Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: Overview of FY2026 Appropriations

The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill—often called the Interior bill—contains funding for about three dozen agencies and entities. They include most of the Department of the Interior and certain agencies within other departments, such as the Forest Service (Department of Agriculture) and the Indian Health Service (Department of Health and Human Services). The bill also provides funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arts and cultural agencies, and other entities. Perennial issues for Congress include determining the amount, terms, and conditions of funding for agencies and programs. From October 1, 2025, until November 12, 2025, agencies covered by the Interior bill experienced a lapse in appropriations because no FY2026 appropriations had been enacted. Agency operations generally were governed by “contingency plans” during that time. Following the enactment of a continuing resolution (CR)—P.L. 119-37, Division A—these agencies received appropriations at FY2025 levels, with certain exceptions specified in the CR. P.L. 119-74, Division C, enacted on January 23, 2026, provided full-year appropriations for the Interior bill agencies for FY2026 in the amount of $42.56 billion. This total included $2.85 billion for certain wildfire suppression activities under an adjustment to the discretionary spending limit for FY2026. This total in P.L. 119-74, Division C also reflected $5.31 billion in advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service for FY2027. The $42.56 billion was divided unevenly across the three major titles in the FY2026 Interior bill, as is typically the case. DOI agencies in Title I received $14.97 billion. EPA, funded in Title II of the bill, received $8.82 billion. For about two dozen agencies and other entities funded in Title III, the FY2026 appropriations law contained $18.77 billion. Of the total FY2026 appropriation, nearly three-quarters ($31.31 billion) was for five agencies: EPA, Forest Service, Indian Health Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. The FY2026 enacted appropriation of $42.56 billion was an $809.0 million (1.9%) decrease from the FY2025 level of $43.37 billion. The FY2026 appropriations provided level funding for some agencies and entities, including the Bureau of Indian Education, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The law also provided varying increases for some agencies, such as the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (2.1%), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (0.6%), and the Forest Service (0.7%). More agencies and entities in the bill received decreased funding than received level funding or increased funding. Among the agencies that received decreases in funding are the Bureau of Land Management (2.4%), the National Park Service (2.1%), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (14.8%), the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (6.1%), the Indian Health Service (1.8%), and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (66.7%). Further, the law eliminated funding for FY2026 for the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation and did not provide FY2026 loan authority for the Presidio Trust. It can be challenging to make comparisons between FY2025 and FY2026 total appropriations for agencies and accounts that receive funding in the annual Interior bill. This is due to a variety of factors, including advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service, rescissions of prior-year appropriations, supplemental appropriations, and mandatory appropriations provided to agencies under laws within the jurisdiction of authorizing committees. Including some or all of these variables would provide different comparisons between FY2025 and FY2026 appropriations for agencies and accounts that receive funding in the annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Appropriations for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies by Major Title, FY2025-FY2026 / Source: Prepared by CRS with data from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 5, book II (January 8, 2026), pp. H526-H591. Notes: Amounts shown on the bars may not sum to totals shown due to rounding. In general, amounts represent regular annual appropriations for the pertinent fiscal year (FY2025 or FY2026), rescissions of prior-year appropriations, and advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service (in Title III). The FY2026 House committee-reported total included $1.0 million in Title IV. With regard to rescissions, the FY2026 Senate committee-reported total included $91.0 million in rescissions in Title IV.