Ian Brickey, ian.brickey@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is appearing before the House Natural Resources Committee to defend the Trump Administration’s sweeping proposed budget cuts to the country’s largest land management agencies.
Since reclaiming the White House, the Trump Administration has pursued drastic cuts to staff and budgets at the department and throughout its agencies. In February, the administration fired more than 2,000 workers as part of DOGE’s chaotic mass layoffs, including approximately 800 at the Bureau of Land Management Alone. In their proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, the administration proposed steep cuts in the department’s funding, including slashing one-third of BLM’s funding, dismantling national monuments, and cutting staffing at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by 19 percent.
Donald Trump has sought to drastically shrink DOI agencies during both of his terms. During the first Trump administration, he ordered the relocation of BLM’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado, which led to mass departures of career agency staff.
In response, Dan Ritzman, Sierra Club’s Director of Conservation, released the following statement:
“While Doug Burgum traipses around the country from photo op to photo op, DOGE lackeys are working to give corporate polluters free rein to drill, mine, and log our public lands. What they can’t exploit, they’ll sell. Threatening to shut down national parks and monuments isn’t fiscal responsibility – it’s pawning the natural and cultural inheritance of all Americans for pennies on the dollar. Donald Trump is willing to tank the economies of countless communities that rely on public lands to pad the bottom lines of his billionaire backers.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.