Press Releases

Today, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s move to significantly reorganize the Department of the Interior:

“On Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend, the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittees received a letter from the Department of the Interior related to a Department-wide reorganization to consolidate administrative and support services. The letter does not include any detail about changes to organizational structure, funding flows, staffing, or any other functions, and the Trump Administration has not yet agreed to provide any further information. The letter states that the first phase of the reorganization would start within 48 hours—on Easter Sunday.

“It is unacceptable for the Administration to unilaterally overhaul agency structure and funding through a hasty, mid-year shuffle—especially when the fiscal year 2025 Appropriations bill clearly maintains the Department’s longstanding operations and organization. The services it seeks to move from each individual bureau to the department level—like hiring seasonal park rangers, engaging with communities around specific public lands, conducting fair and cost-effective bidding for major construction projects, and overseeing grants tied to program-specific eligibilities—form the operational backbone of each bureau and reflect their distinct missions and authorities. Making such broad-sweeping changes without conducting detailed organizational research, evaluating consequences, planning a transition, or consulting Congress is reckless.

“Given the Administration’s ongoing illegal funding freezes, assault on the federal workforce, haphazard cancellation of building leases, and other efforts to throw agencies into total chaos and paralyze the federal government, we cannot take any such reorganization as a serious attempt to improve efficiency. We demand that the Department of the Interior halt implementation of this large-scale reorganization and propose such changes in the President’s budget request for full examination and final determination by Congress.”

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