US Department of the Interior funding for the US territories passes the House

The United States House of Representatives approved the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025 (HR 8998) on July 24, 2024, with provisions affecting the five US territories. It is now awaiting the Senate’s approval.

The bill essentially allocates and divides the budget of the US Department of the Interior and related environmental departments for fiscal year 2025. Furthermore, “Nationwide, the overall bill promotes domestic energy production, reduces wasteful spending, protects access to public lands, and notably increases funding for wildland fire programs and wildland firefighter pay.”

Within the act, provisions impact all five US territories, beginning with American Samoa. The act “funds American Samoa’s DOI Operations fund, and all federal interior and insular grants and services, as well as local EPA grants and the work of EPA Region 9.”

Delegate Uifa’atali Amata Coleman Radewagen (R) of American Samoa praised the federal funding, writing in a press release, “The Senate is doing their appropriations work as well, and I’ve communicated the need for our yearly funding with the key Chairmen and Ranking Senators.”

The act also allocated $3 million of American Samoa’s over $28.1 million fund to the community college. This increase in the  operational fund marks a continued steady climb in funding over the past six years. 

HR 8998 also mentions that funds allocated for Forest Service “may be used for fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025 expenses associated with primary and secondary schooling for dependents of agency personnel stationed in Puerto Rico, who are subject to transfer and reassignment to other locations in the United States”

Delegate James Moylan (R) of Guam successfully included several amendments in the House’s version of the bill, which would allocate over $10 million to various cultural and environmental programs on the island. The act allocates $107 billion to be used for grants, which are available for the territories of American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands.