The President’s FY 2022 full budget for the Department of the Interior (DOI) comes out consistent with what was proposed in the skinny budget. The DOI requests $17.4 billion in net discretionary budget, an increase of 16 percent from the FY 2021 enacted level. As promised in the skinny budget, the DOI budget calls for broad, department-wide investment in climate, climate resiliency and conservation, including but not limited to increases in funding for wildfire management, water management, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), etc. and investment in clean energy and the Climate Conservation Corp (CCC). The budget also proposes to establish a new Energy Community Revitalization Program (ECRP) which will fund the reclamation of abandoned wells and mines, a priority for the Administration that has showed up in both the American Jobs Plan as well as the President’s skinny budget.

The DOI’s budget in brief, categorized by the Administration’s top priorities for the department, makes it difficult to keep track of agency-level funding requests. More than a week after the full budget drop, DOI still has not released its detailed budget justifications for all its sub-agencies. TCS will be following the DOI budget justification release. Stay tuned for more, as we all know the devil is in the details.