Shutdown Deadline Approaches as Security Fears and Nominee Fights Escalate
Roundup: September 8-15, 2025
Who’s in session this week?
The House and Senate are both in session this week.
Make sure you have the ESP Advisors printable 2025 Congressional Schedule and our public 2025 Congressional Google calendar at your fingertips.
News Highlights
Sen. Dan Sullivan’s Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act and Sen. Ted Cruz’s Modernizing Access to our Public Oceans Act both passed the full Senate.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that the Trump Administration is reviewing five offshore wind farms currently under construction, adding that “it’s likely that there won’t be future offshore wind built in America.”
The House Committee on Natural Resources will meet this Wednesday 9/17 at 10:00am to mark up several bills including the Young Fishermen’s Development Act Reauthorization Act and the Digital Coast Reauthorization Act.
…read our full weekly roundup to learn more!
Written by Emily
Tensions are high in Washington and across the country following the tragic shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk. The violence deepened an already volatile political climate and heightened security concerns on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have canceled public and outdoor events, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) acknowledged that a broader security reexamination for Members of Congress is likely necessary.
Funding Fights Heat Up Ahead of Shutdown Deadline
Congress is once again facing a high-stakes deadline to keep the government open, with a very real possibility of a shutdown on October 1. House Republicans are preparing to vote this week on a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that would extend funding through November 20, just before Thanksgiving. The White House is calling for a CR through January 31, 2025.
House Appropriators are weighing whether to attach the Senate-passed minibus for fiscal 2026 covering Military Construction-VA, Agriculture-FDA, and the Legislative Branch. That package would represent a negotiated version of House and Senate bills. If Congress combines select full-year appropriations bills with a CR for the remaining agencies, the result is a “cromnibus.”
House Republicans are aiming to keep their CR “clean,” free of partisan policy riders. But Democratic leaders have drawn a clear line. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) insist Democrats will not support a stopgap measure unless Republicans agree to bipartisan negotiations on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Meanwhile, Democrats are tracking over $410 billion in federal dollars from FY25 that are being held up by the Trump Administration. The delay, along with concerns about these hold-ups continuing in another CR, adds to frustration among members seeking to unlock investments across federal agencies.
With only a few legislative days left before the deadline, both sides appear entrenched. For ocean and coastal programs, another continuing resolution would freeze funding at last year’s levels and potentially give further discretion to the administration on how to spend the funds.
Nominee Drama
Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), started a rule change last week aimed at speeding up confirmation of many of President Trump’s stalled executive branch nominees. The rule change, expected to be finalized this week, would allow multiple lower-level nominations to be confirmed in batches rather than individually, using a simple majority rather than requiring 60 votes which is currently standard. The change covers roughly 48 nominees at once and excludes Cabinet posts, Supreme Court justices, and lifetime judicial appointments.
If all goes according to their plan, the first tranche of Trump’s nominees, undersecretaries and staff positions for various agencies across the government, including agencies like NOAA and EPA, could be confirmed as soon as next Thursday.
Democrats have pushed back on the move, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer underscoring the importance of maintaining scrutiny over executive branch picks. Schumer has even required recorded votes on nominees who had previously advanced out of committee by unanimous voice vote, such as Dr. Neil Jacobs to lead NOAA, to make it more difficult for Republicans to move Trump’s executive nominees.
ESP Resources
Check out the updated appropriations schedule here
Ocean impacts in the “Big Beautiful Bill”
Breakdown of Trump’s FY26 budget request for NOAA
September 16, 2025
10:00 AM — Playing God with the Weather – A Disastrous Forecast; House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency
1:00 PM — From Protection to Persecution: EPA Enforcement Gone Rogue Under the Biden Administration; House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement
September 17, 2025
9:50 AM — Business Meeting to consider Jeffrey Hall for Assistant Administrator of the EPA Office of Environmental Enforcement; Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
10:00 AM — Oversight of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
10:00 AM — Nominations Hearing to consider NTSB, OSTP, and Commerce Nominees and Full Committee Executive Sessions to reconsider Dr. Neil Jacobs for NOAA Administrator; Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
10:00 AM — Full Committee Markup; House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
10:00 AM — Full Committee Markup including the Young Fishermen’s Development Act Reauthorization Act and the Digital Coast Reauthorization Act; House Committee on Natural Resources
Introductions
Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MO-03) introduced the SBIR/STTR Innovation Workforce Act (H.R.5212). The bill would allow federal agencies to give extra funding to small businesses that already received certain government research grants in order to support fellowships and other projects.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) introduced the Comprehensive NASA Reporting Act of 2025 (S.1081). The bill would require NASA to send all required reports and notices to Congress ten days in advance of sending them elsewhere; to make all spend plans, reprogramming requests, and other nonpublic reports confidential to congressional committees; and to send Congress any international agreements or nonbinding arrangements involving NASA.
Rep. Brendan Doyle (D-PA-02) and 16 Democrat cosponsors introduced the Congressional Power of the Purse Act (H.R.5220). The bill would limit the president’s ability to withhold or delay funds that Congress has already approved, bolster transparency around government spending, strengthen oversight by GAO, impose penalties on officials who violate spending laws, and ensure that essential funding for programs like health, education, and infrastructure are delivered as intended by Congress.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY-06) introduced the Protecting American Research and Talent Act (H.R.5253). The bill would ban universities from using federal funding to do fundamental research in partnership with foreign entities tied to adversarial governments or militaries, in order to prevent those adversaries from stealing U.S. research and technology. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Rick Scott (R-FL), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the Senate version of the bill (S.2755).
Updates
Rep. Roger William’s (R-TX-25) bill to extend the SBIR and STTR programs (H.R.5100) passed the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology by unanimous consent. The bill also passed the House Committee on Small Business. It is scheduled for a full vote on the House floor the week of September 15th and is expected to pass under suspension of the rules. Check out ESP’s blog post on these important R&D programs!
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK-03) and Zoe Lofgren’s (D-CA-18) Weather Act Reauthorization Act (H.R.5089) was marked up and passed the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology by unanimous consent.
Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-AK) Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act (S.93) passed the full Senate.
Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) Modernizing Access to our Public Oceans Act (S.759) passed the full Senate.
Rep. Robert Bresnahan’s (R-PA-08) Mid-Atlantic River Basin Commissions Review Act (H.R.3428) passed the full House.
Congressional Oversight
In response to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s plan to take 50% of profits from federally funded university patents, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, urged passage of seven bipartisan AI bills already approved by her committee that align with the White House AI Action Plan.
Ranking Members Martin Heinrich (D-NM) of Senate Energy & Natural Resources, Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-18) of House Science, Space, and Technology and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ-06) of House Energy & Commerce sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright challenging DOE’s cancellation of Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations clean-energy awards totaling $3.7 billion and demanding detailed justifications and records—including one-page review memos, criteria assessments, and the review committee charter—by September 23, 2025.
House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA-02) criticized Chairman Bruce Westerman’s (R-AR-04) SPEED Act, warning that it would gut the National Environmental Policy Act by limiting consideration of climate and environmental justice impacts, restricting public input and legal challenges, and forcing agencies to ignore new scientific data during reviews.
Fisheries and Ecosystems
The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) convened in Panama, where the NOAA-led U.S. delegation secured $1.8 million for a regional tuna tagging program, expanded port sampling, and new rules for recovering fish aggregating devices to support both conservation and American fishing access.
The Department of the Interior proposed rescinding the Bureau of Land Management’s 2024 Public Lands Rule, aiming to restore the agency’s multiple-use mandate and open a 60-day public comment period once the proposal is published in the Federal Register.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed ending the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, with Administrator Lee Zeldin announcing the move to cut most reporting requirements for large facilities, suppliers, and CO₂ injection sites.
Ocean Science and Technology
The first onshore wave energy project in the U.S. launched at the Port of Los Angeles, where Swedish startup Eco Wave Power installed a pilot system of seven steel “floaters” attached to a wharf that generate electricity from wave motion.
Offshore Energy
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that the Trump Administration is reviewing five offshore wind farms currently under construction and stated that “it’s likely that there won’t be future offshore wind built in America.”
A new study in Scientific Reports (Bennice et al., 2025) could help engineers design flexible rescue robots by decoding how octopuses use their arms in the wild. Researchers analyzed nearly 4,000 actions from videos of octopuses in Spain and the Caribbean, showing that while all arms are equally capable of movement, octopuses prefer to use their front four in exploration tasks like reaching and grasping, while the back four more often drive locomotion, such as rolling or “stilting” along the seafloor. This division of labor is similar to limb specialization seen in primates, but the similarities end there. Scientists were surprised to find that the octopuses showed no evidence of left-or right-side dominance, but instead impressive coordination in left-right arm pairs. By revealing how small deformations add up to complex whole-arm behaviors, the findings have provided a new blueprint for decoding the behavior of octopuses and the development of soft robotics inspired by these versatile, marine multitaskers.