Emily Randall Presses Forest Management Official On The Consequences Of Trump’s ‘Skinny Budget’

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA) questioned experts about President Trump's budget.

Transcript

00:00Thank you so much Mr. Chair. It goes without saying that tribal consultation

00:07should be first and foremost in any discussion about land management and I

00:11think we've heard shades of that position from all of my colleagues here

00:17today. In Washington's sixth district there are 12 federally recognized tribes

00:23that have called this land home since long before it was the United States.

00:28The tribes in my district have protected the health of our forests and kept

00:32their communities safe from the fire risks for time immemorial. Meaningful

00:38consultation with tribes is not only a recognition of this deep knowledge of the

00:43lands it is our legal obligation and tribal consultation must start early and

00:49continue to be an open conversation not just a box that we check to move on to

00:54the next item of our agenda. In this time when tribal treaty rights are under

01:00attack we must hold up our end of the deal which means providing the necessary

01:05resources to meet our trust and treaty obligations to ensure tribes can

01:10effectively co-manage this land. Mr. Crockett I so appreciate you taking the

01:16time to be here and answer questions. As we've discussed today the draft bill would

01:22authorize certain federal forest lands to be treated as Indian forest lands if

01:26they meet certain criteria and what my first question is how would the Forest

01:32Service determine whether federal forest lands are historically culturally or

01:37economically important to a tribe seeking an agreement with the agency under

01:42section 2? So thank you for that question I think that's probably the most

01:47complicated part of the bill if you take 10 acres of land and look at the history of

01:54it the cultural the historic and geographical history of it there are many

01:59overlapping tribal the boundaries or tribes overlap over time and so section 2

02:06of the bill puts the Forest Service into place of having to be the arbiter of that

02:12important geographical and complex history and so I would say that's probably the

02:16most complicated part of it and we would look forward to working with the

02:19committee to on the details of it. Thank you and I suppose sort of a follow-up

02:25which you you dipped your toe into in that answer when there are multiple tribes

02:31that have claims to the same geographic area do you have any I don't know but

02:38perspective on steps that we should be taking to proceed as you know we are

02:44our arbit acting as the arbiters of that situation I know it's a difficult position

02:50that I think many members of Congress worry about getting involved in too so

02:55would love any thoughts that you have at this point but also to continue this

03:00conversation about how we do that work. Yeah so I don't I don't have a perfect

03:03answer on how to how to get to yes or the right answer on that I think the

03:08tribal voice the BIA's voice the for the Forest Service voice are all ways that we

03:13can work with with the committee to find some successful solutions so I look

03:17forward to following up to do that. Thank you and in your experience have there

03:25been any impacts of recent staff shortages or grant cancellations on tribal

03:34stewardship of federal lands? Not to my knowledge I don't I don't have the full

03:40landscape of all of the grants and agreements in the agency but I don't I'm

03:45not aware of any tribal grants contracts and or agreements that have been that have

03:50been canceled. Okay well certainly want to continue to keep an eye on that as we

03:55move through reconciliation and the impacts of the skinny budget that this

04:00president has proposed. I think you know one of the things that has that we've seen

04:08in other agencies as well maybe there aren't cuts to a particular program the

04:14elimination of some administrative staff have an impact on the ability for an

04:19agency to carry out their work as a sort of customer service you know for the

04:26folks who are receiving support from the agency so something we'll definitely

04:34continue to track. Thank you so much for being here and I yield back my time.

04:41General Lady from Washington.

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