Congressional Schedule
The House and Senate are in session this week.
Tuesday, March 24th
House Committee on Appropriations
•
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Public and Outside Witness
hearing.
• Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies budget hearing:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
House Committee on Natural Resources
•
Oversight hearing: "Examining the Spending Priorities and Missions of the Forest Service and the
Bureau of Land Management in the President's FY 2016 Budget Proposals."
• Oversight hearing: "Examining the Spending Priorities and Missions of the Bureau of
Reclamation, the Power Marketing Administrations and USGS Water Division in the President’s
FY 2016 Budget Proposal.”
• Oversight hearing: "Examining the Spending Priorities and Mission of the U.S. Geological Survey
in the President’s FY 2016 Budget Proposal.”
House Committee on Energy and Commerce
•
Subcommittee on the Environment and the Economy hearing on the Improving Coal Combustion
Residuals Regulation Act of 2015 (Day 2).
House Committee on Agriculture
•
Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit hearing: Reauthorizing CFTC: EndUser Views.
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
•
Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure hearing: Surface
Transportation Reauthorization: Performance, not Prescription.
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
•
Full Committee hearing: Improving Forest Health & Socioeconomic Opportunities on the
Nation’s Forest System.
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
•
Oversight hearing: Waters of the United States: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Impacts of
EPA’s Proposed Rule.
Wednesday, March 18th
House Committee on Appropriations
•
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Public and Outside Witness
hearing.
• Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
budget hearing: Federal Railroad Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration, and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
House Committee on Agriculture
•
Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit business meeting: Reauthorizing
the CFTC: Market Participant Views.
• Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture hearing: To examine the implications of
potential retaliatory measures taken against the United States in response to meat labeling
requirements.
Senate Committee on Appropriations
•
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development budget hearing: Department of Energy
Thursday, March 19th
House Committee on Agriculture
•
Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management hearing: Implementing the
Agricultural Act of 2014: Commodity Policy and Crop Insurance.
House Committee on Natural Resources
•
Oversight hearing: "Effect of the President’s FY 2016 Budget and Legislative Proposals for the
Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service’s Energy and Minerals Programs on
Private Sector Job Creation, Domestic Energy and Minerals Production and Deficit Reduction.”
House Committee on Energy and Commerce
•
Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on H.R. 906, to Modify the Efficiency Standards for
Grid-Enabled Water Heaters.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources
•
Full Committee hearing to examine the Administration's Quadrennial Energy Review.
News:
House and Senate Budget Resolutions Released
The FY 2016 Budget Resolution is the big item on the House and Senate floors this week. Last week,
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) released a budget plan for Fiscal Year 2016 and
beyond that would bring the federal budget back into balance by 2025. The Senate Budget Committee
will now take up the resolution. A budget resolution is not binding, but if approved by Congress would
set the broad parameters for tax and spending legislation for the remainder of the year. The Senate
plan assumes that expiring tax provisions will be allowed to expire (or be offset), provides no tax
increases, and federal spending will be cut by $5.1 trillion over the next 10 years.
Also last week, House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) unveiled the House budget
proposal, similar to the Senate plan. The House proposal calls for cutting $759 billion in non-defense
discretionary spending over the next decade, but the Senate’s calls for cutting only $250 billion from the
same accounts. However, neither proposal calls for non-defense discretionary cuts in FY 2016. As a
result, if other differences are resolved and a final budget resolution is approved by the House and
Senate, a fight over federal funding levels for the upcoming fiscal year might be avoided.
The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires the House and Senate to approve their budget blueprints
by April 15 of each year (which theoretically, would then set the individual allocations for the 12
appropriations bills). Although they have often got as far as approving Budget Resolutions in each of
their respective bodies, the House and Senate have not been able to agree on a final Budget Resolution
since 2009.
Comment Period on New Floodplain Management Standard Extended
Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a 30-day extension of the
public comment period on the agency’s draft “Guidelines for Implementing the Federal Flood Risk
Management Standard”. The proposed guidelines target the implementation of President Obama’s
Executive Order (EO) 13690, which establishes a new flood risk management standard for federal
agencies to reduce risk of federal investments in the floodplain. Public comments on FEMA’s proposed
guidelines are now due by May 6, 2015.
To help advise and guide stakeholders in the development of their comments, FEMA continues to hold
listening sessions throughout the country and recently scheduled three additional sessions including a
webinar on Wednesday, March 25. Click here for more information about EO 13690, FEMA’s proposed
guidelines, the listening sessions, and the public comment process.
WOTUS Rule to Move to OMB Soon – EPA Administrator McCarthy
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Farmers Union
last week that her agency is preparing for the final step of sending the proposed final “waters of the
U.S.” (WOTUS) rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before the rule is
finalized. McCarthy said the EPA is working to better define tributaries, ditches and other waters that
would be covered by the rule and agricultural field features that aren't. The timing is consistent with the
EPA’s goal of finalizing the WOTUS rule sometime this spring.
Senate Ag Committee Oversight Hearing This Week on WOTUS
On Tuesday, the Senate Agriculture Committee will hear testimony about the controversial WOTUS
proposal. According to the Committee, the hearing will feature testimony from several groups of
stakeholders, including state and local officials responsible for the administration and enforcement of
the proposed Clean Water Act changes and key agricultural industry representatives that will be
impacted by the new regulation. The following witnesses will present testimony:
Panel I
The Honorable Leslie Rutledge, Attorney General, State of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR
Dr. Donald van der Vaart, Secretary, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
Raleigh, NC
Mrs. Susan Metzger, Assistant Secretary, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS
Mr. Josh Baldi, Regional Director, Washington State Department of Ecology, Bellevue, WA
Panel II
The Honorable Lynn M. Padgett, Commissioner, Ouray County, Montrose, CO
Mr. Furman Brodie, Vice President, Charles Ingram Lumber Company, Effingham, SC
Mr. Jason Kinley, Director, Gem County Mosquito Abatement District, Emmett, ID
Mr. Robert “Mac” N. McLennan, President & CEO, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc., Grand Forks, ND
Mr. Jeff Metz, Owner & Operator, Metz Land and Cattle Co., Bayard, NE
Mr. Kent Peppler, President, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Denver, CO
House Subcommittee Members Propose Extension of WOTUS Process – EPA Declines
In oversight hearings last week, moderate and conservative members of the House Agriculture
Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry on both sides of the aisle asked EPA, barring a complete
withdrawal of the WOTUS rule, to re-propose the rule for additional public comments, since the agency
has received almost one million comments on the controversial proposed rule and EPA has said it was
making significant changes to the earlier draft rule. Also last week, the House Transportation and
Infrastructure (T&I) Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee held a similar oversight hearing,
with GOP members calling for EPA to allow for additional comment on the expected much revised
proposal.
But the EPA witness at the oversight hearing, Ken Kopocis, the agency's de facto Assistant Administrator
for Water, stated that it was important for EPA to finalize the rule as soon as possible in order to provide
much needed clarity over which waters are jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
Meanwhile, top GOP leaders on the House T&I Committee are currently drafting legislation aimed at
forcing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the EPA to withdraw the proposed rule and to
work with state and local governments and all affected stakeholders to re-draw a rule that would garner
more support. The plan is to move a bill sometime in mid-April of this year and to work with the Senate
on companion legislation. The Senate, however, will have a tougher time passing such legislation as
they will need to meet the 60-vote threshold to move a bill without a filibuster.
House Passes Science Advisory Reform Bill
Last week, the House passed H.R. 1029, the "Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2015", on a mostly
party line vote of 236-181. The legislation would reform how the scientific panel that advises the EPA in
environmental rulemakings will operate in the future. The bill would add new peer-review
requirements on the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB), ensure that state and local officials be
represented on that panel, and add other transparency and conflict of interest requirements to SAB
operations.
The House also passed H.R. 1030, the "Secret Science Reform Act of 2015" last week. The bill would
prohibit EPA from finalizing rules that are based on science that isn't "transparent or reproducible." It
would also require EPA to make all the studies and data that go into its rulemakings publicly available.
House Ag Committee Approves Pesticide CWA Double Permitting Bill
The House Agriculture Committee last week approved H.R. 897, “The Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act”,
which would eliminate the need for a federal Clean Water Act (CWA) permit to apply pesticides in and
around “waters of the U.S.” that already have been registered and regulated by the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Proponents of the measure say that these permits are
redundant federal requirements that are difficult and expensive to comply with under the CWA and
FIFRA. According to the bill’s author, Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH), “H.R. 897 will insure that duplicative and
harmful regulations will not stand in the way of effectively protecting our nation’s agriculture
production, natural resources, and public health.” The legislation was passed by the House in the 113th
Congress as H.R. 935, and it passed the House in the 112th Congress as H.R. 872. The Senate did not
take up and pass either bill. The bill has also been referred to the House Transportation and
Infrastructure (T&I) Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, the panel chaired by Rep. Gibbs.
House Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee Oversight Hearing This Week on FY16
Reclamation/USGS/PMA Budgets
The House Natural Resources Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee will hold an oversight hearing
this Tuesday on Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) FY 2016 budget requests for
water programs and the power marketing administrations (PMAs) that market hydropower produced by
federal dams. Western drought response from Reclamation, how Reclamation is implementing the
federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) during the drought, and USGS climate science are topics expected
to be high on the list of questions from the subcommittee. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner
Estevan Lopez and Bill Werkheiser, Associate Director for Water at the USGS are scheduled to testify,
along with the four PMA Administrators.