Hill Heat

The House National Security and Department of State Appropriations Subcommittee (formerly State-Foreign Operations) will hold a hearing entitled “Mexico’s Water Treaty Violations and the Impact on Americans,” to discuss frustrations with the 1944 Water Treaty, under which the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River.

“The panel will focus on Mexico’s looming shortfall on deliveries of flows from the Rio Grande to Texas farmers, which total more than 1.3 million acre-feet ahead of an October deadline.”

Witnesses:

• Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas)
• Jed Murray, Director of Government Relations, Texas International Produce Association *. Dale Murden, Grower and President, Texas Citrus Mutual
• Jennifer Cervantes Washington Representative, Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers

E&E News: House appropriators dig into US-Mexico water spat

Full Committee on Agriculture hearing.

RE: “Examining the Economic Crisis in Farm Country”

Witnesses:

• Dr. John Newton, Executive Head, Terrain, Washington, D.C.
• Alisha Schwertner, Owner, Eric and Alisha Schwertner Farms, Miles, TX
• Ryan Talley, Partner, Talley Farms, Arroyo Grande, CA on behalf of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance
• Rodney M. Weinzierl, Owner, Weinzierl Farms, Stanford, IL

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust will hold a hearing on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The hearing is entitled “Reining in the Administrative State: Regulatory and Administrative Law Reform.”

Witnesses

• Rick Smith, CEO, Axon Enterprise
• Magatte Wade, libertarian
• Dr. Patrick McLaughlin, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution

This is a hearing of the subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

Witnesses:

• Robert D. Singletary, Executive Director, Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality
• Shawn M. LaTourette, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• Noah Hanners, Executive Vice President, Nucor Corporation, on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers
• Buddy Hasten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, on behalf of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

Trump is on a mission to ‘Drill Baby Drill’ and forging an unholy alliance of Big Oil and Big Tech to ravage our planet. But, we are not powerless. Our climate coalition is joining forces to mount an opposition that can work to stop the worst of the Oil Oligarchs’ agenda.

Join our LIVE Climate Forum this Monday to strategize with climate leaders from Our Revolution, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Zero Hour, and the new End Polluter Handouts Coalition. The virtual forum kicks off at 8:30pm ET / 5:30 PT Monday, Feb. 10th.

With leaders from:

• Zero Hour
• Greenpeace
• Friends of the Earth
• End Polluter Handouts Coalition

RSVP

Join Indivisible, Progressive Change Institute, MoveOn, Americans for Financial Reform, and CFPB Union NTEU 335 to Rally at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Maxine Waters to fight back against Elon Musk’s attempt to kill it. The people rely on this agency to protect against corporate exploitation and bank fraud. Musk is trying to eliminate it, but we’re ready to unite and fight back.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are attempting to kill this essential agency that protects Americans from fraud and exploitation at the hands of banks and corporations. Regular people rely on CFPB every day to protect their money and their livelihoods—and Elon Musk is trying to eliminate it.

Over the weekend, the acting head of the CFPB demanded all investigations within the bureau stop, and shut down headquarters for the next week. Now, Democrats in Congress, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, are going to demand answers and advocate for their constituents. United, we will tell the American people why this fight matters and how it will impact their lives.

While Trump has handed over the keys to the federal government to a billionaire saboteur, we will stand with the people and fight back. CFPB has saved the people over $21 billion in compensation, canceled debts, and consumer relief, benefitting over 205 million Americans. When Elon Musk talks about “saving money” by eliminating CFPB, he really means taking money from US.

Musk has shown us he wants to slash Meals on Wheels, shutter preschools, end school lunches for kids in need, while advancing his business interests and helping Trump push more tax cuts for billionaires and allies like him. CFPB is more important than ever in the midst of a billionaire takeover. Join us on Monday afternoon from 4:15 pm to 6 pm for a rally at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to tell Elon: It’s our CFPB, not his.

A core principle behind this event is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.

CFPB Building
1700 G St NW

The Committee on Rules will meet Monday, February 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM ET in H-313, The Capitol on the following measure:

• H.R. 77 – Midnight Rules Relief Act, to amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for en bloc consideration in resolutions of disapproval for “midnight rules.” Introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)

Save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau!

Every day, the dedicated employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) work to protect American consumers from predatory financial practices and ensure a fair marketplace. Now, as Elon Musk and his allies gain unprecedented access to sensitive CFPB data and call for the agency’s elimination, we’re standing together to protect our vital mission. We have returned over $19 billion to consumers at a cost of $0 to taxpayers. We’re united in our mission to serve the public, and we won’t let wealthy special interests compromise the consumer protections Americans count on. Join us as we stand strong for the CFPB and its essential mission of consumer protection. Your voice matters in this fight.

Don’t let Musk and his DOGE lackeys shut us down.

11 am - 1 pm, outside CFPB headquarters

1700 G St NW
Washington, DC

Wired:

In an email early Friday morning, CFPB staff were told that several people from DOGE—including Nikhil Rajpal and Gavin Kliger (along with Chris Young, who has been described as a Republican political adviser connected with Elon Musk)—entered the agency building Thursday evening. The email stated that they would require access to CFPB data, systems, and equipment, following a message sent Thursday by CFPB chief operating officer Adam Martinez confirming that the DOGE employees were to receive “read-only” access.

NPR

Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was confirmed as CFPB’s acting director following the firing of former head Rohit Chopra. When Bessent took over earlier this week, staff members were told to stop all of the agency’s work “unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law,” according to an internal email shared with NPR.

Wall Street Journal:

Russell Vought took over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Friday night, adding another twist at the banking watchdog that has landed in the crosshairs of Republicans and Elon Musk. Vought, who Thursday was confirmed by the Senate as the head of the Office of Management and Budget, is now the acting director of the CFPB, he emailed to top staff at the agency. The new leader comes days after Trump fired the Biden-era leader and put in place Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who immediately froze the agency’s work. Musk earlier Friday had posted “CFPB RIP” on his X social-media platform with an emoji of a tombstone. The Friday evening email from Vought ordered the DOGE officials to be granted access to all “non-classified” CFPB systems.

CFPB union NTEU 355 issued an initial, fiery statement that was replaced by a more sobering one:

CFPB Union NTEU 335 Members are alarmed about the implications of these reports for the CFPB’s sensitive, nonpublic data. For example, the CFPB has gathered a wealth of proprietary information from big tech payment platforms that could be exploited by someone with a conflict of interest to corner the payments industry. A potential breach could also have serious ramifications for banks and other CFPB-supervised institutions that incur significant costs to both safeguard their customer’s personally identifiable information (PII) and meet their obligations under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and other consumer financial laws.

Each morning, a peaceful protest outside of the Office of Personnel Management headquarters at 1900 E St NW from 7:30 am to 8:30 am, with coffee and donuts.

Bring megaphones and friends and a fork or spoon. Wear a mask.

Take the security measures right for you.

After climate-denier-for-hire Lee Zeldin was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency with the backing of all Republicans plus Arizona’s Democratic senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego and John Fetterman (D-Pa.), over 1,100 EPA employees were told they would soon be fired. More than 300 career staff have already left. Musk lieutenant Gautier Cole Killian is now inside the EPA.

On Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 2:30PM ET, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), climate and environmental advocates, union workers, and members of Congress will hold a rally and press conference outside the Environmental Protection Agency to demand that the Trump administration end its unlawful cut-off of funding to Environmental Protection Agency programs for clean air, clean water, and climate action that were authorized and appropriated by Congress.

Despite court orders requiring the restart of funding, Trump administration officials have failed to release money for Inflation Reduction Act and clean school bus programs as required by law—leaving communities without resources to fight dangerous pollution. While this unconstitutional funding seizure is taking place, unelected billionaire Elon Musk has taken over the federal government in order to target the EPA employees who keep our communities safe.

At this press conference, lawmakers, workers, and advocates will highlight programs still affected by illegal funding cut-offs and attacks on our democracy, as well as demand that Musk cease his baseless attacks on the EPA’s work to tackle pollution and protect public health and the environment.

RSVP