Hill Heat

Hearing page

Business meeting page

Nominations

• Colleen J. Shogan to be Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration
• Vijay Shanker to be an Associate Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals
• Laura E. Crane to be an Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia
• Leslie A. Meek to be an Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia
• Veronica M. Sanchez to be an Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia
• Errol Arthur to be an Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia
• Kendra D. Briggs to be an Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia
• Carl Ezekiel Ross to be an Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia

Legislation

• S. ___, Federal Contracting for Peace and Security Act
• S. 4828, Governmentwide Executive Councils Administration and Performance Improvement Act
• S. 4894, Improving Government Efficiency and Workforce Development through Federal Executive Boards Act
• S. 4893, Lobbying Disclosure Improvement Act
• S. ___, Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act of 2022�
• S. ___, Department of Homeland Security Seal Protection Act
• S. ___, Securing Open Source Software Act of 2022
• S. 4882, Fire Grants and Safety Act
• S. 4528, Improving Digital Identity Act of 2022
• S. 4816/H.R. 7337, Access for Veterans to Records Act of 2022
• S. 4328, Fire Suppression Improvement Act
• S. 4399, All-American Flag Act
• S. ___, Invent Here, Make Here for Homeland Security Act
• S. ___, Protecting the Border from Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act
• S. ___/H.R. 6461, National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act of 2022
• H.R. 7777, Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Training Act
• H.R. 5689, Resilient Assistance for Mitigation for Environmentally Resilient Infrastructure and Construction by Americans (Resilient AMERICA) Act
• H.R. 6824, President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition Act
• H.R. 7211, Small State and Rural Rescue Act
• H.R. 3544, Computers for Veterans and Students (COVS) Act of 2022
• H.R. 4209, DHS Illicit Cross-Border Tunnel Defense Act
• H.R. 6873, Bombing Prevention Act of 2022

H.R. 5689, the Resilient Assistance for Mitigation for Environmentally Resilient Infrastructure and Construction by Americans (Resilient AMERICA) Act, addresses disaster resilience issues and expands coverage for hazard mitigation.

The bill

• increases from 6% to 15% the estimated aggregate amount of grants that may be set aside for national public infrastructure pre-disaster hazard mitigation assistance;
• makes private nonprofit facilities eligible for technical and financial assistance for implementing cost-effective pre-disaster hazard mitigation measures;
• provides funding for water resources development projects; and
• expands the use of hazard mitigation assistance to cover certain activities pertaining to wildfires, tsunamis, and ice storms.

Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must set aside 10% of funds made available for any given year to further the implementation and enforcement of the latest published editions of relevant consensus-based building codes.

FEMA must require as a condition of providing nonemergency financial assistance for construction projects costing at least $1 million that the steel and iron used in the projects be produced in the United States, with certain exceptions.

FEMA must carry out a residential resilience pilot program to provide grants for residential resilience retrofits (e.g., elevation of homes, floodproofing measures, wildfire retrofit and mitigation measures, and wind retrofits).

The Government Accountability Office must study the challenges to states and territories in obtaining funds under public assistance alternative procedures.

H.R. 6461, the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act, requires the Federal Government to produce a national climate adaptation and resilience strategy.

S. 4882, the Fire Grants and Safety Act;, authorizes appropriations for the United States Fire Administration and firefighter assistance grant programs.

S.4328, the Fire Suppression Improvement Act, sets the federal cost share of fire management assistance at 75% of the eligible cost of such assistance and permits a state or local government to use such assistance for the predeployment of assets and resources. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must complete a rulemaking to provide criteria for the circumstances under which it may recommend that the President increase the federal cost share.

H.R. 7211: Small State and Rural Rescue Act

This bill addresses requests for, and other matters pertaining to, disaster assistance provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with a focus on small states and rural communities.

The bill expands the duties of FEMA’s Small State and Rural Advocate to include assistance for states in the collection and presentation of material in the disaster or emergency declaration request relevant to demonstrate severe localized impacts within the state for a specific incident.

Additionally, the Government Accountability Office must review FEMA’s implementation of its final rule regarding factors considered when evaluating a governor’s request for a major disaster declaration. In particular, the review must focus on requests for a major disaster declaration authorizing individual assistance.

Business meeting page

Nominations:

• Karla Gilbride to be General Counsel, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Jessica Looman to be Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, Department of Labor
• Moshe Marvit to be a Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Michael Goldstein, Managing Partner, Goldstein Environmental Law Firm
• George Carico, Director, West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center, Marshall University
• Brad Buschur, Project Director, Groundwork Lawrence
• Gerald Pouncy, Chairman, Morris, Manning, & Martin, LLP

This hearing immediately follows a business meeting on several nominations.

Business meeting page

• Joseph Goffman to be an Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Michelle Moore to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Robert P. Klein to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Beth Pritchard Geer to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• William Renick to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Adam Wade White to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Joe H. Ritch to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority
• Five General Services Administration Resolutions

The business meeting will be followed by a hearing on reauthorization of the Brownfields program.

The U.S. Senate will convene and resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R.6833, the legislative vehicle for the continuing resolution.

The cloture vote with respect to the motion to proceed will occur at 5:30 p.m.

Business meeting page

Nominations of:

• Dr. Jose Emilio Esteban, of California, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety, United States Department of Agriculture
• Vincent Garfield Logan, of New York, to be a Member of the Farm Credit Administration Board
• Alexis Taylor, of Iowa, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, United States Department of Agriculture

Tuesday Morning Action outside the Capitol with Our Revolution in coalition with Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Third Act, Our Future WV, For All, and WV Coalition to End the Filibuster. We’ll be gathering at 1st and Maryland Avenue NE on the the Capitol side of 1st St.

Bill McKibben and representatives of front-line communities in West Virgina and western Virginia will be speaking against Joe Manchin’s Dirty Deal and the Mountain Valley Pipeline and how we can STOP it!

RSVP

World Bank President David Malpass refused to acknowledge the climate crisis is here and it’s manmade – dodging the question and saying he’s “not a scientist.”

Activists will set up a stage in front of the World Bank HQ in Washington DC and read the entire IPCC report over megaphones pointed at the building, with banners and placards calling for his ouster.

WHO: Activists from The Climate Reality Project, Friends of the Earth US, Glasgow Actions Team, front line communities in West Virginia, Bill McKibben, and many, many, many more (there’s a lot to read!)

WHAT: The Climate Science is Settled: Protest to Fire Malpass

WHERE: Community Park outside World Bank headquarters

WHEN: Tuesday, September 27, 8:30 AM ET

Please join the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center virtually, on Monday, September 26, from 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET for a discussion on the importance and role of a national green bank in accelerating an equitable transition to a clean energy economy.

Register

One of the many notable components of the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the authorization of $27 billion to establish the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. A national green bank would have a mandate to finance clean energy and environmental justice projects in every state. Through the bank, clean energy entrepreneurs would leverage funding to advance clean energy initiatives and infrastructure in their communities, while creating cleaner air and good, local jobs. The bank would support projects where the problem is not only the cost of financing, but also the availability of financing.

Low-income communities spend three times more of their income on energy costs compared to non-low-income households. The national green bank would help correct this imbalance and help ensure an equitable transition to clean energy in all communities. It would provide billions of dollars of low interest,100 percent up front financing and other forms of financial support to reduce the burden of energy costs by helping to ensure that low-income households and communities have the funding to install clean energy projects while lowering their energy costs.

Distributing the IRA funding through a national green bank would have many advantages. The national green bank could establish national standards for loans, develop credit enhancement programs, and provide expertise and funding to state and local green banks and Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) on renewable energy projects. A national green bank could raise additional funds to those provided in the IRA and through interest on and repayment of loans.

During this panel discussion, experts will discuss opportunities for the Biden Administration to successfully build a national green bank and unlock investment to support an equitable and just clean energy future.

Keynote remarks by

• Senator Chris van Hollen, Maryland

A conversation with

• Will Barber III, Director of Climate and Environmental Justice, The Climate Reality Project; Chief Consultant of Environmental Justice and Equity, Coalition for Green Capital

• Bryan Garcia, President & CEO, Connecticut Green Bank
• Reed Hundt, Founder & CEO, Coalition for Green Capital
• Cathie Mahon, President & CEO, Inclusiv

Moderated by

• Ken Berlin, Senior Fellow, Global Energy Center, Atlantic Council