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The Department of the Interior announced another round of $3.2 million in grant funding for 11 western states, bringing the Department’s and other stakeholders’ support of big game species habitat conservation and scientific research for migration corridors and winter ranges to more than $22 million.

The Department of the Interior announced today that over one billion barrels of oil were produced in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 from leases on federal and American Indian-owned lands and offshore areas – a historic milestone. This is greater than a 29 percent increase in production compared to the end of the previous Administration, which totaled 808.7 million barrels in FY 2016, and represents a 122.5-million-barrel increase in production compared to FY 2018.

 In support of President Trump’s America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced today that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will offer over 78 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for March 18, 2020. The sale would include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Today, President Donald J. Trump proposed a $12.8 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget for the Department of the Interior, including a new, innovative $50 million initiative that would begin to transform and build a more stable and permanent wildland firefighting workforce to better align with the challenges of prolonged periods of wildfire activity and the need to more aggressively implement active vegetation management.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt today announced the availability of Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Reclamation grants through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). A total of $170.9 million in grants will be provided this year for states and tribes to reclaim and repurpose abandoned coal lands.

Secretary Bernhardt's Statement on the State of the Union Address

Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt released the following statement on President Donald J. Trump's State of the Union Address. 

Three years ago, President Trump promised to tackle the real issues facing Americans, and he has delivered on those promises across the government.

The Department of the Interior stands at the forefront in defending the rights of all employees and has a zero tolerance policy for discrimination or harassment of any kind.

The task force, designated Operation Lady Justice, has been empowered review Indian Country cold cases, to strengthen law enforcement protocols, and work with tribes to improve investigations, information sharing and a more seamless response to missing persons investigations.