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As budget season gets underway on Capitol Hill, members of the GOP majority in the House are pushing the Interior Department to ‘do more with less.’ At an Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland warned lawmakers of the effects a proposed spending freeze would have on public lands.
Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson of Idaho told Haaland that he wanted "to have a serious discussion about how to do more with less." Haaland warned that keeping spending at 2022 fiscal year levels would cause a hiring freeze, reduce the number of wildland firefighters, and affect Interior's ability to hire seasonal employees.
The hearing wasn't entirely antagonistic. Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada noted that officials in regional Bureau of Land Management offices told him that they couldn't fill some positions because of the high cost of living in some areas. Amodei urged Interior to consider housing programs similar to ones for park service employees and wildland firefighters. Haaland indicated she would discuss potential solutions with Amodei.
During the hearing, former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, now a member of the House subcommittee, repeatedly clashed with Haaland over critical minerals. Following the hearing, Zinke approached Haaland, holding a cowboy hat, and told her “I wear a hat, but it’s not cowboys and Indians, I’ll tell you.”
Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning is scheduled to discuss her agency's budget request, including a plan to speed up renewable energy permitting, at a hearing today.
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There’s something pretty exciting about collaboratively resolving a 46-year mine fight. That doesn’t happen. Now it’s just a matter of getting everyone across the finish line.”
