Hill Heat

Hearing entitled ““Strategic Trajectories: Assessing China’s Space Rise and the Risks to U.S. Leadership.” The purpose of the hearing is to examine the progress of the People’s Republic of China in achieving its goal of becoming a dominant space power. It will outline China’s objectives for its national space programs, both in terms of completing space missions and in advancing its geopolitical influence. The hearing will evaluate China’s space strategy, including the benefits of a consistent political direction, sustained funding, and its military-civil fusion approach. Finally, it will highlight the risks of ceding leadership in space exploration to China, with a particular focus on the Moon, as well as the broader economic, geopolitical, and national security consequences of China attaining preeminence in space.

Hearing charter

Witnesses:

• Dean Cheng, Senior Fellow, The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
• Clayton Swope, Deputy Director, Aerospace Security Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Dr. Patrick Besha, Founder, Global Space Group
• Dr. Michael D. Griffin, Co-President, LogiQ, Inc.

12/04/2025 at 09:00AM

At this pivotal moment in American history, climate journalism is more essential than ever. As we face unprecedented environmental and political challenges—when First Amendment freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law are under severe threat—strong, fact-based reporting has never mattered more.

This discussion brings together leading voices in environmental reporting and activism to examine how journalists can deepen public understanding, hold power to account, and inspire meaningful climate action.

Moderator

• Kyle Pope, Covering Climate Now

Panelists:

• Bill McKibben, environmentalist, author, co-founder of Third Act
• Sammy Roth, Climate-Colored Goggles
• Adam Mahoney, climate/environment reporter, Capital B
• Amy Westervelt, investigative climate reporter

RSVP

12/03/2025 at 08:00PM

On Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold an oversight hearing titled “Unleashing American Energy Dominance and Exploring New Frontiers.”

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Daniel Donahue, Head of Growth, Terra AI, San Francisco, CA
• Mahesh Konduru, Chief Executive Officer, Momentum Technologies, Carrollton, TX
• Nicholas Lugansky, Head of Mining, SLB New Energy, Houston, TX
• Walter G. Copan, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO [Minority witness]

12/03/2025 at 02:00PM

On Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold an oversight hearing titled “Sea Lion Predation in the Pacific Northwest.”

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

Panel I

• Sam Rauch, Deputy Assistant Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service

Panel II

• Ken Choke, Chairman, Nisqually Indian Tribe
• Aja DeCoteau, Executive Director, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
• Ed Johnstone, Chairman, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

The Secretary of Commerce was authorized in 2018 to issue permits to certain Tribes and the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to lethally take sea lions within the Columbia River and its tributaries.

12/03/2025 at 10:00AM

On Wednesday, December 3, at 10:00 a.m., U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, will hold a hearing on the nominations of

• Lee Beaman to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Douglas Weaver to be a Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Beaman is a Nashville auto executive, Republican mega-donor, and the subject of sexual misconduct allegations. He has no professional experience in nuclear oversight, utility planning, or grid operations. He is the former CEO of Beaman Automotive Group, a chain of car dealerships he sold in 2020. He operates Beaman Ventures, a private investment firm, and serves on the board of Belmont University, a private Christian college in Nashville. He is also a member of the Council for National Policy, a secretive, invitation-only, Christian nationalist network whose members have opposed environmental regulation, denied climate science, and pushed to roll back democratic safeguards. In court documents, his fourth wife described being forced into watching Beaman having sex with a prostitute for her “training”, and being exposed to pornography in the presence of her minor son. Kelly Beaman accused her husband of “degradation, control, manipulation and abuse” in the marriage. Beaman owns a $3.7 million Capitol Hill townhouse through an entity called Crockett Ventures. The property serves as a residence for Speaker Mike Johnson, megachurch pastor Steve Berger, and other GOP politicians and operatives.

Weaver is a seasoned nuclear regulator. He served as vice president of nuclear regulatory affairs at Westinghouse Electric Company from 2013 to 2022, and most recently has been running his own nuclear regulatory consulting firm. He also worked for nearly 20 years at the NRC, where he held numerous leadership positions, including in the Chairman’s Office and the Office of New Reactors.

12/03/2025 at 10:00AM

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a hearing to consider the nominations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Commerce at 10:00 AM EST on Wednesday, December 3, 2025.

Nominees:

• Jared Isaacman, of Pennsylvania, to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Steven Haines, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Analysis

NASA is illegally moving forward with the rapid downsizing of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Isaacman was nominated in the spring to be NASA administrator, with his nomination hearing on April 9th. Right before the vote on his confirmation, the White House pulled his nomination. He was renominated this fall.

Jared Isaacman made his billions as CEO of the Shift4 payment processing firm and has flown to space twice on SpaceX missions he financed himself. He co-founded Draken International, which trains pilots for the U.S. military. Isaacman is a pal and an extreme admirer of Elon Musk.

According to a recent reporting by Ars Technica, the Trump administration is looking to slash the space agency’s science budget by as much as 50 percent, which could prove disastrous for the future of space research.

You’d think that would be top of mind for Isaacman, but his head is instead blissfully empty.

“I’m a humble nominee on the outside, hoping for a chance to contribute,” he tweeted, responding to a post that referenced the news. “I don’t know anything about those supposed cuts, but the President said he’s targeting fraud, waste & abuse w/ a scalpel — not a hatchet.”

Isaacman’s confidential plans for the agency, titled Project Athena, have been circulating around Washington but not made public.

Haines is currently a senior adviser in ITA’s Office of Industry and Analysis. Haines previously spent several years at the State Department, including assignments in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the Office of China Coordination, as well as a posting on the Department’s Policy Planning Staff. He also worked on Capitol Hill as a Brookings Legislative Fellow with Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), focusing on trade, economic, and national security policy. He joined the State Department in 2020, during Trump’s first term, and served for three years before joining Hagerty’s staff. He rejoined the State Department this year.

12/03/2025 at 10:00AM

The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:

• S. 90, to prohibit the use of funds by the Secretary of the Interior to finalize and implement certain travel management plans in the State of Utah (Lee);
• S. 91, to improve Federal activities relating to wildfires, and for other purposes (Cortez Masto);
• S. 140, to address the forest health crisis on the National Forest System and public lands, and for other purposes (Barrasso);
• S. 451, to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to eliminate the 2 percent federal administrative fee on royalties paid to states for oil, gas, and geothermal leases on federal lands, and for other purposes (Daines);
• S. 764, to provide for the designation of certain wilderness areas, recreation management areas, and conservation areas in the State of Colorado, and for other purposes (Bennet);
• S. 790, to redesignate the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, Wyoming, as the “Barbara L. Cubin National Historic Trails Interpretive Center” (Lummis);
• S. 888, to designate certain land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service in the State of Oregon as wilderness and national recreation areas, to withdraw certain land located in Curry County and Josephine County, Oregon, from all forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws, location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and operation under the mineral leasing and geothermal leasing laws, and for other purposes (Wyden);
• S. 902, to require the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to establish a standard for the response time to wildfire incidents, and for other purposes (Sheehy);
• S. 945, to amend the Smith River National Recreation Area Act to include certain additions to the Smith River National Recreation Area, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain wild rivers in the State of Oregon, and for other purposes (Merkley);
• S. 1005, to provide for conservation and economic development in the State of Nevada, and for other purposes (Cortez Masto);
• S. 1175, to significantly increase federal payment-in-lieu-of-taxes for small-population counties (Daines);
• S. 1195, promote conservation, improve public land management, and provide for sensible development in Pershing County, Nevada, and for other purposes (Rosen);
• S. 1228, to amend the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to modify the cost-sharing requirement for conservation projects carried out by a qualified youth or conservation corps, and for other purposes (Risch);
• S. 1319, to withdraw certain Federal land in the Pecos Watershed area of the State of New Mexico from mineral entry, and for other purposes (Heinrich);
• S. 1341, to amend the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 to add certain land to the Sarvis Creek Wilderness, and for other purposes (Hickenlooper);
• S. 1321, to amend the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 to provide for the transfer of the Moab site to Grand County, Utah, and for other purposes (Curtis);
• S. 1363, to provide for greater cooperation and coordination between the Federal Government and the governing bodies and community users of land grant-mercedes in New Mexico relating to historical or traditional uses of certain land grant-mercedes on Federal public land, and for other purposes (Luján);
• S. 1468, to amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to provide that Alexander Creek, Incorporated, is recognized as a Village Corporation under that Act, and for other purposes (Sullivan);
• S. 1476, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain segments of the Gila River system in the State of New Mexico as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, to provide for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over certain Federal land in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes (Heinrich);
• S. 1737, to designate and expand wilderness areas in Olympic National Forest in the State of Washington, and to designate certain rivers in Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park as wild and scenic rivers, and for other purposes (Murray);
• S. 1860, to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey to Brian Head Town, Utah, certain National Forest System land (Lee);
• S. 2016, to exchange non-Federal land held by the Chugach Alaska Corporation for certain Federal Land in the Chugach Region, and for other purposes (Murkowski);
• S. 2033, to direct the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study on existing programs, rules, and authorities that enable or inhibit wildfire mitigation across land ownership boundaries on Federal and non-Federal land (Gallego);
• S. 2042, to provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System (Cantwell);
• S. 2262, to amend the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to clarify the nature of public involvement for purposes of certain rulemaking, and for other purposes (Barrasso);
• S. 2273, to amend the Act of July 10, 1890, to modify certain provisions relating to the disposal of public land in the State of Wyoming for educational purposes (Lummis).

12/02/2025 at 03:00PM

The Subcommittee on Energy has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. (ET) in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “Securing America’s Energy Infrastructure: Addressing Cyber and Physical Threats to the Grid.” The hearing will review how electric utilities and other energy entities, in coordination with the federal government, prepare and respond to cyber and physical threats to the electric grid, as well as threats to other critical energy infrastructure.

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Michael Ball, CEO of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center and Senior Vice President, North American Electric Reliability Corporation
• Sharla Artz, Security and Resilience Policy Area Vice President at Xcel Energy, on behalf of Edison Electric Institute
• Tim Lindahl, President & CEO of Kenergy, on behalf of National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
• Zach Tudor, Associate Laboratory Director, National & Homeland Security, Idaho
• Harry Krejsa, Director of Studies for the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology

Artz: “The same surge capacity that rushes to companies in need during hurricanes, winter storms, and wildfires stands ready to assist and share resources in the face of a potential cyber incident. . . . The Department of Energy also hosts regionally-based exercises focused on response to natural and man-made threats, such as Liberty Eclipse and Clear Path. Next year, the American Gas Association will host the biennial Natural Gas Exercise, an exercise in which operators test and validate response/recovery plans for cybersecurity and physical security threats that stress gas control and corporate business continuity.”

Lindahl: “Co-ops apply a risk-based, layered defense strategy to protect critical assets, including power plants, transmission infrastructure that carries electricity long distances, and substations and distribution lines that provide electricity to local users. This approach is designed to ensure protection against all hazards – severe storms, vandalism, physical, and cyber incidents.”

12/02/2025 at 10:30AM

On Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at 10:15 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:

• H.R. 4671 (Rep. Harder), “Ensuring Casualty Assistance for our Firefighters Act”
• H.R. 4931 (Rep. Murphy of NC), “National Park System Long-Term Lease Investment Act”, to remove competitive bidding requirements for long-term leases within the national parks
• H.R. 5063 (Rep. Kiggans), “Safe Beaches, Safe Swimmers Act”
• H.R. 5103 (Rep. McGuire), “Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act”
• H.R. 5254 (Rep. Bell), “Gateway Partnership Act of 2025”

Hearing memo

Witnesses: Panel I

• Robert D. MacLean, Director, Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Office of Law Enforcement and Security, Washington, D.C.

Panel II

• Kenneth H. Spencer III, Chief of Staff, United States Park Police Fraternal Order of Police, Davidsonville, Md. [H.R. 5103]
• Gregg Pemberton, Chairman, D.C. Police Union, Rockville, Md. [H.R. 5103]
• Forlesia Cook, Grandmother of Marty William McMillan Jr., Hyattsville, Md. [H.R. 5103]
• Bob Woodard, Chairman, Dare County Board of Commissioners, Manteo, N.C. [H.R. 4931]
• Denise Bowden, Mayor, Chincoteague VA, Chincoteague Island, Va. [H.R. 5063]
• Matt Rahn, PhD, MS, JD, Research Director, Wildfire Conservancy, Temecula, Calif. [H.R. 4671] [Minority Witness]
• Ryan McClure, Executive Director, Gateway Arch Park Foundation, St. Louis, Mo. [H.R. 5254] [Minority Witness]

12/02/2025 at 10:15AM

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee; House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries; and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi will hold a press conference to sound the alarm about the skyrocketing costs of climate change and to condemn Trump’s abandonment of climate action.

The U.N.’s 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP), the largest and most important forum for world governments to address the global climate crisis, is currently taking place in Belém, Brazil, but the Trump Administration failed to participate in—and actively undermined Congressional presence at—this year’s gathering, a first in the 30-year history of these U.N. climate talks. Ranking Member Whitehouse was the only U.S. federal government official to attend COP30.

As electricity costs surge because Republicans are suppressing clean power, and home insurance premiums balloon because Republicans refuse to address climate risks, the corrupt Trump administration continues to label climate change a “hoax” and has abdicated U.S. leadership on climate—despite a majority of Americans supporting action on climate change.

11/20/2025 at 01:30PM