To some, our forests are just hydrocarbons that have not yet been cut down and burned or pulped, just as the fossil forests underground are hydrocarbons that have not yet been extracted and burned or converted into plastics. That mindset drives the national agenda now.

Budget Follies

House Republicans are shambling forward on their plans to put the Trump-Musk chainsaw into law through the budget reconciliation process for the rest of Fiscal Year 2025, while also beginning the belated process on the FY2026 budget. They have the problem that their plan to destroy Medicaid, national parks, environmental protections, education, health, veterans services, and other essential public services while spending trillions on billionaire tax cuts, a dystopian police state, and statuary gardens is wildly unpopular.

The Progressive Caucus Center has an overview of the current status of the MAGA mega “reconciliation” package:

Last week, Transportation and Infrastructure Republicans backed a new $250 annual fee for electric vehicles, which is three to six times as much as drivers of gas-powered vehicles pay in federal gas taxes. The gas tax remains at 18.4 cents per gallon, unchanged since 1993, an effective decline by 50 percent since then.

On Tuesday May 6th, Natural Resources Republicans conduct their committee’s budget reconciliation markup at 10:15 am, a climate-denier spree of fossil fuels, mining, and timber interests. The bill would mandate increased oil and gas sales, long-term timber sales, and coal sales, all while cutting royalty rates and sidelining environmental reviews. Meanwhile, royalties on renewable projects are increased, and Inflation Reduction Act and other climate programs are eliminated, including funding for national parks, marine sanctuaries, coastal resilience, and the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which the Trump White House illegally shuttered.

On the other hand, the committee print also allocates $150 million for a blow-out celebration of the United States’ semiquincentennial and $40 million for a statuary garden.

Climate activists plan to be in attendance.

Meanwhile, Trump’s FY2026 budget request is getting reviewed by appropriators.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins presents the USDA budget request with Senate appropriators led by Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) at 10:30 am on Tuesday and House appropriators led by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) on Wednesday morning at 10 am. The budget eviscerates USDA science and conservation initiatives including the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service and Research Statistical Agencies, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, Forest and Rangeland Research, and Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration, and State, Local, Tribal, and NGO Conservation Programs. Rural development programs are slashed, as is the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before House appropriators on current DHS activities at 10 am on Tuesday and then presents the DHS budget request at 10 am on Wednesday before Senate appropriators led by Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). The DHS budget cuts over a billion dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency programs while increasing police-state spending by $44 billion.

Cam Hamilton, the acting FEMA Administrator, will have to defend the illegal Trump-Musk evisceration of FEMA before House appropriators on Wednesday afternoon at 2 pm.

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee is interviewing the Forest Service Acting Associate Chief Chris French on the bipartisan, timber-industry-written S. 1462, Fix Our Forests Act, an Orwellian title for a bill that aims to accelerate timber harvests as wildfires caused by global forest decline accelerate.

Nominees

With the consent of Senate Democrats, the U.S. Senate is speeding forward with two Department of Agriculture nominations, both of whom served in the first Trump administration: cruelty-to-pigs lobbyist Stephen Vaden to be Deputy Secretary and Federalist Society member Tyler Clarkson to be General Counsel. The committee is voting out the nominees for a floor vote tonight.

On Thursday morning, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee interviews three nominees: Energy Transfer and Lake Charles LNG lawyer William Doffermyer to be Solicitor of Interior; electric utility lobbyist Katie Jereza to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Electricity; and Devon Energy fracking engineer and venture-capital manager Kyle Haustveit to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy.

Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce Committee votes on the nomination of Paul Dabbar to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce for global trade and technology. Dabbar served in the Trump DOE and worked in fossil and renewable energy investments for J.P. Morgan.