The Week in Climate Hearings: Ice Thaw

It’s Groundhog Day. Stephen Miller came out of his hole and saw his shadow, so it’s at least two more weeks of a continuing resolution for the Department of Homeland Security.

The fossil-fueled ice storm that swept the eastern part of the United States and the ensuing blob of Arctic chill that has remained has killed over 100 people, and left tens of thousands without power for a week and counting, even as a record fossil-fueled snow drought grips the West.

The fossil-fueled ICE storm that swept Minnesota and keeps flaring up throughout the nation has killed at least 8 people and placed nearly 60,000 people in concentration camps, including the CoreCivic-run Dilley detention center for children and families, which is now on a measles-outbreak lockdown.

Monday, February 2

The House Rules Committee is meeting today to move the Senate-Trump deal on the Consolidated Appropriations Act/DHS CR (H.R. 7148, as amended) towards a floor vote tomorrow. Also on the Rules Committee agenda is the so-called Critical Mineral Dominance Act (H.R. 4090) to codify a Trump executive order and establish “a regulatory system by, and for, the mining industry,” in the words of Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). The committee is also setting up votes for a resolution to force Washington D.C. to implement the One Big Brutal Bill Act’s tax code and to find the Clintons in contempt for refusing a House Epstein subpoena.

Most House Democrats are aligned on holding together as an opposition party and forcing the Republican majority to deliver their own caucus to vote on the government-funding deal. The leading voices include (but are not limited to):

• Rep. Betty McCollum (Minn.), ranking member, Defense Appropriations

• Rep. Bennie Thompson (Ala.), ranking member, Homeland Security

• Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), an assistant Democratic whip, and deputy whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus

However, a powerful bloc of corrupt, corporate-backed and AIPAC-friendly Democrats is arguing in favor of helping Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La., no relation) find the votes he needs. These include:

• Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas), ranking member, Homeland Security Appropriations

• Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), former Democratic leader

• Rep. Jim Clyburn (S.C.), former Democratic whip

• Rep. Susie Lee (Nev.), battleground leadership

• Rep. Brad Schneider, chair, New Democrats

Tuesday, February 3

At 10:15 a.m., the House Natural Resources Federal Lands Subcommittee is
using the one-year anniversary of the L.A. wildfires to promote logging, namely the timber-industry’s Fix Our Forests Act. This is at least the fifth House committee hearing related to FOFA since House passage, the John Muir Project notes. The witnesses are Paradise mayor Steven Crowder, private fire-tracking app developer John Clarke Mills, insurance industry lobbyist Robert Gordon, and wildland fire expert Dr. David Calkin.

At the same time, the Trump-dominated commissioners of the Federal Energy Resource Commission testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy Subcommittee. FERC has only one commissioner left who, at least professionally, believes in and cares about climate change, Judy Chang, the former Undersecretary of Energy and Climate Solutions for Massachusetts. But you wouldn't know it from her prepared testimony.

At 10:30 a.m., House agriculture appropriators interview the U.S. Department of Agriculture Inspector General, the notorious John Walk, an ally of Stephen Miller and the son-in-law of former Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Wednesday, February 4

At 10 a.m, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee marks up the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2026. The bill says NASA science should abide by the priorities of scientific decadal surveys, but it won’t. In Section 603, the bill inserts language to permit the NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to “reexamine” the decadal surveys if the NASA budget is changed. So he will be able to abandon the 2018 decadal survey on NASA earth science, Thriving On Our Changing Planet. All he has to say is that we can’t afford to do so.

At the same time, the House Natural Resources Water, Wildlife and Fisheries subcommittee is receiving testimony on bills for bird conservation, fish conversation, and private big cat ownership.

At 2:30 p.m, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s european subcommittee holds a hearing on European energy security, with international oil, LNG and mining lobbyist Geoffrey Pyatt and international oil, LNG and mining lobbyist Dan Byers of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Thursday, February 5

At 8 pm, Grist’s Kate Yoder convenes a dynamic webinar with national experts to explore the emotional dimensions of climate change and the powerful connection between individual wellbeing and collective action. The speakers are Project Drawdown’s Elizabeth Bagley, the Climate Mental Health Network’s Larissa Dooley, and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication’s Joshua Low.