Hill Heat

The Subcommittee on Environment will hold a legislative hearing on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “From Gridlock to Growth: Permitting Reform Under the Clean Air Act.” The hearing will focus potential reforms to permitting and environmental reviews under the Clean Air Act.

Hearing memo

Legislation:

• H.R. 161, New Source Review Permitting Improvement Act (Rep. Griffith)
• H.R. ____, Fire Improvement and Reforming Exceptional Events Act (FIRE) Act
• H.R. ____, Reducing and Eliminating Duplicative Environmental Regulations Act (RED Tape) Act
• H.R. ____, Foreign Emissions and Nonattainment Clarification for Economic Stability (FENCES) Act
• H.R. ____, Air Permitting Improvements to Protect National Security Act

Witnesses:

• Clint Woods, Commissioner, Indiana Department of Environmental Management
• Mark Gebbia, Vice President, Environment and Permitting, Williams
• Ashley Kunz, Senior Director, Environmental Health and Safety, Micron
• Danny Seiden, President and CEO, Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Keri Powell, Senior Attorney for Community Health and Air Program Leader, Southern Environmental Law Center

A Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology hearing entitled, “Surveying the Threat of Agroterrorism: Perspectives on Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense.”

Witnesses:

• Daniel K. Wims, Ph.D., President, Alabama A&M University
• Cris Young, DVM, MPH, DACVPM, COL USA (Ret.), Professor of Practice, College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University
• Marty Vanier, DVM, Director, National Agricultural Biosecurity Center, Associate Director, Biosecurity Research Institute, Kanas State University
• Asha M. George, DrPH, Executive Director, Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense

On Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at 2:00 pm ET, the Subcommittee on Elections of the Committee on House Administration will hold a hearing titled, “Maintaining Election Operations in the Face of Natural Disasters.” The hearing will be held in room 1310 of the Longworth House Office Building.

Witnesses:

• Karen Brinson Bell, Former Executive Director, North Carolina State Board of Elections
• Cord Byrd, Secretary of State of Florida, Office of the Florida Secretary of State
• Stacy Eggers IV, Eggers, Eggers, Eggers, & Eggers, PLLC

Subcommittee hearing.

Witnesses:

• Kory Willis, Owner & Founder, PPEI Custom Tuning
• Justin Savage, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
• Eric Schaeffer (Minority Witness), Former Executive Director (Retired 2025), Environmental Integrity Project

Willis’s company sells defeat devices. His business was hit by Hurricane Laura and then by Hurricane Delta in 2020.

Savage testimony:

It is not disputed that defeat devices are generally prohibited by the CAA. What is disputed, however, is whether EPA and the Justice Department can prosecute the sale, distribution, or installation of such products criminally.

Full committee hearing.

Witnesses:

• Michael Frantz, President, Frantz Wholesale Nursery, LLC, Hickman, CA
• Dr. Ramesh Sagili, Professor, Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
• Dr. Tim Boring, Director, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lansing, MI, on behalf of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture
• Dana Brennan, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Grimmway Farms, Bakersfield, CA

On Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at 10:15 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold an oversight hearing titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

Panel I

• Nagruk Harcharek, President, Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, Anchorage, AK
• Deantha Skibinski, Executive Director, Alaska Miners Association, Anchorage, AK
• Dutch Kuyper, Vice President, Lands and Development, Cook Inlet Region, Inc., Anchorage, AK
• John Christensen Jr., Tribal President, Native Village of Port Heiden, Port Heiden, AK (Minority witness)

Panel II

• Ethan Tyler, Senior Director, Public Policy and Lands, Aleut, Anchorage, AK
• Clark Penney, President, Penney Capital, Anchorage, AK
• Clarence Clark, Owner, Southeast Alaska Resources, Ketchikan, AK
• Philip Wight, Associate Professor of History and Arctic & Northern Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK (Minority witness)

The Subcommittee on Energy will hold a hearing on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at 10:15 a.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “Appliance and Building Policies: Restoring the American Dream of Home Ownership and Consumer Choice.”

Hearing memo

The hearing will review the following legislation:

• H.R. 4626, Don’t Mess with My Home Appliances Act (Rep. Allen)
• H.R. 4758, Homeowner Energy Freedom Act (Rep. Goldman)
• H.R. 3699, Energy Choice Act (Rep. Langworthy)
• H.R. 3474, Federal Mechanical Insulation Act (Rep. Weber)
• H.R. 4593, Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing (SHOWER) Act (Rep. Fry)
• H.R. 4690, Reliable Federal Infrastructure Act (Rep. Langworthy)
• H.R. 5184, Affordable Housing Over Mandating Efficiency Standards (Affordable HOMES) Act (Rep. Houchin)
• H.R. 1355, Weatherization Enhancement and Readiness Act of 2025 (Rep. Tonko)

Witnesses:

• Jeff Novak, Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Department of Energy
• George Lowe, Vice President of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy, American Gas Association
• Jennifer Cleary, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
• Brian Tebbenkamp, President and Owner, Patriot Homes Inc.
• Andrew deLaski, Executive Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project

Subcommittee hearing on geoengineering and weather modification entitled “Playing God with the Weather – A Disastrous Forecast.”

Witnesses:

• Roger Pielke Jr., Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
• Christopher Martz, Meteorologist/Policy Analyst, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow

Pielke and Martz are both climate deniers.

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and U.S. Representatives Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) and Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) will join 20 Governors and leaders from the Santa Ana, Picuris, Cochiti, Zia, Tesuque, Acoma, Santo Domingo, and Laguna Pueblos to host a press conference on permanently protecting Chaco Canyon.

The press conference will be held at the Capitol House Triangle in Washington D.C. to urge Congress and the Trump Administration to uphold protections for the Greater Chaco region.

WHERE: Capitol House Triangle, Washington, D.C.

Speakers:

• U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
• U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.)
• U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.)
• Pueblo Governors and leaders

Located in northwestern New Mexico, the Greater Chaco landscape is a region of great cultural, spiritual, and historical significance to many Pueblos and Tribes that contains living sacred sites. Chaco was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and is one of only 24 such sites in the United States.

In 2023, the Biden Administration announced it would commence a 20-year Administrative Withdrawal of non-Indian federal lands in the 10-mile buffer zone. That welcome step has been successful and is still in place but is under threat from the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress.

In April, Heinrich, Leger Fernández, Stansbury, and the rest of the N.M. Delegation reintroduced legislation to protect Chaco Canyon and the greater sacred landscape surrounding the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The legislation will prevent future leasing and development of oil, gas, and minerals on non-Indian federal lands within a 10-mile buffer zone around the park. This proposed Chaco Protection Zone will preserve the sacred sites and cultural patrimony within Chaco Canyon and the surrounding landscape for generations to come.

In June, Heinrich, Leger Fernández, Stansbury, and the rest of the N.M. delegation sent a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum expressing deep concern over the Department’s actions to begin the process of revoking protections around Chaco Canyon in Public Land Order No. 7923.

The Committee on Rules will meet Monday, September 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM ET in H-313, The Capitol on the following measures:

• H.R. 1047 – Guaranteeing Reliability through the Interconnection of Dispatchable Power Act
• H. R. 3062 – Promoting Cross-border Energy Infrastructure Act
• H. R. 3015 – National Coal Council Reestablishment Act
• H. R. 4922 – DC CRIMES Act of 2025
• H. R. 5143 – District of Columbia Policing Protection Act of 2025
• H. R. 5140 – To lower the age at which a minor may be tried as an adult for certain criminal offenses in the District of Columbia to 14 years of age.
• H. R. 5125 – District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act of 2025