Hearing Of The Subcommittee On Interior, Environment, And Related Agencies Of The House Committee On Appropriations - Conserving America's Land And Heritage: Department Of The Interior FY2011 Budget Request

Statement

We are pleased to welcome Secretary Salazar to explain the President's Fiscal Year 2011
Budget Request for the Department of the Interior. Mr. Secretary, you have made much progress
in the last year and I know you have a significant agenda for the coming year.
Those of us who sit on this Subcommittee do so because we have a love of the land and a
deep and abiding commitment to protect our natural resources and environment. Your
Department is at the forefront of those efforts. Our nation has a long history of efforts to protect
our natural resources. In 1907, Theodore Roosevelt said,
"Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I
recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the
natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste
them or to rob by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."
Had Theodore Roosevelt and his generation of visionaries not created the forest reserves
and today's parks and refuges, our nation would be a poorer and diminished place. But it is also
true that in our management of these public lands we are not without competing and often
conflicting interests. He also said:
"The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem.
Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others."
Those words are as true today as they were at turn of the last century. And the challenge
is still just as great. The Department of the Interior plays an important role in the American
economy and our cultural identity. The Department manages 20 percent of the land area of the
United States and substantial areas of subsurface minerals and the Outer Continental Shelf
energy areas. These areas produce 30 percent of the Nation's energy. The Department is
expected to collect $14 billion in 2011 revenues for deposit into the US Treasury. The
Department lands, including the 392 National Park units and 548 National wildlife refuges host
more than 470 million visits a year.
The Department also honors the Federal commitment to the First Americans by supporting
social service, education and justice programs for nearly 2 million Native Americans. And
underlying all is unbiased science which helps the Department and all Americans make better
decisions.
The budget requests $10.78 billion to fulfill all these responsibilities. This amount is
basically level with the amount we provided for fiscal year 2010. I know there are some in this
body who believe the fiscal year 2010 budget was too high. I firmly believe that our work over
these past three years to increase funding for the Department has only partially reversed the
previous trend which saw a 17% reduction in the Department's budget requests.
I also recognize the need for deficit reduction. We will scrutinize this request. We may
have to increase some areas and decrease others. And we will look to find additional areas of
waste. I applaud your initial efforts to deal with a number of management problems at the
Department, such as occurred at the Minerals Management Service. But we cannot stop there. I
will work with the Inspector General to identify additional actions needed to eliminate remnants
of waste, fraud and abuse at the Department.
I am interested in some of your initiatives including your Energy initiative and its focus
on increasing renewable energy and doing a better job at producing domestic oil, gas and coal. I
am also interested in the climate change research and adaptive management activities at the
Department. This is the defining environmental issue of our time, so we need to have a
transparent and coordinated approach to climate change science and management, which avoids
duplication of efforts across Bureaus and Departments. In addition, I see a large increase
requested for land acquisitions. We need to ensure that the budget has the correct balance
between acquiring special, new lands and the funds you need to manage and operate those lands.
We will have other questions as we move forward. For instance, I am concerned that the
request assumes your department will absorb 96%, or $109 million, of the increase for fixed
costs such as salaries and rent.
Before I turn to Mr. Simpson, I want to recognize one of your staff. Pamela Haze has to be
the hardest working person at the Department. She is truly an important resource, without whom
we could not do our work. I welcome the opportunity today to thank her for all she does, day in
and day out, to serve both you and this Committee.
Mr. Simpson, do you have any opening comments you would like to make?

I am also pleased to have the distinguished chairman of the full committee, Chairman Obey at
this hearing. Mr. Chairman, would you like to make an opening statement?

We also have the distinguished ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Lewis, here today,
and I invite him to make any comments he might have at this time.

Secretary Salazar, you may now proceed with your testimony.

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