House Proposes Devastating Cuts to Public Lands, Waters, and Recreation

House lawmakers recently advanced an Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill that, if passed, would be devastating for outdoor recreation, public lands and waters, climate, and the outdoor economy. The bill proposes significant cuts to conservation and climate funding for all of the major federal land management agencies, leaving them unable to care for our public lands and meet the growing demand for outdoor recreation, which reached an all-time high in 2022.

This proposed budget is significantly lower than the already-low funding levels agreed to in the bipartisan debt ceiling deal just two months ago. The bill also includes an extensive list of policy changes which are non-starters for the outdoor recreation community, many of which are totally unrelated to appropriations. These are too long to list, but they include:

• Rescinding billions in climate funding from the Inflation Reduction Act at a time when the US is experiencing record heat and extreme weather;

• Reversing the mineral withdrawal protecting outstanding recreation in the Boundary Waters Wilderness;

• Weakening the already-inadequate process for hardrock mining on public lands;

• Expanding oil and gas leasing while preventing agencies from protecting sensitive lands and waters from development;

• Preventing funds from being used to finalize and implement the BLM’s Conservation and Landscape Health Rule;

• Withholding funds from areas of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument restored by the Biden Administration.

Outdoor recreation and the outdoor economy are dependent on healthy, resilient public lands and waters. As we have documented, chronic underfunding of federal land management agencies harms these vital resources and prevents land managers from achieving their missions, ultimately affecting our recreation experiences on public lands and waters. Outdoor Alliance CEO Adam Cramer said, “The bill advanced by House appropriators is a giant step in the wrong direction. We encourage House leadership to pass an appropriations bill—free of harmful policy riders—that better supports America’s public lands, the irreplaceable conservation and recreation values that they provide, and the outdoor economy that depends on them.”