Hill Heat

Full Committee on Agriculture – Business Meeting to consider:

• The Budget Views and Estimates Letter of the Committee on Agriculture for the agencies and programs under the jurisdiction of the Committee for Fiscal Year 2023;
• H.R. 7764, A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to provide additional payments under the environmental quality incentives program for implementation of a nutrient management practice, and for other purposes. ;
• H.R. 2518, “Producing Responsible Energy and Conservation Incentives and Solutions for the Environment Act or the PRECISE Act”;
• H.R. 2606, “Sponsoring USDA Sustainability Targets in Agriculture to Incentivize Natural Solutions Act of 2021, or the ‘SUSTAINS’ Act”;
• H.R. 4140, “Butcher Block Act”;
• H.R. 7675, To amend the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 to establish an Agricultural and Food System Supply Chain Resilience and Crisis Response Task Force, and for other purposes.;
• H.R. 7606, “Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act of 2022”;
• H.R. 7763, To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to support and incentivize domestic activities to address fertilizer shortages and deficiencies, diversity fertilizer sources, and reduce depending on foreign sources for fertilizer, and other purposes;
• H.R. 7765, “American Food Supply Chain Resiliency Act of 2022”

Hearing page

Witness

• Shalanda Young, Director, United States Office of Management and Budget

The FY 2023 budget request for the White House Office of Management and Budget is $128 million, including $13 million for climate-related program activity.

During this hearing, members will hear testimony on what U.S. airports and airport stakeholders are doing to meet the challenge of the climate crisis.

Chair of the Subcommittee on Aviation Rick Larsen (D-Wash.)

Witnesses:

• Ann Ardizzone, Vice President, Supply Chain, Alaska Airlines
• Robert Horton, Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
• Pete Bunce, President and CEO, General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA)
• Jennifer Bies, Director of Environmental Operations, Port of Portland
• John Plaza, President and CEO, SkyNRG Americas Val Miftakhov, Founder and CEO, ZeroAvia

Hearing page

The FY 2023 budget request has $2.3 billion to support U.S. leadership in addressing the existential climate crisis through diplomacy; scaled-up international climate programs that accelerate the global energy transition to net zero by 2050; support to developing countries to enhance climate resilience; and the prioritization of climate adaptation and sustainability principles in Department and USAID domestic and overseas facilities. This total includes over $1.6 billion for direct programming for climate mitigation and adaptation and over $650 million for the mainstreaming of climate considerations across development programs.

Hearing page

• H.R. 7569, the “Energy Cybersecurity University Leadership Act of 2022” (Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C.), to provide scholarships for energy cybersecurity university programs
• H.R. 7361, the “National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act” (Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Ill.), to privatize the NWSChat system
• H.R. 7289, the “Federal PFAS Research Evaluation Act” (Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas), to report on public exposure to PFAS within the year and the toxicity of PFAS within two years.
• H.R. 7180, the “Brycen Gray and Ben Price COVID-19 Cognitive Research Act”, for research into potential cognitive impairment due to COVID-19

Hearing page

Witness:

• Michael S. Regan, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Briefing Memorandum: The Biden Administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2023 funding request proposes $11.881 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in discretionary funding, a $2.3 billion increase from the Agency’s FY 2022 regular enacted appropriations. The President’s budget requests funding as follows for eight overarching goals for EPA.

• “Tackle the Climate Crisis with Urgency”—$100 million for grants for states and Tribes to reduce methane emissions and increase infrastructure resiliency; an additional $35 million over FY 2021 enacted levels to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act to continue phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); and $152.2 million for developing, implementing, and ensuring compliance with national vehicle emission standards
• “Restore Critical Capacity to Carry Out EPA’s Core Mission”—over 1,900 new Full Time Equivalents (FTE) to empower EPA to continue fulfilling its goals of reducing air, climate, and water pollution; advancing environmental justice; and protecting public health
• “Advance Environmental Justice”—$615.4 million across EPA to bolster environmental justice efforts, including a new Environmental Justice National Program Manager, and $100 million for air quality monitoring programs
• “Upgrade Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Nationwide”—$4.4 billion for water infrastructure
• “Protect Communities from Hazardous Waste and Environmental Damage”—includes $1.2 billion for the Superfund program and $215 million for Brownfields remediation projects, including for grants and technical assistance
• “Strengthen the Administration’s Commitment to Successfully Implement the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and Transform the Science of New Chemical Reviews”—provides $124 million and 449 FTE for EPA to carry out efforts under the TSCA program to protect Americans from hazardous chemicals, including completing chemical risk evaluations, issuing protecting regulations, and establishing a pipeline of prioritized chemicals for risk evaluation
• “Tackle Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Pollution”—includes $126 million for the study of PFAS on human health and the environment; restricting the use of PFAS to prevent air, land, and water contamination; and PFAS remediation
• “Enforce and Assure Compliance with the Nation’s Environmental Laws”—provides $213 million for civil enforcement efforts, with specific funding directed to increase prevention of illegal HFC importations, $7 million for a coal combustion residuals compliance program, $148 million for compliance monitoring focused on underserved and overburdened communities, and $69 million for criminal enforcement efforts

Hearing page

Chair: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.)

Witnesses:

• Frank Kendall, Secretary Of The Air Force
• General Charles Q. Brown Jr., Chief Of Staff, Air Force
• General John W. Raymond, Chief Of Space Operations

The Department of the Air Force FY 2023 budget request is approximately $194.0 billion dollars, a $20.2B or 11.7% increase from the FY 2022 request. The Air Force budget of $169.5B is a $13.2B increase over the ’22 request and the Space force budget of $24.5B is a $7.1B increase; $3B of that is for inter-service transfers, the remaining $4.1B is programmatic growth.

Meeting the climate challenge:

The $1.0 million in infrastructure requirements for the deployment of non-tactical electric vehicles for the Air Force funds evaluation of the conversion of the non-tactical vehicle fleet to electric vehicles and installation-level charging infrastructure requirements to support it, as well as improve existing infrastructure.

The $105.0 million in Energy savings performance contracts (ESPC) and utility energy service contracts (UESC) for Air Force funds existing and projected Air Force performance contract payments to energy service companies for UESCs and ESPCs at Air Force installations.

The $14.2 million in management and procurement of renewable and clean energy for Air Force funds obligations under existing renewable energy power purchase contracts, where available, enabling 24/7 CFE in combination with innovative technology solutions.

The $36.2 million to deploy renewable energy, energy storage, and energy or water efficiency improvements to increase installation resilience and modernize infrastructure for Air Force enables increased energy and climate resilience through greater resource efficiency by establishing renewable energy paired with battery energy storage systems to meet mission requirements.

The $36.0 million in improvements in resilience to the expected impacts of climate change for Air Force allows for planning, design and execution of environmental resilience projects. These projects will ensure installations and facilities are climate-responsive and able to adapt to the evolving impacts of climate change, including but not limited to extreme weather events, sea level rise, drought, recurrent flooding, extreme temperatures, and permafrost melt.

$2.4 million to support the planning and installation of Electric Vehicle Support Equipment (EVSE) and leasing non-tactical ZEV.

The $5.0 million in climate impact planning for Air Force furthers the analysis of climate impacts on installations and missions, which is critical to ensuring installation development and installation energy plans effectively address such impacts. Funding will also assist in the implementation of installation climate resiliency plans which are incorporated into installation energy plans.

The $1.6 million for Air Force provides Headquarters-level personnel to support climate resilience, including planning, evaluating and executing energy resilience, climate-resilience, and carbon-free energy projects based on Executive Orders and law. These positions will support the central management of a variety of initiatives to enable climate resilience and the planning and implementation of new technologies in support of Department climate objectives.

The $59.8 million for energy-efficiency gains for existing platforms for Air Force funds operational energy investments to modify in-service aircraft with commercially-proven drag reduction technologies, modernizing the 21st century mission planning software and engine sustainment technology. This will improve aircraft performance, increase aircraft efficiency, and reduce maintenance and sustainment costs. Specifically, the C-130, KC-135, and the C-17A.

The $36.3 million in renewable energy research funds for Space Force funds the assessment of renewable energy capabilities, such as renewablepowered micro-grids with battery energy storage systems and geothermal technology, meeting 24/7 mission requirements and enabling demonstration and development of prototypes.

The $21.0 million for research into improving energy efficiency of existing platforms in Air Force funding supports improving flight line energy efficiency, by enabling the determination of appropriate energy efficiency improvements needed to meet mission requirements and climate related goals. This includes investments in state-of-the-art software, employing engine sustainment technologies to improve performance, increased use of simulation and augmented reality systems, and energy-aware behavior reducing unnecessary fuel consumption.

The $55.0 million in research for energy-efficient new platforms for Air Force supports the Service Climate Action Plan to include pursuing energy efficiencies in aircraft, such as the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) system development to leverage dual-use emerging commercial technologies. One such technology, the Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion Aircraft Demonstrator (SHEPARD), is a step towards aircraft electric propulsion that could prove a pollution free air travel option and increase the energy efficiency of air travel.

The $0.4 million in measurement and modeling of climate impacts for Air Force supports the development of modern weather sensor and components to mitigate risk due to lack of warning of impending severe weather. More accurate weather information integrated into mission planning and execution can reduce fuel consumption, decrease re-attack sorties, and improve mission effectiveness.

The $0.9 million to reduce soldier risks from climate impacts in Air Force funding supports the integration of host nation weather radar data into the United States Air Force data display, interrogation, and exploitation platforms. This funding will greatly improve the forecasting and warning for severe or extreme weather events for defense facilities outside the continental United States.

The $2.5 million in climate war games for Air Force supports efforts for black-start exercises to assess that our installations are ready and capable of withstanding utility disruptions caused by extreme weather or malevolent acts. These exercises highlight needed utility improvements to support mission assurance, energy resilience, and climate-response.

The $1.1 million in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief support to civil authorities for Air Force enhances the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Global Synthetic Weather Radar project to reduce gap coverage of global radar mosaics and mitigate risk due to lack of warning of impending severe weather. These modernization efforts will enhance capability for the timely identification of environmental events impacting military operations globally. Funding will also ensure proper sustainment of climate services at higher enclaves to Combatant Commands, the Intelligence Community, advanced acquisition programs, and planning communities. It also includes necessary cybersecurity oversight to protect defense information systems from cyber threats.

Hearing page

NIH Budget Requests

Witnesses:

• Dr. Lawrence Tabak, Acting Director, National Institutes of Health
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Dr. Gary Gibbons, Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Dr. Joshua Gordon, Director, National Institute of Mental Health
• Dr. Richard Hodes, Director, National Institute on Aging
• Dr. Nora Volkow, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse

$1 billion of the National Cancer Institute’s $6.7 billion budget request is for research in carcinogens.

The FY2023 budget request for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is $932.1 million for non-Superfund-related activities, including the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative and the Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal. NIEHS separately runs the Superfund Research Program and Worker Training Program, with a FY 2023 Budget Request of $83.0 million.

Hearing page

The Committee stands in recess, and will reconvene on Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 10:00 AM EDT in H-313, The Capitol to consider the following measures:

• H.R. 350—Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022
• H.R. 7688—Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act

Text of H.R. 7688