ICYMI: Senator Murray on President Trump’s FY27 Budget Request
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full questioning***
Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget request for the Department of Interior (DOI), U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, slammed Secretary Doug Burgum’s continued efforts to fire staff across the Department and cut funding crucial to support park services.
[HURRICANE RIDGE REBUILD]
Senator Murray began her questioning by asking for an update on the reconstruction of the Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge in Olympic National Park—an important and historic site for the park and Washington state.
MURRAY: But I wanted to ask you first, because last year when you were here, we talked about the critical need to repair the Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge. You’re aware it’s an historic lodge. It was burned down in a fire about three years ago, and in 2024, I worked across the aisle to secure $80 million in emergency funding to rebuild that structure. Since that funding was secured, it has been waiting on the National Park Service now to finalize a plan for reconstruction. I know you visited Hurricane Ridge. I hope you appreciated how important that facility is. It supports tourism in the entire region. It is critical for the safety of many of the people who visit there.
And, I wanted to ask you if you can share a progress report on the rebuilding effort?
BURGUM: I’m not current on that, Senator, but having been to that site, I’m taking an action item right now to check on that today on where we’re at and how we can move that forward.
MURRAY: Okay, and if you could get back to me and my staff, I would really appreciate it.
BURGUM: Yeah, absolutely.
[STAFF AND FUNDING CUTS AT NATIONAL PARKS]
Senator Murray continued by addressing the sweeping staffing and funding cuts proposed in President Trump’s budget request, further jeopardizing basic park services that are already not running at full capacity because of cuts this administration has made.
MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, last year, you told this Committee that your work to force out one-in-five Parks employees would somehow make the Park Service smarter and more effective, I’ve kind of heard the same words this morning. We’re not seeing that in my state.
When you visited Olympic National Park last year, you met with biologists, I think you’ll remember, they were working to restore salmon in the Elwha River. Well, because of the administration’s policies, Olympic is down to just one—one—permanent staff on its fisheries team. Mount Rainier—critical to our country, to our region—they’re down to four people on a road crew that used to have 14. These are people out in the parks, they’re not sitting in a building some place. And at Stehekin, which is in our North Cascades—which needs all of the support it can because of severe flooding—you’ve eliminated staff to the point that they can’t open their visitors center now.
So, I wanted to ask you, what is your plan to get these basic services back up and running? It is unacceptable that they can’t even staff a visitor’s center.
BURGUM: Well, we’ll continue to work with each park, as we’re having different results by different parks. I mean, some parks, even last year, had a higher number of people working in the parks than they had in prior years. And so, well, as an action item here. I’ll take the parks you mentioned and make sure that we’re providing all the support we need because the recs are open. There’s 5,500 summer hire recs, there’s 593 fulltime recs that are open for people to hire, and if we need—
MURRAY: Well, I’m confused because in this budget proposal, you’re eliminating 3,000 National Parks staff and a quarter of them have already been forced out on top of that. You’re proposing a 38 percent—
BURGUM: Ma’am, I just wanted to clarify, multiple people have been saying forced out, there has been no forcing of anything. These are all voluntary, and then we have on the list—
MURRAY: People voluntarily left—
BURGUM: Yeah, it’s a voluntary early retirement program. There’s nobody that’s been forced out. There’s been zero RIFs, zero RIFs.
MURRAY: A whole bunch of people left, regardless of the word.
BURGUM: They took, we offered early retirement and they took it, but if somebody is the sole person doing–
MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, let me keep going because—
BURGUM: Could I finish? Because if someone does offer early retirement—
MURRAY: I know what you’re saying, you’re saying they left because they wanted to, but—
BURGUM: If I could finish my sentence. When they voluntarily leave then if they put their name on the list, and we say “nope, you’re the only one doing that thing.” We say that “we’re sorry, we know you wanted to voluntarily retire, but you’re not able to, you’re not eligible for it.” We refused hundreds and hundreds of people from early retirement.
MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, I only have a few minutes I wanted to tell you, in your budget that you are asking us to follow, you are eliminating 3,000 National Parks staff—however you want put it, a quarter of them left over the last 15 months. You’re proposing a 38 percent cut to Parks Facilities Operations and Maintenance, these are the road crews, things like that, a 35 percent cut for support staff, and over 50 percent of funding for resource stewardship.
To me, that is just a recipe for disaster for our Parks. It’ll make them run less effectively, more dangerous for the people that visit, if they don’t have the staff and tools to support any kind of science or stewardship. And so I am deeply concerned about the budget that we’re going to have to look at here that you’ve proposed. And, I want you to know that from on the ground that is what we are seeing and hearing and feeling.
And by the way, you just talked about staff leaving, you are actually conflating seasonal hires with permanent staff when you throw all the numbers together.
[TRUMP VISITING PARKS]
MURRAY: My time is almost up and I do want to ask you, I want to ask you a question. Since President Trump put his face on the National Park pass: has he visited a single one of our National Parks since he was sworn in?
BURGUM: To that, I’m not certain about the President. He’s got a very, very heavy travel schedule, and I’m not certain of that or not.
MURRAY: Okay, I was passing that question on from people who asked me, “his face is on the pass, has he ever visited one of these?” I just think it’s—
BURGUM: Well, he’s been to many places that are managed by the National Park System, including—
MURRAY: I’m talking about our National Parks; that’s the park passes people have. I know you’re not going to answer that.
BURGUM: The park passes also apply to our historic sites, our military sites, our military cemeteries. He’s been to many places managed by the National Park Service in the past year.
MURRAY: We have a difference of opinion, okay.
[UNSPENT FY26 FUNDS]
MURRAY: Secretary Burgum, you are here to ask for requests for your budget. It’s hard to talk about next year’s funding when a lot of this year’s funding has not gone out the door.
Your agency has been sitting on critical invasive species funding for the European Green Crab. This is a population that is not slowing down, it’s why multiple federal agencies have invested in monitoring and mitigation—including the Department of Interior. So I just want you to know, from our end, you’ve dropped the ball and we need to see that money go out the door.
And I wanted to ask you, when is that money going to go out the door?
BURGUM: I’m not familiar with the European Green Crab budget number, but I will certainly check into that.
MURRAY: Okay so its money that’s supposed to go out the door, and its sitting there, it’s not going out the door. And again, can you get back to me with an answer on that?
BURGUM: Yep, absolutely.
[CLOSING REMARKS]
MURRAY: Well I am deeply concerned, as I mentioned, about this budget request that we have that defunds our Tribes, it pushes out park employees, it freezes and ignores laws that we’ve passed. And, I think it is really critical that we all face up to the reality of: these are our National Parks, it’s where our families visit, it’s where our communities depend on them. They are the face of our nation, to both national and international travelers, and we have a responsibility to make sure they are up and running correctly. So, I look forward to working with the chair.