00:00Thank you, Mrs. Chairman. Aloha, Mr. Secretary. We're dealing with an administration that is dismantling government services that provide services to our people by cutting employees, by cutting programs, by cutting whole agencies out of our departments.
00:21And you had the spectacle of Doge cutting thousands, thousands of federal employees.
00:32And I don't think any of our secretaries, I don't think you were consulted as to who should be cut from the Interior Department.
00:39So our secretaries, you and others, are left to come and respond to our questions of why this happened, why these people were cut.
00:49And you sit here saying, well, you don't have that information.
00:54You don't have that breakdown.
00:56Maybe on Foreign Service people, these are not the people who are actually working in our national parks.
01:03But you don't really know that, do you?
01:06So I'm really glad that Senator King, King, Senator King, right here, he talked about the concerns that he had about the cuts to our national service people.
01:21Because these are the people who actually interact with American people.
01:27And if the parks, bathrooms are not cleaned, or if there are not the services that are provided at our national parks, it's kind of obvious.
01:37And so you are not able to provide us with the kind of breakdown that we ask.
01:41And I don't know why you have to come here without the kind of information that we ask.
01:49And this is not just you, but, you know, I serve on the Veterans Committee.
01:54The VA secretary says he doesn't know, he doesn't have the information as to all of the veteran employees who were cut.
02:05And maybe another 80,000 will be cut.
02:07He comes and testifies without that information.
02:10And he says that he will provide that information.
02:12And when I ask him to commit, to come back to the VA committee to respond to the questions that we will have, he doesn't make that commitment.
02:21So there you have it.
02:23You know, while you may not know who's been cut, those of us who are actually on the ground know some of the employees who are no longer there.
02:34For example, in Hawaii, reductions in NPS, FWS, USGS, and more have eliminated necessary positions that are critical for these agencies to carry out their missions.
02:52And we have parks with extremely high vacancy rates.
02:56We have lost a superintendent, a chief of law enforcement, a chief of interpretation.
03:02The list goes on.
03:05These are the people on the ground who are providing services.
03:10And so when they are gone, it's pretty obvious to us.
03:15So then I can understand what efficiencies you claim that these cuts are providing.
03:23We need data.
03:24I would really appreciate it if you provide us a list of all the DOJ, DOI positions, DOJ, that's another department, positions in Hawaii that have been vacated since January 20th, including those that have been fired and those who accepted early termination, including locations, positions, descriptions, and justifications for their elimination.
03:51Will you provide that information to us?
03:55Yes, we'll be happy to, Senator.
03:57And will you commit to coming back and responding to our questions as to how all of this happened once you provide us with the information and explanation?
04:08Yeah, happy to, but I should clarify that if there's anybody so far, someone that would have taken early retirement, because that's where the vast...
04:17Oh, that's another thing, you know, the fork in the road, early retirements.
04:22I don't even know if that's considered legal.
04:26One more question.
04:27Federal programs that research or address climate change, like the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers, have been indefinitely paused, whatever that means, indefinitely paused.
04:45That sounds like they're not coming back.
04:47Is it your intention that any programs that have to do with climate change or climate-related programs within the department will no longer be supported?
05:02Given the explosion of spending that occurred during the last administration, we were taking a look operationally ourselves.
05:10It wasn't a doge thing.
05:11It was something that I was fully supportive of.
05:14To take a look at all contracts and grants, there was over 36,000 contracts and grants that were issued from the Department of Interior.
05:22So, are you going to be targeting all those that have to do with dealing with climate change or the impact of climate change?
05:28Is that the directive from this administration?
05:31Because we know that this administration doesn't think that climate change is real.
05:36And our understanding is that departments have been directed to eliminate references to climate change.
05:44Is that what's going on in your department?
05:46What's going on in our department, if I'd be allowed to finish, is that we're looking at the 36,000 contracts and grants that are totaling billions and billions of dollars of spending.
05:56In some cases, we found that those grants were going to organizations that got 99% of their revenue from that grant.
06:04To me, that's no longer an NGO.
06:07That's just an extension of our own government.
06:10Last question, then.
06:12Of the thousands of contracts that you are reviewing, can you provide us with which of those deal with climate change?
06:21We can certainly take a look, but I think that there's so many organizations included references to that as part of a way to access funding.
06:33It's hard to know who was actually working on it or who was just using that as a way to get more grant money.
06:37Well, considering that you're doing a review, I would think that your review would be able to identify those contracts that have to do with climate change.
