• Hill Heat
  • Posts
  • The Week in Climate Hearings: Fork Off, Elon

The Week in Climate Hearings: Fork Off, Elon

Democrats finally decide to stop supporting Trump's nominees, as Elon Musk razes the government

Author

Brad Johnson
February 05, 2025

The American flag in distress at the U.S. Treasury, Tuesday, Feb. 4.

The American flag in distress at the U.S. Treasury, Tuesday, Feb. 4.

It’s Groundhog Day, and the North Pole is melting. Time and again, Senate Democrats joined every Republican in support of the climate deniers, conspiracy theorists, and bigots Trump has nominated for his Cabinet, while Elon Musk’s teenage acolytes ripped apart the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Treasury, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Education, and more.

And at a White House press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump announced he wanted the United States to complete the task of ethnic cleansing the Gaza Strip.

After several Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, were turned away from entering the U.S. Treasury building yesterday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced the caucus is placing a blanket hold on all Trump nominations until Musk’s assault is pulled back.

The switch yesterday was stark—at noon, before the Treasury protest, 24 Democrats backed the confirmation of election denier Doug Coons as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. After the protest, they began voting in lockstep1 against Trump’s nominees.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) led the way with a blanket hold on any future Trump nominees to the State Department. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) were the first to pledge to vote against all nominees.

They now plan to use Senate rules to dramatically slow the confirmation of Project 2025 architect Russell Vought as Director of Office and Management and Budget; Schumer confirmed that all 47 Democrats are aligned with Indivisible’s strategy on Vought.

Today, there are protests outside the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Senate, and the Department of Labor. In the morning, the House holds a hearing on the future of U.S. science, which is looking pretty grim.

But the leaders of the Democratic Party have finally begun to fight.

Reviewing the first two days of the week:

Monday, February 3

  • 5:34 PM: Full Senate
    Motion to proceed to consider the nomination of Russell Vought to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget

    Democrats denied unanimous consent to speed up consideration of climate denier and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to be the head of the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget. The forced vote succeeded along party lines, 51-46.

  • 5:45 PM: Senate Agriculture
    Vote on the nomination of Brooke Rollins to be Secretary of Agriculture

    The nomination of Brooke Rollins was reported favorably by a unanimous vote of all members of the committee, 23-0.
    The Democrats voting in the affirmative:

    • Amy Klobuchar, Ranking Member and Tina Smith, both of Minnesota

    • Michael Bennet of Colorado

    • Dick Durbin of Illinois

    • Cory Booker of New Jersey

    • Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico

    • Raphael Warnock of Georgia

    • Peter Welch of Vermont

    • John Fetterman of Pennsylvania

    • Elissa Slotkin of Michigan

    The former CEO and president of the extremist Texas Public Policy Foundation and the CEO of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, Rollins is a climate denier. She claimed, at a climate-denial conference held by Heartland Institute in 2018, that “We know the research of CO2 being a pollutant is just not valid.”

    At her nomination hearing, Rollins defiantly supported the mass deportation of undocumented farmworkers.

Tuesday, February 4

And so the first day with A.G. Bondi dawns.

Wednesday, February 5

Thursday, February 6

Friday, February 7

FORK OFF: I Support Federal Workers

Hill Heat’s U.S. Climate Politics Almanac is made available to the public thanks to our paid subscribers. Join their ranks today and grow the movement:

1  With the sometimes exception of John Fetterman (D-Pa.)

Reply

or to participate.