Department of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies is one of twelve subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Appropriations. As a subcommittee, it handles the initial review and preparation of one of the twelve annual appropriations bills—in this case, the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill. Only the full Appropriations Committee can report bills to the Senate floor, but this subcommittee does the detailed work of examining agency budgets, holding hearings, and drafting legislation before it moves up.

The subcommittee has jurisdiction over federal spending for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, and related agencies. This includes funding for national parks, national forests, public lands management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and environmental programs. The subcommittee also oversees cultural institutions like the Smithsonian Institution. In recent years, major funding priorities have included wildfire suppression, tribal health and education programs, public lands maintenance, and environmental protection.

Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) leads the subcommittee, with Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) representing the minority. The subcommittee has 15 total members. Recent appropriations bills have provided tens of billions in annual funding—the Fiscal Year 2026 bill approved by the full committee provided $38.6 billion in nondefense discretionary funding. Recent hearings have focused on agency budget requests, including sessions with the EPA Administrator and the Secretary of the Interior to discuss their fiscal year budgets and priorities.