On March 28, 2023, the House Appropriations Committee, Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee held a hearing on the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) FY24 budget request with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. Secretary Haaland also testified before the Senate Appropriations committee, Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee the following day.

Of particular interest to both committees was the agency’s $1.94 billion request for its Wildland Fire Management (WFM) account, which includes $1.67 billion in regular appropriations and $262 million in appropriations from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) for FY24. This represents a potential increase of $168 million from FY23 enacted levels.

According to Haaland, this increase will be used to support “an additional 370 federal and 55 tribal fire personnel,” among other departmental changes. And when asked to identify where the most difficult cuts might come from if funding returned to 2022 levels, Haaland said that cuts would need to come from a hiring freeze and potential staff cuts, possibly including wildland firefighters. Haaland also highlighted the WFM budget for fuels management activities – $293.3 million, not including an additional $35.6 thousand from the IIJA.

During the hearing, Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) emphasized the need for long term strategic investment in disaster mitigation and preparedness, particularly for flood mitigation. In response, Haaland noted that the budget sought to put $649 million to improve infrastructure and mitigate the worst effects of disasters made worse by climate.

Increased investment in disaster mitigation has the opportunity to better protect communities and reduce future costs for taxpayers. Last year, TCS president Steve Ellis penned an op-ed in Newsday calling for more “pre-sponding” to natural disasters to save lives and money. Pre-sponding calls for the investment in and creation of more resilient communities which can withstand the onslaught of intense natural disasters.

Legislators, including Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), also questioned the secretary about federal oil and gas lease sales. TCS has long called for reforms to the Bureau of Land Management’s oil and gas leasing, which DOI itself has called broken. As it stands now, the system prioritizes industry profit over taxpayers. With several lease sales planned for this year, DOI must initiate its promised rulemaking to protect fair returns to taxpayers and guarantee better management of our public land.