00:00Thank you, Senator Heinrich. Senator Baldwin.
00:02Thank you, Madam Chair.
00:05Secretary Burgum, I am proud to represent a state
00:09with two national scenic trails, the North Country and the Ice Age.
00:14And I've been hearing from Wisconsinites about some of the workforce cuts
00:18and frozen funds under this administration.
00:23They've really left the trails critically understaffed and underfunded.
00:27And so I would like to ask for you to provide an update on the current funding for maintenance and staffing,
00:34particularly for the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin.
00:36I don't know if you're prepared to do that today.
00:38If not, I would ask that you do that within the next couple of days.
00:43I'm not prepared to do it right now, but happy to have my team take a look at the trail.
00:47Okay. And, you know, the staffing and the maintenance funds.
00:51We've had a lot of discussion.
00:54My colleagues have asked a lot of questions about the way in which some of the staffing cuts have been handled,
01:02even before your confirmation and the frozen funds.
01:07I know this is a hearing to look at the 2026 fiscal year, but I do want to call your attention to some of the impacts that we're seeing.
01:17Under your leadership at the Department of Interior, staff have been fired and funds in some cases have been clawed back
01:24that we're supporting research into foundational science for freshwater ecosystem health and fisheries,
01:31wildlife disease prevention, and agriculture and economic sustainability.
01:36While the president asserts that his administration, well, he distanced himself from Project 2025, as you are well familiar.
01:47Nonetheless, it's following through with the playbook's vision by attempting to abolish the Biological Resources Division of the United States Geological Survey.
01:57So, can you share with me the mission of the Biological Resources Division?
02:06Well, I think I'll just talk in general about the evolution of USGS over time, because this was...
02:13Well, I'm particularly interested in this division.
02:16Yes. Well, this division was one that was not part of the original scope of USGS.
02:20It was added, and the look that we're taking on this thing is because one of the original scopes was actually mapping,
02:29and it seems that there's a number of things that, as you referred to in biological,
02:33that might be better suited to be in US Fish and Wildlife versus in USGS.
02:38Okay. Well, I want to share some of the concerns I've been hearing regularly about the biological services funding and staffing cuts.
02:47Roughly 100 people are or were employed in Madison and 80 more at a location in La Crosse, Wisconsin, until they began to be fired in March.
03:01In La Crosse, these scientists have dedicated their professional lives to studying invasive...
03:08Studying and tracking invasive carp, which decimate ecosystems and commercial fishing operations.
03:15They've been focused on restoring habitats along the Mississippi River, which improves surface water quality for farms and navigation for the shipping industry.
03:24They're studying PFAS to understand the impacts of those chemicals on wildlife.
03:30In the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, it is, by the way, the only center dedicated to wildlife disease detection, control, and prevention in the United States.
03:43And in Madison, they've been making progress on monitoring the avian flu pandemic through their work at the Wildlife Health Center.
03:53So I would like your commitment to reverse the budget's intent to abolish the biological resources division.
04:06And instead, we need to really invest in our nation's ability to respond to threats to our natural resources and wildlife health by funding these centers and their staffs in Wisconsin.
04:19Can I have your commitment on that?
04:21I will not provide that commitment right now.
04:25Right now, I mean, obviously, these are important priorities.
04:29Rital.
04:30We have important priorities everywhere.
04:32But, of course, one of the things that we also think is an important priority is, as a nation, when we have a trillion-dollar interest cost,
04:39and we spent, last year, $2,000 billion more than we brought in.
04:43I think that every department in this administration feels a responsibility to try to find a way that, even though the work is important,
04:50you know, how do we prioritize to spend less money to help bring our overall budget in balance?
04:56I think you would find the economic impacts of funding these emissions are enormous.
05:09On the invasive carp, for example, were they to ever get into the Great Lakes system, the ecological damage is almost unimaginable.
05:23I want to, actually, I noticed I've run out of time.
05:27I do have some questions that I'll submit for the record relating to the rights protection implementation line in the interior
05:36and environment appropriation bills that helps fulfill the federal treaty, trust, and contract obligations to tribes.
05:44And I do have some specific questions that I will submit for the record.
