While the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) proposed federal fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget of $37 billion increases DOI spending by $2.45 billion over the DOI’s FY2024 budget of $34.6 billion, the FY2025 budget for the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) would be reduced by nearly $300 million when compared to FY2024 spending.
The FY2024 BOR budget is $3.86 billion, while the proposed FY2025 budget for BOR is $3.56 billion, a reduction in spending of $299.6 million, according to the House Committee on Natural Resources, which held a hearing on the proposed DOI budget on May 1, 2024.
Secretary Deb Haaland appeared before the committee to testify about the proposed FY2025 DOI budget but did not discuss the reduction in BOR’s FY2025 budget, which is the only major DOI bureau, office, or agency to receive a budget reduction. Furthermore, Haaland did not discuss if the funding allocated under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Public Law No. 117-58), played some role in the cuts to BOR’s budget.
Rather, Republican members of the committee used the hearing to criticize Haaland and DOI policies, including DOI’s petroleum and natural gas leasing policies on federal land, water policies related to lakes and reservoirs, policies on mining on native lands, and other Indigenous programs, and the claim that policies concerning U.S. land at the border with Mexico are encouraging undocumented immigrants to enter the U.S.
Haaland was defended by many Democratic committee members, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Dem.-N.Y.), who clarified that DOI is not the agency tasked with enforcing security at the U.S. southern border and that Republican members' claim that Haaland, who is the first indigenous woman to serve as a Cabinet secretary, is ignoring tribes’ requests to discuss DOI policies shows a lack of respect for the secretary.
Haaland did discuss some of DOI’s water programs in a written statement, including proposing $2.8 billion in “mandatory funding over ten years to expand the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund” managed by the BOR.
In addition, efforts to respond to “severe and sustained drought conditions” in the western United States that are “forcing difficult challenges and choices to manage available water supplies” are included in Haaland’s written comments.
“Limited water availability and increased wildland fire risk pose significant threats and challenges for communities, agriculture, tribes, and ecosystems,” she says, adding DOI is deploying “every resource to bear to help mitigate the impacts of drought and bolster long-term solutions supporting continued conservation and economic growth, so no community is left behind.”
The proposed FY2025 budget includes $1.5 billion for the BOR’s water programs and projects, sustaining a strong commitment to drought mitigation in BOR’s annual appropriations. “Funding in the request will help to ensure communities across the west (U.S.) have access to a resilient and reliable water supply by investing in rural water projects, water conservation, desalination technology development, and water recycling and reuse projects,” the statement says.
Haaland’s statement says the proposed FY2025 budget provides funding to address the ongoing drought affecting water systems across the western U.S., including along the Colorado River System, which is at near historically low levels.
The statement also addresses Indigenous water rights, saying during “the past three years,” DOI has allocated $2.43 billion to address Indigenous water rights settlements, says the statement, which adds that Native American reserved water rights are vested property rights for which the United States has a trust responsibility.
The proposed BOR FY2025 budget includes $181 million to support the White Mountain Apache Tribe’s water settlement agreement within the settlement’s statutory completion deadline, and the proposed Bureau of Indian Affairs budget includes $45 million to support payments authorized in the Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2022.
