Budget Hearing – Department of the Interior
House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
2025-05-20
Loading video...
Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
U
Unknown (SPEAKER_02)
The committee will come to order. This morning I'd like to welcome the 55th Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, and I want to apologize for the half-hour late start. We were listening to the boss over in conference, and consequently it got pulled back just a little bit. Mr. Secretary, this is your first formal budget hearing before our subcommittee. While I am disappointed you didn't arrive in a covered wagon, on behalf of our members, I'd like to offer our congratulations on your confirmation. I was reading your biography, just the short one that they give us, and I'm going to read this into the record because I think it demonstrates your commitment. Under his leadership in North Dakota as North Dakota governor, he passed the largest tax cut in state history and dramatically reduced red tape. As a testament to Brigham's leadership, Forbes named him America's Best Entrepreneurial Governor. During his tenure, North Dakota experienced the highest growth in real GDP and had the lowest unemployment rate in the country. That's a pretty good record. So welcome here today. Our hearing today will address the fiscal year 2026 budget priorities for the Department of Interior and provide you with an opportunity to outline our goals for the department. I thoroughly enjoyed our sit-down meeting, hearing firsthand about your time in the private sector as well as Governor and how you plan to apply lessons learned from these experiences to address the many challenges facing the department. As a native North Dakotan and former CEO of a successful tech company, you bring a fresh perspective to the department. I look forward to learning how you plan to reshape the agency while promoting domestic energy production, unlocking critical minerals, addressing the maintenance backlog at our national parks and public lands, and meeting our treaty and trust obligations throughout Indian country. This committee stands ready to roll up our sleeves and work with you to implement efficiencies and reduce redundancies across the agency so that the focus can be on investments that advance the department's core mission.
U
Unknown (SPEAKER_02)
Overall, the president's skinny budget for FY 2026 request provides roughly 10.6 billion for the Department of Interior programs under this subcommittee's jurisdiction. While we recognize the administration proposed some deep funding cuts that we will likely do not see eye to eye with some of these, especially when it comes to Indian programs and the operations of our national parks, today's hearings is just the first step in our month-long budget review process. I'll note that when it comes to funding discussions ahead, this subcommittee under both Republican and Democratic leadership remains committed to upholding the responsibilities of fulfilling our treaty and trust responsibilities with tribes. I know you have extensive experience engaging with tribes during your time as governor. We look forward to working closely with you to prioritize this year's funding to address the greatest tribal needs, including education, law enforcement, and land management issues. In terms of policy, I look forward to learning how you are working with the White House to unleash America's energy, streamline permitting, and the Endangered Species Act reviews and improve wildland firefighting. I also want to personally thank you and the administration for halting the Lava Ridge Wind Project in Idaho, something that had literally no local support whatsoever. As you well know, this out-of-touch project failed to prioritize the concerns of Idahoans and was rammed through by the previous administration. Secretary Burgum, thank you again for joining us this morning. Going forward, I hope we can continue to keep an open line of communications to ensure that as this committee moves through the budget process, we can continue making sound investments to advance the administration's agenda and ensure the long-term well-being of the department. With that, I yield to Ranking Member Ms. Pingree for any opening remarks that she may have.
U
Unknown (SPEAKER_01)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for holding this hearing this morning. And Secretary Berg, thank you very much for being with us today. I appreciated that the slight delay in committee gave me a chance to say an initial hello to you and nice to meet, even though I represent Maine, a fellow Midwesterner since I was born in Minnesota, Yashuri Betcha. I do want to thank you for bringing your many skills as a former governor and a businessman to this very important position. The Department of Interior is tasked with protecting and managing our natural resources and cultural heritage, to providing scientific information about those resources and honoring our trust and treaty responsibility. But I will warn you, I am very concerned about the state of the Department of Interior. From my view, in just four months, the department has been destabilized, and there has been a stunning decline in its ability to meet its mission. Given your extensive executive experience, I am disappointed that you would allow this to happen. In partnership with Elon Musk's what I consider a rogue agency, the Doge, you have illegally canceled grants for conservation, for ecosystem restoration and other important work. Over 1,700 probationary employees have been recklessly fired, and 7,600 people, or 11% of the interior workforce, have been pushed to resign. These are not just numbers. These people are experts and dedicated public servants with decades of programmatic and institutional knowledge that is critically needed to ensure the department fulfills its mission and is a guardian of our public lands. To make matters worse, the agency has a hiring freeze, and you are considering even further reductions in force. I don't see this ending well for this precious agency that this committee is dedicated to oversee. And this committee has devoted hundreds of hours to nurturing this agency. I'm very proud to serve on a committee that generally works in a bipartisan way to make sure that the Department of Interior stays strong.
Sign up for free to see the full transcript
Accounts help us prevent bots from abusing our site. Accounts are free and will allow you to access the full transcript.