Latest news with #SenateEnvironmentandPublicWorksCommittee
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate Environment and Public Works panel releases ‘big, beautiful bill' text
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released text for its portion of the Trump legislative agenda policy bill that Republicans are trying to get across the finish line, becoming the first Senate panel to do so. The committee's text appears similar to provisions passed by the House. It's not one of the committees that deals with thorny issues like Medicaid or energy tax credits, which are likely to undergo changes in the upper chamber. Like the House version of the bill, the text released by Senate Republicans on Wednesday repeals numerous green energy programs passed by the Democrats in 2022. This includes a $20 billion program that seeks to provide financing for climate-friendly projects and a $3 billion program that provides grants for underserved communities that want to fight air pollution and climate change. It also repeals other grant programs related to air pollution monitoring and reducing air pollution at schools — as well as a program that seeks to charge oil and gas companies for their excess methane emissions. Like the House version, the Senate bill also includes a provision criticized by Democrats as 'pay-for-play' that allows companies to pay for expedited reviews of energy or other infrastructure projects. And it seeks to repeal a Biden-era regulation that's expected to push the auto market toward selling more electric vehicles. The ultimate text could still change, as the parliamentarian has to decide which programs can actually be passed through reconciliation — a process by which the Senate can pass legislation with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes it usually needs. However, since the green energy programs it seeks to repeal were passed in a similar manner in 2022, those are likely to make it into the final version. 'This legislative text puts in motion plans that Senate Republicans pledged to take, like stopping Democrats' natural gas tax and rescinding unobligated dollars from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act,' said Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito ( in a written statement. 'I look forward to working with my colleagues to move our legislative package forward to enact President Trump's agenda, which the American people overwhelmingly support,' she added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Politico
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Zeldin tangles with Senate Democrats at budget hearing - Live Updates
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday turned acrimonious as the former Republican congressmember and several Democratic senators sparred over the Trump administration's effort to reshape the agency and his allegations of wrongdoing during the Biden administration. The exchanges underscored the growing animosity between Zeldin and Democrats as the Trump administration seeks to dramatically slash EPA's budget and reorganize the agency to rollback dozens of regulations to aid the growth of fossil fuels. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the panel's ranking member, came out of the gate with questions about EPA's termination of almost 800 grants. Whitehouse pointed to a senior EPA official's statement in a lawsuit that he had individually reviewed each terminated grant on a single day. Zeldin, however, said that the review had been conducted by multiple people over a longer period, and their conversation quickly devolved into the two men shouting over each other. 'We're not going to waste dollars just because you insist on EPA lighting taxpayer dollars on fire,' Zeldin retorted to Whitehouse. 'The American taxpayers, they put President Trump in office because of people like you. They have Republicans in charge of the House and Senate because of people like you, because you don't care about 99 percent of this story.' Whitehouse replied that he wanted Zeldin to "explain why the Department of Justice lawyers representing EPA in court under a duty of candor, have said that everything you've just said isn't true." Whitehouse's time then expired, and Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) remarked on the animosity between Zeldin and Whitehouse. 'All right, well, we seem to have a little bit of a disagreement,' he said, suggesting the two sides 'work on this in the future.' Zeldin also traded barbs with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who slammed him for terminating $20 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants without evidence of waste, fraud or abuse. As he did in prior hearings over the last two weeks, Zeldin offered to read his list of allegations of self-dealing and other structural criticisms of the GGRF program. 'Let's see how far down the list you let me go before you cut me off,' Zeldin said. Markey started to ask about what evidence EPA had presented in court. 'You cut me off before the first example of evidence,' Zeldin replied. Markey tried to ask again about court proceedings, but Zeldin pushed forward with his contentions, including about the 'gold bars' claims that the EPA was rushing money out of the agency at the end of the Biden administration, as well as concerns about the ability of Appalachian Community Capital, one of the recipients, to manage its large grant. The duo continued their sniping as Markey's five-minute questioning period came to a close. 'You keep using this inflammatory language without any evidence being presented in court in order to defend these public accusations,' Markey said. "You've wasted your entire five minutes," Zeldin replied. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who at that point was chairing the hearing, had to shout over the pair to regain control. Also during the hearing, Zeldin mocked Sen. Adam Schiff after the California Democrat made a long statement criticizing him for terminating grants "without justification," working to overturn California's clean car waivers and proposing to slash EPA's budget. 'With that wind up, by the way — I understand that you are an aspiring fiction writer, I see why,' Zeldin told Schiff, apparently referencing Schiff's hobby of writing screenplays. 'I understand your view that you can cut half of the agency and it won't affect people's health or their water, their air,' Schiff replied. 'That, to me, is a big fiction, Mr. Zeldin.' Schiff added that Zeldin is "totally beholden to the oil industry. You could give a rat's ass about how much cancer your agency causes." Zeldin was cut off from responding because Schiff's time was up. The heightened animosity was notable in the room. Near the end of the hearing, Chair Shelley Moore Capito ( apologized to Zeldin for having stepped away during most of the proceedings. 'I heard it was very lively,' she quipped.
E&E News
15-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Whitehouse warns law firms: Don't be ‘dragooned' into Trump's anti-climate agenda
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is launching a probe into nine law firms that signed agreements with the Trump administration, asking whether they are aiding efforts to undermine climate change action. In letters to the nine firms that agreed to provide nearly $1 billion in free legal aid to the White House to avoid being targeted by President Donald Trump, the Rhode Island Democrat warned that there is 'abundant reason to expect that you may be dragooned by the Trump administration into fossil fuel's service.' Trump in February began issuing executive orders targeting law firms for allegedly 'weaponizing' the legal system against him and his allies, citing the firms' association with his political adversaries. Advertisement Nine firms signed agreements with Trump, promising to do pro bono legal work for the administration. Trump last month suggested that some of the law firms could help with his efforts to boost coal production.
E&E News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Army Corps pick promises to follow Trump order on Alaska
President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Army Corps of Engineers committed to uphold a presidential executive order that the agency 'rescind, revoke, revise, amend, defer, or grant exemptions' to any Biden administration policy that runs counter to the president's priorities in Alaska. In a confirmation hearing exchange with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), Adam Telle told the Alaska senator he 'tattooed the executive order that the president issued to Alaska on my heart.' Telle's statement came during an otherwise staid hearing Wednesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee where he answered questions from Republicans and Democrats about the agency's primary obligations: maintaining navigation on U.S. waterways, girding nation's coastlines and rivers from extreme flooding, and protecting and preserving natural resources. Advertisement Sullivan said Telle must be a 'glutton for punishment' to accept the role leading a multibillion-dollar program that is often mired in controversy. But no members signaled they would vigorously oppose Telle's confirmation vote in the full Senate.
Washington Post
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Sean Duffy defends pause on transportation grants
Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy on Wednesday faced bipartisan pressure to move quickly on infrastructure spending and reduce bureaucratic red tape that delays projects and makes them more expensive. But members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who questioned Duffy were divided on some of the causes — Republicans focused on environmental rules while Democrats asked why projects already approved by the previous administration are now being reviewed for mentions of climate change, environmental justice, or equity and diversity. 'We are looking for … the green and the social justice,' Duffy acknowledged. He promised to follow Congress's mandate to fund environmental initiatives such as electric vehicle charging but told lawmakers that when grant programs don't explicitly include climate or equity goals, 'I'm following your will, which is pulling out the green and the social justice.' But, he said, it would be 'impossible' to move more quickly on 3,200 grants awarded by the Biden administration but not fully under contract. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) countered that it would cost more time and money to 'examine each' grant 'to see if there are any MAGA heresies and hobgoblins in them.' In an internal memo last month obtained by The Washington Post, Duffy's office said it would review programs and projects that involved green infrastructure, bicycle infrastructure, electric vehicles, reducing greenhouse gases or improving conditions for communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and flag them 'for potential removal.' Duffy argued that such requirements make projects more expensive and complicated in the long run. But he said President Donald Trump also wants to see infrastructure built. 'It's not just you putting pressure on me. It's the president who is going to say, 'Why aren't you getting more money out the door?'' Duffy said. Yonah Freemark, a transportation researcher at the Urban Institute, said he was not aware of any previous efforts by a new administration seeking to systematically pull back already-awarded transportation funding. 'This seems to be an attempt to implement the Trump administration's priorities, but retroactively,' Freemark said. 'That's what makes it so troubling.' Beth Osborne of the progressive nonprofit Transportation for America said Duffy is right that the Biden administration left too many projects unfinalized, with months or years between a grant being awarded and an agreement for how to use the funds approved. 'If he had come in and said, 'We're actually going to make government work and more efficient,' he would be on very firm footing,' she said. 'But that's not what he did. What he did was say, 'I notice that a bunch of these awards have been held up through inefficiency, so now I'm going to dig into them and decide if they should exist at all.'' Katrina Dodro, the mayor of New Carrollton, Maryland, said her city won a $250,000 grant for bike and pedestrian connections to nearby transit options. The small city is close to Amtrak, Metro and Maryland commuter rail but lacks good ways to reach them without a car. Dodro was getting ready to sign an engineering contract when she learned the award had been frozen. 'It's been kind of devastating,' she said. 'It would have helped us with crosswalks, with bike paths, with lighting. I've been extremely excited for that.' Duffy's office announced last week that the 'Safe Streets for All' grant program funding the New Carrollton project will not favor projects that involve cutting lane capacity for vehicles. Known as 'road diets,' shrinking or removing traffic lanes is considered by the Transportation Department a proven way of reducing crashes. Ken McLeod of the League of American Bicyclists said that he is nonetheless 'optimistic' that the program language still emphasizes safety for cyclists and pedestrians. 'Communities should … emphasize how infrastructure that improves bicyclist safety is part of improving the safety of all road users,' he said, adding that road diets can be put in place without creating congestion for cars. The transportation secretary struck a more conciliatory posture on the Hill than he has online and in other public appearances, saying 'infrastructure is bipartisan' and 'one of the unique spaces in our government where we all work together.' Duffy recently called the New York City subway 'a s---hole' and used a similar expletive to describe California's high-speed rail project. On Wednesday, he called both public transit and bicycling 'an important part' of reducing traffic and said he wanted to 'show America what high-speed rail looks like.' He said he would soon share a proposal for upgrading outdated air traffic control systems. 'Most of these projects are really good projects, I haven't found many that I disagree with,' he told lawmakers. He found common ground with Democrats on reforming the environmental review process and learning from other countries how to build faster and more cheaply — ideas Kamala Harris pushed in her campaign. 'Everything you are saying … I am like, 'Yes, yes, yes,'' Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) told Duffy. He added: 'Everything you just expressed' — about projects that go overbudget and past deadlines — 'that is exactly how people feel.' But Duffy demurred when asked about dedicating funding for the D.C. Metro, which has trouble getting loans and launching major projects because its budget lacks a dedicated funding source. Instead he focused on safety on transit, saying Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) was 'making good efforts in D.C.' but that more needed to be done. Crime on the D.C. Metro is down to pre-pandemic levels, as General Manager Randy Clarke emphasized in a recent letter to Duffy.
