Alex Padilla Presses Interior Secretary Doug Burgum On President's Authority To Abolish National Monuments

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During a Senate Energy Committee hearing last week, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) spoke to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about presidential authority over national monuments.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and just to note, I don't have questions this morning about critical minerals,

00:06but I'm glad to hear Senator Hoeven and the Secretary engage in that conversation.

00:11Mr. Secretary, the invitation remains open to come visit Lithium Valley in Southern California

00:17and see the tremendous potential there for lithium and other critical materials as well.

00:23Feels like it's been years since you were here of your confirmation hearing and your vote in our previous conversation,

00:29so I'm hoping you're enjoying the job. It's everything you were looking forward to, and then some.

00:34But look, we're knee-deep on a number of issues and concerns, so I'll get right into it.

00:39As I'm sure you're aware, the Department of Justice just yesterday published an opinion

00:43that asserts that the presidents have the authority to abolish national monuments.

00:49I know the chairman made reference to that in his remarks earlier today.

00:53I believe this is an extremely dangerous opinion that flies in the faith of 90 years of precedent.

00:59And you and I discussed this when you were coming through for confirmation,

01:02because we worked very hard in recent years on establishing and expanding monuments in California

01:09in a very thoughtful and balanced way.

01:11So this is personal for me.

01:13Given the recent opinion, I do need to ask you for the record,

01:16what are your intentions towards recently designated national monuments in California,

01:21which, as I've shared with you, enjoy strong bipartisan support,

01:26not just at the federal level, but from local and tribal leaders as well?

01:31Thank you, Senator.

01:32And I do want to tell you I would love to accept your invitation to come out and visit.

01:37And, of course, California does have some of the top critical mineral resources in the country

01:43and can play a really important role in our national security.

01:46So I look forward to talking to you about that.

01:48On the monuments, we have a responsibility and direction to take a look at the recently created ones.

01:56I think this is something that we all know.

01:59Again, we do have the data on that.

02:00Most of these monuments have been created in the last weeks and months of presidential terms.

02:06And always under the idea that they were, everyone was consulted.

02:13I have had people in my office, not for the ones in California,

02:16but I've had people in my office saying, hey, we weren't consulted.

02:19So, again, as we listen to the feedback from tribes and citizens and others around the country,

02:25we have a responsibility to get on the ground and do some ground truth.

02:28And I think the question is not whether their monuments serve a purpose.

02:33I think the real question is the size that generally comes up because there are people in communities

02:43when we create restrictions on land use that does restrict some of their economic opportunity.

02:48And we want to listen to those as well.

02:49But, again, we're looking for a balanced approach and happy to continue the dialogue with you.

02:54Well, I appreciate that.

02:55But just, again, for the record, recognizing states in the west tend to be larger than states in the east.

03:00So the appropriateness and size of monuments and other areas of designation tend to be larger

03:08because of the acres that we're talking about.

03:11You mentioned engagement and consultation in the creation of monuments.

03:15That absolutely happened, as you know, in California.

03:17So I appreciate you recognizing the distinction.

03:19If it's going to be revisited or undone, we expect that same level of engagement on the back end

03:25before any action is taken or before any decisions are made.

03:31I know my time is limited.

03:32Let me move to another topic, as you and I have talked in the past.

03:35Water, water, water.

03:37So important to California, to everybody, but especially California.

03:41The Department of Reclamation, according to reports, has lost 1,400 public servants,

03:45it's approximately 25% of the agency's entire workforce.

03:49In the Bureau of Reclamation's regional office in Sacramento,

03:52there used to be 50 staff handling financial issues alone, and now there's only 12.

03:58This is the staff that works to approve contracts, grants, agreements, et cetera.

04:02Yet the Bureau of Reclamation's California office has cut its staff responsible

04:08for these aspects of water infrastructure by nearly 80%.

04:12Will you commit to look at the number of finance staff at Reclamation's California regional office

04:16to ensure that there's sufficient capacity there to meet the administrative needs

04:22of our critical water infrastructure and investments?

04:25Yes.

04:26Happy to for sure take a look at that.

04:28I'm a little surprised at the 80% because the only reductions would have been so far

04:33through people taking one of the retirement, early retirement options,

04:37and less in that data, and my team can follow up, because we did take some people

04:42that were in finance, HR, and IT and rolled them up to the Secretary's office

04:45because we felt there was an opportunity for unification at a broader level,

04:50you know, state, you know, versus, say, regional.

04:55So I want to make sure that some of those people, I'm just wondering if they're still there,

04:59they're just being accounted in another area.

05:01Well, if they're accounted, but also where is their work?

05:05Where are their roles and responsibilities, and have they changed to still be California-specific

05:09or more broad for the department?

05:13I know my time is up.

05:14Let me just put a pin in both on the reclamation side,

05:19how critical it is not just for within California infrastructure,

05:22but also, as we've discussed multiple times, the role reclamation plays

05:26for all the Colorado River states, both the lower basin and the upper basin.

05:30So we're going to be calling each other more frequently yet again after this hearing.

05:36And lastly, we'll submit for the record questions about the cuts to the U.S. geological survey.

05:43They play a critical role in developing shake alert,

05:47the nation's only public earthquake early alert system

05:52that more than 50 million Americans depend on.

05:55Technology has come a long way.

05:56It can be very helpful to preserve, to save lives,

05:59and minimize damage in the event of inevitable earthquakes.

06:04And so I want to revisit some of the budget cuts to that program as well.

06:08Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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