Interior Secretary Doug Burgum will appear before the House Appropriations Committee next Monday to answer questions about the administration’s fiscal 2027 budget request for his agency.
Burgum, who also serves as chair of the National Energy Dominance Council, is expected to use his testimony to explain the White House’s proposal to slash the Interior Department’s budget by nearly 13 percent — a cut that appropriators are all but certain to reject.
He will face questions about the administration’s efforts to create a consolidated wildland firefighting agency, the proposal to merge two bureaus that manage offshore drilling and deep-sea mining, and Interior’s moves to cut staff and expand fossil energy production.
Burgum’s testimony comes as House appropriators are kicking off their fiscal 2027 spending work. They are inviting agency officials to Capitol Hill to question their budget proposals and preparing to release first drafts of their spending bills in the coming weeks.
