ICYMI: Heinrich to Secretary Burgum on Interior Budget Request: “This Budget Would Decimate the Management of Our National Parks and Monuments”

The budget proposal that we're discussing today tells us a lot about what this administration's priorities are, and I was very pleased to see that you have abandoned last year's proposal to get rid of many units of the National Park System.

But even though you've agreed to keep our Park Units, this budget request makes clear this administration is not committed to keeping the Park Service intact.

This budget would decimate the management of our national parks and monuments.

While you have said the cuts are not targeting staff physically located at park units, the management of our parks relies on the entire work force of the National Park Service.

It doesn't matter whether a particular wildlife biologist or archaeologist or botanist or historian works at one specific park or supports multiple parks from a regional office.

Eliminating those positions means our national parks will go without the science-based management and conservation they need, and that the American people have frankly come to expect.

And the damage this proposal will do to our public lands doesn't end with the parks.

At the Bureau of Land Management, which manages nearly half of our public lands, this administration would cut the Land Resources account by 48 percent - that's just a fact; the wildlife management and aquatic resources program by 70 percent; and would cut management of National Conservation Lands, including our national monuments, recreation areas, and national trails, by 75 percent.

And I would point out that those national monuments are major drivers of economic development in my state.

I don't know anyone in New Mexico that thinks we spend too much money on wildlife.

We may spend too much money on a war in Iran, but we don't spend too much money on wildlife.

People often say that budget proposals in Washington are a statement of values. You fund the things that you care about.

What this budget proposal tells me is that this administration does not prioritize our national parks, our public lands; does not care about remembering and telling our nation's history; does not value our wildlife; and does not prioritize our Tribal communities.

It also tells me that this administration isn't serious about permitting reform.

Because defunding the agencies that issue permits for new energy projects means that permits don't get issued - creating red tape, rather than cutting it.

Even the courts have said that the Department of the Interior needs to stop illegally stalling wind and solar projects, and yet there are still no projects moving to construction.

Instead of trying to appeal this recent decision or defy it, the Department of [the Interior] needs to comply with the court's order and start approving permits for clean energy projects on federal lands.

And if there is any hope of Congress passing bipartisan permitting reform, the administration needs to make use of the permitting system that we have instead of trying to break it.

I know the American people care about all of these things, and I am confident that the disregard this administration has for our public lands and waters will not be allowed to degrade and destroy our national heritage.

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