Congress Returns to Work on Energy Bills

 

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With the FBI finally deciding that Hillary Clinton was pretty sloppy and careless in the handling of her emails as Secretary of State but not worthy of criminal charges, Congress is back at work.

The House returned today as many Oklahoma Representatives spent the day making flights to D.C. Senators are back on Wednesday and here’s a rundown of what Congress faces this week, with credit to Politico’s Morning Energy Report.

Their big goal is handling energy bills but they are not on the agenda of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s agenda this week.

The House Rules Committee has a Thursday deadline for amendments to the EPA-Interior spending bill.  Several include provisions to block EPA and Interior climate change rules.

While House and Senate leaders are meeting informally to talk about an Energy bill, they cannot get approval from Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell to name Senate negotiators. House conferees including Rep. Markwayne Mullin were named but through Cantwell’s efforts, she’s keeping the Republican majorities from advancing a Democratically unfriendly bill in the conference.

It remains to be seen if Sen. Jim Inhofe’s call to bring a Water Resources Development Act to the full floor during this two-week period. The Senate version contains help for Flint, Michigan.

Over on the House side, the Budget Committee plans a hearing Thursday to look into a regulatory budget that would limit the total cost of an agency’s regulations with a budget.

The House Science committee will mark up three bills on Thursday, two which would each authorize $150 million for basic science research including one into advance solar technology and the other into energy storage. A third bill would reorganize the law enforcement programs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

A panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will meet Thursday to consider how to deal with spent nuclear fuel. On Wednesday, a separate subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce will hear from Acting Administrator for Air Janet McCabe as she discusses the impact of EPA rules on industry and energy businesses.