Agreement also includes key provision to protect Chaco Canyon and boosts programs for Indian Country
Udall successfully fought back against cuts proposed by the Trump administration, securing strong investments for the EPA and conservation programs for 2021
WASHINGTON— Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) , ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, hailed the bipartisan Fiscal Year 2021 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill as part of a larger package of government funding bills. Congress is expected to pass the bill soon and send it to the president’s desk for his signature.
The bill makes good on the landmark commitments to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and Federal land management agencies made by the bipartisan passage of the Great American Outdoors Act earlier this year. It allocates more than $900 million for LWCF – the most funding in two decades – and $1.9 billion to address the deferred maintenance backlog for national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands as well as Tribal schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education. The bill also includes the largest budget for the EPA in a decade and provides strong funding for New Mexico’s public lands, invests in critical programs for Indian Country, boosts funding for state and local arts programs through for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, and supports key programs for local New Mexico communities, including the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program. Udall worked with the entire New Mexico delegation, Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján, Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.) , to secure passage of Chaco Canyon protections for an additional year based on the delegation’s legislation, the Chaco Cultural Heritage Protection Act .
“In New Mexico, we proudly call our home the ‘Land of Enchantment’ and understand that protecting our public lands and treasured landscapes sustains our way of life, secures our future and boosts our economy,” Udall said. “I was proud to put these New Mexico values into action and work on a bipartisan basis to pass the Great American Outdoors Act, which permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the first time, puts a down payment on our national parks and funds renovations for Bureau of Indian Education schools. It’s clear that the Great American Outdoors Act is already making a difference, newly protecting four new natural spaces in New Mexico, with a similar story across the nation. Our Interior funding bill makes good on the promise of this landmark legislation for the benefit of all Americans.
“Each year in Congress, I have been proud to work on a bipartisan basis to pass an Interior funding bill that invests in our public lands and environmental protection,” Udall continued. “Clean air, clean water, and our public lands and outdoor places do not belong to one party—the economic and cultural value of these places are sacred to the American people. I am particularly glad that this bill continues to include landmark protections for Chaco Canyon so that we can continue partnering with Tribes to safeguard this special place while respecting the rights of Indian Tribes and allottees to develop the land as they see fit. Especially during this time of crisis, our federal trust and treaty obligations to Tribes must be one of our fundamental priorities, and we must continue to build on the investments this bill makes in Indian Country to fund health care, education, housing and infrastructure to support thriving Native communities.
“Together, we have worked on a bipartisan basis to secure these conservation priorities for New Mexico and the nation year after year,” Udall concluded. “The science is clear that we must do more to protect our lands and waters if humanity is to survive and prosper. And conservation is critical to our economic growth and recovery. This funding will make a lasting difference for New Mexico, Tribes, and communities across the country.”
New Mexico highlights of the Fiscal Year 2021 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill include:
Protections for Chaco Canyon: The bill again includes legally binding legislative language first enacted in fiscal year 2020 to reinforce a 10-mile buffer zone protecting Chaco Canyon from new oil and gas leasing. The provision does not govern Indian Tribes and Tribal allottees regarding development of their land for oil and gas exploration. The legal limits are paired with $600,000 to continue efforts for the Interior Department to partner with the Pueblos and the Navajo Nation to continue to identify cultural resources in the greater Chacoan region.
Gold King Mine: Udall secured $4 million for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to continue monitoring water quality in areas impacted by the Gold King Mine spill into the Animas River, resulting in a $20 million water quality investment over the past five years since the toxic spill disaster. Udall also included language directing EPA to continue to work in consultation with affected states and Tribes on a long-term water quality monitoring program. In addition, Udall expects EPA to process all claims for damages and report to Congress on the status of those efforts.
Funding for PILT: The bill fully funds payments to counties through the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program, which are estimated at a total of $515 million. New Mexico counties received over $41 million in PILT in FY2020, and that funding is typically released in June.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF): In only the second instance since its inception in 1965, LWCF funding in fiscal year 2021 will surpass $900 million. This bill sets the annual allocations pursuant to the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020, including $405 million to facilitate federal acquisitions at national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, national monuments, and on other public lands, and $495 million for financial assistance to states to increase and improve outdoor recreation, maintain working forests, and protect critical habitat. This is a marked contrast from the president’s budget, which proposed $46 million in total, eliminating state conservation grants and virtually all federal acquisitions. LWCF is critical for improving recreational access to our federal lands, protecting iconic landscapes, delivering grants to states and local governments to create and protect urban parks and open spaces, and providing farmers and ranchers with easements to allow them to continue to steward their private lands in the face of development pressures. Funding estimates for New Mexico projects include $3.1 million for parcels in the Rio Bonito corridor in the Lincoln National Forest, $2.2 million for the Valley of the Spirit Ranch in the Santa Fe National Forest, $4.8 million for Rio Nutria parcels in the Cibola National Forest, and $2.6 million for Tampico Springs parcels also in the Cibola.
Valles Caldera: The bill retains increases in the preserve’s base budget that Udall secured last year and directs the National Park Service to study the parks’ infrastructure needs.
Carlsbad: The bill continues $800,000 for cave and karst research at the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Land Grants, Acequias and Community Ditches: Congress continues to urge the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to recognize the traditional uses of State-recognized community land grants, acequias, and community ditches in New Mexico and across the American Southwest during the land use planning process.
Indian Health Service’s Alcohol and Substance Abuse program: The bill includes $2.5 million, an increase of $500,000 above last year, for the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program, part of an integrated behavioral health approach to collaboratively reduce the incidence of alcoholism and other drug dependencies in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. This includes funding for grants and contracts with public or private detox centers that provide alcohol or drug treatment, including Na’Nizhoozhi Center in Gallup, New Mexico.
Indian Arts and Crafts Act Enforcement: The bill provides $3.5 million within Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement to work with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to combat international trafficking of counterfeit arts and crafts and to conduct criminal investigations of alleged violations of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.
Tribal law enforcement: The bill provides $14 million in new funding for Tribal law enforcement priorities, including funding to address the crisis of missing, murdered and trafficked Native women and girls, and continues calls for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to produce a comprehensive needs assessment of public safety infrastructure in Indian Country.
Tribal Education Infrastructure: The bill provides $264 million for Tribal education infrastructure, including $15 million in new funding to support facility infrastructure needs at Tribal colleges and universities in New Mexico and around the country. It also allocates $95 million in additional funds for infrastructure needs at the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) provided by Great American Outdoors Act. An increase of $5,000,000 in new funding – a 50 percent boost – is also provided to upgrade information technology infrastructure at BIE-funded schools.
Tribal Programs: The bill provides $6.236 billion for the Indian Health Service, a 3 percent increase above last year. Within these funds, the bill provides new funding to staff Tribal health facilities and to increase mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, preventive care and purchased and referred care programs. Tribal programs provided through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and BIE are collectively funded at $3.397 billion, a 5 percent increase above last year. The bill includes new indefinite appropriations for IHS and BIA to fully fund requirements for Tribal leases as authorized by the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and fully funds contract support cost requirements. The bill includes $1.7 million in new funding within the budgets of BIA and the National Park Service for the Indian Youth Service Corps and $500,000 in new funding for BIA to implement the Native American Business Incubators Act , two programs that Udall championed.
U.S.-Mexico Border Water Infrastructure Program: The bill increases funding for the U.S.-Mexico Border water infrastructure program to $30 million, an increase of $5 million over fiscal year 2020, to significantly expand support for clean water projects to protect human health and the environment in communities on both sides of the border.
Smithsonian Latino Center: The bill boosts funding for the Smithsonian Latino Center by $1 million to expand Smithsonian programming and collections related to the history, culture and art of American Latinos.
PFAS: The bill provides $49 million, an increase of $10 million to the fiscal year 2020 level, in funding for environmental cleanup programs and related scientific research to help address contamination caused by PFAS chemicals and other contaminants of emerging concern, including not less than $20 million in direct support for states.
Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund: The bill provides $10 million for grants to federally recognized Indian Tribes for reclamation of abandoned mine lands and other related activities.
National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities: The bill provides $167.5 million each to the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, $5.25 million more than the fiscal year 2020 level for each endowment. The increase was provided after the president once again proposed abolishing these programs, which support arts and cultural programs as well as thousands of jobs in New Mexico and across the country.
Wildland Firefighting: The bill provides $3.744 billion for fire suppression, of which $2.35 billion is provided in the Wildfire Suppression Operations Reserve Fund through the budget cap adjustment authorized in the Fiscal Year 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act. This is the second year this additional funding stream Udall helped secure is available for use when a fire season exceeds projections and all regular appropriated funds are spent. Before this wildfire suppression reserve fund, the Forest Service and Interior were forced to borrow from their non-fire accounts when this occurred, putting a hold on other activities and straining resources. The agencies spent $2.275 billion fighting wildfires in fiscal year 2020, one of the highest years on record.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): The bill provides $9.23 billion for the EPA, $179 million more than fiscal year 2020 and $2.53 billion more than the President’s budget request. The bill rejects the Administration’s proposals to cut research by 38 percent and cut grants by 33 percent as well as to eliminate climate change programs and several other important funding items, such as the U.S. contribution to the Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund and a number of regional restoration programs. The bill also provides an increase of $2.3 million, or 24 percent, to Environmental Justice programs, a $13.6 million, or 3 percent, increase to environmental enforcement, and an $11.7 million, or 3 percent, increase to Clean Air programs.
National Park Service (NPS): The bill provides a 4 percent increase in funding for park operations, for a total of $2.69 billion. Historic Preservation Fund grants are funded at $144.3 million, which is nearly $26 million more than fiscal year 2020. Within that amount, the bill includes increases to the fiscal year 2020 level of $3 million for State Historic Preservation Offices, for a total of $55.7 million; $1.3 million more for Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, for a total of $15 million; $2.4 million more for Civil Rights grants, for a total of $21.1 million; $10 million for grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, equal to the enacted level; $9 million more for the Save America’s Treasures program, for a total of $25 million.
