Climate science, policy, politics, and action
Full committee hearing. Just before hearing was about to begin, it was rescheduled for February 19th.
Nominee:
Full committee hearing.
Witnesses:
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.”
Witness:
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:
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:
Subcommittee hearing on the Department of Energy national laboratories.
Witnesses:
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.”
Witnesses:
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:
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.”
Full committee business meeting.
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.”
Witnesses:
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:
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.
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