The Week in Climate Hearings: State of Disunion

Here is a compendium of archived federal climate websites and databases being deleted by the Trump regime.

On Saturday, Trump issued an executive order to cut down the national forests, as protesters rallied in the U.S. capital on behalf of trans rights.

Wildfires exploded across the Carolinas on Sunday.

Monday, March 3

On Monday morning, Democratic officials joined hundreds of scientists and activists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration headquarters to decry Trump’s mass illegal attacks on NOAA, as the CFPB Union rallied to save the agency.

On Monday afternoon, the Senate GOP confirmed Linda McMahon to dismantle the Department of Education, and the House Rules Committee set up floor votes to overturn three more of the Biden administration’s pollution rules: H.J. Res. 42, to overturn energy-efficiency standards for HVAC systems, washing machines, battery chargers, and more; H.J. Res. 61, to overturn limits on toxic air pollution from tire plants; and S.J. Res. 11, to overturn a rule requiring offshore drillers to avoid destroying archaeologically significant shipwrecks, as housing advocates rallied to save the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Tuesday, March 4

The men of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today to substantially weaken the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act powers after the city of San Francisco challenged its limits on dumping raw sewage into the ocean. The four female justices dissented.

Protesters associated with the 50-50-1 grassroots movement to uphold the Constitution are gathering across the country at the nation’s capitals today to oppose Trump’s speech tonight before a joint session of Congress.

A coalition led by the League of Women Voters chapters is organizing in-person rallies across the country during Trump’s speech, including a mass rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House.

Democratic members of Congress are either boycotting the speech or bringing illegally fired federal employees like U.S. Forest Service scientist Ben Vizzachero to face down Trump.

Before the speech at 8:30 pm, the Working Families Party is holding a pre-buttal featuring Rep. Lateefah Simon.

Today’s hearings:

• 10 AM: Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  Nomination of Christopher Landau to be Deputy Secretary, Michael Rigas to be Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, and Matthew Whitaker to be U.S. Permanent Representative on the NATO Council, all of the Department of State
  Landau clerked for Clarence Thomas, was Trump’s ambassador to Mexico starting in 2019, and has ambitions to join the U.S. Supreme Court. Rigas is a Republican operative who served as an associate administrator of the General Services Administration under W and acting director of the Office of Personnel Management under Trump. He then led the America First Transition Project. Whitaker is a Trump loyalist who served as acting United States attorney general when Jeff Sessions quit under pressure from Donald Trump.

• 10 AM: House Homeland Security Committee
     Emergency Management and Technology Subcommittee
  Future of FEMA: Perspectives from the Emergency Management Community
  The witnesses—Alabama Emergency Management Agency director Jeff Smitherman; former Trump FEMA official and current March McLennan lobbyist Daniel Kaniewski; emergency managers association representative Carrie Speranza; and former Biden FEMA official Timothy Manning—agreed on the importance of the continuation of FEMA, contrary to Trump’s and Musk’s attacks.

• 10:15 AM: House Natural Resources Committee
     Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
  Understanding the Consequences of Experimental Populations Under the Endangered Species Act
  Natural Resources subcommittee Republicans are challenging the Endangered Species Act’s section 10(j), a key tool for helping endangered species recover.

Wednesday, March 5

At 10:30 am, the Teamsters National Black Caucus leads other union members in a rally in support of National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, whose illegal dismissal by Trump is being considered at a hearing at Prettyman Courthouse.

At 11 AM, the prophetic Rev. William J. Barber III will give an Ash Wednesday sermon in front of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church before leading a march to the Supreme Court and U.S. Capitol, in a national call for repentance and truth-telling.

Today’s hearings:

• 10 AM: Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  Advancing American Interests in the Western Hemisphere

• 10 AM: Senate Budget Committee
  Nomination of Dan Bishop to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget
  Bishop is the North Carolina legislator who was the author of the notorious anti-transgender “bathroom bill.” The Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee favorably reported Bishop’s nomination in a business meeting boycotted by most Democrats.

• 10 AM: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
  Nomination of Jayanta Bhattacharya to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health
  Bhattacharya is notorious as one of the co-authors of the anti-pandemic response Great Barrington Declaration.

• 10 AM: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
  Nomination of David Fotouhi to be Deputy Administrator and Aaron Szabo to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, both of the Environmental Protection Agency
  David Fotouhi is a pro-mesothelioma lawyer. Aaron Szabo is an American Chemistry Council (ACC), American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and American Petroleum Institute (API) lobbyist who contributed to the Project 2025 EPA chapter.

• 10 AM: House Energy and Commerce Committee
     Energy Subcommittee
  Promoting Fossil-Fuel Electricity Production To Meet Projected Data Center Demand
  Basin Electric Power Cooperative CEO Todd Brickhouse, PJM lobbyist Asim Haque, and Southern Company lobbyist Noel Black will testify how important gas and coal-powered electricity is for the projected demand of an insane AI data-center boom, as clean-electricity expert Tyler Norris tries to return the panel to reality.

There are also several Congressional hearings on appropriations and federal infrastructure that the Trump-Musk regime is threatening to make entirely irrelevant, including House Transportation and Infrastructure hearings on Coast Guard acquisitions and infrastructure and federal real estate; and House Appropriations member days on financial services and general government and on labor, health and human services, and education.

Thursday, March 6

There are two helpful webinars today. At 2 pm, there’s a progressive briefing budget reconciliation, and at 8 pm, there’s a webinar on Japan’s role in the Gulf South LNG expansion.

There’s one climate policy hearing of interest on Friday:

• 11 AM: Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
     Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources Subcommittee
  H.R. 471, The Fix Our Forests Act, and Options to Reduce Catastrophic Wildfire
  The Fix Our Forests Act, which Trump is trying to effectively enact by executive order, would fast-track logging on public lands, bypassing essential environmental reviews and endangering wildlife, clean air, water, and the health and safety of our communities.

The Senate GOP is also moving forward on several Trump nominees with radical, anti-science and anti-democratic views:

• 9:30 AM: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
  Vote on Keith Sonderling to be Deputy Secretary of Labor

• 10 AM: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
  Nomination of Martin Makary to serve as Commissioner of Food and Drugs
  During the pandemic, Makary argued against the use of masks for children and opposed widespread vaccination against COVID-19. He uses false and inflammatory rhetoric about abortion, and is an adviser to the hard-right healthcare think tank Paragon Health Institute.

• 10 AM: Senate Finance Committee
  Nomination of Michael Faulkender to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
  During Trump’s first term, Faulkender ran the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) at the Treasury. He is the chief economist at the America First Policy Institute.

• 10:15 AM: Senate Judiciary Committee
  Votes on Nominations of Dean Sauer, to be U.S. Solicitor General, and Harmeet Dhillon and Aaron Reitz, both to be an Assistant Attorney General, all of the Department of Justice
  Sauer, Dhillon, and Reitz are Trump loyalists who question the legitimacy of Biden’s election in 2020.

Friday, March 7

On Friday, a coalition led by the Union of Concerned Scientists is organizing the Stand Up For Science mass rally and march before the U.S. Capitol.