Climate science, policy, politics, and action
Legislative hearing to receive testimony on S. 4104, S. 4439 & H.R. 5221.
Legislation:
Update: This meeting has been postponed.
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a business meeting to consider the following items:
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, at 10 a.m. EDT to consider President Biden’s nomination of Dr. Arati Prabhakar to be Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
Nominee:
Dr. Arati Prabhakar served as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2012 to 2017. Prabhakar was the first woman, at 34 years old, to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). From 1993 to 1997, she helped take the Manufacturing Extension Partnership from seed stage to national scale to boost the competitiveness of small- and mid-size manufacturers, and also the Advanced Technology Program to stimulate early-stage advanced technology development. Prabhakar spent 15 years in Silicon Valley, working to bring R&D to deployment as a company executive and as a venture capitalist. Prabhakar’s family immigrated from India to the United States when she was three years old. She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology, where she also earned an M.S. in electrical engineering.
On Wednesday, July 20, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET in 1324 Longworth Hearing Room, via Webex, and livestreamed on the Committee’s YouTube page, the Committee on Natural Resources will meet to consider the following bills:
Chair Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.)
On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. ET, Rep. Ro Khanna, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, will hold a hybrid hearing to examine regenerative agriculture, the role it can play in preventing the worst of the climate crisis while protecting food supply, and the urgent need to reform federal policies that unjustly favor corporate agribusiness, often at the expense of family farmers.
Witnesses:
Climate change fundamentally threatens the world’s food supply as extreme weather events, water scarcity, pests, and warming make it harder to grow staple crops and renders farmland unusable. Regenerative agricultural practices, such as rotating crops, can help reduce and reverse the desertification of farmland, increase nutrients in the soil, and enhance food security.
The unfair market power held by corporate agribusiness, however, limits the freedom for small- and medium-sized farmers to adopt regenerative agricultural practices. While a small number of companies control most of the market for beef, pork, and grain, family farmers earn just 16 cents of every dollar spent on food.
The federal government already supports regenerative agriculture and conservation methods, but many of these programs are oversubscribed and under resourced. Some federal policy, however, supports inherently unsustainable practices, such as concentrated feeding operations, which produce large amounts of waste that cause significant greenhouse gas emissions and can runoff into water resources.
The hearing will examine how Congress can amend federal policies that unjustly protect corporate agribusiness, often at the expense of family farmers, and fully fund farm conservation programs.
The Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, led by Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:
Witnesses
Panel I: Administration Panel
Panel II: Expert Witness Panel
The purpose of the hearing is to examine federal regulatory authorities governing the development of interstate hydrogen pipelines, storage, import, and export facilities.
Witnesses:
Witness:
The purpose of this hearing is for Members to hear from U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Buttigieg on the administration’s ongoing efforts to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Witness: