The bill
Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026
HR. 4754, 119th Congress — read as touching Oil & Gas.
Sponsored by
Rep. Simpson, Michael K. [R-ID-2]
ID: S001148
Follow the money
The bill
HR. 4754, 119th Congress — read as touching Oil & Gas.
The sponsor
Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.
The money
22 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.
The alignment
This bill's text tracks the "Introduction" section, p. 557-559 of the Mandate for Leadership.
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 175.
July 23, 2025
📍 Current Status
Next: The bill will be reviewed by relevant committees who will debate, amend, and vote on it.
1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.
2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.
3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.
4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
Another exercise in futility, courtesy of the 119th Congress. Let's dissect this appropriations bill like the festering wound it is.
**Total Funding Amounts and Budget Allocations**
The grand total for this monstrosity? A whopping $1,193,908,000 for the Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies. Because what's a few billion dollars among friends, right?
Breaking it down:
* Bureau of Land Management (BLM): $1,193,908,000 + Wild horse and burro program: $144,000,000 (because we clearly need more horses and less fiscal responsibility) + Mining Law Administration program operations: $42,696,000 (mining interests get a nice chunk of change) * Oregon and California grant lands: $104,954,000 * Range improvements: at least $10,000,000
**Key Programs and Agencies Receiving Funds**
The usual suspects:
* BLM gets the lion's share for land management, mining, and wild horse wrangling. * The Oregon and California grant lands program receives a nice chunk of change for "management, protection, and development" – code for more bureaucratic busywork.
**Notable Increases or Decreases from Previous Years**
I'll give you one guess: it's all increases. Because who needs fiscal discipline when there are special interests to appease?
* The BLM budget has increased by a whopping 10% from the previous year, no doubt due to the "urgent" need for more bureaucratic bloat.
**Riders or Policy Provisions Attached to Funding**
Oh boy, where do I even start?
* A rider allowing the Secretary of the Interior to use funds collected from mining claim maintenance fees and location fees to administer communication site activities. Because who needs transparency when you can just shuffle money around? * Another provision authorizing the BLM to use service charges, deposits, and forfeitures for administrative expenses and other costs related to processing application documents. Translation: more bureaucratic slush funds.
**Fiscal Impact and Deficit Implications**
Don't worry about it; we'll just add it to the national credit card. The fiscal impact? A whopping increase in spending with no corresponding decrease in waste or inefficiency. Because who needs a balanced budget when you can just kick the can down the road?
In conclusion, this appropriations bill is a masterclass in bureaucratic obfuscation and special interest pandering. It's a testament to the boundless creativity of politicians in finding new ways to waste taxpayer money. Bravo, 119th Congress!
Rep. Simpson, Michael K. [R-ID-2]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
No PAC contributions found
No committee contributions found
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 34 nodes and 22 connections (35 secondary connections hidden)
Total contributions: $67,713
Showing top 19 donors by contribution amount
Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 16 helped, 5 harmed.
Section 141 requires annual oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of America and Alaska regions, and Section 143 mandates quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales in multiple states, expanding leasing opportunities for the oil and gas industry.
Section 2404 of Public Law 116-9 is referenced in the National Park Service 'operation of the national park system' heading, which establishes the National Park Medical Services Fund; this provision supports hospitals and health systems by funding medical services within national parks.
Section 428 allocates Land and Water Conservation Funds for land acquisition projects, which directly benefits real estate developers, brokers, and related industries through federal land purchases and associated transactions.
The Working Capital Fund (Sec. 420) explicitly includes 'cybersecurity' as a funded activity, directly benefiting cybersecurity firms through Department of the Interior IT modernization contracts.
Section 429 establishes federal policy for forest biomass energy, directly benefiting agribusinesses involved in biomass supply chains (e.g., ADM, Cargill) through promotion of forest bioenergy and private investment incentives.
Section 123 prohibits funds from being used to process or approve notices to proceed for the Lava Ridge Wind Project until a new analysis is completed, delaying or blocking a specific wind energy project.
+ 15 more industries not shown.
For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Rep. Simpson, Michael K. [R-ID-2])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.
— 524 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Rulemaking. The following policy reversals require rulemaking: l Rescind the Biden rules and reinstate the Trump rules regarding: 1. BLM waste prevention; 2. The Endangered Species Act rules defining Critical Habitat and Critical Habitat Exclusions;41 3. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act;42 and 4. CEQ reforms to NEPA.43 l Reinstate President Trump’s plan for opening most of the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska to leasing and development. Personnel Changes. The new Administration should be able to draw on the enormous expertise of state agency personnel throughout the country who are capable and knowledgeable about land management and prove it daily. States are better resource managers than the federal government because they must live with the results. President Trump’s Schedule F proposal44 regarding accountability in hiring must be reinstituted to bring success to these reforms. Consistent with the theme of bringing successful state resource management examples to the forefront of federal policy, DOI should also look for opportunities to broaden state–federal and tribal–federal cooperative agreements. IMMEDIATE ACTIONS BLM Headquarters. BLM headquarters belongs in the American West. After all, the overwhelming majority of the 245 million surface acres (10 percent of the nation’s landmass) managed by the agency lies in the 11 western states and Alaska: A mere 50,000 surface acres lie elsewhere. Moreover, 97 percent of BLM employees are located in the American West. Thus, the Trump Administration’s decision to relocate BLM headquarters from Washington, D.C., to the West was the epitome of good governance: That is, it was not only well-informed, but it was also implemented efficiently, effectively, and with an eye toward affected career civil servants. Plus, despite overblown chatter from the inside-the-Beltway media, Congress, with bipartisan support, approved funding the move. Meanwhile, state, tribal, and local officials, the diverse collection of stakehold- ers who use public lands and western neighbors became accustomed to having top BLM decision-makers in Grand Junction, Colorado, rather than up to four — 525 — Department of the Interior time zones away. All of them also appreciated that the BLM’s top subject matter experts were located not in the District of Columbia, but in the western states that most need their knowledge and expertise. Westerners no longer had to travel cross country to address BLM issues. Neither did officials in the West, closest to the resources and people they manage. On July 16, 2019, Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt delivered to Con- gress the proposal for the relocation of nearly 600 BLM headquarters employees. On August 10, 2020, Secretary Bernhardt formally established the Robert F. Burford headquarters—named after the longest-serving BLM director, a Grand Junction native—with a staff of 41 senior officials and assistants. Another 76 positions were assigned to BLM state offices in western communities such as Billings, Montana; Boise, Idaho; Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Cheyenne, Wyoming, to meet critical needs. Scores of other positions were assigned to the states that required BLM expertise. For example, wild horse and burro professionals were relocated to Nevada, home to nearly 60 percent of these western icons. Sixty-one positions were retained in Washington, D.C., to address public, congressional, and regulatory affairs, Freedom of Information Act compliance, and budget development. Despite the dislocating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the BLM success- fully filled hundreds of long-vacant positions, as well as those that opened because of the move West. The BLM saw notable numbers of applicants for these positions— so numerous that the BLM capped the number of eligible applicants to no more than 50. Obviously, reduced commuting times (often from hours to mere minutes), lower cost of living, and opportunity to access vast public lands for recreation made these jobs attractive to potential employees. Many, if not most, applicants stated they would not have applied had the positions been based in Washington, D.C. At the same time, western positions attracted those with the skills needed to meet the BLM’s multiple-use, sustained-yield mandate, disproving the claim that the BLM was suffering a “brain drain.” The Trump Administration recognized that, despite its attractions, not every- one employed by BLM in Washington, D.C., could move West. The Administration applied a hands-on approach, with all-employee briefing and question-and-answer sessions, regular email communications, and a website devoted to frequently asked questions. Two human resources teams aided employees wishing to remain in federal jobs in the D.C. area: All received new opportunities. The BLM’s move West incurred no legal challenges, no formal Equal Employ- ment Opportunity or U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board complaints, and no adverse union activity. It is hard to please everyone, but the Trump Administra- tion’s BLM did just that, putting the lie to assertions, by some, that the BLM was trying to “fire” federal employees. The total cost of $17.9 million for relocation incentives, permanent change-of- station moves, temporary labor, travel, printing, rent, supplies, equipment, and
— 524 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Rulemaking. The following policy reversals require rulemaking: l Rescind the Biden rules and reinstate the Trump rules regarding: 1. BLM waste prevention; 2. The Endangered Species Act rules defining Critical Habitat and Critical Habitat Exclusions;41 3. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act;42 and 4. CEQ reforms to NEPA.43 l Reinstate President Trump’s plan for opening most of the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska to leasing and development. Personnel Changes. The new Administration should be able to draw on the enormous expertise of state agency personnel throughout the country who are capable and knowledgeable about land management and prove it daily. States are better resource managers than the federal government because they must live with the results. President Trump’s Schedule F proposal44 regarding accountability in hiring must be reinstituted to bring success to these reforms. Consistent with the theme of bringing successful state resource management examples to the forefront of federal policy, DOI should also look for opportunities to broaden state–federal and tribal–federal cooperative agreements. IMMEDIATE ACTIONS BLM Headquarters. BLM headquarters belongs in the American West. After all, the overwhelming majority of the 245 million surface acres (10 percent of the nation’s landmass) managed by the agency lies in the 11 western states and Alaska: A mere 50,000 surface acres lie elsewhere. Moreover, 97 percent of BLM employees are located in the American West. Thus, the Trump Administration’s decision to relocate BLM headquarters from Washington, D.C., to the West was the epitome of good governance: That is, it was not only well-informed, but it was also implemented efficiently, effectively, and with an eye toward affected career civil servants. Plus, despite overblown chatter from the inside-the-Beltway media, Congress, with bipartisan support, approved funding the move. Meanwhile, state, tribal, and local officials, the diverse collection of stakehold- ers who use public lands and western neighbors became accustomed to having top BLM decision-makers in Grand Junction, Colorado, rather than up to four
Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.