Interior Department Issues Statement on the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Proposed Budget

Date: Monday, March 11, 2024
Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov

WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Following historic progress made since the President took office—with nearly 15 million jobs created and inflation down two-thirds—the Budget protects and builds on this progress by lowering costs for working families, protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, investing in America and the American people, and reducing the deficit by cracking down on fraud, cutting wasteful spending, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. 

“President Biden’s proposed budget builds on the momentum the Administration has achieved through historic investments to advance commitments to Tribal Nations, enhance climate resilience, spur a clean energy future and secure our conservation and environmental justice goals,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “The 2025 Budget continues to reflect the importance of science, diversity and inclusion, and collaboration between federal, state, Tribal and local partners in carrying out all of the Interior Department’s important missions.” 

The Budget, totaling $18 billion in current authority for the Department of the Interior, makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity for decades to come.  

At the Interior Department, the Budget:  

Supports Wildland Firefighters and Addresses Challenges Exacerbated by Climate Change: The FY 2025 Budget recognizes the Department’s important role in ensuring communities are prepared for and able to cope with major climate stressors, including wildfire and drought. The Fifth National Climate Assessment found much of the country is experiencing more intense and frequent wildfire due to climate-fueled warming and drought. This has consequences for the nation now and in the future. The Budget directly responds to immediate climate-fueled wildfire and drought risks, while laying the foundation to build America’s long-term resilience, promote economic growth, and create good paying jobs. 

• Wildland Fire Management: Climate change is driving the devastating intersection of extreme heat, drought, and wildland fire danger across the United States, creating wildfires that move with a frequency and intensity previously unseen. This has created conditions in which wildfires overwhelm response capabilities, resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses, damage to natural resources, devastation to communities, and the tragic loss of human life. In total, the Budget requests $1.6 billion for the Department’s wildland fire management programs, which includes funding for building a more robust and resilient wildland firefighting workforce and enhancing critical hazard mitigation and response activities.  
• Drought and Ongoing Water Challenges: Severe drought conditions in the West necessitate significant investment in water programs. The Budget requests $1.6 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation, which helps ensure communities across the West have access to a resilient and reliable water supply by investing in rural water projects, water conservation, development of desalination technologies, and water recycling and reuse projects. The Budget complements the nearly $1.7 billion provided in 2025 for western water infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as well as the nearly $4.6 billion provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for drought mitigation and domestic water supply projects.  

Strengthens Tribal Nations and Helps Meet our Trust and Treaty Obligations: Honoring the nation’s government-to-government relationships with Tribes and upholding trust and treaty responsibilities are paramount to the Department’s mission. Through initiatives addressing complex and difficult challenges, such as the legacy of the federal Indian boarding schools, meeting the need for native language revitalization, and coordinating federal efforts to address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples, this Administration’s commitment to respect the sovereignty of Tribal Nations and address long-standing disparities is unprecedented.  

• The Budget prioritizes Tribal communities with $2.9 billion allocated for Bureau of Indian Affairs programs and $1.5 billion for Bureau of Indian Education programs. These investments aim to address disparities and support Indigenous communities in various essential services and education.  
• Complementing the recent changes in the land-into-trust process, the Budget proposes to allocate $8 million of mandatory funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to establish a new program to support Tribal land acquisition for conservation and outdoor recreation. During LWCF listening sessions, one of the top priorities Tribes identified was the need to have direct access to LWCF funding for conservation and recreation projects.  
• The Budget provides $226 million in discretionary funding for Indian Water Rights settlements (IWRS) as well as $2.8 billion in mandatory funding over ten years to cover the costs of existing and future water settlements and to address the ongoing Operation and Maintenance requirements associated with already enacted IWRS managed by the Bureau of Reclamation.  
• The Budget supports the Administration’s commitment to prioritize restoration of healthy and abundant wild salmon, steelhead, and other native fish populations in the Columbia River Basin, and honor the United States’ obligations to Tribal Nations. The Budget provides $18.8 million for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Columbia and Snake River Salmon Recovery Project and $3 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support native fish and ecosystem restoration.   

Creates Jobs while Continuing to Move Clean Energy Forward: The time to act on climate is now. Renewable energy — including solar, onshore and offshore wind, geothermal, and wave and tidal energy projects — will help communities across the country be part of the climate solution and create good-paying union jobs. The demand for renewable energy development has never been greater. The technological advances, increased interest, cost effectiveness, and tremendous economic potential make these projects a promising path for diversifying our national energy portfolio.  

• The President’s Budget supports the Department’s clean energy goals, with $189.3 million allocated to deploy and support clean energy project development including on public lands and waters.   
• The 2025 Budget includes $53.1 million for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) onshore renewable energy program. The request will help to build staffing capacity at BLM’s Renewable Energy Coordination Offices and accelerate planning and permitting to accommodate increased demand and workload.  
• The Budget for Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) includes $15.0 million to continue work in support of offshore Renewable Energy deployment. BSEE anticipates receiving over 40,000 wind engineering, construction and other technical reports for review through the end of FY 2025. BSEE is working closely with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to implement the framework needed to ensure offshore renewable energy projects are implemented safely and responsibly.   

In promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, the Budget seeks to ensure accessibility to green spaces and the outdoors for all communities. Additionally, investments are made to increase representation in delivering the Department's core missions and strengthen diversity and equity within the workforce. The Department’s initiatives drive job creation and economic expansion across multiple sectors, including energy, minerals, recreation, tourism, water-related activities, grants and infrastructure investment. The enactment of critical legislation such as the Great American Outdoors Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act has significantly strengthened and enhanced the Department’s role in fostering America’s economic and employment growth.  

For more information on the President’s FY 2025 Budget, please visit the White House’s Budget webpage.   

For more information on the FY 2025 budget proposals for the Department, please visit the Department’s Budget webpage.  

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