Deep cuts for the National Park Service are contained in draft legislation for funding the Interior Department in Fiscal 2024/Rebecca Latson file.

A Republican-backed spending bill for the Interior Department that was up for a full House Appropriations Committee vote late Thursday afternoon would drop funding for Fiscal 2024 below FY18 levels, block grizzly bear recovery in the North Cascades, and remove Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf.

The National Park Service would see a nearly 13 percent percent funding cut from current appropriations, to $2.6 billion, for operations, a drop of $436 million. 

According to the National Parks Conservation Association, the measure would cut National Park Service staff by more than 1,000, "and dig our parks into an even bigger financial hole as another record-breaking summer season is in full gear. The budget also includes deep cuts to the Historic Preservation Fund and park construction, which help to protect the stories and places that tell our nation’s history as we prepare to celebrate our 250th anniversary."

Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the park advocacy group, said Thursday that the legislation "is reckless and should be a nonstarter for anyone who cares about our national parks and public lands."

“Despite their overwhelming popularity, our national parks have been underfunded and understaffed for decades," she added. "Parks have already cut thousands of staff, stopped educational programs for visitors, and delayed critically needed preservation work. But rather than address these problems, Congress is now calling for massive cuts that will only further set back our national parks."

The 186-page bill also seeks to overturn many of the Biden administration's approaches to public lands management and social equity, with provisions aimed at derailing funding for racial equity and underserved communities as well as for work to promote or advance Critical Race Theory. Language in the measure also would block the Interior Department from managing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah in a manner beyond the management approach approved by the Trump administration.

The legislation also would rescind unobligated balances of funds provided both the Interior Department and the Council of Environmental Quality under the Inflation Reduction Act, and dictate four oil and gas leasing sales a year on federal lands in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada and Alaska.

The wildlife provisions in the measure were heavily criticized Thursday by Defenders of Wildlife.

"Attacks by anti-wildlife members of Congress on the Endangered Species Act have been especially brutal and can only be likened to a double barrel shotgun assault on the wildlife and wild places we hold dear," said Robert Dewey, Defenders' vice president of government relations. "These members of Congress are out of line, and using their political might to overturn and destroy policies and laws that are founded on decades of science and rigorous study.”

According to Defenders of Wildlife, the draft measure would:

• Cut funding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service overall by $236 million below FY23 levels.  
• Continue the long-standing rider preventing ESA protections for the greater sage grouse and the Columbia basin distinct population segment of the greater sage-grouse.
• Block the Interior secretary from using appropriated money to list a genetically distinct population of greater sage grouse found only in California and Nevada.
• Remove the gray wolf from ESA protections.
• Block introduction of the grizzly bear into the North Cascades.
• Block a rule change from being implemented that increases protections for  the northern long-eared bat from threatened to endangered.
• Block funding to implement ESA protections for the lesser prairie chicken.

Democrats also took issue with the proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Over the past week, we’ve endured the hottest average global temperatures ever recorded on Earth. Despite the record-setting heat, extreme weather events, drought, and wildfires plaguing Americans, House Republicans have proposed an Appropriations bill that completely debilitates our response to the climate crisis. This destructive bill promotes dirty energy, hastens the decline of our ecosystems, and fosters hate and discrimination,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, the ranking member on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. “I can’t overstate how damaging these proposed cuts will be to the EPA, Department of the Interior, Forest Service, and other related agencies which are critical to climate mitigation and the overall safety of our communities. With climate-related disasters costing the U.S. approximately $26.7 Billion so far this year alone, it's clear this so-called ‘fiscally responsible’ bill will have irreparable impacts on both our economy and future generations.”

Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, added that "[T]hese devastating Republican cuts are not numbers on a page. This is the air in our skies and in our lungs. This is water we drink and bathe and cook with. These are basic life necessities that we have a simple obligation to protect for the American people. On top of these dangerous cuts, Republicans are slashing funding for the arts and prohibiting the Smithsonian from moving forward with the National Museum of the American Latino or operating the Molina Family Latino Gallery. These cuts are cruel and a clear representation of their values. The ramifications of cuts in this bill would reach every corner of the United States. It damages our public lands, promotes dirty energy, jeopardizes biodiversity, and hinders our response to the climate crisis."