Ryan Zinke

The last thing my constituents want to do is get up in the morning and think about Washington, D.C., to think about policies that are taking place here in Congress.

Fire funding is a huge issue. I look forward to working with this committee, who has been a huge sponsor, and Mr. Simpson kind of the spiritual leader of that effort, to see if we can get that across the goal line.

I will not support an Interior environment bill that appropriates less than our current 2017 Fiscal Year level.

It seems your intended purpose is to use taxpayer money to reopen a public process with one hand while handicapping public participation with the other.

It is irresponsible to cut programs that provide advance warning protections to protect life, health, and property of millions of Americans.

I recently introduced a bill with Will Hurd from Texas to address that maintenance backlog.

The DOI, under your leadership, is now moving toward less public land and less public input which threatens the very fabric of the West.

We are looking at reorganizing how we do business with Interior because the carp issue is an example.

The budget is unacceptable, and I expect my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject it.

I looked at the budget. I am not happy. We are going to fight about it. I think I am going to win at the end of the day.

We take it personally when we see the federal government using taxpayer dollars to both negate the robust public input we provided while also silencing the valuable citizens advisory councils.

We need to fix our stuff; so the priority in this budget was fixing our stuff first.

if you care about climate change, and if you think climate change is important to the future of our country, then you cannot support the Paris Agreement because it did almost nothing to address the problem, and came at the cost of…

I want to thank this committee--particularly for being solution oriented in some of those, and we will talk about the fire funding, as Congresswoman McCollum mentioned this morning.

this minimum wage and overtime rule is literally driving small mom and pop businesses out of business, because they cannot do it.

The priority is addressing our holdings first.

Sovereignty should mean something.

My steadfast commitment is to support sovereignty so we get out of the way if that is the direction the tribe wants to go.

It's a new day for Indian Country. It's a new day for tribal sovereignty. And it's a new day for prosperous tribal economies.

If you must fight, fight for your people.

It is energy. In some cases, that energy results in a whole variety but it is economic development and without an economy, nothing else really matters.

I remain committed to working with tribes on a government-to-government basis, particularly when it pertains to matters under Interior's jurisdiction.

I will work with you to make sure the process is transparent, clear and at the end of the day, results in an end product that is where we all want to be.

Regardless of political party, our duty as Americans is to uphold our trust responsibilities and consult and collaborate on a government-to-government basis with Tribes from Maine to Alaska.

Senator McCain, Vice Chairman Udall, and Secretary Zinke expressed a desire to see improvement in the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-funded school system.