House committee plans month of hearings on global warming
The Natural Resources Committee is planning a full month of climate change hearings, as House Democrats look to bring the issue to the forefront of the 116th Congress.
It will start next week on Feb. 6 with a full committee and a broad focus. Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said Democrats have tentatively scheduled two panels — one with two witnesses and another with four — to come before the committee.
That will include “a good mixture” of people from the science and advocacy worlds, mostly from outside Washington, D.C., Grijalva said yesterday.
For the rest of February, each subcommittee will hold its own climate hearings, with the ultimate goal of developing climate legislation, he added.
It’s one of many signs that Democrats are shaping their environmental message around climate change in the new Congress, and the hearings could mark the first substantive step in developing climate legislation that environmental groups have long hoped for.
In the more immediate future, the Natural Resources Committee’s Democrats will meet today to discuss their plans and subcommittee chairs, with a formal organizational meeting with the full committee scheduled for tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Democrats still haven’t finalized their Natural Resources roster.
“I’m still three short, but we’re going to go ahead with the reorganization three short,” Grijalva said. “Hopefully we’ll stick together and the rules don’t get all messed up.”