FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2019
DENVER—Today, President Trump and Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt released the proposed Interior Department budget for the Fiscal Year 2020. The proposed budget includes major cuts to land and wildlife conservation programs housed in the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service and budget increases for oil, natural gas, and coal permitting and leasing. Notably, the budget would cut discretionary spending on the Land and Water Conservation Fund by more than 100 percent—not only zeroing out the program but trying to claw back funds Congress has already appropriated. In response, the Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Jennifer Rokala:
“It’s no surprise that Acting Secretary Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist, would draft a budget that slashes the National Park Service while increasing funding for drilling and mining on our public lands. This budget makes it clear that the Trump administration sees our public lands as a canvas for extraction, rather than America’s natural heritage that should be conserved and handed down to future generations.”
In addition to effectively eliminating the federal side of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Bernhardt/Trump budget proposal would devastate the National Park Service, eliminating hundreds of jobs from from park operations, cutting $113 million from major maintenance and construction, and $66 million from park management—but spending an extra $4 million on logging inside national parks.
For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. To speak with an expert on public lands, contact Aaron Weiss at 720-279-0019 or aaron@westernpriorities.org. Sign up for Look West to get daily public lands and energy news sent to your inbox.