Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) delivered the following remarks as the Senate Appropriations Committee met for a full committee markup of the fiscal year 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Merkley\u2019s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you, Chair Collins and Vice Chair Murray. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd thank you, Chair Murkowski\u2014we have changed roles, but we have not changed our close partnership on the Interior subcommittee, working together on programs integral to the stewardship of public lands, the health and livelihood of Tribal communities, healthy and productive forests, human health, clean water, and clean air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m supporting this bill today because it fully protects funding for operating our public lands\u2014that means no funding cuts to the operations of the National Park System, the National Forest System, the National Wildlife Refuge System, or National Conservation Lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe bill also includes language requiring that public lands agencies maintain staffing levels to carry out their important missions, such as protecting important natural and cultural resources, maintaining access and recreation for visitors, conducting Tribal consultation, maintaining infrastructure, and providing information to stakeholders and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would like to think we wouldn\u2019t need a new provision requiring that there be enough staff to carry out these activities that are fundamental to managing federal lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut this Administration has pretended that everything will be just fine while, for example, cutting staff at the National Park Service by 24 percent since taking office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe bill also ensures that all of our national park units remain in the National Park System\u2014an important response to the Administration\u2019s frankly shocking request to spin off park units and pare down the system that Americans so treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m also supporting this bill because it fully protects, and even provides targeted increases for, Tribal programs\u2014a bold answer to the President\u2019s proposal to slash $1.5 billion from Tribal communities, including cutting $450 million, or a full one-third of funding, from Tribal schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn addition, this bill fully protects funding for wildfire preparedness and operations, as well as funding for wildfire-related staffing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd while I\u2019m disappointed that we were unable to strike harmful legacy riders, which don\u2019t belong in an appropriations bill, I\u2019m happy that we were able to hold off on controversial policy items and focus on appropriating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese are the core reasons I\u2019m here supporting the bill today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean I agree with every piece of this bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is far from the exact bill I would have written. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m sure this is not the exact bill that Chair Murkowski would have written either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut the point of this Committee is not that one side gets everything they want and the other side gets shut out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe proud tradition of this Committee is to hammer out a bipartisan compromise by balancing priorities, making tradeoffs, and keeping the government working for the American people in a cost-effective manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why we hadn\u2019t had a rescissions package pass into law for 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis Committee made bipartisan agreements and stuck by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut the enactment of last week\u2019s partisan rescissions package was an alarming\u2014 and grave\u2014 change of direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt eroded the trust we have in this room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut Chair Murkowski and I worked together on this bill on a bipartisan basis, and I know that she values the tradition of this Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo I\u2019m proud to move forward on our bill to show bipartisanship can still be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs we move this bill forward, however, I want to continue working on some of the areas in this bill<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a time to cut back or even tread water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should be investing more in EPA\u2019s research arm, not fighting to just make sure it doesn\u2019t disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should be investing more in maintenance for public lands, not trimming back more every year and kicking the can down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should be investing more to modernize health care for Tribal communities\u2014not settling for Tribal members getting MRIs in shipping containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should be investing more to confront the extreme threat that climate chaos poses to our air quality, drinking water, wildlife, forests, ecosystems, and our shared future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs we sit here today, 70 large wildfires are burning across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are 6 major wildfires burning in my home state of Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOverall, there have been almost 40,000 fires reported this year, burning 2.9 million acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need the resources in this bill to do more than survive\u2014we have to tackle these problems head on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs I close, I want to thank my staff and Senator Murkowski\u2019s staff for working to get us here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn my team: Melissa Zimmerman, Ryan Hunt, Anthony Sedillo, and Rishi Sahgal\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd on Senator Murkowski\u2019s team: Daniel Mencher, Anna Smith, Sarah Jorgenson, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aaron Thiel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI also want to again thank our Chair, Senator Murkowski, and our Vice Chair, Senator Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith that, I yield back to Chair Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n ###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) delivered the following remarks as the Senate Appropriations Committee met for a full committee markup of the fiscal year 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Senator Merkley\u2019s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below: \u201cThank you, Chair Collins and Vice Chair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":18847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[105,43,118,36,45,110],"class_list":["post-22700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-appropriations","tag-bipartisan-actions","tag-delivering-for-oregon","tag-natural-resources-and-rural-development","tag-tackling-climate-change","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n