This past week’s floods in Texas have, rightfully, captured most of our collective attention given the scale and the intensity—and youth—of the destruction and loss. The actions, thoughts, prayers, and contributions of so many have been shared and will be shared. 

There doesn’t appear to be any Interior-specific component to the story, but we hope it serves as a reminder that institutions matter. They matter because institutions help people prepare for the future. They help us respond to the unexpected and recover in the aftermath. They are local, state, and federal governments; some are private institutions; some are knowledge institutions that keep us tethered to reality rather than conspiracy; the list goes on. While the immediate needs of people are the first order of business, we need to support, protect, and restore and reconstruct institutions of all shapes and sizes (and especially federal agencies and the public servants who make them work). It’s how people and society will best be served.

What happened

1. OBBBA—Yes the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (well, renamed to “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14”) passed. We can celebrate the removal of the public lands sales that Sen. Lee put forward, but there’s still plenty of bad stuff that made it through. Big subsidies for oil, gas, and coal by forcing lease sales and tax cuts for drillers, all while the rest of the world is moving the other direction. Even with the worst parts cut out, big hits to renewable energy capacity development. Rescinding funding (see Section 50304 of the bill) for National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management restoration and personnel to the tune of millions of dollars—I hear that will come out to about $267 million lost for Park Service personnel.
2. Federal and Interior personnel news—Speaking of Congress’s cuts to the Park Service, while demand for parks and other Interior lands and waters is increasing, the administration continues its push to fire federal public servants and eviscerate programs. Monday, 07 July, they got an assist from the Supreme Court, which will allow the administration to continue their actions while cases proceed on their merits in lower courts. We’ll have to see how Interior responds. It remains absolutely baffling how any of this is allowable before Congress acts to rescind existing funding, change programs or offices, or pass the FY26 funding at reduced levels. 
   
   Also, at Interior, the DOGE-backed acting Chief Human Capital Officer, Stephanie Holmes, issued a memo that will institute the partisan essay questions the White House wants as part of the hiring process, even though OPM told agencies to “deemphasize” the questions because they’re clearly illegal. 

Other news items of interest:

• Resources news
  • Water, energy, and more development around the Grand Canyon
  • Closing wildlife refuges, undercutting research - nobody is going to benefit
  • Trump orders higher fees for foreigners visiting parks
• Science news
  • A science fair on Capitol Hill
  • Research on constraints for nature-based solutions
  • Not DOI-specific, but science has to hang together as an institution:
    • Good news for some NIH grants directed to be restored
    • Bad news on how universities are being targeted by the administration
• Tribes
  • Just disgusting and unacceptable. As NCAI put it, “These words are not provocative social commentary; they are a violent attack on Native people and Tribal Nations.”
  • Alligator Alcatraz and Tribes - remembering whose land it is and the moral duty to support immigrants.
  • Food security and bison and the Lakota.
• Chaser: insight on the sources of propaganda we’re experiencing, Interior style.

What’s coming

1. Congressional activity—There’s not much for Interior in the current hearing schedules for the Senate and House. The big thing on our radar is the FY 2026 appropriations process, and what—if anything—will come of that. While we had a Memo on the President’s budget proposal, Next Interior also crafted letters that provide analysis and questions for the House and Senate. We’ll provide updates as they become available.
2. Next Interior Fellows Program—Next week, we’ll be sharing more information about and opening applications for establishing the Next Interior Fellows Program. If you’re interested—or know someone who is interested—in developing an idea that will support Interior’s future work at the intersection of people, climate, and nature, then be sure to check it out. The Program is possible from the support for Next Interior from The Navigation Fund. Read more
3. Land Back and Reparations—While researching a potential fiscal sponsor for Next Interior, I came across Reparation Generation, a fiscally sponsored project that is focused on providing reparations to Black Americans to build wealth. I looked more closely because reparations have long been a personal interest: I believe it is an essential part of what has to happen for healing some of our darkest past. Then I noticed they are making a clear connection to matters relevant to Interior: the intersection of the Indigenous Land Back movement—think of Interior’s co-stewardship policy and actions—and reparations. I’ll be joining Reparation Generation’s webinar on building solidarity between the Land Back and Reparations communities next Thursday, and I hope others will too:

Staying reality-based

It seems worth noting that we’re making particular efforts at Next Interior Memos to emphasize sound independent reporting and general information resources that have been under attack of late. To be clear, this isn’t some anti-MSM screed, but at the same time, there’s a recurring theme that too many big, commercial news outlets have been less than reliable in what they present as news. It’s impossible to imagine how society can function—and with it, institutions like Interior—without a shared understanding of reality.

To that end, we will continue to elevate articles and sources that are covering the things that matter in honest ways rather than “both sides” reporting or with other reality-distorting biases. Wikipedia is a font of knowledge—to which we all can contribute—but under threat. NPR (and PBS) are among institutions that continue to face baseless attacks and the impending threat of cuts. Independent news and views are increasingly valuable; consider the Interior-relevant works from Public Domain and The Land Desk, or the great, ahead-of-the-curve reporting from well-sourced folks like The Handbasket (general government matters) and The 404 (tech-related gov news). Outlets focused on Indian Country are available, like Native News Online and Tribal Business News. And don’t forget nonprofit news like ProPublica, States Newsroom, and your local resources (like Maryland Matters).

This is part-and-parcel of the message of the opening of this issue of the Digest: institutions matter. Interior and government, knowledge institutions…we have to support them if we are to function.

Parting shot