Category: US Senate

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Pingree, Collins, King Introduce Legislation to Invest in Blue Economy, Spur Innovations in Coastal Communities

Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation, cosponsored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, to spur economic development in coastal Maine communities. The Ocean Regional Opportunity and Innovation Act (Ocean ROI Act), would require the Secretary of Commerce to establish a federal strategy for investing in the nation’s ocean-based economy with “Ocean Innovation Clusters” (ocean clusters).

The ocean clusters would follow theblueprintof organizations like the for-profitNew England Ocean Cluster, based in Portland, which helps maritime-adjacent small businesses partner together to increase commercial utilization of aquaculture products—benefitting each individual company and the greater New England economy as a whole.

“Ocean clusters are at the center of innovation and entrepreneurship, and are key to building climate resilient, sustainable coastal economies. Now is the time for the federal government to invest in the Blue Economy so we can harness the great potential of waters across the country like the Gulf of Maine,”said Congresswoman Pingree, the lead House sponsor of the legislation.“We represent some of the nation’s most pristine and valuable coastline; we understand the tremendous impact oceans have on our communities, our economy, and our daily lives. With our bicameral and bipartisan Ocean Regional Opportunity and Innovation Act, the U.S. can realize the full potential and value of our blue economy.”

“The funding authorized in this bipartisan legislation will support ocean innovation and development, creating new opportunities to build a sustainable future for our coastal communities across Maine and ensuring the vitality of our ocean industries,”said Sen. Collins.

“For generations, Maine’s ocean innovators have pioneered new, sustainable economic development along our shores,”said Sen. King.“The bipartisan Ocean Regional Opportunity and Innovation Act of 2023 would build on our long legacy of success and sustainability in fishing, aquaculture, and other maritime opportunities by backing efforts to bring together these fresh ideas that build on each other, for new opportunities across Maine’s iconic industries. I am grateful for my colleagues’ partnership on this important effort to promote and modernize Maine’s invaluable ocean economy.”

Specifically, the Ocean ROI Act would require the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the administrator of the U.S. Economic Development Agency, and in consultation with the administrator of NOAA, to designate at least one ocean cluster in each of the five domestic NOAA Fisheries regions and the Great Lakes region. The bill would also create grants for cluster operation and administration and one-time capital investments for physical infrastructure.

For text of the bill, clickhere.

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Tomorrow is “Veterans Get Outside Day” After King, Cassidy Resolution Passes

Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King

BRUNSWICK, ME – The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution introduced by U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), both members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee – marking tomorrow, Saturday, June 10th as “Veterans Get Outside Day.” The day encourages veterans, especially those struggling with mental health challenges, to spend time in the great outdoors. Veterans have free lifetime access to National Parks and Maine State Parks.

“From beach walks to fishing trips to simply hearing a refreshing breeze in the forest, America’s extraordinary outdoor spaces can bring moments of calm during the most difficult times,” said Senator King. “I hope that ‘Vets Get Outside Day’ this year will encourage our veterans to find a relaxing outdoor space near them. It’s a simple way to promote the great outdoors and help these brave men and women who may be struggling with mental health conditions.”

“We owe it to the men and women who traveled oceans to protect us to address the veteran suicide crisis,” said Senator Cassidy. “Vets Get Outside Day is a positive step towards ensuring veterans know they have the help they need available to them.”

The resolution calls on veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, depression, anxiety, or other mental health challenges to walk, run, hike, bike ride, or simply spend time outside on June 10, 2023 as part of an effort improve mental health. Nearly 460,000 veterans were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries between 2020 and 2022, and there were 6,146 veteran suicide deaths in 2020. Studies have shown that spending time outdoors in nature can have positive impact on an individual’s mental health and lessen feelings of isolation.

Veterans can dial 9-8-8 and then press 1 to be connected with the Veterans Suicide and Crisis Lifeline available 24-hours a day.

Read the full resolution here.

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As Wildfire Impacts Cover Mid-Atlantic States With Smoke, King Pushes for Proactive Forest Management

Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King

Watch or download Senator King’s questioning HERE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As much of the country feels the impacts of Canadian wildfires, U.S. Senator Angus King today pushed top Biden administration officials to consider simple and effective methods to improve forest management across the United States. In a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, King brought attention to declining federal forest harvests and how this neglect has led to dangerous growth – known as overstock – of junk wood that has significantly expanded the chances and severity of large fires. He told Jeffrey Rupert, Director of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Wildland Fire, that “there are people that want to harvest wood in the forest” and called on him to “figure out a way to let them do so in an environmentally sound manner.”

“It seems to me that the key words today that I’ve heard over and over are overstock and drought… the overstocking is something we can address directly. Between 1965 and I think 1990, the average amount of wood taken out of the federal forest was about 12 billion board feet. Since 2001, that’s 2.2 billion board feet. The problem is too much junk wood and understory [lower-height plants and trees] in the forest,” said Senator King. “Mr. Rupert, I don’t want to embarrass you, but you talked very proudly about 2.1 million acres are going to be treated next year. I figured that’ll get us to the full forest in 60 years. Come on – the solution is right in front of us, which is there are people that want to harvest wood in the forest and we should figure out a way to let them do so in an environmentally sound manner. I’m convinced that can be the case because the disparity between 12 to 13 billion and 2 billion, there’s got to be a right number somewhere between those two. So how do we significantly increase harvesting?”

“I think as you look across the country where we’re having success, where we’re having success is where we’re collaborating, coordinating, partnering at scale,” replied Mr. Rupert. “So we talk about landscapes, we talk about watersheds. That’s a scale where individual parties on the ground, local communities, local landowners, local interested parties have a seat at the table to share in a strategy to identify shared values to protect. And I think that’s the key is that scale piece.”

“Part of the shared value ought to be CO2 in the atmosphere. These fires are giving us a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere that cant’ be offset. And there are environmental issues surrounding cutting, I understand that. I’m from the most forested state in the country, and when I was governor, we passed a very strong Forest Practices Act. I get that. However, we’re not taking cognizance of the big picture, which is the CO2 released by these catastrophic fires,” emphasized Senator King. “It may be that we need to have more cutting in order to prevent that CO2. Do you see? I think I can make a strong environmental case for this argument.”

Continuing to press for solutions to address wildfires, King highlighted his bill to improve the Forest Service’s ability to remove the small trees that are increasing wildfire risks.

“One of the bills I’ve submitted, which goes along with the list that Senator Barrasso gave about different bills addressing this, is one that says that the Forest Service can allow less than 8 inch trees to be removed for free. And it would incentivize reducing again the fuel load in the forest because a lot of this is the smaller the undergrowth and also dead and dying trees that ought to be gotten out,” said Senator King. “So I hope that the Forest Service can really look at this and come back to us and say, okay, why did we go from 13 to 2 and how do we change that in an environmentally sound manner?”

As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator King has been a national leader in efforts to support forest policy that addresses climate change effectively, supports the health of ecosystems, and bolsters sustainable wood production. He recently introduced a bipartisan bill to establish a “Future of Forests” panel that would convene a federal advisory panel tasked with making recommendations to secure the health of America’s forests. Senator King has also been a fierce advocate for America’s wildland firefighters. He worked to include $600 million to raise federal wildland firefighter salaries in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and successfully pushed the administration to implement the pay increases ahead of this year’s fire season.

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King Cosponsors Bipartisan Legislation to Address Affordable Housing Shortages

Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As families across Maine struggle with a lack of affordable housing, U.S. Senator Angus King is cosponsoring bipartisan legislation to create nearly two million new affordable homes across the country – including thousands in Maine. The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to provide more homes for low-income people, support small businesses trying to attract workers, and fill the state’s gap of more than 20,000 affordable housing units. The LIHTC provides tax credits to state and local agencies to acquire, rehabilitate, or construct rental housing and make it available to lower-income applicants. Eight million American households have benefited from the credit, and 5.5 million jobs have been created in the building or restoring of 3.5 million units.

Maine is experiencing a shortage of affordable housing, with only 51 homes for every 100 renters that have extremely low incomes (ELI). Fifty-eight percent of the state’s ELI renters spend more than half of their incomes on rent. Maine small businesses frequently cite the affordable housing gap as one of the biggest hurdles to find employees.

“There’s one law that Congress can’t repeal: the law of supply and demand. With Maine people struggling to find places to live that fit their budget, it’s clear we need to quickly expand the supply of affordable housing,” said Senator King. “The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would build on the success of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to create millions of new affordable housing units in the communities that need them the most. It’s a bipartisan, commonsense effort to help families find housing that fits their budget. The bill is an important step to address the housing shortages facing the country and I hope we can get it passed quickly for the benefit of families, small businesses, and entire communities.”

“We are delighted that Senator King is supporting the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. By expanding and improving the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, a proven and critical resource for the creation of affordable housing, this bill will help Avesta Housing and the State of Maine produce thousands of safe, quality affordable homes that could not otherwise be built,” said Rebecca Hatfield, President & CEO of Avesta Housing. “During a time of unprecedented demand, we are hopeful that bipartisan support of this important bill will result in its speedy passage.”

The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would provide Maine thousands of new housing units, leading to an estimated 2,300 more jobs and generating over $256 million in wages. It would:

  • Increase the number of credits available to states by 50 percent for the next two years and make the temporary 12.5 percent increase secured in 2018 permanent—which has already helped build more than 59,000 additional affordable housing units nationwide.
  • Stabilize financing for workforce housing projects built using private activity bonds by decreasing the amount of private activity bonds needed to secure Housing Credit funding. As a result, projects would have to carry less debt, and more projects would be eligible to receive funding.
  • Improve the Housing Credit program to better serve veterans, victims of domestic violence, formerly homeless students, Native American communities, and rural Americans.

A summary of the legislation can be found here. The text of the legislation can be found here.

Senator King has long been committed to ensuring Maine people across the state can access affordable, safe housing. Last year, he introduced a bipartisan bill to help students who are currently homeless access affordable housing while pursuing their education, and has worked to expand affordable workforce housing on Mount Desert Island.

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Manchin Submits Comments to U.S. Treasury on 30D New Clean Vehicle Tax Credits

Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Joe Manchin

June 12, 2023

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury on the proposed rulemaking for 30D new clean vehicle tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) filed in the Federal Register on April 17, 2023.

A sample of Chairman Manchin’s comments are below. To read the full comments, please click here.

The proposed rule 

Regrettably, it appears that the Treasury has seriously misconstrued the plain language and clear purpose of the critical minerals and battery component requirements in subsection (e).  Either that or the Treasury thinks it has a better approach than the one enacted by Congress and it is using its subsection (e)(3) rulemaking authority to substitute its approach for the one that Congress enacted into law.  But the Treasury has no such power.  As the Supreme Court has previously admonished the Treasury, “[t]he power … to prescribe rules and regulations … is not the power to make law … but the power to adopt regulations to carry into effect the will of Congress as expressed by the statute.” The proposed rule deviates from the will of Congress in at least three major respects.

  1. The “50% of value added test”

            First, § 1.30D-3(c)(17) of the proposed rule creates a new “50% of value added test,” which the Treasury proposes to use to determine whether the critical minerals requirement in section 30D(e)(1) is met.  This new test is not found in section 30D(e) or anywhere else in the law.  It is purely of the Treasury’s own making.  This new, unauthorized, and unlawful test frustrates the purpose of the statutory test.  It both bifurcates the unified “extraction or processed” value test that Congress provided in section 30D(e)(1)(A)(i), and it cuts in half the percentage requirements prescribed by Congress in section 30D(e)(1)(B).

  1. “Constituent materials”

The second major deviation from the statutory scheme is in the proposed rule’s use of the concept of “constituent materials” to count the value added by manufacturing processes as part of the value of the critical minerals rather than part of the value of the battery components.  The term “constituent materials” is not found in section 30D(e), though it is used in the definition of battery “processing” in section 40207 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Section 40207 established a “battery material processing grant” program at the Department of Energy, and broadly defined “battery material” to mean both “raw and processed” materials used in battery components.  Section 40207 of the Infrastructure Act, unlike section 30D, did not attempt to draw a bright line between the processing of critical minerals used in battery components and the manufacturing processes used to make those components.  As used by the Department of Energy, the term straddles the line between critical minerals and battery components.

Moreover, the constituent materials definition ignores the very purpose of section 30D as it has been amended by the Inflation Reduction Act. As the Treasury acknowledges in the preamble to its proposed rule, the purposes of the Act’s amendments to section 30D are not only “to promote the purchase and use of new clean vehicles … and to achieve significant carbon emissions reductions,” but “to promote resilient supply chains and domestic manufacturing … [and] to protect against improper credit claims….” The proposed rule defeats the latter purposes by discouraging investment in domestic battery component production capacity, perpetuating our dependence on foreign supply chains, and awarding costly tax credits to subsidize production of electric vehicle battery components outside of North America.

  1. Free trade agreement countries

The third major deviation from the statute is in the definition of the term “country with which the United States has a free trade agreement in effect.”  The Treasury proposes a two-part definition.  The first part, in §1.30D-3(c)(7)(ii), mostly reflects the list of countries with which the United States does, in fact, currently have a free trade agreement in effect.  To this list, however, the Treasury has added Japan, with which the United States does not have a “free trade agreement” within the meaning of the statute. 

The problem here is that not every foreign trade agreement is a “free trade agreement” as that term is generally understood and as Congress used it in section 30D(e)(1)(A)(i)(II). Although the term “free trade agreement” is not defined in the statute, it has a well-established meaning. A “free trade agreement” is an agreement between two or more countries in which each removes tariff and other restrictions on “substantially all” trade between the parties, not just a mineral here or a mineral there.

Conclusion

Congress rewrote section 30D to promote reliable critical mineral and battery manufacturing supply chains needed to supply the growing demand for electric vehicles.  It prescribed carefully tailored requirements in subsection (e) to serve this purpose.  It then asked the Treasury to issue regulations “to carry out the purposes of this subsection.”

The proposed regulations do not carry out Congress’s purposes.  They alter and weaken the requirements that Congress prescribed by adding a “50% of value added test,” treating manufacturing processes as mining processes, and treating non-free-trade-agreement countries as if they were free-trade-agreement countries.  Each of these is “an attempted addition to the statute of something which is not there.”

The notice of proposed rulemaking asks for comments on the proposed regulations. My comment is simple: Follow the law.

Timeline of Senator Manchin’s Work to Strengthen America’s Domestic Electric Vehicle Battery and Battery Component Supply Chain:

  • On April 20, 2023, Senator Manchin convened an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to examine the President’s budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy for fiscal year 2024. During the hearing, Senator Manchin pressed Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on the administration’s botched implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, including the implementation of electric vehicle tax credits. Senator Manchin said in part: “The EV tax credits for cars, my personal belief is we didn’t need any.  But with that being said, I said if we’re going to do it, let’s get something for it. And changing to electric [vehicles] when we had dependence on a foreign supply chain, mostly China — that doesn’t make any sense. So, we put this together saying $3,750 would come if you secured and sourced and do the processing in North America or countries with a free trade agreement. And then the other $3,750 would be for manufacturing the battery in North America… I am so upset about this because [the administration] is doing every they can to bust the budget, what we promised the American people that bill would cost.”
  • On March 31, 2023, Senator Manchin released a statement following the Department of the Treasury’s release of EV tax credit guidance. Senator Manchin wrote in part:“Yet again – the guidance released by the Department of the Treasury completely ignores the intent of the Inflation Reduction Act. It is horrific that the Administration continues to ignore the purpose of the law which is to bring manufacturing back to America and ensure we have reliable and secure supply chains.”
  • On March 10, 2023, Senator Manchin published an op-ed in The Houston Chronicle discussing Senator Manchin’s dissatisfaction with the way the Inflation Reduction Act is being implemented. Senator Manchin wrote in part: “For example, the Department of Treasury has grossly mishandled the implementation of the electric vehicle tax credits designed to curtail China’s dominance over this critical industry. Instead of abiding by the law, the department pandered to climate activists. With this in mind, I was unable to support Danny Werfel, the administration’s nominee to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.”
  • On March 9, 2023, Senator Manchin responded to comments from White House Senior Adviser John Podesta that Chinese companies will be “big players” in growing domestic energy production using the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Chips and Science Act. Senator Manchin wrote in part: “It is beyond irresponsible for someone speaking on behalf of the White House to not only condone but also advocate for sending American tax dollars to Chinese companies. That is not consistent with either the IRA or the CHIPS + Science Act, which had widespread bipartisan support due to concerns about Chinese supply chains. These words are especially concerning as rumors circulate about the Administration thoughtlessly considering opening up the EV credit’s eligibility beyond our free trade agreement partners and allow the laundering of Chinese minerals and materials through Trojan horse agreements.”
  • On February 2, 2023, Senator Manchin joined a group of bipartisan Senate colleagues to send a letter to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland urging the Secretary to reconsider adding copper as an official U.S. Geological Survey Critical Mineral. Electric vehicles and vehicle batteries require copper, and adding copper to the critical mineral list would help ensure a secure and reliable domestic supply chain.
  • On February 2, 2023, Senator Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, convened a hearing to examiner the Department of Energy’s implementation of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. During the hearing, Senator Manchin questioned the Deputy Secretary of Energy about Chinese influence in America’s electric vehicle battery supply chain.
  • On January 26, 2023, Senator Manchin took to the Senator floor to ask for unanimous consent to pass his bipartisan American Vehicle Security Act (AVSA), legislation introduced in response to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s failure to release guidance to implement electric vehicle tax credits by the deadline required in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The AVSA would fulfill Congressional intent by ensuring the 30D new consumer vehicle tax credit is only made available according to the IRA by requiring compliance with battery manufacturing and critical mineral sourcing requirements as of January 1, 2023.
  • On January 25, 2023, Senator Manchin introduced the American Vehicle Security Act (AVSA) to to direct the U.S. Department of Treasury to implement the new 30D consumer vehicle tax credits for vehicles according to the law by requiring compliance with battery and battery material sourcing requirements as of January 1, 2023.
  • On December 29, 2022, Senator Manchin released a statement urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to pause the implementation of the 45W commercial vehicle and 30D new consumer vehicle tax credits until Treasury is able to issue guidance in line with the intent of the Inflation Reduction Act to onshore supply chains, protect our national security, reduce our dependence on foreign supply chains and create U.S. jobs.
  • On December 13, 2022, Senator Manchin sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling on Secretary Yellen to release guidance that ensures Section 45W Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credits — included in the Inflation Reduction Act — are intended only for commercial use.
  • On December 13, 2022, Senator Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, convened a full committee hearing to examine the Department of the Interior’s implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. During the hearing, Senator Manchin questioned Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau about the Bureau of Land Management’s delay in permitting critical minerals projects.
  • On April 7, 2022, Senator Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, convened a full committee hearing on the scope and scale of critical mineral demand and recycling of critical minerals. Senator Manchin highlighted the need to responsibly develop a domestic critical minerals supply chain to meet growing demand and ensure America’s energy and national security
  • On March 31, 2022, Senator Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, convened a full committee hearing to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing domestic critical mineral mining, processing, refining and reprocessing. Senator Manchin called for a North American energy alliance that would utilize our manufacturing base and leverage our relationships with friendly nations, like Australia and Canada, to ensure that their critical minerals are sent here for processing instead of China.
  • On December 21, 2020, Senator Manchin, serving as Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced that the Energy Act of 2020 would be included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The Energy Act of 2020 was the first comprehensive, all-of-the-above update to our nation’s energy policies in 13 years that included the American Mineral Security Act to reduce the United States’ reliance on foreign minerals and
  • On July 16, 2019, Senator Manchin’s Rare Earth Element Advanced Coal Technology Act (REEACT) passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The bill would allow for the development of technology capable of extracting rare earth elements from coal and coal by-products to re-establish a U.S.-based supply chain.

To read the full comments, please click here.

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Cantwell, Stabenow Hold Forum with WA Growers, Shippers & Researchers Ahead of Farm Bill Reauthorization

Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell

06.10.23

Cantwell, Stabenow Hold Forum with WA Growers, Shippers & Researchers Ahead of Farm Bill Reauthorization

Senators also tour apple orchard, packing facility & WSU’s Cosmic Crisp lab; Cantwell to dozens of WA ag leaders: “This is a key moment for all of us”

WENATCHEE, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, joined nearly 30 Washington state agriculture leaders for a forum in Wenatchee to discuss the upcoming reauthorization of the Farm Bill.

As chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Sen. Stabenow is leading the reauthorization of the Farm Bill, a package of legislation that must be passed every five years. The bill establishes policy and funding levels for agriculture, food assistance programs, natural resources, and other aspects of food and agriculture under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“This is a key moment for all of us to think about our changing environment, the challenges of getting to overseas markets that we want to have access to, the amount of money we want to see in ag research, [and] the progress we want to keep making in helping this sector thrive and grow,” Sen. Cantwell said at the forum. “It just shows you how economies change, how agriculture changes, and why we need to have a strong Farm Bill. I know there are growers here and interests from all over the state, and I thank them for being here too, because there’s diversity to our products.”

“You don’t have an economy unless somebody makes something and somebody grows something … you have sitting here Maria Cantwell, who’s the chair of the Commerce Committee – the ‘make things’ committee – and I’m chairing the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee – the ‘grow things’ committee. So we, I feel, really are the ones in the middle,” Sen. Stabenow told the stakeholders at the forum. “I’ve been on every ag committee since I was in the state legislature, so I believe very deeply in and want to support what you do.”

The forum was hosted by McDougall & Sons, a Wenatchee-based grower and exporter of apples, pears, and cherries. Before the forum, Sen. Cantwell and Sen. Stabenow toured McDougall & Sons’ orchard and packing facility. Following the forum, the senators took a tour of Washington State University’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center including the Overley Lab, where the Cosmic Crisp apple and WSU’s recently announced WA-64 apple were first created.

The current Farm Bill expires September 30, 2023. As chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Sen. Cantwell is a leading advocate of growers in Washington state and has also focused on finding ways to ensure Washington state agricultural products can be exported and remain competitive in a global marketplace.

According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the food processing and agriculture industries create more than 164,000 jobs in Washington State.  A county-by-county breakdown is available HERE.

Video of the tour of McDougall & Sons and the agricultural forum is available HERE. Photos of the McDougall & Sons tour, the agricultural forum, and the WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center is available HERE.

A full list of forum attendees is available HERE.

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Hawley Statement on Biden’s Energy Secretary Lying About Holding Stocks

Source: United States Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo)

Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) released the following statement after Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm revealed that she held financial stocks as recently as May of this year, contradicting previous statements she made to Senator Hawley during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing earlier this year.

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hearing

Source: United States Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo)

In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing yesterday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm about the troubling reports that nearly one-third of the Energy Department’s senior officials or their families owned stocks related to the agency’s work.

At the end of his questioning, Secretary Granholm expressed support Senator Hawley’s Eliminating Executive Branch Insider Trading Act, which would ban the trading and holding of individual stocks by senior Executive Branch officials. Granholm also expressed support for a stock trading ban for members of Congress. Earlier this year, Senator Hawley introduced the PELOSI Act to ban members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks.

“Well I’ll tell you what—I think I’ve got a solution, which is, let’s just ban it. Let’s ban it for all Executive Department officials. Let’s ban it for members of Congress,” said Senator Hawley. “How about that?”

“I would not object to that,” responded Secretary Granholm.

Watch their full exchange by clicking here or below: