Hill Heat

A Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology hearing entitled “Protecting our Preparedness: Assessing the Impact of the Border Crisis on Emergency Management”.

Witnesses:

• Bruce Blakeman, County Executive, Nassau County, New York, Office of the County Executive
• David Favro, Sheriff, Clinton County, New York, Sheriff’s Office, on behalf of National Sheriff’s Association
• Andrew Ansbro, President, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York
• Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director, New York Immigration Coalition

A full committee hearing entitled “The U.S. Border Crisis and the American Solution to an International Problem”.

Witnesses:

• Chad Wolf, Executive Director, Chief Strategy Officer, and Chair, America First Policy Institute
• Gene Hamilton, Vice-President and General Counsel, America First Legal

On Thursday, November 30, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. ET, the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs will hold a hearing titled “Digging Deeper: Ensuring Safety and Security in the Critical Mineral Supply Chain.”

The Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight and the Subcommittee on Environment will hold a hearing entitled “Missing the Target: CEQ’s Meritless Selection of SBTi,” to examine the Administration’s recently proposed regulation titled “Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk.” The proposed regulation would require that federal contractors disclose their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to a foreign entity and set science-based targets to reduce their GHG emissions. The hearing will examine the selection process of Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a partnership between CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

This hearing was rescheduled from November 14th.

Hearing charter

Witness:

• Andrew Mayock, Chief Sustainability Officer, Council on Environmental Quality

On May 20, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14030 (E.O. 14030), Climate-Related Financial Risk. E.O. 14030 seeks to require major federal suppliers to, “publicly disclose greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks.” On November 14, 2022, the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council (FAR Council) in coordination with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulations to implement E.O. 14030. If implemented, the proposed rule would separate major federal suppliers into several categories: significant contractors and major contractors. The proposed rule loosely defines a significant contractor as a contractor that received between $7.5 million and $50 million in federal funds during the prior fiscal year. A major contractor is defined as a contractor that received more than $50 million in fiscal funds during the prior fiscal year. The rule would require both significant and major contractors to disclose Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions, while requiring major contractors to disclose Scope 3 GHG emissions and set science-based reduction targets.

On September 20, 2023, the Committee held a hearing entitled, “A Bar Too High: Concerns with CEQ’s Proposed Regulatory Hurdle for Federal Contracting,” in which stakeholders who would be subject to the rule testified on its impacts. However, this hearing did not have any witness from the Administration and garnered little information on the internal processes leading to the selection of SBTi.

CEQ has agreed to testify about the process used in selecting SBTi as well as the overall goals of the proposed rule. However, to protect the integrity of the rulemaking process, CEQ indicated to the Committee by phone that it will not testify to internal deliberations that are currently ongoing, what the final rule would look like, or actions taken by the FAR Council in relation to this proposed rule.

Full committee hearing to consider the following nominations.

Nominees:

• Dr. Basil Ivanhoe Gooden, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development, vice Xochitl Torres Small
• Summer K. Mersinger, of South Dakota, to be a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for a term expiring April 13, 2028 (Reappointment)

The purpose of this hearing is to examine opportunities and challenges associated with advanced nuclear reactor commercialization.

Full committee hearing.

Witnesses:

• Ryan Peay, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Resource Sustainability, Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, U.S. Department of Energy
• Dr. Jef Caers, Professor of Earth & Planetary Science and Director of Stanford Mineral-X, Stanford University
• Drew Horn, Chief Executive Officer, GreenMet
• Dr. Dustin Mulvaney, Professor of Environmental Studies, San Jose State University
• Thomas E. Baroody, President & Chief Executive Officer, K-Technologies, Inc.

On Thursday, November 30, 2023, at 10:00 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a legislative hearing on the following bill:

• H.R. ___ (Rep. Westerman), “Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act” or the “EXPLORE Act”.

Chairman Westerman (R-AR) and Ranking Member Grijalva (D-AZ) will introduce the bipartisan “Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act” during the week of November 27th.

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Chris French, Deputy Chief of the National Forest System, U.S. Forest Service
• Michael T. Reynolds, Deputy Director for Congressional and External Relations, National Park Service
• Jessica Wahl Turner, President, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable
• Katherine Andrews, Director – Office of Outdoor Recreation, Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism
• Sasha DiGiulian, Professional Rock Climber, Boulder, Colorado
• Luis Benitez, Chief Impact Officer, Trust for Public Land [Minority Witness]

Overview schedule of COP 28 at Expo City Dubai. Dubai (Gulf Standard Time) is 9 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

As mandated by the Paris Climate Agreement, COP 28 will deliver the first ever Global Stocktake – a comprehensive evaluation of progress against climate goals.

• Twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28)
• Eighteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 18)
• Fifth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 5)
• Fifty-ninth session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 59)
• Fifty-ninth session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 59)

Day One Schedule:

• Opening Ceremony
• Opening COP/CMP/CM
• Opening SBSTA/SBI

Mandated events:

• RM Technical Event (p.m.)
• RM Technical Event-private sector (p.m.)

On Wednesday, November 29, 2023, at 2:00 p.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries and the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold a joint oversight hearing titled “Examining the Biden Administration’s Offshore Wind Development Policy.”