The Trump administration’s “skinny budget” slashes Department of Interior spending by 30.5 percent and eliminates up to 10 percent of its 60,000 workers.
Those staffing cuts are not sitting well with House Republicans from western states who warned Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum during a May 20 hearing that if the administration doesn’t restore some payroll, they will.
“If Congress authorizes spending levels above the administration’s budget request, would you spend the amounts provided?” asked Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee chair Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho).
“Yes,” Burgum replied. “That would be the law.”
President Donald Trump’s spending request outlines an $11.9 billion fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget for the Interior Department, which manages more than 480 million acres of public lands, 750 million acres of subsurface minerals, and 2.5 billion offshore acres....
