WATCH: Padilla Presses Interior Secretary Burgum on Reckless Proposed Cuts to Environmental Programs Amid Unpopular Offshore Drilling Push

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, questioned Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about President Trump's proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget. Padilla highlighted that the Trump Administration's moves to drill off of California's coast coupled with proposed cuts to funding for environmental programs and enforcement will endanger the coastline, the people who live there, and coastal economies.

"I've got to tell you, it's pretty damn frustrating when I hear and read about this Administration's approach to offshore wind, particularly off the coast of California. It makes no sense for an Administration that wants to be energy dominant - as electricity prices are skyrocketing and demand growth is increasing - to pay developers to stop building energy projects that can add more electrons to the grid. Now, off the coast of California, it's not just offshore wind opportunities. You're seeking to now promote offshore drilling off the coast of California and elsewhere," said Senator Padilla.

As Secretary Burgum repeated tired talking points about clean energy subsidies, Padilla called out the double standard, particularly as the Trump Administration plans give away $40 billion to the oil and gas industry and is wasting billions of taxpayer dollars to stop offshore wind projects.

Amid rumors surrounding the future of the Chuckwalla National Monument, Padilla secured a recommitment from Secretary Burgum to meet with Tribal representatives to understand the cultural significance of the monument and reminded him of Bureau of Land Management Director nominee Stevan Pearce's commitment to protect the monument. And Senator Padilla pressed Secretary Burgum to recognize California's major investments in water efficiency and water conservation in providing matching federal funding to address drought on the Colorado River and elsewhere in the West.

Earlier this month, Padilla released a statement on President Trump's FY 2027 budget proposal, calling on Congress to reject it and "fight for one that reflects our values, not the whims of Donald Trump." Padilla questioned Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), about the proposed budget and its eye-popping 42% increase in defense spending. Last week, Padilla slammed Energy Secretary Chris Wright about his Department's proposed budget, questioning how energy affordability could be a priority for this Administration given the drastic cuts proposed to science funding.

Video of Padilla's full questioning is available here.

Key Excerpts of Padilla's questioning are below.

PADILLA: As we discussed prior to your confirmation and during your confirmation hearing, I take tremendous pride in the Chuckwalla National Monument and specifically the boundaries that were crafted, working together with energy developers, with conservationists, with hunters, with tribal leaders, and many others. That is why we have such broad bipartisan support for this national monument. Now, during your confirmation hearing, I asked you - and you committed on the record - to meet with tribal representatives to understand this particular monument and its history and its significance. The five tribes that are involved with it have since created an intertribal commission. Have you had a chance to meet with them, and if not, will you commit to meeting with them?

BURGUM: I haven't personally had a chance to meet with them, but I will recommit to meet with them. I'd certainly be interested in hearing their point of view.

PADILLA: Okay, that's important to me because there is chatter about maybe not Chuckwalla or maybe Chuckwalla being on a list of monuments that you are looking to revisit and possibly undo. For the record, I'll remind us all that Mr. Steve Pearce, the presumptive BLM director, sat in that very seat just a few weeks ago and committed to honoring the monument designations and I certainly hope that you do as well.

[…] California is a proud example of how you can increase renewable energy sources together with battery storage technology. And by the way, throw in some aggressive energy efficiency policies, and you can bring down emissions, bring down costs, and improve the resiliency of the grid.

[…] California also prides itself in its long-standing water efficiency and conservation efforts, more than doing its part. I don't think you meant to suggest that states that are growing, whether it's growing in population or growing in an economy, should not seek to partner with the federal government or count on the federal government as a partner in meeting both our energy and our water needs.

I got to tell you, it's pretty damn frustrating when I hear and read about this Administration's approach to offshore wind, particularly off the coast of California. You're seeking to now promote offshore drilling off the coast of California and elsewhere. […] the President's budget proposes to combine BOEM and BSEE, returning us to the inadequate regulatory structure that we had prior to Deepwater Horizon. You are also proposing to slash a lot of important entities. How is it that you want to significantly increase offshore oil drilling while ratcheting in the regulatory and safety mechanisms to keep our environment, our economy, and our people safe?

[…]

The proposed budget slashes combined funding for the environmental protection and enforcement by a third. Almost $50 million out for operation safety and regulation funding. Again, this comes at a time when you're trying to push more offshore oil drilling.

BURGUM: With the combining of BOEM and BSEE - which are today co-located, we've got lots of redundancies - we can actually increase the number of inspections, we can increase safety, we can maintain everything that we can do to do all the things that you're describing. And the report post-Deepwater Horizon was about the money that was flowing in was somehow potentially corrupting the people that were doing the regulatory and the safety work. That is still separate - it was broken into three organizations - we're only merging the two, unifying the two together, where we can gain those efficiencies without any sacrifice to what we are doing. And I would ask your staff, talk to the people in BOEM and BSEE. They are excited about getting back together, working together, and doing a great job.

PADILLA: Then why also cut ONNR by 16%?

BURGUM: When we cut places that just do business processing, part of that is because we've invested too much in people and not enough on the IT side of things. And the idea that any time we cut a person that somehow magically we were at the perfect number of staffing across an agency in Interior is just not true. And some of these numbers that people are viewing as a catastrophe were the numbers of headcount that we were at four years ago. I think no one was saying we had too few people back in 2020 or 2021, but now when we try to get back to those numbers with better IT, people act like the sky is falling.

PADILLA: We'll follow up with your team to get that additional information, and I would include a request both here and through questions for the record on any comprehensive analysis that you depended on to make these determinations of people versus IT, or how best to balance the two.

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