By October each year, the government has to pass its budget for the next fiscal year. While that deadline is still a few months away, the House is beginning to work on budget bills, meaning the public is getting its first glimpse at what may happen to public lands. A recently introduced appropriations act would affect several agencies, endangered species, hunting and fishing, and national parks.
The Bill
Funding
The budget process has two steps. First, the President will issue his proposed budget, which acts as a kind of wish list. Then, Congress has to iron out the details and pass funding bills, which will require the President’s signature.
The Fiscal Year 2027 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act ( H.R.9171) focuses on the departments of the Interior and Energy. It allocates $38.9 billion in discretionary spending. Compared to past funding bills, it makes several key changes, including:
- Cuts the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 20% ($1.8 billion), including reducing its budget for enforcement by $169 million.
- Adds $134 million to the National Park Service Park Protection to boost U.S. Park Police presence and operations in Washington, D.C.
- Allocates $1.21 billion to the Bureau of Land Management, a $166 million decrease from FY26 ($1.3784 billion).
- Allocates $1.3629 billion to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), a 7% cut from FY26. From 2007 to 2015, USFWS averaged $1.94 billion each year in discretionary spending.
- Allocates $2.874 billion to the National Park Service (NPS), a 12% decrease from FY26 ($3.267 billion).
Thus, across the board, this bill delivers significant cuts to three major public lands agencies: NPS, BLM, and USFWS. While not as large as the cuts Trump requested in his initial budget, this package does align with his overall ethos of reducing funding to agencies like the NPS.
On June 3, the bill passed its first major hurdle. It made it out of the House Appropriations Committee on a 35-27 vote. It must pass both chambers of Congress.
Additional Actions
The changes this funding bill proposes, however, are not just monetary. The bill also contains multiple riders, or additional provisions that must be followed if the bill becomes law.
Many of these additions follow Trump’s prioritization of resource extraction from public lands. For example, it aims to reinstate mineral leases in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota and expand oil and gas drilling in Alaska and other BLM-managed areas.
Endangered Species Act
The bill also targets the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Enacted in 1970, this landmark environmental law protects species that the USFWS deems threatened or endangered. Critics of ESA believe it stymies resource and commercial development.
H.R. 9171 would block funding from being used to help protect several species listed under the ESA, including: the greater sage grouse, lesser prairie chicken, northern long-eared bat, seven species of freshwater mussels, the Canadian lynx, North American wolverine, and northern spotted owls.
It will also block funding for the reintroduction of grizzly bears in the North Cascades (Washington) and the Bitterroot ecosystem (Montana and Idaho), and delist grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone regions.
Some of these animals are on the verge of extinction. Experts estimate that only 3,000 northern spotted owls still exist in California, Oregon, and Washington. Fewer than 300 North American wolverines currently survive in the Lower 48.
Remaining Provisions
The proposed law would also affect hunting and fishing. Departments may not use money to prevent hunting and fishing on public lands if those activities were allowed before Jan 1., 2013. No federal agency is allowed to regulate or ban lead ammunition.
The bill contains many other provisions that don’t neatly fall into any specific category, but would affect public lands. Republican legislators have introduced bills in the past to accomplish many of these goals. The measures include:
- Redesignate Apostle Islands National Lakeshore as a national park.
- Projects to improve drinking water quality must only use U.S.-made iron and steel.
- Blocks funding to the Presidio Trust, a federal agency that manages part of San Francisco’s public lands.
- Return Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument back to its 2020 Resource Management Plan.
Reactions
Environmental and conservation groups were quick to criticize the bill. The Center for Biological Diversity called it a “disgrace.” “This morally bankrupt bill will only lead to dirtier air, more toxic water, and countless species shoved over the extinction cliff. Future generations will pay the price for this staggering level of political irresponsibility,” Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs, said in a press release.
Over 80 local and national organizations signed an open letter on June 2 opposing the bill. Signees included the American Bird Conservancy, Western Watersheds Project, Earthjustice, CalWild, Conservation Northwest, and John Muir Project.
“As we face an accelerating and unprecedented wildlife extinction crisis, now more than ever we need Congress to uphold our environmental laws and protect our nation’s most vulnerable animals and plants. For these reasons, we urge you to oppose this bill and any additional anti-wildlife amendments,” the letter read.
Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee saw the bill as eliminating bureaucratic red tape.
“It manages our public lands responsibly, unleashes domestic energy and mineral production, and strengthens wildfire response … And it refocuses agencies on their core missions by reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens and improving accountability,” Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in a press release.
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