Hill Heat

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.

You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at @climatedefiance.

Oversight hearing on tribal perspectives on housing and transportation.

Witnesses:

• Gary Bohnee, Special Assistant, Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
• Barbara Little Owl, Executive Director, Standing Rock Housing Authority
• Tonya Plummer, Director of Native American Housing Programs, Enterprise
• Leo Sisco, Chairman, Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi-Yokut Tribe
• Russell Sossamon, Executive Director, Comanche Nation Housing Authority
• Alex Wesaw, Treasurer, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians

Hearing on the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Witness:

• David Maurstad, Assistant Administrator, Federal Insurance Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Hearing memo

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

The FY2024 Navy budget request is $255.8 billion, of which $1.5 billion (0.7%) is climate-related.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) presents findings of the new report from the Mindaroo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Public Health.

Please join for a briefing to review the findings of the new report on the impacts of plastics on human health. The authors of the report will describe the health and environmental implications of plastic at every stage of its lifecycle, including recommendations for the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty.

Thursday, April 27th, 2:00pm ET 406 Dirksen Senate Office Building

RSVP

Hearing on the FY2024 budget for the Federal Trade Commission.

Witness:

• Lina M. Khan, Chair, Federal Trade Commission

The FTC’s Green Marketing program focuses on advertising claims that tout the environmental benefits of products and services. Enforcement administers the program by developing the Commission’s Environmental Marketing Guides, litigating enforcement actions, and conducting consumer research and other studies to better understand the marketplace.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on its “Green Guides,” which seek to prevent companies from making deceptive environmental claims, as it updates them for the first time in a decade.

The committee will receive testimony from the Secretary of the Air Force, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and the Chief of Space Operations for the Space Force on the Department of Air Force’s FY24 budget request.

Witnesses

• General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., Chief of Staff of the Air Force
• Frank Kendall, Secretary of the Air Force
• General B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force

Of the $215.1 billion Air Force budget request, $942 million (0.4%) is seen as mitigating climate risk.

Of the $30 billion Space Force budget request, $6 million (0.02%) is seen as mitigating climate risk.

Business meeting to vote on the following nominations:

• Elizabeth H. Richard, of Virginia, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, to be Coordinator for Counterterrorism, with the rank and status of Ambassador at Large
• Eric W. Kneedler, of Pennsylvania, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Rwanda
• Kathleen A. FitzGibbon, of New York, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Niger
• Karen Sasahara, of Massachusetts, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the State of Kuwait
• Elizabeth Rood, of Pennsylvania, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Turkmenistan
• Martina Anna Tkadlec Strong, of Texas, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the United Arab Emirates
• Hugo Yue-Ho Yon, of California, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Maldives
• Ann Marie Yastishock, of Pennsylvania, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, and to serve concurrently and without additional compensation as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Solomon Islands and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Vanuatu
• Robin Dunnigan, of California, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Georgia
• David J. Kostelancik, of Illinois, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Albania

On Thursday, April 27, 2023, at 9:45 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources will hold a mark-up on the following bills:

• H.J. Res. 29 (Mann), Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service relating to “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Lesser Prairie-Chicken; Threatened Status With Section 4(d) Rule for the Northern Distinct Population Segment and Endangered Status for the Southern Distinct Population Segment”;
• H.J. Res. 46 (Bentz), Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service relating to “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat”;
• H.J. Res. 49 (Stauber), Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service relating to “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for Northern Long-Eared Bat”;
• H.R. 215 (Valadao), “Working to Advance Tangible and Effective Reforms for California Act” or the“WATER for California Act” (Amendments to H.R. 215 must be drafted to the amendment in the nature of a substitute);
• H.R. 764 (Boebert), “Trust the Science Act” to delist the gray wolf;
• H.R. 1245 (Hageman), “Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2023”;
• H.R. 1319 (Neguse), “Biking on Long-Distance Trails Act”;
• H.R. 1419 (Rosendale), “Comprehensive Grizzly Bear Management Act of 2023”; and
• H.R. 1567 (Tiffany), “Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions Act” or the “ACRES Act”.

Bills expected to move by unanimous consent: H.R. 1319 (Rep. Neguse), “Biking on Long-Distance Trails Act”) and H.R. 1567 (Rep. Tiffany), “ACRES Act”.

Markup memo

Statement of the Department of Interior on H.R. 215.

This hearing has been postponed due to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s address to a joint session of Congress.