Leaders and it was very clear that there is no daylight amongst the elected leaders in terms of how they are viewing these decisions coming out of the administration. So i just want to make again very clearly enunciate very clearly that i oppose this administrations decision on anwr i oppose its decision offshore, i oppose its costly restricts and endless decisions within the mpra and oppose what its doing to our plasser miners and Timber Industry and many other Resource Producers ready to provide good jobs to hardworking alaskans. The state of alaska was actively ignored. The north slope bureau, alaska native corporations and many alaskans all of whom asked for an oil and gas alternative in interiors anwr plan by claiming that it requires an act of Congress Even though an act of wilderness requires the very same. The actions from this administration seem destined to shut down our transAlaska Pipeline weakening our economy, forcing our state to make steep budget cuts and really violating the promises that were made to us at statehood and then since then. Now, madam secretary i hoped interiors budget would not make this situation worse but it fails to clear even that low bar and violates the budget control act, ignoring the statutory caps and proposing new spending as if wed already lifted sequestration. But i think that amounts to Wishful Thinking and not responsible governance. It would impose billions of dollars worth of new fees and higher taxes on oil, gas, coal and mineral production and eliminate offshore revenue sharing which many of us believe should be expanded. The department did not identify realistic offsets for its spending requests and proposed no serious reforms. I personally was stunned to see interiors request increase by almost 1 billion on a net basis with no funding dedicated to cleaning up abandoned legacy wells which were drilled by the federal government. They walked away from it, and they walked away from the mess and the responsibility and we have been trying now for decades to get that cleaned up. Beyond energy, theres king cove, still totally unresolved. Yesterday marked 14 14 months since this road was rejected and yet again we see nothing in this request to help those whose lives are in danger. I see a request for about 40 million for adaptation projects for tribal communities, but my calculation, thats about 12 times less funding than was requested for International Adaptation projects just this year alone. So what i cant 4 figure out why the needs of americans are coming second. Interior interiors decisions are hurting alaskans. Youre depriving us of jobs, security, revenue and prosperity but alaskans arent alone in this and i want my colleagues to understand that i think what were seeing in alaska is a warning for those in the west and the fact is almost every other Western State already has multiple legitimate complaints against the interior. In wyoming its the sage groce. In utah and colorado, its interiors refusal to facilitate oil shale development. In arizona, its the permitting of new copper mines. Across our states, except for alaska, where there is no production on federal lands it is the significant decline in apds and oil wells that are drilled on our federal lands. This administration is actively impeding many of the best Economic Opportunities in the west. Its depriving thousands who live in our states the ability to find a good job, earn a good wage and live a good life. As chairman of the committee and the appropriations subcommittee with control over the interior budget i do want to work with you, secretary jewell. I do. I want to work with others in the administration. My complaint, you hear from us but you dont actually hear us. And in looking at the request, i dont see a substantive effort to work with congress. Instead what im seeing is a disregard for enacted law and i think that has to change and the challenge really is to find Common Ground working together. But what we have seen is very, very discouraging. With that, i will turn to the ranking member. Thank you, madam chair and thank you for holding this hearing. Im pleased to see secretary jewell here and to be able to have a conversation with mr. Connor, as well, on the president s proposed budget for the department of interior. In my view this represents a balanced and forward leaning proposal. It creates jobs and longterm economic opportunity, it bills strong partnerships when it comes to managing our infrastructure and ecosystem and resources. It invests in public lands for the next generation of americans to enjoy. It probably no surprise that the chairwoman and i do have different views on a variety of issues being discussed here this morning. And many of those do relate to the administrations energy and conservation proposals and the arctic and secretary jewell, i know you have a very tough job. One of the reasons i think the president appointed you is because you did have a background as an executive in the oil industry as an engineer. So it does involve striking an appropriate balance between increasing in energys production both onshore and offshore in the United States as well as being sensitive to environmental areas. So i have long supported the Arctic National wildlife refuge and especially in the coastal plain. And so the fish and Wildlife Service recently released a comprehensive conservation plan that takes an important step of recommending the significant portion of the refuge to be designated as wilderness. So this plan required by law and had not been updated for a quarter century, the new plan is more an accurate reflection of the values of which the wildlife refuge was designated. Theres been criticism in the new fiveyear leasing plan for the caughter Continental Shelf for excluding too many areas from potential development and others have opposed the secretarys decision to open up areas that have been up until now off limits from oil and Gas Development, where the environmental damage would be extreme. So the secretary has done her best to balance these competing interests. Likewise, the departments recent decision to approve oil and Gas Development in the National Petroleum reserve was criticized on the one hand for approving Development Near an area that they proposed for protection and criticized on the other hand for requiring Conoco Phillips to require measurements because of those sensitive areas. Yes, you have a tough day job. Protection of these ecological treasures such as the anwr is of national importance. I thank you and the administration for making these decisions. As a whole the president s number represents a 6 increase and proposes significant funding increases for many of the important concentration programs including the land and Water Conservation fund and National Parks centennial initiative, both very important. I know theres many people on this committee that believe that protecting these public lands and increasing recreational opportunities are greatly important. Americas public lands generate over 40 billion of recreation and use every year so whether youre visiting a National Park or hunting or fishing the opportunity on these lands are important and can enjoy the protection of the National Special places while still maintaining a high level of Energy Production on federal lands. The president s plan, im pleased to see the department is increasing production of Renewable Energy resources on public lands. I want to bring up something that is missing. Secretary jewell is taking an important step in proposing reforms on how coal royalties are collected on federal resources. But i am concerned the discussion end there. You can typically lease a lot of coal off federal land for 1 or less. The taxpayers get 1. Then years later we have to deal with almost two tons of Carbon Dioxide from that one ton of coal and the governments current best guess is that two tons of Carbon Pollution will cost the American Public over 70 in damages. So our fossil fuel leasing laws are passed long ago before we knew how bad the impacts were so i tend to follow up on this issue. I know my colleagues, senator wyden and murkowski, the gao, the interior specter, im sorry, interior interior Inspector General and im concerned we consider the real impacts of Climate Change on our public lands. This isnt an issue that is important to places Like Washington and alaska, to many places in our country than tacoma news tribune recently pointed out many of the related climate impacts at mt. Rainier National Park. And in the past decades about glaciers melting and snowpack decreased as much as 18 between 2003 and 2009 so these are real issues everything from mud slurries to floods to repairing park infrastructure and we all know that historic Drought Conditions in california and the west have demonstrated climaterelated change are present challenges to businesses, to the government, to families and because of this, im pleased that the budget includes a 15 increase for climaterelated research. So i hope that this will help us bring bitter understandings about how to prepare for these issues, similar wildfire impacts throughout the community, our state experienced one of our worst wildfire, carlton complex which the destruction represents i think 7 of all wildfire destruction last year. In just this one fire. 156,000 acres burned in 24 hours. So thats like five acres a second. Again, the micro climates and changes are things that were really starting to understand the grave impacts of all of these things. So my western colleagues have had in recent hearings brought up various stories so i hope we can get though those but i strongly support the president s plan to get a mandatory funding stream beginning next year. This is something, as i said, many of our colleagues here on the committee agree with but every Year Congress appropriates only a fraction of the authorized funding. And right now the inappropriate balance is almost 20 billion so i hope that since this fund expires in september that we will we had a pretty good vote on the senate floor about this, that well Work Together in a bipartisan fashion to address these issues. When i get a chance to the q and a ill ask you about the yakima river basin watershed and the area to protect it. After years of negotiation, users of irrigated water such as farmers and ranchers along with tribes and conservation groups plan to develop and utilize better in a better fashion the resources of the yakima river watershed in a time of increased demand and growing scarcity. I believe this effort will be successful and i also believe that as a model for how other watersheds in the west are experiencing these challenges and how if they Work Together and we work with them, that we can have better resolution of these issues so i look forward to discussing these and many other issues when we get to the questions but, again, i appreciate your commitment and the president s to creating jobs and Building Partnerships and investing in our public lands for future generations, thank you. Thank you, senator cantwell. Thank you and good morning. Good morning. Chairman murkowski, representative cantwell, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the budget request. Joining me mike connor who certainly is no stranger to this chamber or the senate. Ive submitted a detailed statement for the record that discusses a number of investments were proposing so ill be relatively brief in these opening remarks. This is a forwardlooking budget that provides targeted investments to grow our Domestic Energy portfolio, creating jobs at home, to build Climate Resilience and revitalize our National Parks as an approach to their 100th anniversary and investing in science to help us understand Natural Resources on landscape level and to apply that understanding to better manage americas assets for the longterm. Importantly the budget also helps fulfill our nations commitments including a muchneeded and historic to improve education for indian children. I want to talk about our investments in the lands and Historic Places that make our nation proud and serve as economic engines. On the 50th anniversary of the land and Water Conservation fund act, the budget proposes full funding of 900 million annually for lwcf programs. This is dollar for dollar one of the most effective Government Programs that we have. Next year we mark another important milestone in our nations history, the National Park service will celebrate its 100th anniversary and this budget makes investments to launch a historic effort to celebrate and revitalize National Parks and public lands. The discretionary and mandatory portions include 100 million matching fund to Leverage Private donation parks and 859 million to provide critical maintenance in high priority assets. Additional funding of 43 million will provide staff to improve the visitor experience, and support the expected influx of visitors during and after the centennial. Third milestone we commemorate this year is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights act. The budget proposes 50 million to highlight key sites that tell the story such as selma to montgomery. One of my Top Priorities is connecting young people to the Great Outdoors and our history and culture and engage the next generation to be scientists, henge near engineers and stewards as 40 of the workforce is soon to be eligible to retire. It provides opportunities for our nations youth to play, to learn, to serve and to work on public lands. We will accomplish this through cooperative work with youth conservation and schools and organizations like the ymca and National League of cities, and enlightened private businesses that are supporting our efforts. Next i want to talk point administrations continued commitment to tribal selfdetermination and strengthening tribal communities. I recently visited arizona to launch the native American Youth listening tour to give young people in Indian Country the opportunity to engage with cabinet members directly about the challenges they face. Theyre helping their classmates cope with personal challenges. Across the federal family agencies are committed to working together, to better coordinate our services to more effectively serve American Indians and alaska natives. This budget holds the promise for a Brighter Future for indian youth through education. For nature ev American Communities through Economic Growth and social services and improving the stewardship of trust resources. Were requesting 2. 6 billion for Indian Affairs and increase of 12 , which includes full funding of contract support costs, the tribes incur as they deliver direct services to tribal members. When it comes to powering our nation, the budget continues to invest in both renewable and conventional energy, so we can diversify our Domestic Energy portfolio portfolio, cut Carbon Pollution and decrease our dependence on foreign oil. This budget also invests in science and Technology Initiatives that will support Energy Development, create Economic Opportunities, and help communities build resilience. The budget includes 1. 1 billion for research and Development Activities that range from scientific observations of the earth to applied research to better understand problems like Invasive Species and coastal erosion. The budget also includes a total of 147 million to help to Fund Programs that help coastal communities, such as alaska where i visited recently and heard directly from residents about how their concern for their personal safety as encroaching storms threaten to wash away theirvilleage. Finally, i want to touch on two other specific areas that are impacted by a changing climate. Water, and fire. First as part of the bureau of recly ly reclamation, the water Smart Grant Program would receive 58. 1 million to address drought and another water supply issue across the west. And new funding framework, similar to how the cost for other natural disasters are met. This is a common sense proposal that would help ensure that usda and interior dont ha