Climate science, policy, politics, and action
Subcommittee hearing.
Witness:
Witness:
The Administration requested $18.829 billion for NASA in FY27. This represents a decrease of $5.61 billion (23%) from FY26 enacted appropriations, including a 46% cut in the science budget.
The FY27 request for the Earth Science Division is $1.02 billion, a decrease of $1.13 billion (52.6%) from FY26 enacted. The Earth Science Division focuses on deepening our understanding of our home planet and its interconnected systems. The FY27 request supports one final government satellite for the Landsat program, while supporting advancements to Sustained Land Imaging to enable a commercial solution for Landsat. The request reduces funding for Earth System Explorers’ Future missions, with planned adjustments to the implementation schedule for the mission selected for FY26. Additionally, the request reduces funding for Earth Science Technology, terminating or delaying activities within the Instrument Incubator project and Advanced Technology Initiatives.
Biological and Physical Sciences: The FY27 budget request for the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division is $25 million, a $61 million decrease (70.9%) from FY26 enacted. The Division supports research in space to obtain insights into how biological and physical systems function under altered gravity and deep-space radiation. BPS has five goals, which align with the 2023-2032 Decadal Survey, in Quantum Leaps, Precision Health, Space Crops, Foundations, and Space Labs. Under reduced funding, the budget request focuses support on two new projects: Exploration Science and Quantum Science. The Exploration Science project supports research efforts on high-priority activities to support future Moon and Mars missions. Building on organchip research from Artemis II, scientists will use microphysiological systems (tiny models of human tissue) to study how space conditions affect health. The Quantum Science project funds the Cold Atom Laboratory, currently conducting experiments on the ISS, along with other experiments used to further NASA’s understanding of physics and scientific theories.
The Administration’s FY27 budget requests no funding for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM). OSTEM manages four projects: National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project (Space Grant), Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP), and Next Generation STEM project (Next Gen STEM), all proposed to be cut by the request. The request proposes to use the remaining balances under OSTEM to support the closeout of OSTEM activities.
Join We Power DC, the Energy Democracy Coalition (EDCO), and author Sandeep Vaheesan (Democracy in Power) for a deep dive into the history and future of public power. Learn how movements across the country and in the nation’s capital are reshaping America’s electric grid!
We Power DC is a grassroots coalition of residents and organizations dedicated to replacing DC’s corporate utility monopoly with a publicly owned, democratically controlled electric grid that prioritizes affordability and decarbonization. To learn more, visit: WePowerDC.org
The Energy Democracy Coalition (EDCO) is a nonprofit building a movement for an affordable, accountable, and sustainable electric grid through public education, media, and strategic advocacy campaigns. Their primary focus is developing Shock the Grid, a groundbreaking documentary about the century-long struggle for control of the American electric grid, using history as a lens to explore the most profound question facing humanity: how will we wield our tremendous power? To learn more, visit: EnergyDemocracyCoalition.org
The American Institute of Architects
1735 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20006, USA
Floor 2: The Commons Room
Full committee markup.
Subcommittee markup held on April 17.
MilCon:
The fiscal year 2027 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, together with advance funding provided in the fiscal year 2026 bill, provides $481 billion for fiscal year 2027, an increase of $31.9 billion, or 7.1 percent, above current funding levels. Of this amount, discretionary funding for programs such as veterans’ health care and military construction totals $157 billion, an increase of $20.2 billion above fiscal year 2026. The bill also provides advance funding of $445.7 billion for fiscal year 2028 but does not include $53.7 billion in advance funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund.
The MilCon-VA bill was reported favorably as amended 58 to 0 at 2:30 pm.
FSGG:
The fiscal year 2027 Financial Services and General Government funding bill includes $25.3 billion, a decrease of $635 million, or 2.4 percent, below the comparable level for fiscal year 2026, and $1.5 billion, or 6.2 percent, above the request.
Riders included:
Data centers are growing like a second coal industry. Each one may consume a city’s worth of water and electricity - mostly generated by fossil fuels. For example, people in Memphis are breathing polluted air thanks to Elon Musk’s Colossus data center and his Grok AI. In the climate crisis, vulnerable people worldwide will die because of data centers. Through the sheer dominance of their owners, these machines are also becoming a second government of the United States - or replacing the one we thought we knew. DOGE, Pallantir, and OpenAI promise to surveil us, deport us, and send drones to kill unwanted humans. This “techno-state” brings us to the threshold of dystopian sci-fi.
So, we will convene in Washington, DC, the heart of the modern Techno Goliath State, and expose how their data centers are destroying our environment and threatening our democracy. We will begin with a tour of the tech oligarchy where speakers will expose how they are driving the techno-state. Finally, we’ll conclude at the Data Center World Conference, the cabal of industry executives and political enablers, for a rally where we will raise our voices to demand a MORATORIUM ON NEW DATA CENTERS.
We anticipate the action at the Data Center Conference will end at approx. 12:30 pm and be followed by a lunch in Mount Vernon Square (tentative location).
Volunteers are needed; please consider volunteering for an action role listed to the right.
There is also a possibility that we will follow up lunch with a mock people’s assembly on a data centre at Apple Carnegie that will debate a moratorium on data centers. Rally attendees will have an opportunity to sign up to stay on site after lunch and either participate in, or support, the people’s assembly. More details to follow.
Apple Carnegie Library• 801 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20001
On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at 10:30 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources will meet to consider:
Legislative hearing on H.R. 3756, November 19.
Legislative hearing for H.R. 1687, December 16.
Legislative hearing on H.R. 1501, H.R. 5929, February 24.
Full committee hearing.
Witness:
The Budget requests $53.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for DOE, a $4.8 billion or nearly 10-percent increase from the 2026 enacted level excluding the Working Families Tax Cut Act (WFTC) funding. Within the requested amount, $32.8 billion is allocated to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a $3.6 billion or 12-percent increase from the 2026 enacted level (including WFTC funding). The remaining $21.1 billion refects a $2.7 billion or 11-percent reduction from the 2026 enacted level.
IIJA funds redirected to $3.5 billion to “deploy firm baseload power” and $1.2 billion for AI to support seven AI supercomputers at the Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
The Budget reproposes the cancellation of $15.2 billion in IIJA funding.
DOE abolished the EERE office in 2026.
Office of Science (–$1.1 billion): The Budget eliminates funding for climate change research.
Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) (–$150 million).
The Budget prohibits the use of Federal funds for subscriptions to academic journals unless required by Federal statute or approved in advance by a Federal agency
Climate and environmental data underpins trillions of dollars in decisions. But the systems that produce and sustain the data are more fragile than they appear. The ecosystem has long been fragmented, and current pressures are now disrupting the decades of specialized expertise, investments, and networks that hold it together.
Join experts during DC Climate Week for Climate & Environmental Data Day, which will explore how organizations are responding to these disruptions, building new coordination mechanisms, and reimagining what a climate and environmental data ecosystem can look like. Co-organized by the Data Foundation, the Impact Project, Open Environmental Data Project (OEDP), the Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP), the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), this full-day event features leaders from academia, government, the private sector and civil society at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Keck Building.
Attendees will have the chance to connect with others working on climate and environmental data and learn how a community of like-minded organizations are coordinating to move the field forward. This is a drop-in event, so feel free to come and go throughout the day. The program runs from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM, with confirmed speakers listed below and more to be announced.
9:30 AM | Plenary Speaker
9:45 AM | Rapid Response in Action: How Organizations Are Keeping Critical Information Flowing
10:45 AM | Building More Resilient, Interconnected Systems Across Networks, Scales, and Sectors
11:30 AM | Former Federal Leaders on Implementation Realities, Success Stories, and the Challenges You Don’t See
1:15 PM | How Political Leaders Connect Climate and Environmental Data to Action
2:00 PM | Building Resilient Data Systems Beyond Federal Government
3:00 PM | Building Toward Connectivity: The Technical Choices That Get Us There
Please join us for a Happy Hour following the event!
The Keck Center of the National Academies | 500 5th Street NW, Washington DC
Federal and local policies meet community-driven action! Explore resilience planning through the lens of community action and partnerships in Washington D.C.
When: Tuesday, April 21, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. (Coffee and doors at 8:15 a.m.)
Where: School of Media & Public Affairs TV Studio, 5th Floor
805 21st St NW, Washington, DC 20052
Community support and action are key elements of sustainable climate resilience. Hear firsthand how local DC communities are experiencing climate issues and the steps they are taking, including partnerships with private, academic, and public organizations, to address these challenges.
Presented at DC Climate Week, on April 21, join ASF, D.C. community advocates, climate experts, and decision-makers at the GW SMPA TV Studio for an urgent conversation on climate resilience and local action. We aren’t just talking about the problems, we’re looking at the blueprints for change.
From the halls of federal government to the streets of our D.C. neighborhoods, our conversation will explore the importance of community involvement in resilience planning.
A Federal Deep Dive: We’ll look at what federal and city governments are doing, and what more they could be doing to support local resilience.
A D.C. Case Study: Hear from local activists, planners, and researchers on shaping plans for resilience at the neighborhood level.
Live studio audience space is limited. Register now to secure a spot!
Panel sessions with speakers and moderators including:
Sandra Whitehead, Director, Sustainable Urban Planning, The George Washington University College of Professional Studies
Have a question you’d like the panel to address? Submit it here!
Full committee business meeting in conjunction with the 5:30pm floor vote.
First nomination hearing on November 5, 2025.
Nominee:
Glen R. Smith of Atlantic, Iowa has spent most of his life engaged in farming and agri-business. Smith was the chair of the Farm Credit Administration from 2019 to 2022, after being appointed to the board of directors by Trump in 2017. He is a graduate of Iowa State University. Smith and his wife Fauzan have four grown children and six grandchildren.
Smith is founder and co-owner of Smith Land Service Company, an ag service company that specializes in farm management, land appraisal, and farmland brokerage, serving about 30 Iowa counties. The Smith family farm, Smith Generation Farms in western Iowa, has grown to encompass roughly 2,000 acres devoted to corn, soybeans, hay, and a small beef cow herd.