Climate science, policy, politics, and action
Subcommittee hearing.
Witness:
The purpose of this hearing is to examine the current state of U.S. surface transportation research and to better understand the research and development issues relevant to authorizing surface transportation programs. The hearing will explore the breadth of existing surface transportation research efforts. Reviewing the scope of this work will help inform future legislative actions the Committee may consider to advance surface transportation innovation
Location: 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Subcommittee: Subcommittee on Research and Technology
Witnesses:
Furchtgott-Roth is a notorious climate denier who was the lead author of the Project 2025 Department of Transportation chapter.
A Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology hearing entitled “Surveying the Threat of Agroterrorism, Part II: Assessing Federal Government Efforts.”
Witnesses:
On Wednesday, February 11, 2026, at 1:45 p.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources will meet to consider:
H.R. 755 modifies the Energy Act of 2020 to expand the definition of critical minerals to include critical materials designated by the Department of Energy (DOE). By expanding the definition of critical minerals, this bill requires the USGS to include on its list the materials on DOE’s list. Within 45 days of DOE adding a mineral, element, substance, or material to its critical materials list, the USGS must update its list to include such mineral, element, substance, or material.
Subcommittee oversight hearing.
Witnesses
Subcommittee hearing.
Witnesses:
On Tuesday, February 10, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:
Witnesses:
Panel I (Members of Congress):
Panel II (Administration Witnesses):
Panel III (Outside Experts):
The “Land And Social Security Optimization (LASSO) Act,” which would deposit into the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund, Administered by the Social Security Administration, 10 percent of federal revenues generated on public lands and waters managed by the Department of the Interior (DOI) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS).
In 2020, President Trump signed into law the “Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act,” creating the Smithsonian Institution’s 21st museum, which aims to recognize “women’s contributions to various fields and throughout different periods of history that have influenced the direction of the United States.” Since this time, the Museum has been a formally established institution but lacks a permanent physical location. Although the legislation stated that it was “the intent of Congress that the Museum be located on or near the National Mall,” a provision also expressly prohibited the Museum from being located in the Reserve under the Commemorative Works Act (CWA). The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act authorizes the Smithsonian to locate the American Women’s History Museum within the Reserve, which broadly encompasses what is known as the National Mall.
H.R. 3553 directs USFS to carry out a targeted study on 1) the effectiveness of wildfire mitigation methods in shrubland ecosystems and 2) the severity of damage from brush-related wildland fires to communities.
H.R. 5478, sponsored by Representative Blake Moore (R-UT-01), conveys approximately 295 acres of USFS land to Fruit Heights to close the gap along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
H.R. 5911, sponsored by Representative Jeff Hurd (R-CO-03), conveys to Ouray, Colo., the Crystal Reservoir, Full Moon Dam and Ditch, and 45 acres of surrounding land necessary to the Reservoir’s operation and maintenance. H.R. 5911 also conveys to the City all water rights associated with the covered land and related infrastructure.
S. 282 authorizes NPS to acquire, from willing sellers or donors, up to 2,465 acres of land to provide road access to the 87,500-acre Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument from the south. The bill sets general management and administration guidelines for the Monument that, among other things, protect hunting and fishing access, allow for the collection of fiddlehead ferns, permit forest management activities, and require the production of public safety and educational materials to better inform visitors about the Monument.
Subcommittee hearing entitled ‘Weaponized Mass Migration: A Security Risk to Europe and the United States.’
Witnesses:
The hearing is publicized with an image of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel from Gravelines, France, in April 2024, confronted by French police who punctured their dinghy. The photo was taken by AFP’s Sameer Al-Doumy. “Migrants react as a French police officer stands by ready to puncture the smuggler’s boat with a knife to prevent migrants from embarking in an attempt to cross the English Channel on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on April 26, 2024. Five migrants, including a seven-year-old girl, died on April 23, 2024, trying to cross the Channel from France to Britain, local authorities said, just hours after Britain passed a controversial bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.”
On Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 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 “All in for America250: Public-Private Partnerships Supporting America’s Semiquincentennial on our Public Lands.”
The Committee on Rules will meet Monday, February 9, 2026 at 4:00 PM ET in H-313, The Capitol on the following measures:
While the majority claims H.R. 3617 targets and supports the development of critical minerals, including those needed for the development of clean and renewable energy resources, H.R. 3617 uses the term ‘‘critical energy resource’’ instead of ‘‘critical minerals’’ or ‘‘critical materials.’’ The bill defines ‘‘critical energy resource’’ to mean ‘‘any energy resource that is essential to the energy sector and energy systems of the United States.’’ This definition is not restricted to critical minerals and could be interpreted to include a range of resources, including those that are carbon-emitting or that support the fossil-fuel industry. The bill also does not specify or prioritize the securing of supply chains related to clean or renewable energy, even though the majority claims the bill will support these industries. Without a clear prioritization of clean energy supply chains, H.R. 3617 risks devoting additional DOE resources to supporting carbon-emitting industries. Additionally, there is ambiguity surrounding the definition of ‘‘critical energy resource’’ in H.R. 3617, and how it will interact with existing DOE efforts in the critical minerals and critical materials space. For example, the Department of Energy maintains a list of critical materials using the definition established in the Energy Act of 2020. The Trump Administration already showed an openness to adding fossil fuels to the critical materials list when Energy Secretary Chris Wright added metallurgical coal to the list. H.R. 3617 does not attempt to reconcile any of the tensions or differences in definitions with existing directives, and additional specificity would be needed. This bill gives the Trump Administration open-ended authorities to increase the domestic production of critical materials without any proper definitions or substantive guardrails. The bill tasks the Secretary of Energy with facilitating the ‘‘development of strategies to strengthen critical energy resource supply chains in the United States, including by . . . increasing domestic production.’’
H.R. 261 would prohibit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from requiring any authorization for the installation, continued presence, operation, maintenance, repair, or recovery of undersea fiber optic cables in a National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) if those activities have been previously approved by other Federal or State agencies. The bill would remove NOAA’s authority under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA) to conduct environmental review and charge fair market fees for major infrastructure projects in federally protected marine areas.
H.R. 2189 weakens federal firearms laws and goes far beyond the needs of law enforcement. Rather than being focused on the use of less-than-lethal devices by law enforcement officers, this bill would create a dangerous loophole in the Gun Control Act (GCA) by exempting so-called ‘‘less-than-lethal’’ devices from laws requiring firearms to be traceable, detectable by security equipment, and not available to prohibited purchasers like felons. This new loophole would allow dangerous people to more easily access untraceable, undetectable weapons without a background check. This legislation does real damage by rewriting the definition of ‘‘firearm’’ throughout the entire criminal code to exclude certain, ‘‘less-than-lethal’’ weapons—which are still highly dangerous—such as taser guns, which have been identified as a contributing factor in more than 500 deaths in the United States. Because the definition of what constitutes a ‘‘firearm’’ is central to our federal firearm legal architecture, altering that definition is a dangerous and complicated endeavor—and will have consequences that perhaps are not intended by the bill’s proponents.
H.R. 4242 is aimed at lowering taxes on dangerous weapons without meaningfully assisting law enforcement. Law enforcement officers are already exempt from much of the Gun Control Act and are able to procure both firearms and less-than-lethal projectile devices free of tax. Moreover, redefining ‘‘firearm’’ to exclude less-than-lethal projectile devices from background check requirements is of grave concern for public safety. If enacted, that bill would enable people who are currently unable to obtain weapons classified as firearms—such as people convicted of domestic abuse or violent felonies—to more easily obtain dangerous projectile weapons which may be easily modified.