Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN), Chair of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Department of the Interior:
Good morning, this hearing will come to order. Today, the Interior-Environment Subcommittee will begin a series of budget hearings for the fiscal year 2020, starting with the Department of the Interior. Joining us this morning is Mr. Scott Cameron, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Policy, Management, and Budget.
Mr. Cameron had an earlier turn as a political appointee at the Department during President George W. Bush’s administration. He’s also worked at the Office of Management and Budget, and on Capitol Hill. We appreciate his being here this morning.
Accompanying Mr. Cameron is Ms. Denise Flanagan, the Director of the Department’s Office of Budget. Ms. Flanagan has served as a federal employee for 28 years, and has been in her current position for nine years, which means she can help us understand where the Department’s money is spent. We are fortunate to have her with us this morning as well.
Before we begin, I just want to advise my colleagues that we will be hearing from David Bernhardt, the Acting Secretary, at a later time. Mr. Bernhardt is scheduled to have his confirmation hearing in the Senate this week, so Mr. Joyce and I have agreed to temporarily postpone his appearance before our subcommittee.
For fiscal year 2020, the Interior department is seeking $11.4 billion for the bureaus and programs funded through the Interior appropriations bill. Let me be clear about what this means. President Trump is asking for a $1.6 billion cut, or 12 percent, from the current enacted level.
Those cuts include:
* $234 million from operations of the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management; meaning fewer Park Rangers helping visitors, fewer resources to support endangered species, and less attention to protecting natural habitats on our public lands.
* $197 million less for the deferred maintenance accounts at those three agencies; making the backlog grow, while the public is left with unsafe trails, campsites and docks, and deteriorating buildings.
* $177 million out of the U.S. Geological Survey, with most of the cut targeted toward science programs; This includes eliminating a research division on Environmental Health and cutting five of the eight regional Climate Science Centers!
* $231 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education construction account; This cut would undermine the years of bipartisan work our subcommittee has done to grow funding to meet our trust and treaty obligations, especially to Native students who attend unsafe and unhealthy schools.
* $277 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund; leaving a mere $6 million in actual projects. This cut is proposed even though within days of releasing this budget, the President signed legislation, which we passed overwhelmingly in Congress, to permanently reauthorize LWCF!
Alongside these destructive cuts, the Department is proposing to spend $27 million to continue what I believe is an ill-advised and poorly-documented reorganization proposal that is long on platitudes but very short on verifiable facts. Frankly, the severity of these proposed cuts is a dangerous farce. The funding levels in the Trump budget cause needless worry on the part of many Americans who care deeply about our public lands and the people who work to protect them.
Our constituents see these cuts, thinking this is the final say, and imagine that the services and opportunities in our parks, our wildlife refuges, and our BLM lands will be severely curtailed. Tribal nations will see the cuts as an abandonment of our trust and treaty responsibilities, and fear what will happen to them next year. And millions of Americans living along the full length of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts wonder if their Governors, who unanimously oppose drilling off their coasts, will be heard.
For the Administration to offer these proposals to recklessly slash federal budgets is a disservice to the country. This is not a thoughtful consideration about what funding levels are actually needed to carry out the mission of the Department. Instead, this is nothing more than an exercise in how to hit an arbitrary allocation passed down from OMB. It’s clear that the Administration is embarrassed by its disastrous management of the deficit, which is expected to top $1 trillion this year, and now the President is trying to balance the budget by slashing funding for our national parks and public lands to finance his tax cuts for the wealthy and to fund his border wall.
It’s unfortunate, but as Appropriators, we will work through it and produce a bill that will better reflect the will of our constituents. As my friend and fellow appropriator Mr. Cole often says, “The Administration proposes and Congress disposes."
Before turning to Mr. Cameron, I would like to yield to our Ranking Member, Mr. Joyce, for any opening remarks he would like to make.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
