00:00Mary. Thank you very much, Chairman Murkowski. Mr. Secretary, I wanted to start by touching briefly on Hurricane Ridge. That is a place, as you know, is very special to people in my home state of Washington and visitors come to it from all over the world. I know that you visited Olympic National Park last week and you saw how scenic it was and a hint of how brutal the weather can be. It's called Hurricane Ridge for a reason.
00:25The Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge burned down in a tragic fire two years ago, and Congress delivered the emergency funding necessary to rebuild it last year. In the execution report that you delivered to the committee in February, the disaster funding spend plan, you included the money for the Olympic National Park, I understand is for Hurricane Ridge. Do you have any updates for us on the next steps for that project?
00:48No, but I did have an opportunity with the park superintendent and some of the lead people to actually get to Hurricane Ridge, and thankfully there was not 70-mile-an-hour winds. It was beautiful, sunny, calm, gorgeous, but I got to see the site where the fire had happened and was able to meet with them regarding the plans that they have, and it looks like a great, great project.
01:10Good, and can you just keep my staff and me updated on that project as it moves forward? It's really important to all of us.
01:16Okay, thank you.
01:18As you saw, Washington State is home to a number of pristine public lands. People travel from all over the world to experience my state and Oregon. Secretary Burgum, our public lands aren't for sale.
01:32Protecting our wilderness, living up to our tribal obligations, keeping our community safe, it's just not negotiable.
01:39And it's actually a core reason that your department does exist and have been places, these have been places with strong bipartisan support.
01:48So I'm really concerned that one of the first things you did was make deep, painful cuts at our parks and start talking about our public lands kind of like they're a piggy bank.
01:57I do not want to tell future generations that, see that river of sludge used to be clear, used to have salmon, or see that charred mountainside used to be a forest with campgrounds and trails, or that smokestack used to be a national park.
02:11I think I worry because it feels to me like your vision could lead to that with your budget cuts and mass firings and reorganization.
02:20And I'm deeply concerned about the proposed cuts to programs and funding that our tribes rely on, the mass firing of park rangers.
02:30They're the people who help our visitors. They clear the trails, they clean the bathrooms, they respond to emergencies.
02:37And it just, as I watch this and hear from folks and see what's happening, on top of getting some bedrock environmental protections,
02:46I just don't see how your department can execute the law without staff in place.
02:53So just let me ask you, in your short tenure, you have overseen significant staffing reductions, over 10%,
03:00and reorganization efforts across the Department of Interior, with, I understand, more firings to come.
03:06The National Park Service has lost 18% of its staff.
03:10You managed to actually fire the only plumber at Mount Rainier National Park.
03:15There's just nothing efficient about that kind of management.
03:20You've also decided that what few staff remain at our national parks will focus solely on visitor services.
03:27That really abandons the conservation mission, which no doubt will lead to the degradation of our natural resources and our parks.
03:36Actually, on May 8th, five former NPS directors, Republican and Democratic administration alike,
03:43raised really grave concerns about these decisions.
03:47And they wrote that the National Park Service's founding statute requires conservation at our parks,
03:52so they will, quote, be unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.
03:58You know, we need trail guides and biologists.
04:02We need EMTs and geologists.
04:04Geologists, we need snowplow drivers, and we need historians.
04:10Mr. Secretary, do you acknowledge that you do have a statutory obligation to conserve our national parks?
04:16And that's really a simple yes or no.
04:18Yes.
04:19Well, it just feels to me watching this that you are abandoning that obligation with the staffing cuts,
04:27and your job is to carry out the laws that Congress has passed, not as you wish were written.
04:34So let me ask you, how many people do you plan to fire from the National Park Service?
04:38Let me respond by saying, I'm going to repeat myself, that there's an opportunity to have more people working in our parks,
04:47in all the positions that you've described, Senator, and have less people working for the National Park Service.
04:52We just have to accept that this math, that if you've got a situation where slightly less than 50% of the people actually work in a park,
05:00that everything you said, I can increase the number of people in the park,
05:03but still decrease the number of people on payroll at the National Park Service,
05:08because we're eliminating overhead, back office, IT, and HR roles.
05:12And so I can agree with everything that you're saying,
05:15but then to have a mischaracterization that if we cut anybody, that somehow I'm cutting into the conservation mission.
05:21Well, it's huge cuts, and the people you're talking about are actually the support staff,
05:26and when you cut support staff, that's not efficient.
05:29You know, how does someone drive a snowplow if you don't have a staffer that makes sure that the government gets the best deal to buy that snowplow?
05:37I mean, there's many, many detailed people that you're talking about that actually make sure that the spending is efficient,
05:45that the people are efficient, that we all know how important staff is.
05:49I mean, you can't survive without that.
05:52Those are the people that you're letting go.
05:54We can't be efficient if they are not there.
05:56Well, are you suggesting that the National Park Service today is operating at peak efficiency,
06:02and that there's any changes that I could make?
06:04I would suggest that I welcome any suggestions to us about how to be efficient,
06:10but just mass across-the-board cuts and firing is really going to increase,
06:16not increase efficiency at our parks, and that I think we all should be very concerned about.
06:21But if the goal is for us to have more people working in the parks, you're comfortable if I can get to a spot where we have more people working in the parks?
06:27You show me what employees you are leaving behind that don't support someone that makes sure that they have the equipment that they need,
06:34that is up-to-date, it's running, those kinds of things.
06:37You can't just cut those people and expect people to be out in the national parks without somebody who's making sure that their equipment is safe,
06:44that their hours are maintained, all the things that it takes to run a place.
06:48Our national parks are huge, they take a lot of people to run.
06:51A state is huge, I've run a DOT, I understand the role of support personnel across Fish and Wildlife, Parks and Rec, DOT,
06:58all of these aspects of a national park are part of running a state,
07:02and I'm confident that with our team that we can achieve your objectives and still have a reduction.
07:07One thing I am really concerned about and everybody should be is our national wildland firefighting efforts and countless staff who provide the necessary support there.
07:18For example, firefighters put their lives at risk.
07:22Without support they need in many different roles, it just gets more dangerous.
07:27So those are the kinds of people that I am extremely concerned about that without thought or, you know, really smart moves that we're going to be putting our parks at risk.
07:38Well, I agree on the wildland firefighters.
07:40That's why Secretary Rollins and I yesterday held a joint event reaffirming our commitment to work together between the Forest Service and Interior
07:48and our commitment to have full staffing for wildland firefighters this summer, and we're close to approaching that goal, and so we're fully committed.
07:58Okay, I appreciate it.
08:00Just one really quick question regarding our tribes.
08:03You have a role in fulfilling the federal government's trust and treaty responsibilities to our tribes.
08:08I see numerous cuts across the budget that defends tribal police, putting together the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
08:17I just wanted to ask you, how many tribes have you personally consulted with on your budget request?
08:24I've been meeting with tribes every week since I've been here.
08:28I've got a deep understanding of our challenges and shortage in law enforcement.
08:32There's 574 tribes.
08:34Which ones have you met with?
08:36Have you consulted or met with?
08:37I'm happy to provide you a list, but I just recently had the Interior Secretary Tribal Advisory Committee.
08:45We had 24 representatives from tribes from across the country actually meeting in my office just a couple weeks ago.
08:52Law enforcement was a key part of that.
08:54We had an opportunity to meet with the family of Emily Pike.
08:57I brought Cash Patel over.
08:59Of course, it's not just the BIA.
09:01It's also the FBI.
09:02When these cases get escalated, we have over 6,000.
09:04I would just remind all of us that Cash Patel is cutting half a billion dollars from his budget on this.
09:11And he's providing 60 people to Indian country right now to help with the 6,000 unsolved cases on the missing and murdered indigenous women, which is a priority for us.
09:21All of us.
09:21And I just want to say that my tribes in Washington State are deeply concerned.
09:25They're telling us that these layoffs will eliminate natural resource management, basic social services, and they are horrified.
09:32So I hope that in your list that you will provide me that I see some of their names.
09:37Thank you, Senator Murray.
09:38We'll turn to Senator Rounds.
09:40And, Mr. Secretary, just so you know, our votes have started.
09:43So you're going to...
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