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The Hill
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Bipartisan senators seek study on wildfire insurance
A pair of bipartisan senators introduced legislation this week that would seek information on how much growing wildfires are costing homeowners. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) first shared with The Hill a draft of the Wildfire Insurance Coverage Study Act. Their bill would require the U.S. Comptroller General to study the extent of growing U.S. wildfire risks and whether private companies have refused to issue new policies to homeowners because of those risks. Climate change is worsening droughts and leads to more severe wildfires. While this science has been politicized, dealing with wildfire damage can be an area of consensus. Still, it's not entirely clear if the bill will advance. 'I'm hearing from more and more New Mexicans who've seen their insurance premiums skyrocket, lost coverage entirely, or been priced out of protecting their homes. That is completely unacceptable,' Heinrich said in a written statement. 'We need a clearer picture of how worsening wildfires and climate risks are impacting insurance companies' decisions to raise insurance premiums.' 'One-third of America lives in wildfire-prone areas, and we must get our arms around this crisis, because if you can't get or afford homeowners' insurance, you can't finance your home, which means hardworking families can't achieve homeownership,' Sheehy said in a written statement.
Politico
18-07-2025
- Business
- Politico
‘Definitely playing favorites:' Interior memo could strike dire blow to wind and solar projects
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, warned the move would hamstring the U.S. economy by delaying additions of readily available power. 'The president and Secretary Burgum will then be responsible for raising electricity prices on every state in this country because that will be the end result of that kind of abuse of permitting,' he said. 'I would warn them if they create this as a precedent and it survives, a future administration could play the same game with oil and gas pipelines and leases.' The department's new policy requires Burgum's office to weigh in on virtually every aspect of or permit for solar and wind projects with a nexus to Interior. That includes siting, navigating threats to endangered species, road access and right-of-way permissions. 'There are some projects — particularly in the West because that's mostly where you're going to see this Interior footprint — that are going to be directly impacted by this, significantly impacted by this,' said Walter McLeod, managing director of Monarch Strategic Ventures, which finances solar and battery storage projects. Those steps would ensnare a massive amount of projects, said Ted Boling, a partner at law firm Perkins Coie who spent decades working on permitting at Interior and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Projects that begin on private land but must cross public land — such as transmission lines that connect solar and wind to other power lines carrying electricity to populated areas — require authorization from Interior's Bureau of Land Management, he said. Transmission projects, which can span hundreds of miles, that cross national wildlife refuges on Interior-managed land may also need Burgum's approval, Boling added. Some companies and clean energy advocates worried the directive would slow solar and wind approvals to a crawl by creating a bottleneck at Burgum's office. The memo outlining the new marching orders referenced several executive orders that were designed to either elevate fossil fuel production or stymie renewable power.
The Hill
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Hawley challenges Democrats over bipartisan RECA language in ‘big, beautiful bill'
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who scored a big win by getting Senate GOP leaders to add language extending the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to President Trump's budget package, is challenging Democrats not to contest the provision with the Senate parliamentarian. Hawley noted the bipartisan support behind RECA in urging Democrats to not challenge its presence in the Senate version of Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' 'Democrats will soon have to decide whether to try to strop RECA out of the reconciliation bill (using the 'Byrd rules'). It stays in unless Democrats challenge. Don't do it! Survivors have waited too long. Let's get this done now!' Hawley posted on X. Hawley announced last week that GOP leaders agreed to include the largest expansion to date of the radiation exposure compensation program in President Trump's signature first-year legislation. It would expand the program to make residents affected from radioactive exposure in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska eligible for compensation and would fully cover people affected in 'downwind' areas such as Nevada, Utah and Arizona. 'The federal government dumped nuclear waste in the backyards of Missourians for decades—and then lied about it. These survivors sacrificed their health for our national security at the advent of the Manhattan Project, and their children and grandchildren have borne the burden of radioactive-linked illness for generations since,' Hawley said in a statement last week. Hawley is challenging Democrats who have supported the expansion of RECA to urge their leadership not to attempt to strip the language from the budget reconciliation package by litigating the issue with the Senate parliamentarian. Democrats are challenging an array of provisions in the massive package as violations of the Senate's Byrd Rule, which governs what legislation may be protected from filibusters under the budget reconciliation process. Democrats have already successfully knocked out several provisions, such as a funding cap that would have eliminated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a key accomplishment of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. The expansion of RECA has had strong bipartisan support in the Senate. Hawley joined Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in January to reintroduce the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act to compensate Americans exposed to radiation by government nuclear programs. Heinrich said at the time that 'it's long overdue for Congress to pass an extension and expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that includes Tularosa Basin Downwinders whose communities and families were harmed by the fallout of the 1945 Trinity Test.' The Trinity Test, which took place in July of 1945 at the Alamogordo Bombing Range in New Mexico, was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon as part of the Manhattan project. Luján, when he joined Hawley in reintroducing the legislation in January, said that 'individuals affected by nuclear weapons testing, downwind radiation exposure and uranium mining are still waiting to receive the just they are owed.' A Democratic aide on Friday declined to say whether Democrats would challenge specifically the RECA language championed by Hawley. The source said that Senate Democratic staff are conducting a comprehensive review of policy provisions in the package.
The Hill
19-06-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Lawmakers, USDA seek to combat New World screwworm along the southern border
Just a few hundred miles from our southern border, a flesh-eating parasite has been detected in Mexico, putting America's farmers and ranchers on watch. The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly that lays its eggs in the open wounds of livestock, primarily cattle and sheep, deer and other wildlife, and on rare occasions, humans and pets. Once hatched, the fly's larvae feed on tissue, leading to severe infection and often death. If this parasite were ever to reach the United States, our agricultural economy and supply chain would be in serious trouble. That is not a hypothetical scenario. Flare-ups have occurred within our borders in the past, costing American producers hundreds of millions of dollars. Mrs. D., a Central Texas rancher, remembers all too well the devastation of the last major screwworm outbreak in the United States that took place during the 1960s. 'Every day from dawn to dusk, my husband would ride horseback to find animals affected by the screwworm. We worked tirelessly to ensure our livestock survived. We had to make sure our calves were born in the winter to stand a chance against the fly that caused the screwworm because the flies are not as prevalent in the cold weather.' Although screwworms were eradicated from the U.S. in the 1960s using a sterilized fly technique, all the signs are there for a repeat scenario. As of March of this year, 369 confirmed cases had been reported in Mexico, creeping north from its confinement zone in Central America and towards the United States. As the representative of the largest congressional district in Texas, I have heard repeatedly from my constituents that a reemergence of New World screwworm is their biggest concern. Texas tops the charts for beef production in the nation, and some of my district's counties have more sheep and goats than live human beings. There is no doubt that a screwworm outbreak would be absolutely devastating to communities like mine. I am not alone in these concerns. In March, 43 of my colleagues joined me in bipartisan outreach to the Agriculture Department to offer congressional support on screwworm eradication efforts. I also introduced the STOP Screwworms Act along with 31 of my House colleagues and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M). This important legislation would establish a sterile fly production facility in the U.S. — a critical step in our fight to shore up our domestic infrastructure against this deadly parasite. Fortunately, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has been incredibly proactive on this issue. This week, I joined Rollins to announce the launch of an $8.5 million sterile New World screwworm fly dispersal facility in South Texas and a five-pronged plan to enhance the Agriculture Department's ability to detect, control and eliminate this pest. Per the Agriculture Department, the facility in South Texas is expected to be ready within six months. President Trump and Rollins have made protecting America's agriculture industry a priority. Together, we will fight to codify executive branch wins into long-term legislative solutions. Tony Gonzales represents Texas's 23rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves as the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Conference and represents the largest congressional district in Texas, spanning over 800 miles of the southern border.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Advocates, legislators still trying to expand expired compensation program for radiation exposure
Jun. 10—One year ago, Congress let a federal program end that compensated people who grew sick from mining uranium for nuclear weapons or from living downwind of nuclear weapons tests. In those 12 months, Tina Cordova's cousin died after years of living with a rare brain cancer. Under a proposed expansion of the program, 61-year-old Danny Cordova likely would have qualified for the $100,000 compensation offered to people with specific cancers who lived in specific areas downwind of aboveground nuclear weapons' tests. "Instead, he and his mom lived literally paycheck to paycheck trying to pay for all of the medications he needed," Cordova said. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) program was created in 1990, New Mexican downwinders have been left out, as have uranium mine workers from after 1971. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., has led an effort in the Upper Chamber alongside Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to expand the program so it includes later uranium mine workers, and people harmed by aboveground nuclear tests in more states — including New Mexico. In January, they reintroduced a bill to extend and expand RECA. "Letting RECA expire is a disgrace to these families and victims," Luján said. "It's an insult to the victims and their families who still struggle to this very day to get help, get the medicine they need, get the treatments for the conditions caused by the negligence of the federal government. For the victims, this story is long from being over. Generational trauma and poor health conditions continue to plague entire families." Although Hawley and Luján's bill passed the Senate twice in the last session of Congress, and was supported by the entire New Mexico delegation, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., never allowed a vote on the companion House bill, sponsored by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M. The expansion would have included an increased pricetag of $50 billion to $60 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — a cost estimate Luján has disagreed with. Since its inception, RECA has paid out approximately $2.6 billion. There is no accurate estimate of how many New Mexicans would be included if RECA is expanded, according to Luján's office. "We know we have the votes to get this passed now," said Leger Fernández, who plans to reintroduce the bill in the House. "They keep raising issues with regards to the cost... These are people's lives, and so we need to keep bringing it back to that issue. And in many ways, I think that we are doing this in a bicameral manner, and that the pressure that is being brought from the Senate will help us in the House." 'No apology' Cordova's cousin was diagnosed in his 20s, and had five brain surgeries to address his cancer. "He was left with horrendous and devastating consequences of that (first) surgery," Cordova said. "He lost the eyesight in one eye, he lost the part of his brain that controlled all of his hormonal functions, and he lost the part of his brain that also controlled his ability to adapt his body temperature." Five generations of Cordova's family tree include many cases of cancer. She herself survived thyroid cancer, and as a co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, she's long advocated for expanding RECA. Cordova's kitchen counter is covered in the stories of family trees that mirror her own. For 18 years, she's been collecting health surveys from people who grew up in areas downwind of aboveground nuclear weapon tests, documenting a history of cancer and death for families from Tularosa, Alamogordo and beyond. Loretta Anderson, a patient advocate and co-founder of the Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post-71, works with over 1,000 former uranium miners and their families throughout the Laguna and Acoma pueblos. She knows 10 post-1971 uranium miners, those who would be compensated under a RECA expansion, who have died in the past 12 months. "They died with no compensation, no apology from the government," Anderson said. Despite the difficulty in getting RECA extended and expanded, Cordova has faith it will eventually pass through Congress. "This is not a partisan issue," Cordova said. "Exposure to radiation has affected the young, the old, the male, the female, the Black, the white, the Republican and Democrat alike."
