Michael Boren, of Idaho, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment, vice Homer L. Wilkes, resigned.
The Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment oversees the U.S. Forest Service.
Boren is a Trump donor who gained local notice for his and his brother David’s litigious treatment in defense of Hell Roaring Ranch, their dude ranch in Idaho. He treats the Sawtooth National Forest as if it were his personal property, building a cabin, private airstrip, and suing to block the construction of public trails.
A co-founder of Clearwater Analytics, Boren has made a career in financial management and software development. On Feb. 24, Michael and Joan Boren, as trustees of the MJB Revocable Trust, bought a new condominium at The Wharf in Washington for $6 million, according to property records with the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue.
Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
Trump’s billionaire budget is trying to fund handouts to Big Oil, tax cuts for billionaires, and mass detention facilities with our tax dollars. Money that should be used for life saving services like Medicaid and SNAP that millions of Americans rely on to keep their family healthy and their kids fed. Honestly this is only the tip of the iceberg. Trump’s budget is brimming with proposals that pad the pockets of his wealthy buddies and strip away critical government services we depend on. We’re descending on Washington to say No Deal!
People all over the country are already taking action - We know June will be a critical moment. It’s the climate movement’s moment to throw down and say NO DEAL! Join us in Washington DC on June 3rd.
Here’s the plan:
Direct Action in DC: Take part in actions, meet with elected officials, and join our press conference. Together share powerful stories about how this deal between Trump and Billionaires will impact working families across the country. Together we’ll stop the worst parts of this budget.
Confront Elected Officials at Home: When elected officials return home the week of June 16th for Congressional Recess we’ll confront them about the budget they passed, what they chose to fund, and what they chose to cut. (More guidance on this coming soon!)
Details:
DC No Deal Action Schedule (6/3):
10:30 AM: Meet at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church (201 4th St SE, Washington, DC 20003).
12:00 PM: Join a press address at the Capitol to deliver our message to Congress
Rest of the Day: Actions at the capital targeting Members of Congress who can stop the worst parts of Trump’s deal with big oil billionaires
No Deal Endorsers: Climate Hawks Vote, 350Deschutes, Turtle Island Restoration Network, DNC Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis, North American Climate, Conservation and Environment (NACCE), Oil Change International, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, Earthworks, individual, Public Citizen, North American Climate, Conservation and Environment (NACCE), 350.org, Stand.earth, 350 Triangle, Sunrise Movement, The People’s Justice Council, Sunrise DC, Mission Green Global, Methane Partners Campaign, Stop the Money Pipeline, Zero Hour, New Hampshire Youth Movement, Concerned Health Professionals of Pennsylvania, Alaska Wilderness League, 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations
On June 2, 2025, we gather not merely for another protest, but for a prophetic stand—a Moral Monday born out of righteous indignation and holy imagination. As the cries of the poor grow louder and the policies of the powerful grow colder, we must rise. Across lines of faith, race, and region, moral witnesses will converge at the very steps where justice has been delayed, where truth has been trampled, and where budgets have become weapons against the vulnerable.
We will meet on the east side of the Capitol, not in silence, but in sacred defiance.
This is not a political stunt; this is a moral reckoning.
Why We Are Gathering:
Because the federal budget is a moral document, and this one is failing the test.
Because 68 million seniors should not fear losing Medicare and Social Security.
Because children should not go hungry while corporations are rewarded.
Because faith demands more than prayer—it demands public action.
Join Bishop William J. Barber, II, faith leaders from every tradition, and a remnant of clergy dressed in full vestments. Assemble at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 301 A Street SE, at 9:00 am. Then we march as a unified moral voice at 11:00 am to the Capitol steps in front of the Supreme Court.
We will not be silent anymore. We will not let injustice write the national story unchecked.
Julie Hocker, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy, Department of Labor
Wayne Palmer, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health, Department of Labor
Henry Mack III, of Florida, to be an Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor
Marco Rajkovich, Jr., of Virginia, to be a Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
Kirsten Baesler, of North Dakota, to be Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Education
Kevin O’Farrell, of Florida, to be Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education, Department of Education
Nicholas Kent, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary, Department of Education
Rajkovich previously served as the chairman for FMSHRC during Trump’s first term. Before joining the commission he was a lawyer in Kentucky and worked for the U.S. Steel Mining Company, Inc.
Palmer was principal deputy assistant secretary at MSHA from December 2017 to January 2021 and the agency’s acting head until David Zatezalo’s confirmation in November 2017. Palmer was most recently a senior advisor in the Department of Labor Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Historically, financial institutions have mandated risk transfer products such as homeowners insurance and, where required, flood insurance, as a protective buffer to avoid credit losses—that buffer has quickly eroded.. Through observed insurance premiums increases and the ever widening coverage gap between FEMA special flood hazard areas and actual disaster locations, lenders are facing a new and urgent financial reality: major weather events and dramatic premium increases are resulting in credit losses and foreclosures.
Join First Street’s climate implications team for a deep dive into the findings of the 13th National Risk Assessment, Climate, the Sixth “C” of Credit, the first national-scale analysis to quantify the connection between flooding, wildfire, and wind—and loan performance. You’ll learn how conventional credit models are missing hidden risk, particularly in areas outside FEMA-designated flood zones, where foreclosure rates are spiking after disasters.
Key finding: in a severe year, weather-driven mortgage foreclosures could lead to $1.2 billion in lender losses, with that number projected to grow to a potential $5.4 billion a year by 2035.
This webinar is essential for financial institutions, investors, insurers, and regulators seeking to understand the evolving credit landscape and apply climate-adjusted risk strategies.
Over the next few weeks, we’re watching the House closely as Republicans kick off voting on their budget reconciliation bill, which is chock-full of handouts to polluters and billionaires and is on track to be one of the most harmful, costly, and sweeping pieces of legislation in recent history.
On Wednesday, May 21st starting around 4pm we’re rallying at the U.S. Capitol steps to fight back against Republicans’ attempts to pass massive cuts to essential programs to provide handouts to billionaires and polluters. RSVP now.
Brief Description of Program and Recommended Reduction or Increase
Cuts, Reductions, and Consolidations
IIJA Cancellation
-15,247
The Budget cancels over $15 billion in funds committed to build
renewable energy, removing carbon dioxide from the air, and other technologies. The Budget also ends programs for electric vehicle and battery
makers and cancels the Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy (EERE)
-2,572
The Budget reorients EERE programs to early-stage research and development programming,
eliminating funding for Justice40. This proposal would support technologies that promote fossil-fuel and nuclear
power and bioenergy.
Office of Science
-1,148
The Budget reduces funding for climate change and renewable energy research. The Budget
maintains priority areas such as high-performance computing, artificial
intelligence, quantum information science, fusion, and critical minerals.
Environmental Management (EM)
-389
The EM program performs activities at 14 active cleanup sites and operates a geologic disposal
facility (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico). The EM topline is being reduced
by $389 million, which reflects a reduction of about $178 million for the transfer of responsibility
from the EM program to the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Savannah River site in
South Carolina, where plutonium pit production capabilities would be developed. The Budget
maintains the Hanford site in Washington at the 2025 enacted level but reduces funding for various
cleanup activities at other sites.
Advanced Research Project Agency‒
Energy (ARPA-E)
-260
The Budget reduces funding for ARPA-E, limiting support to
research advancing fossil-fuel technologies and other technologies. Pollution-reducing technologies are not supported.
Office of Nuclear Energy
-408
The Budget reduces funding for research on nuclear energy. Funding priorities include innovative
concepts for nuclear reactors, researching advanced nuclear fuels, and maintaining the capabilities of
the Idaho National Laboratory.
Office of Fossil Energy
-270
The Budget restores the name and function of the Office of Fossil Energy to its original purpose,
which is funding for the research of technologies that could produce an abundance of domestic fossil
energy and critical minerals.
Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Program Name
$ Change
from 2025
Enacted
(in millions)
Brief Description of Program and Recommended Reduction or Increase Enacted
Increases
America First Opportunity (A1OF) Fund
+2,900
Support India and Jordan; repatriations; counter China and other near-peer rivals; and fund new activities.
Development Finance Corporation
+2,820
The Budget increases the U.S. International DFC. This investment includes $3 billion for a new revolving fund to allow
DFC to recycle any realized returns from its initial investments without further appropriation.
Cuts, Reductions, and Consolidations
Economic Support Fund, Development Assistance, Democracy Fund, and Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia
-8,326
The Budget eliminates funding for these programs and replaces them with the single A1OF and the DFC.
International Disaster Assistance,
Migration and Refugee Assistance, and
Emergency Refugee and Migration
Assistance (ERMA)—International
Humanitarian Assistance (IHA)
-3,207
The Budget reduces disaster assistance. The Budget provides $1.5 billion in ERMA for the President to use at his discretion and
consolidates accounts into a new $2.5 billion IHA account.
State and USAID Operations
-2,462
Consistent with Executive Order 14169, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,”
the Budget reorganizes USAID into the Department of State.
International Narcotics Control & Law
Enforcement (INCLE)
-1,160
The majority of INCLE funds go to reforming criminal justice systems in foreign governments, rather
than to narcotics enforcement, which is primarily undertaken by: Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA); Central Intelligence Agency; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Department of
Homeland Security (DHS); and Department of Defense (DOD) elements. The Budget eliminates
rule-of-law programs, while providing $125 million to fund programs that
support counter-drug, organized crime, and border security missions.
Peacekeeping Missions
-1,614
The Budget does not provide funding for United Nations (UN) and other peacekeeping
missions.
Assessed and Voluntary Contributions
to International Organizations
-1,716
The Budget pauses most assessed and all voluntary contributions to UN and other international
organizations, including for the UN Regular Budget, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization, and the World Health Organization. This is consistent with Executive Order 14199,
“Withdrawing the United States From and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations
and Reviewing United States Support to All International Organizations.” The President can choose to fund these international organizations out of the A1OF if he chooses.
Educational and Cultural Exchanges
-691
Transition Initiatives (TI)
-75
TI funds short-term assistance that aims to shape political outcomes in countries. The Budget eliminates the TI account.
Complex Crisis Fund
-55
The Complex Crisis Fund is a fund for nation-building projects. The
Budget eliminates this account and redirects crisis funding to the IHA and
ERMA accounts.
National Endowment for Democracy
(NED)
-315
The Budget eliminates funding
for NED.
Global Health Programs/Family
Planning
-6,233
The United States is the largest global contributor to programs that provide family planning. The U.S.
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding is preserved for any current beneficiaries.
Food for Peace (Title II)
-1,619
The Food for Peace program spends $1.6 billion to ship food overseas.
Contribution to the Global
Environmental Facility and Climate
Investment Funds
-275
The Budget proposes to eliminate contributions to the Global Environment Facility and the Climate
Investment Funds.
Contributions to Multilateral
Development Banks (African
Development Bank, African
Development Fund)
-555
Consistent with Executive Order 14169, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,”
the Budget proposes to eliminate contributions to the African Development Fund. The Budget also includes $3.2 billion over three years
for the U.S. Government contribution to the International Development Association.
Other Treasury International
Reductions
-86
The Budget proposes to eliminate several of the Department of the Treasury’s international
assistance programs, including the Debt Restructuring account, and contributions to the International
Fund for Agricultural Development and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.
House Appropriations Committee
National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee
On Wednesday, May 21, 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 a Golden Age: Examining the Use of Federal Lands to Power American Technological Innovation.”
Witnesses:
Kyle Hart (minority witness), Mid-Atlantic Program Manager, National Parks Conservation Association
Emily Arthun, CEO, American Coal Council
Paige Lambermont, Research Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
