Mega-MAGA Markup Marathon

PRESENTED BY CORRUCA COMMUNIS

The mega-MAGA markup marathon, which began at 2 pm yesterday, is continuing. A top priority is annulling the Inflation Reduction Act. The Energy and Commerce markup got through the Communications section, which includes an insane decade-long ban on AI regulations, and is now debating the cruel and deadly Health section, which will kick about 10 million Americans off of Medicaid. The demolition of billions of dollars of climate and clean energy initiatives is coming—and climate activists are protesting on the Capitol steps this afternoon.

The Congressional Budget Office, run by Republican climate denier Phil Swagel, is scoring the collapse of climate investment as a boon for the federal coffers, by ignoring the highly destructive costs of accelerating global warming.

The Ways and Means markup marathon is also continuing. The Ways and Means bill eliminates renewable energy, electric vehicle, home energy efficiency, charging station, and other climate-friendly tax credits while vastly expanding loopholes and tax cuts for billionaires and polluting corporations, about $5 trillion worth.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture markup, which began yesterday evening, gaveled back in at 10 am this morning to shove a toxic version of the Farm Bill into the budget-reconciliation omnibus, with the priority of radically paring back the SNAP food assistance program. It also rescinds conservation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

The smarmy hatchetman Lee Zeldin, Trump’s administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, testifies on the catastrophic EPA budget, which eliminates its climate work, before Senate appropriators. Ranking member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is trashing Zeldin for his illegal and unconstitutional impoundment of climate and environmental programs.

Zeldin’s EPA illegally refused to release the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sink Inventory report, but the Environmental Defense Fund got the inventory released through a FOIA request, as CBS reporters Grace Manthey and Tracy Wholf cover. The inventory, which international agencies have found wildly undercounts methane pollution, found that 2023 climate pollution remained flat.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is demanding the EPA halt its plans to dissolve the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, at least until Congress votes to eliminate it.

The Department of Energy is committed to a dirty, racist future.

The racist doofus Sean Duffy, Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, testifies on the fiscal-year 2026 DOT budget, which eliminates $5.7 billion in electric vehicle charger infrastructure, before House appropriators in the morning.

At least the bipartisan DOGE Caucus is dead!

In the morning, the Senate finance committee holds a hearing on trade in critical supply chains with lobbyists from the critical minerals, semiconductors, soybeans, and medical devices industries.

This morning, the Senate Commerce Committee voted on the nomination of Paul Dabbar to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce for global trade and technology; ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) cast the votes needed to advance Dabbar, as three Republicans were absent. Dabbar is the CEO of Bohr Quantum Technologies, oversaw the national labs in first Trump administration, and headed JP Morgan’s energy-industry investments.

At 9:30 am, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held votes on the nominations of Energy Transfer lawyer William Doffermyre to be Solicitor of Interior—Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joined GOP in support; Katie Jereza to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Electricity; and Devon Energy petroleum engineer and investment manager Kyle Haustveit to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy—ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined GOP in support.

The committee then holds a nomination hearing for Department of Energy nominees Jonathan Brightbill to be general counsel; Tina Pierce to be Chief Financial Officer; and Conner Prochaska to be Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency within the Department of Energy. Brightbill is an anti-environmental corporate lawyer and former Trump DOJ environmental division head. Prochaska, who worked under Dabbar in the first Trump administration, works for Dabbar at Bohr Quantum Tech now. The committee is also interviewing fracking geologist, mining executive, and Cato ideologue Ned Mamula to be the director of the U.S. Geological Survey.

At 10:30 am, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began its nomination hearing for former PG&E attorney and Trump EPA official John Busterud to be EPA Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste; Republican operative and Boeing lobbyist Sean McMaster to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration; and Adam Telle, Sen. Bill Hagerty’s (R-Tenn.) chief of staff, to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.

Although Trump is unconstitutionally disregarding Congressional appropriations authority, members of Congress continue to act as if their directives will be followed, testifying in member days on earmarks for Transportation and Infrastructure and Natural Resources in the morning.

In the afternoon, the Senate aging committee holds a hearing on the unique challenges facing older Americans from climate disasters, with extremist Florida sheriff Chris Nocco (a former Marco Rubio aide), American Red Cross vice president of disaster programs Jennifer Pipa, and California emergency manager L. Vance Taylor.

Nature: US researchers must stand up to protect freedoms, not just funding.

Canada is burning, Western reservoirs are in trouble, historic heat hits Texas, and hailstorms are hitting Milwaukee.

Swiss alchemists have transmuted lead into gold, at least 29 trillionths of a gram.

Hearings on the Hill:

• 12 AM: House Energy and Commerce Committee
  Energy and Commerce Markup of 2025 Budget Reconciliation Omnibus, Continued

• 12 AM: House Ways and Means Committee
  Ways and Means Markup of 2025 Budget Reconciliation Omnibus, Continued

• 9:30 AM: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
  Vote on Nominations of William Doffermyre to be Solicitor of Interior, Catherine Jereza to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Electricity, Kyle Haustveit to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy

• 9:45 AM: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
  Vote on nomination of Paul Dabbar to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce for global trade and technology

• 10 AM: House Agriculture Committee
  Agriculture Markup of 2025 Budget Reconciliation Omnibus, Continued

• 10 AM: Senate Finance Committee
  Trade in Critical Supply Chains

• 10 AM: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
  Nominations of Jonathan Brightbill to be General Counsel, Tina Pierce to be Chief Financial Officer, and Conner Prochaska to be ARPA-E Director, at Department of Energy; and Ned Mamula to be U.S. Geological Survey Director

• 10 AM: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
  Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Member Day

• 10 AM: House Appropriations Committee
     Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee
  FY2026 Budget for U.S. Department of Transportation

• 10:15 AM: House Natural Resources Committee
  Natural Resources Member Day

• 10:30 AM: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
  Nominations of Sean McMaster to be Federal Highway Administrator, John Busterud to be EPA Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste, Adam Telle to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works

• 10:30 AM: Senate Appropriations Committee
     Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee
  Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the Environmental Protection Agency

• 3:30 PM: Senate Aging Committee
  Preparing for Disasters: Unique Challenges Facing Older Americans

Climate Action Today

• 4 PM: League of Conservation Voters
  Rally at the Capitol: Stop Clean Energy Bans and Polluter Giveaways!

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