ms. stevens is now recognized. ms. stevens: thank you, chair lofgren, for presiding over today's hearing. thank you to our witnesses for your incredible written and spoken testimony. your written testimonies, in particular, were quite inspiring. and i really enjoyed reading them. in michigan, during this month alone, the national weather service has issued multiple red flag fire warnings throughout the state and in particular, last year we saw fire outbreaks in the northern michigan. dr. clements, in your testimony you focus on programs that are aimed at fire weather research and wildfire prediction. could you tell me more about the types of climate-smart investments in research that are needed for better -- for us to better understand the influences of wildfire on weather and vice versa? dr. clements: yeah, thank you, congresswoman, for the question. i think one focus i mentioned earlier is this couple fire atmosphere modeling tool because it's the only tool that allows the atmosphere to drive the fire and the fire its

ms. stevens. ms. stevens: thank you to my colleague, congresswoman slotkin for organizing this tribute session to our friend and former colleague, paul mitchell. it is very symbolic of what it is like to be a member of the michigan delegation. there are 14 of us, seven democrats and seven republicans representing a state just over 10 million people and we come together time and time again to champion matters and issues for our state. if it's the great lakes or veterans' issues or our auto industry and that is what we are doing here today. we are standing up for our friend who is in a fight, a fight against cancer and doing it on the floor of the house of representatives because this man loved this floor of the house of representatives. so there is no place more symbolic than this to tell paul you have got this. and to your kids, who i know you love dearly, we are standing by you every step of the way. paul was a champion, not only for the legislative process and the business of doing government right b

ms. stevens. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from michigan is recognized for four minutes. ms. stevens: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you, madam chair. i rise in support of the n.s.f. for the future act, a bipartisan bill to revitalize one of the most important pillars of our federal government's investments in innovation, the national science foundation. i certainly want to recognize the great work of our chairwoman, chairwoman johnson, and our ranking member, ranking member lucas, for their leadership in developing this forward-looking legislation. and i was so proud to help usher it through my subcommittee on research and technology. the commitment to bipartisan collaboration and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders has resulted in a carefully crafted bill that provides a much-needed infusion of funding and addresses needs across the agency's portfolio. the n.s.f. for the future act has been endorsed by nearly 50 organizations, including the afl-cio, american society of civil engineers, the semi conductor industry association, and higher education institutions acr

ms. stevens is recognized. >> thank you. secretary granholm, how wonderful to see some michigan energy and have some michigan energy on the committee today. you know, i have some remarkable memories going back a long time with you, particularly when we were working on the u.s. auto rescue. and for those who don't know, for the record, our then governor of michigan really led one of the most comprehensive economic overhauls of our state developing programs like the state small business initiative credit initiative to give credit to our suppliers and small businesses who in a very different financial time couldn't get it. that program resulted in the creation of the state small business jobs act of 2010. and it was because michigan was leading the way under a very skilled governor. so now as the secretary of energy, i wanted to ask you about the leadership and the way in which you are seeing some of the programs that the doe is responsible for with advanced vehicle technologies, particularly also the investments that come from

stevens: great questions. with that the chair is now going to recognize the congresswoman from the ninth state of north carolina, congresswoman ross. ms. ross: thank you very much, chairwoman stevens. i hope this is a very, very happy birthday for you. i also want to thank our businesses for joining us today on this extremely important issue that aeffects people's everyday lives. in my home state of north carolina where one of the top plastic producers in the country. as of 2019 we were ranked in the top 10 in the country in terms of number of employees in the plastics industry. with over 38,000 employees. we have also played an important role in plastic waste reduction and recycling innovation. in 2009 when i served in the north carolina state legislature, we were facing serious issues with litter and sea turtle deaths along the outer banks, one of the most pristine parks of our state. in response, we passed a law that bans single use plastic bags in six counties along the outer banks. while this law is generally supported in those communities, it was repealed in 2017. in addition, we have researchers at the north carolina state univ

ms. ross: thank you, madam chair, and i yield back. chair stevens: thank you, and with that, we are going to recognize dr. connor lamb, congressman from the nice state of pennsylvania for five minutes of questioning. mr. lamb: thank you, madam chair. yes, we are nice. so nice in fact that on behalf of the whole state we would like to wish you a happy birthday today as well. to our witnesses, thank you for hanging on this long. dr. hillmyer, i kind of wanted to pick up where i think you were leaving off, which is, of course our jurisdiction on this committee really is to try to move forward the nation's research agenda and help answer kind of unanswered questions, particularly ones of a longer term nature that individual businesses might find problematic to enter on their own. so, would you mind just summarizing or commenting on the state of knowledge about where we're going in composting and the breakdown of so-called biodegradable recyclables and plastics, and maybe give me a little bit more specific insight into if there's two or three big questio

steven pedigrew of the university of pennsylvania, ms. jocelyn mccurdy of the leadership conference on civil and human rights, mr. kevin morris of the brennan center for justice, mimi marziani of the texas civil rights project and mr. donald palmer who is the chair of the u.s. election assistance commission. let me first talk about dr. pedigrew, dr. pedigrew is the director of the data sciences at the university of pennsylvania's program on opinion research and election studies and the deputy executive director of the fox leadership program. prior to joining penn dr. pedigrew received his ph.d. in political science and a masters in statistics from harvard university and worked at the m.i.t. election data and science lab. very impressive resumÉ. thank you for joining us. ms. mccurdy is the interim executive vice president of government affairs at the leadership conference on civil and human rights, prior to joining the leadership conference ms. mccurdy served as deputy political director at the national political advocacy department of the

ms. stevens: even today communities are struggling. for instance, for decades, to this day, residents of centerville, illinois, and near -- a nearly all black town of 5,000 in southern illinois, just a 12-minute drive from downtown east st. louis, have been dealing with persistent flooding and sewage overflows. i quote, the smell of it is in the air and all over the town after a rain. and bits of soggy toilet paper and slicks of human waste cling to the grass in the neighborhoods where children used to play on warm days. this, my friends is why we commit to an infrastructure bill. because we are standing for the guarantee that everyone deserves to live safely and in clean environments. with that, i urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill that will get us to wastewater -- and make our country great. i yield back. the speaker: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. rouzer: if i could inquire how much time i have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina has 4