Hill Heat

On Tuesday, September 20, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, will hold a hybrid business meeting to consider bills that will improve federal government operations and provide Washington D.C. with more autonomy.

The Committee will consider the following legislation:

• S. 1941, the Metropolitan Areas Protection and Standardization (MAPS) Act;
• S. 3510, the Disaster Resiliency Planning Act;
• H.R. 8466, the Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act of 2022;
• H.R. 8665, the National Archives and Records Administration Modernization Act; and
• H.R. 8861, the District of Columbia Home Rule Expansion Act of 2022.

S. 3510 was introduced by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters and Senator Rick Scott on January 13, 2022. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent on June 22, 2022. Companion legislation in the House, H.R. 7863, is led by Rep. Troy Carter. In 2021, GAO released a report on the efforts of federal agencies to mitigate the impact of natural disasters on federal property and assets. In the five years preceding the report, billions of taxpayer dollars were appropriated to help repair assets from natural disasters. To better protect these federal assets and taxpayer dollars in the face of the escalating frequency and severity of natural disasters, the report recommended that OMB direct agencies to incorporate natural disaster risk information assessments into asset management investment decisions. That recommendation remains open today. To address this recommendation, S. 3510 would direct OMB to establish guidance within 180 days of enactment for the incorporation of natural disaster resilience into the real property asset management and investment decisions of federal agencies. As recommended by GAO, agencies would be required to incorporate their natural disaster risk information assessments into such decisions. OMB would also be required to report to Congress on the guidance, and to later brief Congress on its implementation.

The Committee will also consider additional legislative business and several postal naming measures.

Memorandum

Hearing page

• Michael Crowder, President, National Association of Conservation Districts
• Nicole Berg, President, National Association of Wheat Growers, Paterson, WA
• Lori Faeth, Senior Director of Government Relations, Land Trust Alliance
• Shayne Wiese, Rancher, on behalf of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

On Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. ET, in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building and via Cisco WebEx, the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States (SCIP) will hold an oversight hearing entitled “Examining Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta: The Implications of the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Tribal Sovereignty.”

On June 29, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta by determining that the State maintains concurrent jurisdiction with the federal government to prosecute major crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian Country. The 5-4 opinion led by Justice Kavanaugh held that Indian Country within a state’s territory is part of the State, which therefore confers State jurisdiction to the prosecution of crimes committed in Indian Country unless it is otherwise preempted.

Castro-Huerta overturns nearly 200 years of federal Indian legal precedent and further complicates an already complex framework for the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed in Indian Country. This expansion of State jurisdiction is anticipated to add greater uncertainty over what government entity maintains the authority to deliver public safety services on tribal lands and will likely influence the quality of such services.

The oversight hearing will provide an overview of Castro-Huerta’s national impacts in Indian County and explore how this ruling may pose additional threats to tribal sovereignty.

Witnesses

Panel I: Administration Panel

• Bryan Newland, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior

Panel II: Tribal Leader Panel

• Jonodev Chaudhuri, Ambassador, Muscogee Creek Nation
• Kevin Killer, President, Oglala Sioux Tribe
• Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Chairwoman, Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah
• Whitney Gravelle, President, Bay Mills Indian Community
• Teri Gobin, Chair, Tulalip Tribes
• Sara Hill, Attorney General, Cherokee Nation

Panel III: Legal Panel

• Mary Kathryn Nagle, Counsel, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center
• Bethany Berger, Wallace Stevens Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law
• Carole Goldberg, Jonathan D. Varat Distinguished Professor of Law Emerita, University of California School of Law
• Stacy Leeds, Foundation Professor of Law and Leadership, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
• Matthew J. Ballard, District Attorney, Oklahoma District 12
• Mithun Mansinghani, Partner, Lehotsky Keller LLP

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Madelyn Creedon, Research Professor George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs
• Rose Gottemoeller, Steven C. Hazy Lecturer, Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Center for International Security and Cooperation
• Eric S. Edelman, Counselor, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Director, United States Institute of Peace
• Franklin Miller, Principal, The Scowcroft Group

Join the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition on Friday, September 16 at 2 pm ET/11 am PT for a global online event to kick off a month of action in defense of forests.

Speakers, including Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, activist and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Maria Luisa Mendonça of the Network for Human Rights and Social Justice in Brazil, will share why forests are critical to climate justice, what Indigenous and frontline communities are doing to stop deforestation, and how you can join the fight to hold Wall Street and corporations accountable.

RSVP

A joint hearing with the Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture and the Committee on Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.

THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS will meet in OPEN SESSION, HYBRID FORMAT to conduct a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Witness:

• Gary Gensler, Chair, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Hearing page

At the hearing, members will hear from witnesses on the current status of FEMA’s recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands five years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Dina Titus (D-Nev.)

The full Committee, led by Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), will hold a markup on the following Resolutions of Inquiry:

• H.Res.1247 (Graves) Of inquiry directing the Secretary of the Interior to transmit certain documents to the House of Representatives relating to the 2023-2028 five-year program for offshore oil and gas leasing.
• H.Res.1248 (Herrell) Of inquiry directing the Secretary of the Interior to transmit certain documents to the House of Representatives relating to the compliance with the obligations of the Mineral Leasing Act.
• H.Res.1251 (Stauber) Of inquiry directing the Secretary of Agriculture to transmit certain documents to the House of Representatives relating to the mineral withdrawal within the Superior National Forest.
• H.Res.1252 (Stauber) Of inquiry directing the Secretary of the Interior to transmit certain documents to the House of Representatives relating to the mineral withdrawal within the Superior National Forest.
• H.Res.1253 (Westerman) Of inquiry directing the Secretary of the Interior to transmit certain documents to the House of Representatives relating to the actions of the Department of the Interior’s Departmental Ethics Office.