Secretary Zinke changes position on looming budget cuts to Dept. of Interior

By Nicholas Adkins

President Trump’s America First budget would call for a 12 percent cut in funding for the Department of Interior and new Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke appears to be ok with that.

When the president’s budget was still being finalized and it became known that the Department of Interior would be facing cuts in the budget, Zinke voice his concern in a statement to his employees.

“I’m going to fight for the budget. I looked at the budget. I’m not happy,” Zinke said. “But we’re going to fight about it, and I think I’m going to win at the end of the day and make sure that our values are articulated, too.”

Whether Zinke did have a chance to speak to President Trump is not known, but upon the release of the budget, DOI employees sent the following statement from Zinke to multiple new sources, including Huffington Post and CBS.

“I can say for certain that this budget allows the Interior Department to meet our core mission and also prioritizes the safety and security of the American people.”

The president’s skinny budget would cut funding to the Department of Interior from $13.2 billion to $11.6 billion.

The change of heart is the first blemish of Zinke’s short time as secretary. He started out as one of the least controversial of Trump’s appointees and was voted in with a 68-31 vote by the Senate, with all Republicans and 17 Democrats approving.

Zinke is a former Montana congressman and state senator. He is an avid hunter and angler and his backing of bills that prevent selling of federal lands to states and private businesses has earned him praise among outdoors and recreation groups.

Support for him was practically bi-partisan when compared with EPA administrator Scott Pruitt or Education Secretary Betsy DeVos who required a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence in order to be confirmed.

“One of the challenges with this administration is many of [Trump’s appointees] don’t have experience managing a public good,” Kent State recreation, park, and tourism management associate professor Dr. Mary Parr said. “They have experience managing private goods but the government and our democratic system isn’t a private good and it requires a different approach.”

During his confirmation hearing, Zinke went on record stating that he does not believe climate change is a “hoax,” despite the man who appointed him saying just that.

Zinke also outlined his three immediate goals once he took office; to “restore trust” between states and local communities and the federal government when it comes to land management policies, to prioritize the $12.5 billion in backlog for maintenance and repairs to the National Parks, and to ensure that the front-line workers for the Department of Interior have the tools, resources, and flexibility they need to “make the right decisions and give a voice to the people they serve.”

The proposed defunding appears to make those goals much harder to achieve.

“It’s a lot of cuts to important organizations within our field and jobs and opportunities,” recreation, parks, and tourism management sophomore Simon Gehr said, “not just within our government but a lot of non-profit organizations they send money to that provide recreational services as well.”

The DOI is responsible for the conservation and management of federal lands and administrates programs relating to Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Alaska Natives. The most well known of the programs headed by the DOI is the National Park Service which is in charge of maintaining all of America’s national parks, many national monuments and other conservation and historical properties owned by the federal government. Included in these federal lands are 49 national heritage sites.

“The humanities, the arts, those historical and cultural resources are hugely important and also managed by the National Park Service as well,” Parr said. “The current proposed budget for the interior cuts funding for all 49 of those historical sites.”

 

Gehr said that he believes that Trump’s administration as a whole appears to be defunding programs that they “deem a little bit less necessary.” Gehr sees value in the programs that appear to be getting defunded such as DOI research programs, NASA programs, and EPA programs.

“I believe they are extremely valuable but maybe not as immediately noticeable as other things,” Gehr said.

“The point of the National Parks Services is to preserve the land and sites for generations and generations,” recreation, parks, and tourism management senior Carolyn Bark said. “It gets you outside and away from everything which makes you feel a little bit smaller which is ok. That’s just something you don’t really get unless you do get to go outside and recreate.”

Despite Trump’s budget cuts, there still is more of a sense of hope for those who believe in what the DOI stands for and what it does in the country with Zinke in charge

“I think there is this hopeful optimism when it comes to Zinke,” Kent State associate professor of geology Dr. Anne Jefferson said. “He certainly is a friend of the outdoors. He has spoken out [about] public access to federal lands.

The standard rewriting and revising of the federal budget will play out in the coming weeks and months and we will see whether Zinke continues to stick to his turnabout opinion of the budget or goes back to his original promise to fight for funding.

“There is still something that remains to be seen,” Jefferson said. “When push comes to shove, how effectively can he push back against these proposed cuts.”

All timeline dates and facts provided by DOI.