On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. (CDT) the House Committee on
Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will
hold a field oversight
hearing
entitled “Examining the Mineral Wealth of Northern Minnesota.” The
hearing will examine the vast mineral potential of Northern Minnesota,
including the local and national benefits of mining in the region.
This hearing will be held in the auditorium of the Mountain Iron-Buhl
Public School, 8659 Unity Drive, Mountain Iron, MN
55768.
The Committee on Banking will meet in open session to conduct a
hearing
on “Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program: Improving
Community Resilience.”
Chairman Sherrod Brown (D, Ohio) and Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-S.C.)
Witnesses:
Dr. Carolyn
Kousky,
Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy, Environmental
Defense Fund
Roy
Wright,
President & CEO, Insurance Institute for
Business & Home Safety
The purpose of this
hearing
is to examine the President’s budget request for the U.S. Department of
the Interior for Fiscal Year 2024.
Witnesses:
Deb
Haaland,
Secretary, Department of the Interior
Tommy Beaudreau, Deputy Secretary, Department of the Interior
Denise Flanagan, Budget Director, Department of the Interior
The Department’s 2024
budget
totals $18.9 billion in current authority ($18.3 billion in net
discretionary authority)—an increase of $2.0 billion, or 12 percent,
from the 2023 enacted budget.
The budget for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management provides $72.3
million for conventional energy programs to support
OCS planning, leasing, and oversight.
The 2024 budget for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
includes $217.1 million for conventional energy programs to support
OCS permit application reviews, regulation and
standard development for offshore activities, verification and
enforcement of operator compliance with all applicable environmental
laws and regulations, technical reviews of planned operations and
emerging technologies to properly identify and mitigate risks, a robust
inspection program employing an annual inspection strategy that includes
risk-based inspections, and incident investigations.
BSEE’s budget also includes $30.0 million to
fund the decommissioning of orphaned offshore oil and gas
infrastructure.
The 2024 budget includes $123.5 million for the Bureau of Land
Management’s Oil and Gas Management program, an increase of $10.6
million from the 2023 enacted amount. The BLM
budget also includes $51.0 million for Oil and Gas Inspection Activities
and proposes to offset the cost of this program through the
establishment of onshore inspection fees.
The 2024 BOEM budget includes $6.6 million in
Conventional Energy and $2.3 million in Environmental Programs to
establish a dedicated team, train existing staff, hire additional
specialized experts, and fund environmental studies, scientific
research, data collection, and other activities critical to the
establishment and implementation of the new program. The 2024
BSEE budget includes $1.5 million to prepare
for regulating and overseeing safe and effective offshore carbon
sequestration activities. The budget includes $3.4 million to start an
onshore carbon sequestration program in BLM.
We will blockade the
White House Correspondents Dinner to demand an end to fossil fuel
extraction on public lands.
We recommend that you plan to arrive in DC before 4 p.m. on 4/29 to
ensure you receive direct action training day-of-action and are fully
prepared. However, we’d love for you to arrive the day before, 4/28, and
attend our in-person trainings! Exact program timing will be announced
closer to the day of action (sign up for our mailing
list).
The White House Correspondents Dinner will take place the evening of
April 29th at the Washington Hilton. The Hilton is located near Dupont
Circle at 1919 Connecticut Ave NW. We will meet at a separate location
before converging on the WHCD, tba. You will
receive an update with our training locations closer to the
day-of-action as long as you have signed up to take action with
us.
Floods are the most common, most expensive, and most deadly natural
disaster that communities across the United States experience. Reports
reveal approximately 90 percent of all U.S. natural disasters also
involve flooding from any number of sources, including inland flooding,
flash floods, and flooding from seasonal storms.
While such events have long been a concern, recent experiences have
shown that flooding has become both more frequent and severe. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) 50+ year old National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP), which is by far the nation’s leading provider
of flood insurance coverage, has experienced two of its top five, four
of its top ten, and ten of its top 20 costliest flood events all in the
last decade alone.
Previously, the NFIP dealt with only two $1+
billion flood events prior to its most costly flood, which was Hurricane
Katrina in 2005. Since then, the NFIP has
experienced eight $1+ billion flood events.
The NFIP’s last formal 5-year reauthorization
expired at the end of September 2017. Since then, the
NFIP has been subject to three brief lapses
and 25 short-term extensions, nearly all of which have been enacted as a
part of the congressional appropriations process and not through
legislation initiated by the Financial Services Committee.
The committee holds a
hearing
to receive testimony from the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval
Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps on the Department of
the Navy’s budget request for fiscal year 2024.
Witnesses:
Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy, U.S. Department of the Navy
Admiral Michael M. Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Department
of the Navy
General David H. Berger, Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps
