Hill Heat

Subcommittee hearing on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) Mission Area budget.

Witnesses:

• Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Terry J. Cosby, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Zach Ducheneaux, Administrator, Farm Service Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Marcia Bunger, Administrator, Risk Management Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Under the current law, the 2025 request for discretionary budget authority to fund programs and operating expenses is $31.6 billion, slightly more than 6.84 percent increase, or $2.16 billion, above the 2024 annualized Continuing Resolution (CR) levels.

The Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) mission area focuses on domestic agricultural issues. Locating the Farm Service Agency (FSA) – $1.6 billion budget plus $5.6 billion in loans and disaster programs plus $7.9 billion in expected commodity payments, the Risk Management Agency (RMA) – $14.8 billion budget, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) – $10.5 billion budget, and the FPAC Business Center under one mission area provides a simplified one-stop shop for USDA’s primary customers, the farmers, ranchers, and forest managers across America. FSA, RMA, and NRCS implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance, conservation programs and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.

In 2023, the FPAC Mission Area worked to keep U.S. farmers and ranchers financially healthy. For example, in 2023, as authorized by the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill), FSA provided over $355 million in Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments to producers for crop year 2021.1 ARC and PLC are an important part of the farm safety net to assist producers during downturns in crop revenue or commodity prices. The Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program provided $1.1 billion in protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed cost (the margin) fell below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. To help the dairy industry respond to challenges, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 established Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage payments for calendar years 2021-2023, and subsequently, the program was extended through calendar year 2024. These payments are limited to farms enrolled in DMC with a production history of less than 5,000,000 pounds and reflect increases in their production since 2014. As of early January 2024, Supplemental DMC has provided about $88 million to better help small- and mid-sized dairy operations that have increased production over the years but were not able to enroll that additional production.

FSA continues to provide tools for America’s farmers to be good stewards of the land. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has protected and conserved environmentally sensitive land since 1986. CRP is one of the world’s largest voluntary conservation programs with an established track record of preserving topsoil, sequestering carbon, and reducing nitrogen runoff, as well as providing healthy habitat for wildlife. FSA is assessing the impact of recent improvements to the CRP, including: higher rental rates to increase producer interest and enrollment; a Climate-Smart Practice Incentive to increase enrollment for carbon sequestration; and a Climate Change Mitigation Assessment Initiative to measure program outcomes and understand their potential to mitigate the impacts of climate change over time. Grassland, forest, and wetland assessment teams have been laying the groundwork to monitor climate mitigation impacts of over 1,000 enrollments and are working with NRCS to provide training opportunities to conservation planners during field visits. Since 2021, USDA has seen a significant increase in enrollment in the CRP, which is a critical part of the Department’s efforts to support climate-smart agriculture and forestry on working lands. In October 2023, USDA announced it issued more than $1.77 billion to 667,000 agricultural producers and landowners for 23 million acres of private land enrolled in CRP. FSA farm loan programs provide an important safety net for producers, by providing a source of credit to producers who commercial lenders may be unwilling to serve. The majority of FSA’s direct and guaranteed farm ownership and operating loans are targeted to beginning producers, who generally have had a more difficult time obtaining credit to maintain and expand their operations. In 2023, FSA provided more than 22,000 direct and guaranteed loans to farmers and ranchers, totaling over $4.7 billion with beginning farmers representing 60 percent of this total. As of December 2023, under Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), USDA has helped distressed farm loan borrowers with approximately $1.9 billion in assistance. This assistance to borrowers has helped borrowers stay on their farms and keep farming. Section 22006 provided funds for relief of distressed borrowers with certain direct and guaranteed loans, and to expedite assistance for those whose agricultural operations are at financial risk due to factors outside their control, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout 2023, FSA improved the farm loan process including a simplified direct loan application and launching an online direct application, which improves the customer experience and program delivery. Crop insurance is designed to allow farmers and ranchers to effectively manage their risk through difficult periods, helping to maintain America’s food supply and the sustainability of small, limited resource, socially disadvantaged and other underserved farmers. In calendar year 2023, RMA helped provide the largest farm safety net in history, a record $207 billion in protection for American agriculture. At the same time, the agency continued to introduce new programs to support specialty crops, livestock, controlled environment, and shellfish producers. Additionally, RMA invested over $6.5 million in cooperative agreements and partnerships to help educate underserved, small-scale and organic producers better manage risks.

NRCS works in partnership with private landowners, communities, local governments, and other stakeholders to promote the sustainable use and to safeguard the productivity of the Nation’s private working lands. The agency provides conservation planning, technical assistance, and financial assistance to farmers, ranchers, and foresters to help them conserve, enhance, and protect natural resources. In addition, NRCS works with these partners to leverage resources and innovative ideas to make the landscape and critical infrastructure more resilient. In 2023, NRCS developed conservation plans covering over 75 million acres. In accordance with those plans and utilizing Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) program support, conservation practices and systems designed to improve soil quality were applied to 5 million acres of cropland. Through the IRA, USDA has enrolled more famers and more acres in voluntary conservation programs than at any point in history, addressing a backlog that has persisted for many years. In calendar year 2023, USDA enrolled nearly 5,300 additional producers in NRCS conservation programs across all 50 states. The IRA provided $19.5 billion to implement conservation programs, including the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) and to measure, monitor, report and verify greenhouse gas emissions. Throughout 2023, NRCS worked on improvements to RCPP and ACEP to streamline processes and reduce the burden on partners.

A subcommittee hearing on the FY2025 budget request for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Witness:

• Adrianne Todman, Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The $72.6 billion budget includes:

• $407 million to support energy efficiency, resilience, and climate mitigation work in HUD-assisted and financed developments.
• $417 million to remove dangerous health hazards from homes for vulnerable families through funding for Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes programs and the Public Housing Fund, including mitigating threats from fire, lead, carbon monoxide, and radon.
• $112 million – up to $50 million in Tenant-Based Rental Assistance and $62 million in Project-Based Rental Assistance – for conversions that promote the energy efficiency or climate resilience of properties
• $67 million is designated for competitive grants to remove lead-based paint hazards from public housing and to help public housing authorities identify and eliminate other housing-related health and safety hazards, such as fire, mold, carbon monoxide, radon, and other housing hazards. The Office of Public and Indian Housing and the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes will collaborate across their programs to ensure the health and safety of families living in public housing.
• The Budget includes up to $5 million to fund research on energy efficiency, disaster preparedness, recovery, and resilience

Subcommittee hearing on member requests for the State, Foreign Operations and related programs budget.

On Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at 10:00 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources will hold an oversight hearing titled “Examining the President’s FY 2025 Budget Request for the Department of the Interior.”

Witness:

• Deb Haaland, Secretary, Department of the Interior

The Department’s 2025 budget totals $18.0 billion in current authority ($17.8 billion in net discretionary authority)—an increase of $575.9 million, or 3 percent, from the 2024 continuing resolution (CR) level. An additional $360.0 million is accessible through a budget cap adjustment for wildfire suppression to ensure funds are available in the event the regular annual appropriation is inadequate to meet suppression needs. The budget also includes an estimated $14.8 billion in permanent funding available in 2025.

The Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The title of the hearing is: “The Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Energy Budget.” The request is for $51.42 billion, including $25 billion for maintenance of the nuclear arsenal, $8.23 billion for cleanup of DOE environmental pollution, and $8.58 billion for the Office of Science.

Hearing memo

Witness:

• Jennifer Granholm, Secretary, Department of Energy

The Budget includes $8.5 billion across DOE to support researchers and entrepreneurs transforming innovations into commercial clean energy products, including in areas such as: offshore wind; industrial heat; sustainable aviation fuel; and grid infrastructure.

The Budget invests $1.6 billion to support clean energy workforce and infrastructure projects across the Nation, including: $385 million to weatherize and retrofit homes of low-income Americans; $95 million to electrify Tribal homes, provide technical assistance to advance Tribal energy projects, and transition Tribal colleges and universities to renewable energy; $113 million for the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains to strengthen domestic clean energy supply chains, and $102 million to support utilities and State and local governments in building a grid that is more secure, reliable, resilient, and able to integrate electricity from clean energy sources.

The Office of State and Community Energy Programs includes $385 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program to weatherize low-income homes.

The Budget supports $76 million to advance technologies that can enable earlier detection of methane leaks and integrate across a network of methane monitoring sensors for more reliable measurement and mitigation and $150 million to make small quantities of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) available for ongoing advanced nuclear reactor demonstrations.

Business meeting agenda:

• Nomination of Christopher T. Hanson, current chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to be a Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• S. 3738, the GLRI Act of 2024, a bill to reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and for other purposes
• One GSA resolution blocking a FBI lease in Cleveland

There will be a hearing of the Committee on the Budget on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, 9:00 AM in Room SH-216 to consider: “Denial, Disinformation, and Doublespeak: Big Oil’s Evolving Efforts to Avoid Accountability for Climate Change”.

Report

Witnesses:

• Geoffrey Supran, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Environmental Science And Policy, And Director, Climate Accountability Lab, University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science
• Jamie Raskin (MD-8), Ranking Member, Committee on Oversight and Accountability, U.S. House of Representatives
• Sharon Eubanks, Former Director, Tobacco Litigation Team, U.S. Department of Justice
• Dr. Ariel Cohen, Senior Fellow, The Atlantic Council, and Managing Director, Energy, Growth, and Security Program, International Tax Investment Center, Republican witness
• Michael Ratner, Specialist In Energy Policy, Congressional Research Service, Republican witness

Geoffrey Supran has helped expose ExxonMobil’s long campaign of public deception about the scientific threat of their product.

Sharon Eubanks forced Big Tobacco to pay $206 billion for their similar criminal deception of the deadliness of their addictive product.

Ariel Cohen is a 20-year Heritage Foundation veteran focused on Russian petropolitics who now works for the International Tax and Investment Center, a Big Oil front group for killing taxes on the global fossil-fuel industry, overseen by oil executives and high-level right-wing politicians.

Michael Ratner is a specialist in global oil and gas infrastructure who formerly worked for Enron and the CIA.

A subcommittee hearing chaired by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on the FY2025 budget request for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Witness:

• Adrianne Todman, Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The $72.6 billion budget includes:

• $407 million to support energy efficiency, resilience, and climate mitigation work in HUD-assisted and financed developments.
• $417 million to remove dangerous health hazards from homes for vulnerable families through funding for Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes programs and the Public Housing Fund, including mitigating threats from fire, lead, carbon monoxide, and radon.
• $112 million – up to $50 million in Tenant-Based Rental Assistance and $62 million in Project-Based Rental Assistance – for conversions that promote the energy efficiency or climate resilience of properties
• $67 million is designated for competitive grants to remove lead-based paint hazards from public housing and to help public housing authorities identify and eliminate other housing-related health and safety hazards, such as fire, mold, carbon monoxide, radon, and other housing hazards. The Office of Public and Indian Housing and the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes will collaborate across their programs to ensure the health and safety of families living in public housing.
• The Budget includes up to $5 million to fund research on energy efficiency, disaster preparedness, recovery, and resilience

On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, 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 “Examining the Influence of Extreme Environmental Activist Groups in the Department of the Interior.”

Witnesses:

• Scott Walter, President, Capital Research Center, Washington, D.C.
• Tyler O’Neil, Author, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Washington, D.C.
• Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN [Minority Witness]

Hearing memo

The Committee has, on several occasions, raised concerns that some extreme activist nonprofit organizations—including but not limited to Code Pink, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)—have ties to foreign governments and other entities. . . . Under Secretary Haaland, DOI has cultivated intimate and potentially improper relationships with radical nonprofits that undermines acceptable standards for nonprofit-government relationships. Committee Republicans will continue to hold these groups and the Biden administration accountable through a thorough oversight process.

A subcommittee hearing on the FY2025 budget request for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Witness:

• Pete Buttigieg, Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation

The FY 2025 Budget requests $109.3 billion. When combined with $36.8 billion in guaranteed advance appropriations provided under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Department’s total budget for FY 2025 will be $146.2 billion.

FAA Electric Vehicle Fleet: $4.9 million and 1 FTE are requested for construction, installation, and upgrading and maintaining electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure at FAA owned and leased facilities.

NextGen Environmental Research: $71.0 million is requested to support efforts to develop new aircraft and engine technologies, as well as to advance sustainable aviation fuels in line with the Administration commitments on climate change and the environment

Alternative Fuels – General Aviation: $8.4 million is requested to support continuing analyses and testing of unleaded alternative candidate fuels leading to the replace- ment of current leaded aviation gasoline with safe unleaded alternative fuels.

Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) Program: $1.8 billion is requested for formula and competitive grants to make the country’s surface transportation system more resilient to the worsening impacts of climate change, reduce long-term costs by minimizing demands for more expensive future maintenance, and rebuilding and prioritizing the needs of disadvantaged communities that are often the most vulnerable to hazards.

Carbon Reduction Program: $1.3 billion is requested to reduce transportation emissions through the development of State carbon reduction strategies and by funding projects designed to reduce transportation emissions. Through this program, FHWA encourages recipients to fund projects that support fiscally responsible land use and transportation efficient design, electrification, or other zero emission vehicle infrastructure, climate change resilience, and environmental justice.

Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities: $50.0 million is requested, along with $30.0 million in BIL advance appropriations, to support projects that reduce emissions from idling trucks at our Nation’s ports, which negatively impact air quality for surrounding communities. These investments will save truck drivers time and money, help ports reduce congestion and emissions, and deliver better air quality for workers and communities alike.

Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program: $2.7 billion is requested to support transportation investments that reduce highway congestion and harmful emissions, which greatly impact quality of life, particularly for densely populated communities. By helping to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which act as a public health benchmark for many of the densely populated areas of the country, this program helps to improve environmental outcomes for traditionally under- served communities.

Emergency Relief Program: $100.0 million to help restore and repair roads and bridges following disasters or catastrophic failures. Through this program, FHWA often provides “quick release” funds shortly after an event to help restore essential transportation. Additional funding is often provided to complete restoration projects and better prepare the infrastructure for future weather events.

Zero-Emission Rail Yards pilot: The Budget proposes to launch a new initiative to reduce EPA criteria pollutant emissions at rail yards, with an emphasis on areas with high pollution impacts on surrounding communities. R&D funds will be used to conduct research and testing to build evidence and document the public health impacts rail yards currently have on surrounding communities, as well as identify the rail yards and communities most in need of intervention. Simultaneously, FRA will seek to partner with a rail yard to pilot the establishment of a Zero-Emission Rail Yard and use CRISI grants to fund the purchase of new switcher locomotives and upgrade rail infrastructure to improve the efficiency of yard operations.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s FY 2025 Budget request is $400.6 million. PHMSA oversees the safety and environmental impacts of a growing domestic pipeline network of more than 3.3 million miles, which moves and stores 20 billion barrels of crude oil, other hazardous liquids, and natural gas, as well as an increasing amount of carbon dioxide and hydrogen products, from sources across the U.S. to our homes and businesses and to export.

Pipeline Safety: PHMSA requests $203.6 million to develop pipeline safety standards, encourage the use of safety manage- ment systems, conduct safety inspections, investigate pipeline incidents, and conduct research to inform safety regulations, policies, and technology development and deployment. This funding will enable PHMSA to focus on improving the safe transportation of hydrogen, CO2, and other emerging clean energy products, incentivized in both the BIL and the Inflation Reduction Act, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

Hazardous Materials Safety: PHMSA requests $86.6 million to set safety standards and continue to oversee the safe packaging and shipping of hazardous materials, with a commitment to support underserved communities that bear a disproportionate share of hazardous material routes, and to train local first responders on how to respond when incidents occur. The request includes the hiring of additional staff to manage a growing special permits and approvals workload including the transportation of high value hazardous materials containing products bound for outer space, and a rapidly growing outer space economy. PHMSA will increase outreach, training and compliance, accident investigation, and provide emerging energy experts, bringing the hazardous materials safety program to scale with the increase in energy products classified as hazmat. This will address a boom in new and expanded E-commerce companies shipping products containing otherwise hazardous materials, large-scale movements of medical equipment and biohazards, a surge in lithium battery packaging and movement, and new energy products such as hydrogen and other cryogenics being shipped by truck and rail.

Emergency Preparedness Grants: PHMSA requests use of all collections, including an estimated $46.8 million in registration fees, to help communities develop hazardous materials emer- gency response plans and train their first responders to safely manage and remediate hazardous material shipping incidents and accidents. These emergency preparedness and response resources are particularly critical for underserved rural and urban communities.

Operational Expenses: PHMSA requests $32.6 million for operational expenses to support the safety management organization, including $4.5 million for grants to those commu- nities most impacted by large-scale commercial pipelines and pipeline facilities. In addition, the request supports additional civil rights positions to ensure all of PHMSA’s programs and financial assistance meet statutory requirements.

Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META): $6.0 million will support technical assistance and innovation to address critical maritime environmental issues, thereby advancing climate sustainability priority initiatives through alternative energies and technologies, while also supporting job growth in clean energy and maritime trans- portation fields. META seeks to augment the American maritime industry’s competitive edge by making maritime transportation more technologically advanced, energy efficient, safe, affordable, and sustainable.