Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Merkley: Cuts in Trump’s Budget Request to Leave Lasting Scars on Public Lands, Tribes, and Human Health

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Interior-Environment Subcommittee on the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement after the release of President Trump’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2027:
“This budget request from President Trump and his Administration once again fails to meet the real needs of people in Oregon and across the nation who expect the federal government to tackle the greatest problems facing our environment, health, lands, air, and water, and not serve the President’s personal and petty agenda. This budget request for the federal agencies within the Subcommittee’s jurisdiction abandons critical programs, slashes essential government services, and backtracks from delivering the resources Tribal nations and native communities need to thrive.
“All Trump’s budget does is explode the Department of Defense’s budget to an eye-popping $1.5 TRILLION while Trump continues to spend billions of dollars a day on his illegal war with Iran that is putting servicemembers at risk and jacking up energy prices here at home. It’s an out-of-touch plea for more money for guns and bombs, and less for the things that matter to our communities, like taking on the environmental challenges that lead to wildfire and smoke threats, modernizing communities’ water infrastructure to ensure the basic need for clean water, acknowledging the threat of climate chaos, and fulfilling our trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribes. This proposal is dead on arrival.
“As Ranking Member of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee and of the Senate Budget Committee, I will push my colleagues to reject this budget, work together in a bipartisan manner, and enact legislation that protects our public lands, waters, and outdoor-driven economy and responds to the needs of Tribes and local communities across the country,”said Ranking Member Jeff Merkley.
Specifically, President Trump’s budget proposal includes the following cuts in the Interior-Environment titles:

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