I think there is really good bipartisan support and has been for the National Park Service in this committee over the years.

We can't ignore that we have betrayed the trust of many people in the past because we haven't done some of this mining right in the past.

To me, that is a very important program, and we need to make sure that it gets funded at an adequate level to be able to carry out their responsibilities and stuff, as I am sure you are well aware.

I do want to thank you for the work that you did in making sure that these local organizations could survive during this pandemic because it was critical to a lot them.

But basically, we can put all the money into a program in the world. If we don't have the personnel to carry out the projects and so forth that is necessary, it doesn't really do any good.

Indian issues and Indian Country has always been a bipartisan issue on this committee.

The Indian Health Service has been underfunded for years, and we have tried to increase it and so forth.

If you are going to reach your climate goals, and renewable energy, and those types of things, you can't outstrip our ability to deliver the critical minerals that are necessary in batteries, in solar, in other things, and for our defense…

I am more than willing, and I know members of this committee are also, to figure out how we get to the level that we ought to be at so that there is not disparity between Indian Health Services and other health services delivered by the…

If it was mandatory, you would pretty much know what it is going to be the next year.

Thank you, Chairwoman Pingree, and thanks for this hearing.

If there is ever a time when that initiative needs to be restarted or it needs to be worked on, I would encourage you to do it now because it is now more necessary than ever before.

I look forward to the day when we can actually sit down and talk person-to-person and meet face-to-face and discuss some of these issues.

I have always found it kind of interesting that our committee, even when I was chair and even before that, we looked at the Arts and Humanities Councils, and we give them the same appropriation.

One thing I wanted to follow up on what Representative Simpson said about the ability to have advanced appropriations versus mandatory funding.

How much of the current $167.5 million in this year's budget goes to local communities and grants to State and local communities in both the arts and humanities?

the staffing shortage has been an issue across the West, and it has inhibited us from meeting some public lands challenges with the urgency they deserve.

We can't wait two decades. That is somebody is born and they become an adult before we can improve their school, that is just too long.