Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland slammed the Trump administration Thursday for rolling back Biden-era investments in water and climate resiliency in the West during a speech at a summit in New Mexico.
“The Trump administration is putting our progress at risk — cuts to conservation, cuts to staff, cuts to grants, cuts to tribal communities, cuts, cuts, cuts. That’s all they do,” said Haaland during her remarks at the 2025 Next Generation Water Summit.
Haaland, who during the Biden administration was the first Native American to oversee the Interior Department, is currently running for governor of New Mexico. She called attention to Biden administration investments such as the Inflation Reduction Act that channeled money to tribes for sustainability and clean energy and told the crowd in Santa Fe that this current moment demands leaders who can fight the White House’s efforts to roll back investments.
Haaland said land and water resources must be managed “in terms of generations and not budget years.”
