WASHINGTON – Today, Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee Ranking Member Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03) and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (CA-02) demanded answers from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on why their agencies have prioritized checking off the wish lists of oil, timber, and mining companies during the ongoing Republican government shutdown while halting critical public safety, wildfire prevention, and disaster preparedness work.
The members wrote that while millions of working people face a loss of services because of “Congressional Republicans’ inability to garner the votes to open the government even when they control both houses of Congress,” the Trump administration has kept operations for oil, timber, and mining running at full speed.
The letter follows reports that, under the Trump administration’s orders, Interior and Agriculture have kept permitting offices open for drilling, mining, and logging while furloughing staff who support wildfire response, park operations, and disaster preparedness.
The lawmakers detail how the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture have continued issuing new oil and gas drilling permits—more than 300 since the shutdown began—while advancing controversial mining projects such as the Ambler Road in Alaska and the Libby Mine in Montana. At the same time, the agencies have held coal lease sales, closed visitor centers, paused prescribed burns, and furloughed critical wildfire support staff.
They have cited a so-called “national energy emergency” to justify keeping fossil fuel operations running, even as they halted major renewable energy projects like Nevada’s 6.2-gigawatt solar development.
The members warn that “continuing to prioritize activities benefitting extractive industries over activities supporting the protection of life and property represents an abandonment of basic agency responsibilities and potentially violates the Antideficiency Act.” That law, they explain, “prohibits federal agencies from incurring obligations or accepting voluntary services during a lapse in appropriations except in narrowly defined emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
The members also raised concerns about risks to public safety, noting that the shutdown has “impeded your agencies’ ability to fight wildfire, respond to other natural disasters, and protect our national parks.”
They warned that by directing personnel to continue routine fossil fuel activities, “your agencies have expanded the emergency exception beyond its intent to cover ‘ongoing, regular functions’ of government administration,” which “GAO precedent emphasizes agencies cannot lawfully direct staff to perform in the absence of appropriations or authorization.”
The lawmakers requested documents describing which activities and services have continued during the shutdown, the criteria used to make those determinations, and all communications regarding the designation of oil, mining, and timber production from public lands as “emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
Read the full letter HERE.
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