amend Public Law 99-338 with respect to Kaweah Project permits.
H.R. 1110 (Rep. LaMalfa), “Grazing for Wildfire Risk Reduction Act”.
Any proposed amendments should be emailed to Sophia Varnasidis ([email protected]) no later
than 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, 2025. Note that all amendments filed by this time will be given
priority recognition at the meeting. Please email and deliver 70 hard copies of any amendments submitted
after the 12:00 p.m. deadline to 1324 Longworth House Office Building.
The oversight plan includes: “The Committee will also
work with federal agencies and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce
unnecessary spending, make the federal government more efficient, and ensure better stewardship
of taxpayer dollars.”
“To truly enter the 21st Century, the NPS should adopt more market-based
solutions and engage in public-private partnerships to maximize agency resources and enhance
visitor services.”
“On July 24, 2024, a group of U.S.-based non-profits
operating under the ‘Shut It Down for Palestine’ movement staged a violent anti-Israel riot at a
public gathering at Union Station in DC, a National Park Service site. The Committee will
continue to investigate and provide recommendations to improve the public gathering permitting
process for the National Park Service to improves the permitting process, and ensure it is not
abused by organizations that intend to cause violence and destruction. Additionally, the Committee
will continue to expose these organizations’ ties to foreign adversaries like the CCP, Iran, and
Hamas.”
“During the 118th Congress, the Committee investigated potential foreign
influence over domestic environmental and natural resources policies, particularly at DOI,
accomplished through a network of U.S.-based activist non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The Committee will continue identifying NGOs with ties to foreign adversaries such as the CCP
and Iran and prevent foreign influence over domestic natural resources policy.”
S. 298 - Returning SBA to Main Street Act, To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to relocate
30 percent of the employees assigned to headquarters to duty stations outside the Washington metropolitan area
S. 300, Disaster Loan Accountability and Reform Act, to improve accountability in the disaster loan program of the Small Business Administration
S. 371, SBA Disaster Transparency Act, to require certain reports on small business disaster assistance to be published on the website of the Small Business Administration
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Rules for the 119th Congress
Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee
On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., in Room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold an oversight hearing titled “Restoring Multiple Use to Revitalize America’s Public Lands and Rural Communities.”
Eric Clarke, County Attorney, Washington County, St. George, Utah
• Jim D. Neiman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Neiman Enterprises, Hulett, Wyoming
• Tim Canterbury, President, Public Lands Council, Howard, Colorado
• Dan Gibbs, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Denver, Colorado [Minority Witness]
On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued
Executive Order (E.O.) 14008, directing the U.S.
Department of the Interior (DOI), the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Council
on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and other
federal agencies to preserve at least 30 percent of
the country’s lands and waters by 2030.
The BLM’s enabling statute, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976
(FLPMA), requires the agency to manage its 244 million acres of land and more than 700 million
acres of subsurface mineral estate in accordance with multiple use and sustained yield
(commonly referred to as a ‘multiple use mandate’).
On May 9, 2024, the BLM published its final “Conservation and Landscape Health”
Rule (commonly referred to as the “Public Lands Rule”). The rule enables BLM to lease federal parcels under “restoration and mitigation” leases and change certain standards
governing land-use decisions. Moreover, if BLM determines that uses previously authorized
under FLPMA are incompatible with a restoration and mitigation lease, new land-health
standards, or an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), those uses would no longer be
allowed.
President
Biden created or expanded 12 national monuments and restored the boundaries of three others
that Presidents Obama and Clinton had created. This included two national monuments that
President Biden created in California during the last two weeks of his presidency: the 624,000-
acre Chuckwalla National Monument and the 224,000-acre Sáttítla Highlands National
Monument.
In April 2022, President Biden issued E.O. 14072, directing USDA and DOI to define, identify,
and inventory “mature and old growth forests” on public lands and develop policies to protect those forests. The interagency mature and old growth initiative began in July 2022 with
a Federal Register Notice and public comment period, resulting in roughly 4,000 comments and
more than 100,000 signatures on various form letters from across the country. In April 2023,
USFS published an “initial draft” seeking to define and inventory “old-growth and mature
forests” and convened a “Definition Development Team.” The report identified 91 million acres of “old-growth and mature” forested lands on
National Forest System (NFS) lands, comprising 63 percent of all land managed by USFS. USFS published a Notice of Intent to amend all
128 national forest land management plans to provide direction on managing, conserving, and
stewarding old-growth forest conditions. On June 21, 2024, USFS released a Draft Land Management Plan Direction for Old-Growth Forest Conditions Across the National Forest System. USFS announced they were withdrawing the proposed amendment on January 7, 2025.
A selection of bills planned for consideration or already considered this Congress in the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Natural Resources include the following:
H.R. 471 (Rep. Westerman), “Fix Our Forests Act”: Comprehensive, bipartisan legislation to restore forest health, improve resiliency to catastrophic wildfires, and protect communities by expediting environmental analyses and deterring frivolous lawsuits.
H.R. 3397 (Rep. Curtis) (118th), “Western Economic Security Today (WEST) Act of 2024”: Withdraws the proposed Public Lands Rule and prohibits the BLM from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing any substantially similar rule.79
H.R. 5499 (Rep. Miller-Meeks) (118th), “Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act”: Amends the Antiquities Act by requiring congressional approval for the designation of national monuments. If Congress does not approve the designation within six months, the monument cannot be redesignated by the President for 25 years.80
H.R. 6085 (Rep. Hageman) (118th), To prohibit the implementation of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming: Restricts the Secretary of the Interior from finalizing, implementing, administering, or enforcing the RMP and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming.81
H.R. 6547 (Rep. Boebert) (118th), “Colorado Energy Prosperity Act”: Restricts the Secretary of the Interior from finalizing, implementing, administering, or enforcing the Draft RMP or Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the CRVFO and GJFO RMPs.
H.R. 7006 (Rep. Curtis) (118th), To prohibit natural asset companies from entering into any agreement with respect to land in the State of Utah or natural assets on or in such land: Restricts a NAC from entering into any agreement regarding land or natural assets in Utah.