Charlton Allen to be General Counsel, Federal Labor Relations Authority
John Walk to be Inspector General, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Thomas Bell to be Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Allen is the former chairman and chief executive officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is the founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc., editor of The American Salient, and the host of the Modern Federalist podcast.
Walk serves as Judicial Officer at the United States Department of Agriculture. He served as Associate Counsel to President Donald J. Trump at the White House Counsel’s Office from January 2017 until December 2020. At the White House, Walk advised the President and senior White House officials on the exercise of the President’s constitutional authority, regulatory matters, executive actions, and implementation of public policy. Prior to the White House, Walk served as an attorney at the Department of Homeland Security, providing advice on DHS operations and defending against federal litigation as agency counsel as an ally of Stephen Miller. Before entering the legal profession, Walk was a senior government relations advisor at an international law firm and served as a congressional staffer in the House of Representatives. Walk is the son-in-law of Jeff Sessions, married to Sessions’ daughter Ruth.
As Inspector General for Health and Human Services, Thomas March Bell will oversee fraud, waste and abuse audits of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which spend more than $1 trillion annually. Bell currently serves as general counsel for House Republicans and has worked for GOP politicians and congressional offices for decades. The president’s nomination of this anti-abortion extremist is a “brazenly political” one. Bell was ousted from Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality in 1997 after a state audit showed he improperly authorized a nearly $8,000 payment to the agency’s former spokesman. He was staff director for House Republicans’ 2016 investigation into Planned Parenthood. During the first Trump administration, Bell helped create the Conscience and Religious Freedom division within the HHS Office for Civil Rights. Bell held leadership positions in Gary Bauer and Pat Robinson’s presidential campaigns.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
On Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 10:15 a.m., in room 1334 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:
H.R. 4276 (Rep. Case), To amend the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act to authorize grants to Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations, and for other purposes.
H.R. 5682 (Rep. Issa), To take certain land in the State of California into trust for the benefit of the Pechanga Band of Indians, and for other purposes.
H.R. 5696 (Rep. LaMalfa), “Strengthening Tribal Real Estate Authority and Modernizing Land for Indigenous Nation Expansion Act” or the “STREAMLINE Act”
On Wednesday, November 19, 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 examining PFAS cleanup and disposal policy.
Witnesses;
Eric Gerstenberg, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Clean Harbors
Leah Pilconis, General Counsel, Associated General Contractors of America
Kate R. Bowers, Supervisory Attorney, Congressional Research Service
Charlton Allen to be General Counsel, Federal Labor Relations Authority
John Walk to be Inspector General, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Thomas Bell to be Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Allen is the former chairman and chief executive officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is the founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc., editor of The American Salient, and the host of the Modern Federalist podcast.
Walk serves as Judicial Officer at the United States Department of Agriculture. He served as Associate Counsel to President Donald J. Trump at the White House Counsel’s Office from January 2017 until December 2020. At the White House, Walk advised the President and senior White House officials on the exercise of the President’s constitutional authority, regulatory matters, executive actions, and implementation of public policy. Prior to the White House, Walk served as an attorney at the Department of Homeland Security, providing advice on DHS operations and defending against federal litigation as agency counsel as an ally of Stephen Miller. Before entering the legal profession, Walk was a senior government relations advisor at an international law firm and served as a congressional staffer in the House of Representatives. Walk is the son-in-law of Jeff Sessions, married to Sessions’ daughter Ruth.
As Inspector General for Health and Human Services, Thomas March Bell will oversee fraud, waste and abuse audits of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which spend more than $1 trillion annually. Bell currently serves as general counsel for House Republicans and has worked for GOP politicians and congressional offices for decades. The president’s nomination of this anti-abortion extremist is a “brazenly political” one. Bell was ousted from Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality in 1997 after a state audit showed he improperly authorized a nearly $8,000 payment to the agency’s former spokesman. He was staff director for House Republicans’ 2016 investigation into Planned Parenthood. During the first Trump administration, Bell helped create the Conscience and Religious Freedom division within the HHS Office for Civil Rights. Bell held leadership positions in Gary Bauer and Pat Robinson’s presidential campaigns.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
The House Select Committee on China will hold a hearing titled Predatory Pricing: How the Chinese Communist Party Manipulates Global Mineral Prices to Maintain Its Dominance. The hearing will be held on Wednesday, November 19 at 10:00 A.M. in 390 Cannon House Office Building.
The event will be live-streamed.
When: Wednesday, November 19 at 10:00 A.M.
Where: 390 Cannon House Office Building.
Witnesses:
Jonathan Evans, Chief Executive Office, Lithium Americas
Matthew Sloustcher, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs, MP Materials
Jonathan Rowntree, Chief Executive Officer, Niron Magnetics
Additional witnesses to be determined.
House Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party Committee
On Wednesday, November 19, 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 a legislative hearing on the following bills:
H.R. 338 (Rep. Costa), “Every Drop Counts Act”, expands the Bureau of Reclamation’s Small Storage Program, which is a grant program for small surface water or groundwater storage projects in certain western states
H.R. 1514 (Rep. Ezell), “Mississippi River Basin Fishery Commission Act”, to manage the inland fishery resources of the Mississippi River Basin
H.R. 3756 (Rep. Crenshaw), “Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvests Act of 2025” or the “FISH Act of 2025”, to increase efforts against global illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing
H.R. 5699 (Rep. Rutherford), “Fisheries Data Modernization and Accuracy Act of 2025”, to rely more on state-level data collection programs for recreational fishing data
The purpose of the hearing is to examine how the BLM land use planning process under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) affects permitting for energy, mining, grazing, and infrastructure projects on public lands.
On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 10:15 AM in 210 Cannon House Office Building, the House Committee on the Budget will hold a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Congressional Budget Office.”
Witness:
Philip Swagel, Director of the Congressional Budget Office
Please join Climate Cabinet on November 13 at 12:00PM EST for a discussion alongside the release of a new Climate Cabinet report – Utilizing Economic Power to Manage the Energy and Climate Transitions.
Two historic transitions are underway in the U.S.: the transition to an economy powered by clean energy and the transition to an ever more unstable climate with more extreme and dangerous weather. Come join a webinar in which Climate Cabinet and partners discuss its new report, Utilizing Economic Power to Manage the Energy and Climate Transitions, which offers a roadmap for state policymakers seeking to manage these transitions toward a more prosperous and equitable future. The report will be released on November 12 and will be available on Climate Cabinet’s website.
The hour-long webinar, to be held on November 13 at noon EST, will feature a keynote presentation by Sarah Bloom Raskin, Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law and former Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Board Governor, on why the two transitions deserve priority attention from state policymakers. She will be joined by Climate Cabinet’s Caroline Spears and Jordan Haedtler (report co-author), Center for Public Enterprise’s Advait Arun, John Kostyack of Kostyack Strategies (report co-author), and Dan Sufranski of The Sunrise Project.
Please register for the webinar. Registration will ensure that you are sent a recording of the webinar in the event you are unable to attend.
State governments play a critical role in the United States’ system of government. That role is more critical today than ever as the federal government abandons its leadership role in capturing the economic opportunities from the clean energy transition and confronting the economic threats from the transition to a hotter climate. We hope you will join us as we chart a new path forward to help U.S. communities become more economically just and sustainable.
Join Lead Locally for a conversation with activists and newly elected climate champions to celebrate, discuss the results of our most recent state & municipal elections, and consider what victories around the country can tell us about the state of climate politics and elections in 2026.
In the months leading up to the election, Lead Locally evaluated hundreds of campaigns from Albuquerque to Atlanta and made mission driven investments in the races where climate action was on the line. We knocked thousands of doors, made tens of thousands of calls, and fundraised hundreds of thousands for some of the most important down ballot races in the country.