Simpson Remarks at FY27 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Bill Full Committee Markup (As Prepared for Delivery)

I am pleased to be here today to mark up the Fiscal Year 2027 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. I’d like to thank Chairman Cole for his leadership and support for this subcommittee. I also want to recognize Ranking Member DeLauro for her continued engagement throughout the process, and Ranking Member Pingree, who has been a great partner and continues to demonstrate her commitment to the issues in this bill.

With Ranking Member Pingree’s support, the subcommittee held nine hearings and one great roundtable: 

• In March, the subcommittee hosted our annual Member Day Hearing.
• The subcommittee hosted 2 full days, 4 sessions, of Tribal Witness Days where we heard from 77 Tribal members and representatives.
• In April, the subcommittee held a Roundtable: Preserving Birds of Prey where we had an incredibly informative discussion with the Peregrine Fund followed by a demonstration with some amazing birds.
• The subcommittee also held FY27 Budget Hearings with Chief Tom Schultz from the U.S. Forest Service, Secretary Doug Burgum from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Administrator Lee Zeldin from the Environmental Protection Agency, and Clayton Fulton from the Indian Health Service. 

These hearings inform the important work of this committee and truly help shape our appropriations bills. The FY27 Interior bill reflects our commitment to our nation’s natural resources, unleashing American energy dominance, and upholding our trust and treaty responsibilities to the Tribes. The bill totals $38.9 billion.

This bill prioritizes investments in Indian country. I consistently say this and will say it again: I refuse to balance the budget on the backs of Tribes; and that commitment continues with the funding decisions made in this bill. The bill provides $1.55 billion for the Bureau of Indian Education, an increase of $181.6 million above the enacted level, and $8.7 billion for the Indian Health Service, a $639.8 million increase over enacted.  The bill also continues advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service, providing $6.1 billion available in FY28. 

For the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the bill provides a total of $3.2 billion, an increase of $721.4 million above the enacted level, including $774.8 million for public safety and justice programs to support law enforcement in Indian Country, a $204.8 million increase over the enacted level.  This includes $33 million for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Initiative, an effort that continues to be very important to me. 

This bill also fully funds all must-pay costs. For the Tribes, that includes contract support costs and section 105 (L) leases. For the States, that’s the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program, which provides payments to nearly every State in the country for certain tax-exempt federal lands. All of these must-pays came in at much higher costs for FY27 compared to the FY26 enacted bill. 

The bill also prioritizes funding for domestic energy production by providing the requested increases to Oil and Gas within the Bureau of Land Management and Energy Resources within the U.S. Geological Survey, and by increasing funding for offshore oil and gas development. This funding supports the President’s strategy to unleash America’s vast energy resources and reduce energy costs for American families. 

The bill also includes a commonsense measure to protect taxpayer dollars and provide parity across all offshore energy producers. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is required by law to conduct safety inspections of all offshore energy facilities. Right now, the oil and gas industry is required to pay fees for these safety inspections on their rigs. BSEE is also required to inspect the new offshore wind facilities, but they are currently conducting these inspections for free. This bill includes new language, right below the oil and gas fees, to also charge fees for wind inspections. These fees were proposed in the budget request based on estimates of the equipment needed to conduct the inspections. With this provision, no energy source is getting a free-ride.

The bill also supports streamlining firefighting activities.  While the bill does not move firefighting activities and funding from the Forest Service, the bill does support the unification of fire throughout the Department of the Interior, implementing the Administration’s proposal to establish a U.S. Wildland Fire Service. 

The bill continues support for federal wildland firefighters and provides additional funding for firefighter pay, helping to improve recruitment and retention, and giving financial certainty to the men and women protecting our communities from catastrophic wildfires. 

Given these priorities, the bill makes fiscally responsible reductions to most other appropriations. 

The EPA is cut by nearly $1.8 billion – or 20 percent – below the enacted level, even after the enacted level reduced EPA funding by more than $300 million. 

As you know, the Community Project Funding in this bill is within EPA. The bill provides funding for almost 1,200 clean and drinking water infrastructure projects for 316 members – an increase of almost 300 projects compared to the FY26 House bill.  While requests greatly exceeded the funding available for projects, we did our best to provide some funding for all eligible projects given the impact these dollars will have in communities across the country. 

Even after funding our CPFs, the bill also continues to protect and provide funding for grants that go directly to States and Tribes for water infrastructure projects and to help fulfill their delegated authority under federal laws like the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. In fact, this bill provides more funding to States through the SRFs than our FY26 House bill did last year.  

As I mentioned, in order to uphold our commitments to the Tribes, to support our federal wildland fire fighters, and to promote domestic energy production, cuts had to be made. 

Although agencies in Title 3 saw cuts, the bill supports the President’s request for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, the Kennedy Center, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum.         

While cuts were made to the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, the bill protects them from elimination and directs funding to the state partnerships that support programs in every congressional district. While some tough decisions had to be made, this bill effectively balances competing priorities, while focusing spending where it is needed most. I look forward to working with Ranking Member Pingree and the other Members to move the Interior bill toward enactment. 

I’d like to extend my thanks to the Members and staff on both sides of the aisle for their work and contributions to the bill – not just committee staff but also those from personal offices. Lastly, I want to take a moment to thank Congressman Amodei and Congressman Zinke. This is the last Interior markup for both of these great subcommittee members.  They have both been leaders on many important issues and assets to the subcommittee.  We will truly miss Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zinke and we wish them the best of luck in their next chapter.