Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Republican Rob Bishop (R-Utah) issued the following statement in reaction to the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal:

“From streamlining critical infrastructure projects to prioritizing resilient forests and our public lands deferred maintenance backlog, this proposal lays out creative solutions that benefit the American people.  Since the initial submission of the Public Lands Infrastructure Fund in the President’s 2019 budget, we’ve built a groundswell of bipartisan support for the proposal including 330 House sponsors.  I’m hopeful House Democrats finally see the writing on the wall and move this bipartisan bill forward. I look forward to working with the Administration and Members of the House and Senate to advance this and other commonsense proposals to improve management of federal lands and resources.”  

Proposal Highlights:

• Prioritizes forest management to reduce wildfire risk on federal lands
• Streamlines permitting processes for all-of-the-above energy development
• Expresses support for USGS efforts to study and identify U.S. critical mineral resource supplies
• Prioritizes implementing Congressional directives to conduct oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska
• Invests in essential water infrastructure projects
• Includes $314 million for the National Park Service’s deferred maintenance backlog
• Supports the establishment of a Public Lands Infrastructure Fund (H.R. 1225, the Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act), providing annual funding for five years to reduce the deferred maintenance for various agencies

Read the full budget HERE: