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.
Emergency rally to save our weather, protect the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and uphold the Constitution.
Join lawmakers, workers, and advocates outside the Department of Commerce headquarters to defend NOAA!
Obeying the Project 2025 agenda, President Donald Trump plans drastic planned cuts, and Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) lieutenant Nikhil Rajpal has invaded the agency. House Democrats led by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) are demanding answers.
Come out and show your support for federal union employees who are standing up to Trump’s attack on public institutions.
Join AFGE President Kelley, key lawmakers, dynamic labor leaders and fellow union
and coalition family members as we come together and rally to safeguard the civil
service and preserve the rights of workers.
Wear blue and gold.
Time: 12 pm - 1 pm
Location: Upper Senate Park, Constitution Ave. and Delaware Ave. NW, outside of the Russell Senate Office Building
On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 10:15 a.m., in Room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold an oversight hearing titled “Restoring Energy Dominance: The Path to Unleashing American Offshore Energy.”
A business meeting of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will be held on Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 10:00 am in room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.
The purpose of the business meeting is to consider the matters on the attached agenda and short list. These are:
an Original Resolution authorizing expenditures by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for the 119th Congress; and
adoption of assignments of members of the Committee to subcommittees.
The House National Security and Department of State Appropriations Subcommittee (formerly State-Foreign Operations) will hold a hearing entitled “Mexico’s Water Treaty Violations and the Impact on Americans,” to discuss frustrations with the 1944 Water Treaty, under which the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River.
“The panel will focus on Mexico’s looming shortfall on deliveries of flows from the Rio Grande to Texas farmers, which total more than 1.3 million acre-feet ahead of an October deadline.”
Witnesses:
Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas)
Jed Murray, Director of Government Relations, Texas International Produce Association
*. Dale Murden, Grower and President, Texas Citrus Mutual
Jennifer Cervantes Washington Representative, Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust will hold a hearing on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The hearing is entitled “Reining in the Administrative State: Regulatory and Administrative Law Reform.”
Witnesses
Rick Smith, CEO, Axon Enterprise
Magatte Wade, libertarian
Dr. Patrick McLaughlin, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
House Judiciary Committee
the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust Subcommittee
This is a hearing of the subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
Witnesses:
Robert D. Singletary, Executive Director, Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality
Shawn M. LaTourette, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Noah Hanners, Executive Vice President, Nucor Corporation, on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers
Buddy Hasten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, on behalf of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
