On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, 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 a legislative
hearing
on the following bill:
Matthew Strickler, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife
and Parks, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
Austin Booth, Director, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little
Rock, Arkansas
Ryan Bronson, Director of Government Affairs, Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation, Missoula, Montana
David P. Tenny, President and CEO, National
Alliance of Forest Owners
Glenn Olson, Donal O’Brien Chair in Bird Conservation and Public
Policy National Audubon Society, National Audubon Society, New York,
New York [Minority Witness]
In 2000, Congress also created the State Wildlife Grant Program to
provide critical funding to state and territory fish and wildlife
agencies to implement their SWAPs to conserve at-risk fish and wildlife.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, states received a total of $67.6 million
through this grant program. The formula used for apportionment to each
state is one-third based on the total land area of the state and
two-thirds based on the population of each state.
The AWHCA replaces the existing State Wildlife
Grants Program by creating a Wildlife Habitat Conservation and
Restoration subaccount under the Pittman-Roberston Act. This grant
program would be authorized at no more than $300 million per fiscal year
for five years. Funding would be apportioned to states based on a new
formula: one-half based on the land area of the state, one-quarter based
on the state’s population, and one-quarter based on the number of
species listed under the ESA within that
state. This change to the existing formula will allow for funding to get
to the places where it is needed most.
The bill prohibits the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries
Service (the Services) from designating critical habitat on private
lands that are implementing habitat conservation and restoration actions
designed to conserve the species in question and approved by the
Services.
The bill amends the definition of “conserve,” “conserving,” and
“conservation” to allow for the regulated take of threatened species.
Currently, the definition only allows for regulated take “in the
extraordinary case where population pressures within a given ecosystem
cannot be otherwise relieved.” This standard has been interpreted by
federal courts to mostly prohibit any regulated take of threatened
species. This section amends the definition to allow for regulated take
“at the discretion of the Secretary,” therefore granting additional
flexibility to the Services.
The purpose of this
hearing
is to assess the United States’ leadership in weather forecasting and
modeling. The hearing will discuss the impacts of the Weather Act of
2017 and the Weather Act Reauthorization of 2023 in bolstering U.S.
competitiveness in the global weather community. This hearing will also
discuss the coordination and collaboration of government agencies, the
private sector, and academia to implement programs that advance new
technologies related to data assimilation and modeling.
Dina Esposito, Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Resilience,
Environment, and Food Security, United States Agency for International
Development
Dr. Cary Fowler, Special Envoy for Global Food Security, United States
Department of State
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation, will convene a full committee
hearing titled “National Transportation Safety Board Investigations
Report” with testimony from NTSB Chair
Jennifer Homendy on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 10:00
AM EST.
TIME AND DATE: Notice is hereby given,
pursuant to the provisions of the Government in the Sunshine Act, Pub.
L. 94-409, that the Securities and Exchange Commission will hold an
Open
Meeting
on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 9:45 a.m.
PLACE: The meeting will be
webcast
on the Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.
STATUS: This meeting will begin at 9:45 a.m.
(ET) and will be open to the public via
webcast
on the Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.
MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:
The Commission will consider whether to adopt amendments to the
national market system (NMS) stock order execution disclosure
requirements of Regulation NMS under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that would expand the scope of
entities subject to Rule 605, modify the categorization and content of
order information reported under the rule, and require reporting
entities to produce a summary report of execution quality.
The Commission will consider whether to adopt rules to require
registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their
registration statements and annual reports.
Join Axios for an
event in Washington, D.C., convening policy and business leaders to talk
about the real impact the IRA has on clean
energy industry growth and how it will influence future investment.
Axios senior climate reporter Andrew Freedman, energy reporter Ben
Geman, and Axios Pro energy and climate reporter Nick Sobczyk will host
one-on-one conversations with:
Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy
Mike Levin, Representative, California’s 49th Congressional District,
Member, House Veterans’ Affairs, Natural Resources Committees
John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International
Climate Policy
Axios will host a View from the Top segment with:
Dawn Lippert, CEO, Elemental Excelerator &
Founding Partner, Earthshot Ventures
It’s a People’s House Party! Join
People’s Action, SURJ and Seed The Vote to
hear what you can do to elect and defend progressive leaders up and down
the ballot in 2024, with grassroots leaders from Minnesota,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and more, Sulma Arias and Marta
Popadiak from People’s Action, U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Juanita
Lewis from Community Voices Heard, and more special guests.
Join us as People’s Action,
SURJ, Seed the Vote, and champions like U.S.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman launch the next phase of our fight to elect working
class champions and block the assault on our movement led by
AIPAC and other right-wing corporate donors.
If you’re ready for a real democracy led by poor and working class
people and which answers to all of us, not just the very wealthy, the
most important thing you can do next week is join our event and find out
how you can get in the fight.
Join The Hill & American Conservation Coalition for their inaugural
partnership
program, looking
at young conservative and progressive environmental youth leaders. We
will conduct a deep-dive conversation discussing environmental justice,
nuclear energy, permitting reform, green jobs, and natural climate
solutions.
