Happy Monday #FriendsofthePlanet! We hope you had a great Cinco de Mayo and that you’ve recovered from Game of Thrones or the NBA or NHL Playoff excitement. How about that quadruple overtime game in Portland on Friday night not to mention the controversial finish in the Kentucky Derby! It is going to be another busy legislative week here in D.C. and hopefully, the MSM won’t be quite so obsessed with Barr, Mueller, and with the “will-they-or-won’t-they impeach” question. Here is what to have on your radar screen for this week:
Congress: There is a busy slate of legislative hearings. On the House side, The Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing on May 8 at 10 am. on Water, Oceans and Wildlife (WOW) in which it will receive testimony on a slate of 9 bipartisan bills on topics like combatting invasive lionfish, ocean and coastal data gathering, and helping young fishermen get started in the industry. On Thursday the Committee will hold two hearings at 10 am, one on Wildfire Resilient Communities and another on reforming (long, long overdue) the Mining Law of 1872. House Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing on whether to ban asbestos at 10 am on Wednesday. And finally, on Wednesday at 10 am, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the Corps of Engineers and water infrastructure — should be interesting given the horrible flooding in the Midwest.
Disaster Relief: Congress and the President were inching closer to a compromise on disaster funding at the end of last week with Republicans offering $300M more for Puerto Rico, which was the sticking point. Since DoD disaster funding ran out over the weekend and midwest flooding keeps getting worse, we are guessing that everyone involved will try to get this done asap.
International: India will begin recovering from Cyclone Fani, which slammed into eastern India on Friday leaving 33 dead, and hundreds of thousands homeless or without power. More than a million people were evacuated before the storm made landfall, which kept the death totals lowering than they would have been.
Celebrities: OK we have to admit we are on pins and needles waiting for the first look at royal baby Sussex! We will be watching our news feed for that announcement.
ICYMI: The Daily Show did a hilarious segment on why we are not more afraid of climate change. It is must-see TV! We are done with meat too, after the next burger!
May 5, 2019 » climate change, Cyclone Fani, disaster relief, Flooding, Puerto Rico, Royal Baby, wildfires
