The Committee on Rules will
meet
on Monday, June 13, 2022 at 2:00 PM EDT in
H-313, The Capitol on the following measures:
H.R. 2543—Federal Reserve
Racial and Economic Equity Act [Financial Services Racial Equity,
Inclusion, and Economic Justice Act]
H.R. 2773—Recovering
America’s Wildlife Act of 2021
H.R. 7606—Meat and Poultry
Special Investigator Act of 2022 [Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act]
H.R. 7606 includes
language
to waive Clean Air Act restrictions on ethanol blending and new support
for ethanol and biodiesel.
H.R. 2773, which will fund multi-stakeholder efforts to conserve and
monitor at-risk species, known in states as Species of Greatest
Conservation Need (SGCN), is supported by The Wildlife
Society.
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a
briefing on policies and practices to address
wildfires.
Billions of dollars are spent fighting wildfires every year, and the
cascading economic, health, and societal impacts of wildfires are
enormous. Compounding these challenges, wildfires also release
greenhouse gases and harmful aerosols into the atmosphere. Over the last
century, battling wildfires after they have started has been the main
approach to address this threat. Yet, with record-setting fire seasons
happening almost every year, more proactive and preventative steps are
needed.
Panelists will discuss policies and practices that would allow the
United States to reduce the overall risk of wildfires, including how
innovations in community-centered wildfire protection can improve
resilience for humans and ecosystems.
Speakers
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.)
Carly Phillips, Western States Climate Team Fellow, Union of Concerned
Scientists
Kimiko Barrett, Wildfire Research & Policy Lead, Headwaters Economics
Margo Robbins, Executive Director, Cultural Fire Management Council
Steve Bowen, Managing Director and Head of Catastrophe Insight, Aon
The purpose of the
hearing
is to examine the President’s budget request for the U.S. Forest Service
for Fiscal Year 2023.
Witness:
Randy
Moore,
Chief, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
The FY 2023 President’s Budget for the
USDA Forest Service discretionary
appropriations totals $9 billion, including $2.21 billion for the
wildfire suppression cap adjustment (in the Wildfire Suppression
Operations Reserve Fund). In addition to discretionary appropriations,
the request includes $743 million in mandatory funding for Permanent and
Trust funds. To address the wildfire crisis we are facing, the
FY 2023 request focuses on risk-based wildland
fire management; compensation for wildland firefighters; tackling the
climate crisis; improving infrastructure, providing economic relief and
supporting jobs; and advancing racial equity. To improve the conditions
we are seeing on the ground, it will take use of the best available
science; hard work shoulder to shoulder with partners; use of all the
tools in our toolbox; and a robust workforce.
Climate change is causing historic droughts in the West and placing
water supplies and other natural resources at risk. Carbon sequestration
is vital for combating climate change. Forests take up vast quantities
of carbon in trees and soils—in fact, forests are America’s largest
terrestrial carbon sink. Our forests, plus harvested wood products and
urban forests, offset almost 15 percent of the Nation’s total carbon
dioxide emissions and almost 12 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
The National Forest System alone stores almost 14 billion metric tons of
carbon, or about a quarter of the Nation’s carbon storage in forests.
Each year, the National Forest System adds about 31 million metric tons
of carbon of net gain.
Many ecosystems nationwide are degrading and losing habitat for our
native plants and wildlife. Climate change is altering environmental
conditions nationwide. Drought has contributed to outbreaks of insects
and disease that have killed tens of millions of acres of forest across
the West. Changing environmental conditions have lengthened fire seasons
into fire years and worsened wildfires across the West. At the same time
our forests are becoming more overgrown and unhealthy. Expanding
development into the wildland urban interface puts more homes into
fire-prone landscapes. One American home in three is now in the
wildland/urban interface, increasing wildfire risk to these communities,
because 80-90 percent of all wildfires are human-caused.
Amos
Hochstein,
Presidential Coordinator, U.S. Department of State
Make no mistake, though, we have been working in lockstep with Europe
to respond through decisive actions. Our close cooperation started in
the fall of 2021, when we began working to divert
LNG cargoes to Europe. We continued these
efforts through the winter to help Europe avoid winter blackouts and
shortages. And the United States continues to play its part in
supporting European energy security. In the first four months of 2022,
EU and UK imports of LNG from the United
States have more than tripled when compared with 2021. U.S. companies
on average shipped 7.3 billion cubic feet of
LNG per day to the region and accounted for
49 percent of the region’s total LNG
imports. The United States is now the largest supplier of natural gas
to Europe.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Europe and Regional Security Cooperation Subcommittee
On Thursday, June 9, 2022, at 9:30 A.M. ET, in 1324 Longworth
HOB and via Cisco Webex, the Subcommittee on
Energy and Mineral Resources will hold a hybrid legislative
hearing
and will consider the following legislation:
H.R. 2073 (Rep. John Yarmuth), Appalachian Communities Health
Emergency Act or the ACHE Act
H.R. 2505 (Rep. Matt Cartwright), Coal Cleanup Taxpayer Protection Act
H.R. 4799 (Rep. Matt Cartwright), Coal Royalty Fairness and
Communities Investment Act of 2021
H.R. 7283 (Rep. Matt Cartwright), Safeguarding Treatment for the
Restoration of Ecosystems from Abandoned Mines Act or the
STREAM Act
Dr. Joseph
Janzen,
Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Consumer
Economics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Robert
Craven,
Extension Economist and Associate Director, Center for Farm Financial
Management, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
Dr. Ronald L.
Rainey,
Assistant Vice President and Professor / Director, University of
Arkansas System Division of Agriculture / Southern Risk Management
Education Center, University of Arkansas
Dr. Joe
Outlaw,
Professor and Extension Economist and Co-Director, Agricultural and
Food Policy Center, Texas A&M University
House Agriculture Committee
General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee
