Legislative hearing on five bills: • H.R. 4671 (Rep. Harder), “Ensuring Casualty Assistance for our Firefighters Act” • H.R. 4931 (Rep. Murphy of NC), “National Park System Long-Term Lease Investment Act” • H.R. 5063 (Rep. Kiggans), “Safe Beaches, Safe Swimmers Act” • H.R. 5103 (Rep. McGuire), “Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act” • H.R. 5254 (Rep. Bell), “Gateway Partnership Act of 2025”
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House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands U.S. House of Representatives
Follow its sittingsSpeaker 1
This included the deployment of 800 national guardsmen and the mobilization of the US park police to help support public safety. One of the bills that we are considering today, H.R. 5103, codifies the Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful executive order. This is an important bill that will further strengthen the work being done by the Trump administration to once again make our nation's capital a city every American can be proud of. I applaud Representative Maguire for his leadership on this effort and commend the rest of the sponsors of today's legislation for their important work on these bills. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and want to thank each of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us today.
Your insight and expertise are invaluable to the work of this subcommittee. With that, I yield back and recognize the chairman of the full committee. Wanna go to the bank? We'll recognize the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Huffman.
Speaker 2
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I begin, I'd like to request unanimous consent to enter something into the record. This is a recent New York Times article titled, Climate Shock is Eroding Some Home Values. New data shows how much. It is about how extreme weather, flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, and such are driving insurance premiums so high that homeownership is slipping out of reach.
Another reminder that the climate crisis is real, and we should be talking about it in this committee. Without objection. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do wanna begin by saying a word about crime and public safety. I think everyone in this room and people in every congressional district, regardless of their politics, want safer streets, effective and fair law enforcement.
We want a justice system that keeps us safe and works for everyone. And despite that widespread agreement on what our objective should be, too often the debate on this subject and the president's approach to it is more about politics and control than about safety and justice. And that's disturbing because the police power is an awesome thing. We need it, and it should never be turned into a political weapon. Here in Washington, we have seen repeated assaults on home rule, overriding decisions made by local leaders and the many people who actually live here.
Instead of working with these communities who want public safety, by the way, instead of working with them to improve public safety, this administration would rather dictate from above, using crime as a pretext to undermine local self-government and, of course, to habituate the American people to the image of troops in the street as cops. That should be disturbing, too. The same instinct to centralize power, to sideline local voices, and to use fear as a tool also shows up in another arena that's at least indirectly on today's agenda, and that's how the administration treats history itself. Several times this year, I've raised concerns about the Trump administration's systematic attempts to rewrite history. I've had to raise that concern again today because these efforts have only accelerated across the country.
We're seeing the whitewashing of history in our national parks. Just since this summer, Secretary Bergham demanded the park service remove references to transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument. Censor any mention of climate change at Acadia National Park. Erase the indigenous history of Mere Woods National Monument in my district. Even as the shutdown furloughed park rangers and shuttered programming, the censorship continued.
Last month, the author of a book titled The State of Understanding California's Most Precious Resource learned that the book would no longer be stocked in Yosemite's bookstore. When did documenting California's water crisis and hydrology become controversial? This comes from President Trump's Orwellian imperial edict titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which hasn't restored sanity or anything like it. Instead, it's been a vehicle to whitewash the story of our country. And let me state clearly for the record here, banning books does nothing to restore the truth or tell the story of our nation.
It's what totalitarians and tyrants do. So is putting the military in the streets as cops. My Republican colleagues have called us here to talk about three litany of bills, including one to codify Trump's assault on home rule in DC. And if you wanna talk about sanitizing history, you can look at what he is doing right here in Washington. The administration recently reinstalled a statue of a Confederate general in our nation's capital.
That's the inverted history that these folks wanna rewrite and elevate the lost cause of the treasonous Confederacy. I've been in congress long enough to remember when celebrating that kind of thing was an embarrassment, not a source of pride. This administration is baring the truth, hiding the ball. And here in DC, you should just look at what he's doing to the East Wing of the White House. The president unilaterally bulldozed parts of the White House, a key symbol of our nation, a historic structure, without even telling the American people what he was doing, and that's why everyone is so furious about it.
Look. Right now, American families are struggling with high costs from spiking health insurance premiums because of the crisis that Republicans have set in motion with their big ugly bill. Trump's tariffs, of course, are driving up costs for everything, and the administration's attacks on clean energy. Those should be our priorities today, not gilded ballrooms, vanity projects, or campaigns to scrub uncomfortable truths from our history. I yield back.
Speaker 1
Gentlemen, yields, and I'll recognize the chairman of the full committee, Mister Westerman.
Speaker 3
Thank you, Chairman Tiffany, for holding this important hearing today. We were supposed to have this hearing nearly two months ago in October, but due to the Schumer shutdown, we had to postpone this important topic. Unfortunately, we're now gathered here under very somber circumstances. Last week, two national guardsmen, Sarah Bextrom and Andrew Wolf, who were sent here to protect our nation's capital, were brutally and violently attacked just blocks away from the White House. Unfortunately, US Army specialist Vextrom passed away from her injuries at just 20 years old, while US Air Force staff sergeant Andrew Wolf remains in critical condition.
This is especially personal to me today as 100 Arkansas National Guardsmen are on their way to Washington, DC. We're lifting these two brave officers and their families up in prayers. What should have been a joyous holiday for these families has turned into nothing short of a living nightmare. This kind of violence should be unacceptable anywhere, but especially in the heart of our nation's capital. Washington, DC is not just another city.
It's the capital of the United States and should reflect the strength and dignity of our nation. And, unfortunately, this type of violence has become the norm, not the exception, for our nation's capital. Last year, there were more than 29,000 crimes reported in DC, including more than 5,000 vehicle thefts, nearly 3,500 violent offenses, approximately 2,100 robberies, and over 1,000 assaults with a deadly weapon. Members of Congress had been assaulted and carjacked at gunpoint just blocked from the capital. Two young fathers, Mike Gill and AJ Vasquez, were murdered by the same criminal during an 11-hour carjacking spree, and a 21-year-old congressional intern was slain in a random act of violence getting off the metro when he was caught in a barrage of crossfire totaling 79 rounds.
In total, DC is now considered 10 times deadlier than New York City, despite having a population one tenth of the size. HR 5103 is a thoughtful, common sense step to addressing the safety issues plaguing our nation's capital. Building on President Trump's recent executive orders, r 5103 creates a lasting framework for the federal government to work with local leaders to restore order and safety to our nation's capital. This bill also creates the DC Safe and Beautiful Commission to help coordinate and bolster law enforcement efforts in the city. Importantly, this legislation requires the Department of the Interior to lead efforts to remove graffiti and restore monuments, memorials, and other important public areas in D.C.
As you can see behind me, some of our nation's most iconic memorials and monuments, like the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, have been desecrated by vandalism and graffiti in recent years. Last year, Pro Hamas riders defaced monuments, burned American flags, and raised foreign flags on national service land near Union Station. At the time, I wrote to then secretary Holland after US park police were left outnumbered and exhausted, working days of overtime because the Biden administration failed to provide reinforcement. Officers were subject to violent attacks by pro-Hamas groups with ties to hostile foreign actors. That may they made clear how chaos can be sown in our capital when coordination and accountability break down.
Thankfully, since President Trump's executive orders, we have started to see a shift in D.C. Just weeks after President Trump's executive actions, violent crime dropped 58%, cardiac teams were down 60%, and there were 56% fewer robberies compared to the prior year. For the first time in years, DC went nearly two weeks without a homicide. US Park Police have cleared nearly 100 homeless encampments on federal land since the executive orders were signed. The DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force has also arrested dangerous criminals with prior convictions, confiscated large amounts of illegal narcotics, and seized hundreds of firearms, as you can see in the picture behind me.
Violent crime, carjackings, smashing grab robberies, and the desecration of treasured memorials and landmarks should not go unchecked or be considered the norm in our nation's capital. By simply creating a legal framework for federal and local law enforcement cooperation through HR 5103, we can take a meaningful step to ensure America's capital is safe, strong, and inspiring, a place worthy of the people it represents. I want to thank Representative Maguire for leading this effort, and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. With that, I yield back.
Speaker 1
Chairman Yields, I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Ngoose, for his opening statement.
Speaker 4
Thank you, Chairman Tiffany. Good morning, everyone. Thank you to the witnesses and the members who made an effort to be here today. Certainly, good to be back after several weeks away from Washington. As has been referenced, the shutdown only exacerbated existing issues on our public lands with furloughed land managers, halted research, and paused wildfire risk reduction projects.
Because parks remained open during the shutdown, including Rocky Mountain National Park, in my district in Colorado, land managers not only experienced damage to the lands, also lost revenue from uncollected fees. And I think it says quite a bit about this administration's priorities that one of the only groups of staff retained during the shutdown was the staff focused on rubber stamping fossil fuel projects. As key projects like prescribed burns stalled, the Trump administration greenlit oil, gas, timber, and coal projects across wide swaths of our public lands. This administration has clearly shown that they are putting polluters over public lands and the people who manage them. So we have a lot to go through today.
Let's turn to our docket of bills, starting with the Ensuring Casualty Assistance for Our Firefighters Act, for my good friend, Josh Harter of California. I and many of my colleagues have continued to raise awareness about the health hazards that wildland firefighters face every day on the line of duty. HR 4671 continues our work to support firefighters and their families when tragedy strikes. This bill would establish a casualty assistance program at the Department of the Interior modeled after an existing program at the Forest Service. This was a recommendation, as many of you may recall, from the Bipartisan Wildfire Commission.
It also is included as part of my firefighter pay and benefits legislation, TIMS Act, named after a heroic firefighter who tragically lost his life fighting a fire several years ago. I am glad and excited to see this bill from my friend Representative Harder on the docket today, and I wanna thank Matt Ron from the Wildfire Conservancy for coming to testify in support of that bill. Next up, we have HR 49 31, which would change the Park Services lease bidding and extension processes. While I certainly support providing small businesses with the certainty they need to operate successfully, I would like to learn more and look forward to learning more today about the implications of amending the bidding process, and certainly look forward to hearing from administration's witness as well as the broader set of witnesses on this bill. We also have HR 5262, which aims to address lifeguard shortages on federal beaches.
While I support the goal, I suspect we all support the goal of having safe, well-staffed beaches. I have to say, that I think this legislation fails to address the actual source of the problem here, which is the Trump administration's continuous cuts to federal agency staff and the ongoing hiring freeze. And I suspect that we'll have more opportunities to talk about both here during this hearing. Finally, we will discuss HR 5103 regarding the District of Columbia. The Republican controlled house has now passed nine bills this year alone to repeal or amend the District of Columbia's laws.
This has been the most unproductive congress in nearly a century. So since the 1930s, just in terms of legislation that this House of Representatives has passed. And of the limited bills they've passed, nine of them regarding the repeal of District of Columbia laws and policies. I would like to see this committee and to see the house of representatives focus on the multitude of really vexing challenges and problems that are facing our country. And I certainly hope that in the future, as we consider hearing topics for future proceedings of this committee, that will be a factor.
Finally, we have HR 52 54, which would support the relationship between Gateway Arch National Park and the Gateway Arch Foundation. We're lucky to have both of my colleagues, or either both my colleague, representative Bell, the sponsor of this legislation, as well as Ryan McClure, the executive director of the foundation here with us to discuss that legislation. I look forward to hearing from the same. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back.
Speaker 1
Thank you, ranking member Ngoose. We will now move on to our first panel, which consists of members who are sponsoring today's legislation. And I will now recognize Representative Murphy for five minutes on H.R. 4931.
Speaker 5
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, ranking member. Thankful for the consideration of my bill, HR 4931 National Park System Long Term Leased Investment Act. My bill will give the secretary of the interior the, through the, excuse me. Give the Secretary of the Interior, through the Director of the National Park Service, the authority to extend a lease if the lease has been entered into not less than 5 years before the date of the extension to take effect.
The director of the National Park Service would determine if extending the lease is in the best interest of the applicable unit of the National Park Service. In Dare County, we have a model of a private-public partnership at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. One of my constituents has made significant infrastructure improvements, including the construction of a fishing center in conjunction with the National Park Service. Reports I've received from Dare County leadership, including chairman Bob Woodard, who is here today, have been nothing but laudatory and supportive of this initiative. The park service superintendent, Mr. Dave Hallock, with whom I've had several conversations, has also mentioned the tremendous success of this initiative.
It's not feasible for the lessee to enter the rebidding process. They've already invested funds in long-term improvements that are specific to the leased property and cannot be easily transferred or recouped. My bill is straightforward, simple. It's simple. It just allows the park service the authority to give the extension of the lease to the if the National Park Service thinks it is in the best service of the park.
By granting this authority to the park service, it encourages other private investors to invest wisely in the hopes of being considered for this opportunity. It is a win-win, not only for the community, but for the public and for the private partnerships that we see. The current law does not allow this type of authority to happen within the park service. I requested the last administration to do this. They turned this down and said it was not possible due to the current law.
Hence, we are here today. I'm thankful to Chairman Woodard who will come and speak in more depth about this and the positive impact on Deer County, which is in my district. And I'm thankful to the federal land subcommittee for consideration of granting the authority to the secretary of the chair. There is a companion bill in the Senate sponsored by the two state senators, two US senators from North Carolina, Tillis and Senator Budd. Thank you all for the consideration.
This is just a win-win, for the public and the private. Thank you all very much. Yield back.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Representative Murphy. I'll now recognize Representative Kiggins for five minutes on H.R. 5063.
Speaker 6
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I represent Virginia's second district, a district that sits on the Atlantic Coast and the Chesapeake Bay. Water safety is an essential issue for the Eastern Shore of Virginia. And as a representative for this region, it's my responsibility to ensure my constituents and visitors to our federal beaches remain safe. That is why I was deeply concerned to learn that after a federal hiring fee freeze earlier this year, Assateague Island National Seashore reported being unable to hire or pay for lifeguards at their federal beaches in Maryland and on Chincoteague and Virginia.
This shortage put public safety at risk during the height of the summer season. When interior secretary Doug Burgum testified before the full committee in June, he was eager to help solve this problem, as I was, and assured me temporary workers like lifeguards would be exempt from the hiring freeze. Yet this was not the reality on the beach. On June 20, I sent a letter to Secretary Bergham requesting information relating to details of the hiring freeze, if temporary seasonal employees are exempt, and when we could expect lifeguards to be hired at the seashore. After much meaningful engagement with the department, I'm grateful that a deal was made in July between the town of Tickachie, Akamac County, and the National Park Service, returning adequate lifeguard coverage to our federal beaches in Virginia.
However, the town and country are still on the hook for much of the cost of filling these positions, a cost historically covered by the National Park Service. I'm working with the secretary to get these funds reimbursed, but we must ensure this isn't a problem going forward. States and localities should be able to hire for public safety positions in times of crisis without worrying about how to pay for them. To prevent this problem in the future, I introduced the Safe Beaches, Safe Swimmers Act. This bill directs the secretary of the interior to work with local governments to ensure there is proper lifeguard coverage in the event of a lifeguard shortage, and that towns and counties can count on the National Park Service to pay the full cost of staffing these beaches on federal land.
Chickatique's beaches are a cherished part of our community, and keeping the families who visit them safe must be a priority. I would like to thank chairman Tiffany for bringing my bill before the subcommittee, and I look forward to a discussion with our witness today, including Mayor Denise Boudon, the mayor of Chickateke. Thank you, and I yield back.
Speaker 3
Thank you. The chair now recognizes representative McGuire for five minutes on HR 5103.
Speaker 7
Thank you, mister chairman and the Rakin member, for the opportunity to speak on my bill, HR 5103, to make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful act. As a Navy SEAL veteran, I fought for and served all Americans regardless of race, religion, or creed. We all wanna live, work, and raise our family in peace. And we may disagree how to get there, but I believe in limited government, we have to keep the American people safe. You should be able to walk down any street in America with your little girl or little boy and be safe.
And thank God, President Trump and this administration, many of us here are working so hard to keep the American people safe. My bill codifies President Trump's executive order 14252 and ensures our nation's capital is clean, safe, and beautiful. Our nation's capital is a direct reflection of our great country and should be a symbol of pride for the American people, and a safe and beautiful place for all who reside and visit. Unfortunately, years of soft on crime policies have turned Washington, DC into a city with high crime rates, rampant homelessness, and graffiti on our historic buildings and monuments. Homeless encampments in DC have overrun land managed by the National Park Service, and have become safe havens for drug use, drug abuse, vandalism, and violence.
Symbols of our great nation such as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the World War Two Memorial have all been vandalized and defaced over the years. In 2024, the District of Columbia had the fourth highest homicide rate in the country. Since President Trump's crackdown on crime in DC, violent crime has drastically decreased. However, we must ensure that law and order continue to prevail. My bill codifies many elements of President Trump's successful executive order until 2029, ensuring there isn't a backslide into lawlessness in the city.
This bill is not partisan. It is common sense every day. My constituents from Virginia's 5th Congressional District visit DC for work and vacation. I want to ensure that they have an enjoyable and safe visit without having to worry about rampant crime and homelessness and vandalized monuments and his on our historical sites. Wanting our nation's capital to be safe and beautiful is not political.
It is in the best interest of all who travel to and call DC their home. I'd like to thank the chairman, Tiffany, for allowing me the time to speak on this important legislation day, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Speaker 3
Thank you, Representative McGuire. We'll now move on to our second panel, let me remind our witnesses for not only this panel but the other panels that under committee rules, you must limit your oral statement to five minutes, but your entire statement will appear in the hearing record. To begin your testimony, press the on button on the microphone. We use timing lights when the light, when you push the button, the light will turn green. At the end of five minutes, the light will turn red, and we'll ask you to please complete your statement.
I'm now going to introduce Mister Robert D. McLean, director of the Office of Law Enforcement and Security at the Department of the Interior. Director McLean, thank you for you and your team's service, and you're now recognized for 5 minutes.
Speaker 8
Chairman Tiffany, ranking member Nagoose, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on behalf of the Department of the Interior on H.R. 5103. The Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act. I'd like to submit statements for the record on the following bills, H.R. 4671, H.R. 4931, H.R. 5063, and H.R. 5254. The department supports HR 5103, which aligns closely with the executive order 14252, making the District of Columbia safe and beautiful.
Issued by President Donald J. Trump on 03/27/2025. Together, the bill and the executive order advance a shared goal, ensuring that the nation's capital is clean, safe, and beautiful, reflective of our history and heritage. The department, primarily through the National Park Service and the United States Park Police, has long been entrusted with stewarding many of the District of Columbia's most iconic landscapes, memorials, and public spaces. From the National Mall and its surrounding monuments to the parkways, circles, and historic squares that define the city, these landmarks carry immense symbolic and civic importance. In recent years, the district has faced challenges that threaten both the safety of its residents and its visitors, as well as the integrity of its public spaces.
Graffiti, vandalism, encampments, lack of maintenance, and public safety concerns have all compromised the public's ability to enjoy and take pride in the nation's capital. In executive order 14252, president Trump directed the administration to take immediate steps to confront these challenges and make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful. This EO established the DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force. It also directed the secretary of the interior to work with other federal and District of Columbia officials to develop and implement a program to beautify the District of Columbia and to ensure the prompt removal of graffiti, protect monuments and memorials, and clearance of unsafe encampments on federal lands. HR 5103 codifies the principles of this EO.
It statutorily establishes the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Commission. That, as described in the EO, will work closely with local officials to share information, develop joint priorities, and maximize resources to make the District of Columbia safe. HR 5103 also directs the secretary of the interior to develop a program to beautify the District of Columbia, focusing on cleanliness, restoration, and encouraging private sector participation. Codifying these principles in statute will allow the department to plan more effectively and invest in long-term strategies to work with others to restore and maintain the nation's capital. This work has begun with secretary Bergham's issuance of secretary's order 3428.
They recognize the department's unique responsibilities in this mission, including management of approximately 1,000 acres of the District of Columbia's most significant cultural landscapes and the United States Park Police's long history in their protection. HR 5103 reaffirms congress's commitment to protecting the monuments, memorials, and historic sites that draw millions of visitors each year to the District of Columbia. These iconic landmarks and spaces in the capital city should be clean and safe for every American to experience and enjoy. For these reasons, the department supports passage of H.R. 5103 and looks forward to working with Congress to ensure a successful implementation. And finally, the department is immensely proud of its nearly 3,000 law enforcement officers who serve across our bureaus and offices.
These dedicated professionals safeguard our public lands, protect natural and cultural resources, and ensure the safety of millions of visitors each year. Their service and sacrifice are a powerful reflection of the department's unwavering commitment to the American people. We honor their courage, their professionalism, and the vital role that they play in upholding the mission of the department every single day. Chairman Tiffany, this concludes my testimony. I'd be pleased to answer any questions you and other members of the subcommittee may have.
Thank you.
Speaker 3
Thank you, Director McLean. I will now recognize members for questions, and I will begin with myself. I recognize myself for five minutes. Mister McLean, last year, I saw firsthand the destruction and desecration left in the wake of pro Hamas protests at Union Station. The fact that the American flag was burned and a foreign flag was raised over federal land in the heart of our nation's capital is something that I think should make every American's blood boil.
From a law enforcement perspective, can you please talk about the challenges that park police face when trying to control large violent protests such as a '2024 union Station protest?
Speaker 8
Thank you for the question, Congressman. The challenge with any large gathering, especially when members of that group become violent, is how the members of law enforcement need to react to manage that crowd and dynamic environment in split second decision making process. We support the First Amendment, and the right to express that in our great country, in our nation's capital. But when members of a group such as that start with violence and damage to the property that we protect. It puts those law enforcement officers in danger.
It puts the public and the communities in danger when these things happen. So the amazing support from our partners across the interagency, to include the Metropolitan Police Department, react together. They coordinate. This executive order, this bill codifies that partnership, that cooperation, and only enhances the response of the interagency to these types of violent protests.
Speaker 3
I appreciate you mentioning the First Amendment. Of course, if you take an oath to uphold the constitution in which free speech is protected in our constitution, where does a protest like what we saw at Union Station cross the line from a peaceful protest? And how difficult is it sometimes for you and your officers? And I'm assuming you're overly cautious on the side of protecting free speech. But.
Speaker 8
It's definitely a multi-tiered process. The permit that's issued to the group that is conducting that first amendment activity is issued by the National Park Service, and within it, it has parameters to the administration of the event at hand. The members of the United States Park Police, along with other members of law enforcement, monitor those events to ensure compliance with that permit, but also to protect the property and protect the people attending the event, but also the community at large. So when members of a group either damage property or start violent actions, law enforcement must react. And when they engage with these groups, there's a multi-tiered level.
But as the level of violence increases, members of law enforcement need to take action to ensure the safety of the event, the safety of the members of that group, and the safety of the community are protected. So when these officers enter into a situation where many members of a group are acting violently, it becomes very challenging. It's not like interacting with one person committing a violation of, say, graffiti or vandalism, where an officer can handle that relatively easy. It's these groups that act violently en masse. The officers, the command staff have to make decisions whether to clear the area or take action based on the level of violence that is occurring.
Speaker 3
So just to be clear, there's no provision in any permit that would allow a group to vandalize federal property, to attack law enforcement officers, or to incite violence. You don't issue exceptions like that for permits, do you?
Speaker 8
It does. Once, a violation of the permit occurs or individuals or groups of individuals begin acting in a violent manner, there's the ability to revoke a permit, but also to take law enforcement action to ensure that we're protecting the people and the property.
Speaker 3
So can you talk about the Park Service process for restoring memorials and monuments that are desecrated by violent protest?
Speaker 8
It's a very delicate and deliberate process. As you can see the photos behind you and the photos that were portrayed before of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, these are historic structures that they're made with materials that are very sensitive. So any damage, whether it's graffiti or anything else, the National Park Service takes great care in evaluating the need, and a process by which they will restore that public monument morale that's been defaced. So although it stays there for a while, right, this is part of our history. It's part of the culture of our nation.
And our front yard, America's front yard, is the National Mall. So it's very deliberate. It's very coordinated. The National Park Service does a great job in protecting those monuments.
Speaker 3
And thank you again for your efforts and your testimony. My time has expired. I now recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Colorado, Mister Nagouf, for five minutes.
Speaker 4
I thank the chairman. Thank you, director, for being here. Thank you for your testimony. I understand, I think, the, you know, bulk of, at least, the chairman's questions for you concerned the District of Columbia bill. You're here as a representative of the Department of the Interior, I presume, to testify with respect to all five bills that we're considering, not just the District of Columbia bill, but the bill regarding wildfire casualty assistance for wildland firefighters who've tragically lost their lives, and the other bills that we're considering today.
Is that a fair statement?
Speaker 8
Thanks for the question, Congressman. I would have to refer to the prepared statement that was delivered by the department on the other bills.
Speaker 4
Okay. Well, why don't I give it a shot? Because I've got a lot of questions about the other four bills that we're considering. All of them are important bills. Secretary Bergum has an obligation to produce a witness to this committee that can answer in a cogent way questions that members might have about these other bills that you heard members of Congress testify to previously.
And so I will go ahead and give that a shot here, but, you know, suffice to say that if that's not the case, then I think it's a question that the chairman of this subcommittee and the chairman of the full committee need to answer because these other bills are equally important to the bill that they have decided to kinda zero in on for purposes of this hearing. I wanted to ask about HR 5363, the Safe Beaches, Safe Swimmers Act from Representative Kiggins of Virginia. And, I mean, I guess my first question is, do you agree with the premise that there's a staffing shortage, lifeguard staffing shortage, in our national parks and public lands more broadly?
Speaker 8
Again, I'd have to refer to the written testimony and defer to my other colleagues at the Department of the Interior, but we couldn't take those questions back to have them answered.
Speaker 4
Okay. So, I mean, I guess, position is essentially that we're any question on any other bill that this committee is considering, but the District Of Columbia bill isn't a question you're gonna answer or prepare to answer. And if that question has to go back to the Department of the Interior, will
Speaker 3
Will the gentleman be in? Sure. We've got a third panel with witnesses to talk.
Speaker 4
about this bill. I'd like to hear the administration's position regarding the casualty assistance program. I'd like to hear the administration's position regarding the leasing bill that is before this committee in terms of giving added flexibility and discretion to your boss, the secretary of the interior, regarding the leasing of public lands. Am I mistaken that there are other administration witnesses that are testifying today? And if so, I apologize if that's.
Speaker 3
The department here has provided in person witnesses and statements, for the record as his standard practice.
Speaker 4
In-person witnesses for these other four bills? No. I think your teammate here is saying no. Yeah. No.
I understand they've got statements. Sure. Yeah.
Speaker 4
Okay. So I'll reclaim my time. I have the department's statement. So I've, you know, I've got two paragraphs here about each bill. That's it.
You've decided. Either the chairman has given this direction, maybe I'll ask the chairman. I did tell the Department of Interior, look, for this hearing, we only need a witness on our DC crime bill. The other bills regarding firefighter casualty programs or public lands leasing, don't worry about those. I'm happy to yield to the chairman.
Speaker 3
As you're aware, we were, at two weeks, or not two weeks. We had a long shutdown. The department needs time to respond. They did respond with written testimony, and they provided a witness for one of
Speaker 4
So just coincidentally, they decided to respond with this witness on this bill that you all have decided to make a messaging priority for the Republican caucus. But on these other bills, the administration needs more time. This is the first hearing that we've had in two months. I think the Department of Interior can find a way, and this is not meant as a slight against you, director, because I understand you have a particular role in the department and, you know, frankly, did not expect you to be able to, you know, answer questions about the wide variety of bills that this committee has noticed for a hearing today. But my frustration is that the administration ought to produce a witness that can answer questions about these other bills that the Republican majority has decided to advance as part of this legislative hearing.
And I think that that's, in my view, it disrespects those members in terms of our ability to be able to fairly consider the bills that are considered. I was open to supporting, just by way of example, I appreciate the chairman's indulgence, the subcommittee chairman's indulgence. I was open to supporting.
Speaker 4
Is Mister Murphy's. May I finish? I was, you know, considering supporting Mister Murphy's legislation and had some questions that I wanted to ask the Department of Interior about. I don't know how I can, in good faith, support the markup of that bill when I can't ask the administration any questions about it. So with that, I yield back. Balance my time.
Speaker 1
Gentleman yields. And I'll recognize the gentle lady from Utah, Miss Molloy, for five minutes of questioning.
Speaker 9
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Director McLean, thank you for being here today. I appreciate your time. It probably goes without saying, but everybody up here spends a lot of time in Washington, DC. None of us live here, but we fly here for work.
And so we all have a really personal interest in the safety of the District Of Columbia. And I appreciate you being here to testify about it. You have jurisdiction over the national parks here in the nation's capital. I represent Utah. We know a thing or two about national parks.
My constituents are used to spending a lot of time in the national parks. And I don't know that it's ever occurred to any of them that a national park might be a place where they have to worry about violent crime or violent protests. And my fear is that my constituents will stop traveling here, that they won't come here and participate in seeing the nation's capital and learning about our history if they have a fear that coming here is going to mean that they'll get caught in violent crime as has been described in other testimonies. So my question for you, my first question is, how can the Department of the Interior work with other federal agencies to ensure the effective removal of homeless encampments from Park Service-managed parks while maintaining public safety? We kind of talked around it.
We haven't addressed it directly yet.
Speaker 8
Thank you, congresswoman, for the question. The National Park Service, the United States Park Police, are the stewards of our America's front yard, as I mentioned previously. So proud of the responsibility and the duty that we have to ensure that people from around the globe come and visit our nation's capital. It needs to be safe, clean, and beautiful. The National Park Service also does an amazing job in coordinating with the District of Columbia Resources.
The Department of Interior and Northern National Park Service have a social service responsibility, but they definitely understand the human humane way to deal with people that live in encampments on our public lands. So the level of coordination and the deliberate interaction with people living in these encampments and the District Of Columbia's services is bar none the most humane way to deal with encampments that are not beneficial to public safety. They actually produce a public safety hazard and the health of the person living in the encampment, but also the surrounding community and those that visit. So the responsibility is there. The National Park Service does an amazing job.
Members of the United States Park Police handle the enforcement aspect of it, but it's definitely a duty that we take very seriously in the Department of Interior.
Speaker 9
Thank you. Follow-up question that's similar. Can you talk about how the Department of the Interior plans to coordinate with local and federal agencies to ensure safety in areas under Park Service management to have really high visitation rates by the public, like the National Mall and Lafayette Park?
Speaker 8
Yes. Thank you for that question as well. I believe the National Park Service already does an amazing job in working with District of Columbia, the National Capital Planning Commission, the Fine Arts Commission, and public, private sector partners, to ensure that we have an interagency approach to keeping DC safe and beautiful. From encampments to enforcement to beautification projects, this is what the National Park Service does for a living. They're very proud of that mission, and we can't do it without our interagency federal partners, but also our District of Columbia and private-sector partners as well.
Speaker 9
Thank you. I agree that the National Park Service manages America's front yard, our capital city, and our parks are some of the most well-known iconic places we have in this country. And they should be safe and walkable for all Americans and for visitors to this country. I appreciate the work you do. And with that, I yield back.
Speaker 1
Gentle lady yields. I now recognize the gentle lady from Washington, Miss Randall, for her questioning.
Speaker 10
Thank you, mister Chair, and thank you, mister Brooklyn, for joining us. Hoping you can answer these questions. My first is, is immigration enforcement listed in the job description for law enforcement officers at the Department of the Interior?
Speaker 8
No. It's not. It's the members of the United States Park Police are primarily focused on Mhmm. Public safety, yeah. In our national parks.
Speaker 10
Thank you. And does having law enforcement officers from the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife, or the National Park Service conducting immigration enforcement or coordinating with immigration enforcement further your mission of increasing public trust?
Speaker 8
And thank you for the question. And just to clarify, immigration, a role and responsibility does lie with the Department of Homeland Security. Yep. Interior department focuses on our public lands, public safety, and protection of our resources. So they do not enforce immigration law.
Speaker 10
Thank you. I represent the Olympic Peninsula. We have a beautiful national park, and it's very clear from the commune community members that I have spoken with who are regular visitors of the parks just like my colleagues' constituents in Utah who are very familiar with our wilderness and the majesty that we are so lucky to have in this country, that my constituents feel erosion of public trust when federal lands agencies, though they are not responsible for it, are involved with law enforcement and immigration enforcement activity. I have some severe concerns that make the District Of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act doesn't make our communities safer, but will continue eroding the trust that so many of my constituents are already losing. When you dig into what the bill does, we see it's an attempt by the majority party to assert more federal government bureaucracy into decisions that should be made at the local level.
This bill would compel DC officials to coordinate and cooperate with Trump's cruel and reckless immigration agenda. An agenda that is clearly unpopular in any poll you see. And my community knows firsthand the harms of forcing local authorities to conduct immigration enforcement instead of focusing on their job to keep us safe in our public lands and to protect our public lands. For several months during this summer and into the fall, fire crews fought to contain the Bear Gulch Fire, which was more than 10,000 acres, near 20,000 at its highest burning capacity. One day when these crews showed up to battle fires, 44 crew members were forced to stand in line for hours as immigration enforcement officers questioned them and reviewed their IDs, preventing them from fighting the fire.
Now Customs and Border Patrol were technically the conductors of that work, which is outside their usual scope of enforcement as well. But they came at the request of BLM and the US Forest Service, which makes me wonder if the Department of Interior is not contrary to the mission already engaged in immigration enforcement policy. And we know that Secretary Nome just yesterday encouraged a full travel ban, a full travel ban that would severely impact the park tourism, certainly at the Olympic National Park, but at national parks across our country and here in the District of Columbia as folks are afraid to come to our beautiful country, to explore our forests and our mountains because they are worried about being rounded up. And the American people do not want tourists and grandmothers and home care workers and roofers rounded up and detained, and they certainly don't want forestry workers and national parks employees to be complicit in this anti immigration agenda. Mister McLean, in light of the incident at the Bear Gulch Fire in my district, does DOI view immigration enforcement as compatible with timely, effective emergency management?
Speaker 8
Thank you for the question. I don't have particular information on the particular matter that you're talking about regarding the Bureau of Land Management. But what I can say is the Department of Interior plays a unique role in the District of Columbia. It has a unique mission and authority and works with all of our interagency partners across the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security. While we do not focus on enforcement of immigration law or terrorism-related offenses that the FBI has purview over. We definitely feel that we are part of the interagency that enforces the laws in this country.
Speaker 10
Thank you. I hope the department will be able to remain focused on its main mission and continue increasing public trust, which I fear is not happening right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 1
Gentlemen, ladies, time has expired, and I'll represent general, recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, mister Staubert.
Speaker 11
Thank you, Chairman Tiffany. Mister McClain, thank you for testifying today, and I appreciate the Trump administration's work to address issues of crime and neglect in our nation's capital. And I'm glad to see the administration supporting HR 5103, which codifies many of the provisions of President Trump's executive order making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act. As you outlined in your testimony, the District of Columbia is a patchwork of different jurisdictions, in regard to public property ownership and law enforcement jurisdiction. Can you expand upon the challenges the US Park Police and other federal law enforcement agencies face because of this patchwork of overlapping jurisdictions?
Speaker 8
I really appreciate the question. I grew up as a member of the Park Police for about 28 years. So understanding the jurisdiction authorities within this complex, dynamic nation's capital is something that we take pride in. We also take pride in every partner in the District Of Columbia has a role, whether you're a federal interagency partner, a District Of Columbia partner, or surrounding jurisdictions. So what it takes is constant communication, constant coordination.
And what we see from the Department of the Interior is that the executive order started enhancing that coordination. We see this bill as codifying and really a stabilizing framework that require us to work together. I'm not saying we don't work together now. The members of the United States Park Police and all of our interagency partners work on a daily basis. But what the EO and the bill did was to create an interagency proactive response in the task force.
So leveraging the unique authorities and jurisdictions from the beginning of enforcement through its prosecution allows that seamless communication, transfer of knowledge, and authority to be on the ground proactively and not reacting to a situation where a law enforcement agency has to reach out to another such as the FBI to support that.
Speaker 8
Yes. The department believes that the bill will codify and further enhance what all already occurs in the District Of Columbia.
Speaker 11
So if there was, if the US Park Police was asked to assist in an emergency off US Park land or your jurisdiction, would you go? Would your officers go?
Speaker 8
Thanks for the question. And, to really drill down into the unique nature of the United States Park Police. They had the same authority and police powers as a member of the Metropolitan Police Department. So what this does is.
Speaker 11
The police, if what I'm getting at, Director McLean, is if there was an issue not in your jurisdiction and an officer needed help and you had officers nearby, would they be authorized to go help that other law enforcement officer in need of help?
Speaker 8
Yes. They would. And, again, that's what brings a great dynamic to making DC safe and beautiful. About 25% of the District of Columbia is federal park land. Right?
And this unique jurisdiction authority allows the US Park Police to work side by side.
Speaker 11
To call the supervisor and say, this is US Park Police. Metro Police is asking for help. Do not.
Speaker 11
Can you please speak to the retention issues US Park Police and other law enforcement divisions within the Department of the Interior face?
Speaker 8
Yeah. Really appreciate that question. The US Park Police and all of the bureau law enforcement program across the Department of Interior are facing the same thing that state, local, federal agencies are facing. The ability to recruit amazingly talented people and retain them.
Speaker 8
I the department is super supportive of law enforcement, but what we've seen over the years is that folks are not as interested in becoming members of law enforcement as they were.
Speaker 11
Why do you think that is? Why do you think that is? I wanna drill down. Why do you think that law enforcement has been demonized?
Speaker 8
So I really believe that it's somewhat the scrutiny of the law enforcement profession. Is an extremely noble profession, which I've done for 34 years. The violence that the District Of Columbia and other cities have seen against this law enforcement.
Speaker 11
Is the defund the police movement? That's been devastating to all law enforcement agencies, in our local communities, in our state, and in our federal government. I will share that I thank you for that. I will share that I believe one of the things that Congress can do to help these retention issues is pass H.R. 1260, the US Park Police Modernization Act, which I am proud to support. This would help streamline and modernize the pay schedule, promotions, steps, and recruitment, correction, the retirement structure for the US Park, Park Police.
I hope that the Department of the Interior will support this legislation as well. And, mister McClain, I want to thank you for your service, your sacrifice, and for your time today. And I yield back.
Speaker 1
Gentlemen's time has expired, and I'll recognize Dr. Kennedy for his questioning.
Speaker 13
Thank you, Chairman Tiffany, for convening this. And doctor McClain, thank you for being with us to testify today. The US park police are essential in keeping our national parks and our federal lands safe, including right here in our nation's capital, which I spend all too much time at this place now, and I'm grateful for your service to help us with that. These officers protect millions of visitors, support local law enforcement, and respond to emergencies in some of our most visible public spaces. Their work is vital in ensuring these areas remain secure, open, and welcoming to all.
So, director McLean, how would enhanced coordination between the US Park Police, Metropolitan Police Department, and other federal agencies improve public safety throughout our city?
Speaker 8
It's a force multiplier. The number of law enforcement agencies within this city share responsibility to protect the visiting public, community members, federal workers here in the District of Columbia. So if you think about the agencies that patrol our city streets, from the US Park Police to the Metropolitan Police Department to the transit police officers. Right? This is an ability to leverage all the unique authorities and capacity and capabilities across our nation's capital.
So, enhancing the staffing of these organizations, enhancing the support through technology, and bills such as this to codify the coordination just only enhance the safety of the citizens here at the District of Columbia and the global visitation that we see on a yearly basis.
Speaker 13
Thank you for doing that. I've been in town for about a year now as a freshman legislator. And during that time, my chief of staff in the lobby of the building in which he lives has had two shootings, just within a mile of where we sit right now, that we're in the lobby of the building in which he resides. And in addition to that, a person that I spend time with who helps me with fundraising actually told me that his cousin right outside of where we regularly meet for that process was carjacked right out front, and that's within a half mile of where we are right now. So this is not a theoretical discussion that we are having today.
This city has had problems, and it's having fewer problems now as a result of the efforts of yourself and the Trump administration. But, also, from your perspective, what are the immediate steps that would make the most difference as we try to enhance the safety of the citizens that wander the halls of these areas and also in the outdoor areas that they go to? What are the most compelling immediate steps that we can take to enhance safety in this area?
Speaker 8
Thank you for that question. I think the executive order in combination with the bill. And then just a general support from the departments across the executive branch. Secretary Bergham is extremely supportive of our law enforcement officers across the department, not only of the United States Park Police. And we've instituted recruiting and retention incentives to support the hiring of more Park Police officers, and looking forward to supporting all of the bureaus and offices across the Department of the Interior in the same way.
That way they feel that their dedication, their service, their sacrifice is valued by the department. But when you see the interagency efforts such as these, I think it resonates loudly with our law enforcement officers. And then that enhances the public trust as we serve the community members, that we're there for a purpose. We stand in the way between victims of violent crimes, the chaos that we see in the District of Columbia. And I believe that's the way to support our law enforcement officers across the interagency.
Speaker 13
Thank you, and I appreciate your effort. I'm a doctor by profession, and the healing professions get a lot of respect. I don't believe that we've done a good job in the past several years demonstrating our societal gratitude to you and those that you represent here today in your testimony for providing something that is a compelling societal need of safety from the chaotic and violent forces that are out there, as reflected just a few days ago with the assassination, outright assassination, not far from here of two National Guard individuals who are here voluntarily to serve the people of our country. This is a place that attracts all sorts of people from all over the world. Most of them come here for good, but there are nefarious influences that come here as well.
And you, allied with our National Guard as well as our other police forces, are societally servant, serving people in a way that I don't think a lot of times we appreciate until disaster strikes. So thank you very much for what you do. Mister Chair, thank you for convening this opportunity for us to discuss this important effort. So, thank you. And with that, I yield back.
Speaker 1
Gentlemen's time has expired, and now I'm gonna take a couple of minutes for questioning from the chair here, director McLean. So first of all, there's been 96 removals of encampments here in Washington, DC, according to the records that I've seen under the Trump administration. And what differences have you observed in crime since that happened? I think that includes, you see the numbers behind us here. Have you observed a difference in crime here in Washington, DC?
Speaker 8
Thank you, Congressman, for the question. What I would say is that we don't track crime trends based on single enforcement actions. But what I can tell you with the over 90 encampments that have been cleared off of public lands here in the Dish Gulf Columbia is that we see a clean, a safer, a more stable environment for visitors, for community members to visit our nation's capital, right, enjoy the beauty of visiting our country, but also for the American people to have pride in something that being both safe and beautiful is what National Park Service, is what the Department of Interior strives to achieve every single day.
Speaker 1
I wanna give you a hypothetical. Let's say you're in a national park and somebody is setting up an illegal fire in a national park, and one of the national park officers interdicts that person. Is that something that they would do by practice, that this is an illegal fire and they're going to stop it from continuing to burn? Would that be an action they take?
Speaker 8
Yes. And the National Park Service is a great example of public lands that normally restrict fires.
Speaker 1
And would it matter whether that person was here in this country legally or illegally if the officer would take action?
Speaker 8
No. Members of the department interior take action based on the offense and take the enforcement.
Speaker 1
So, in other words, you would take that action if that person was here illegally also. Correct? Correct. Some people could construe that as taking action against an illegal alien, taking an official action of the United States government against someone who is an illegal alien. It could be construed that way.
Correct?
Speaker 8
Although it could be, the members of law enforcement within the Department of Interior are guided by principles and policies in protecting public lands. And no matter.
Speaker 1
So you don't care what status. Don't care whether they're here illegally or legally. My point being that this notion that, taking action against an illegal alien, the National Park Service is going to do their job whether that person is here legally or illegally. That would be the point that I'm attempting to make here. I just wanna comment also about the cruel agenda that term was, that phrase was just used a few minutes ago.
Let me tell you what's cruel is when you do not do the proper job of vetting 70,000 people to come into our country from the terrorism hotbed of the world and then have one of those people come to the nation's capital and shoot in cold blood a West Virginia national guardsman, Sarah Beckstrom. That's cruel because they had a Thanksgiving that they were not giving thanks for in the Beckstrom family. And I would say it's the same with the Wolf family. The gentleman who was hanging on by a threat at this point, in very bad condition, his family suffered the same cruel fate over Thanksgiving. The cruel agenda we had was bringing in 70,000 people and not vetting them whether they were going to be a safety hazard to the people of the United States of America or not.
I'll just close with this. Director McLean, should the people of The United States Of America have an expectation of having a safe Washington DC that they can travel freely in, whether they live here or not?
Speaker 8
Really appreciate that question. It's the heart of what law enforcement officers do. It's the heart of what the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service do to ensure our special and symbolic places are accessible to not only the American people, but from people around the globe. So public safety is at the heart and center of that, and it's so inextricably linked with the beauty of our nation's capital. You can't remove it.
Members of the United States Park Police serve our country every single day in protecting the people, but also work side by side with the National Park Service to make sure hedges are trimmed. There's appropriate lighting in our national parks to ensure public safety. So when I talk about safety and beauty, it is inextricably linked. Again, reverting back to the executive order and the bill in question.
Speaker 1
Thank you for your work, and we look forward to getting greater ability to be able to coordinate law enforcement here in The United States Capitol to make this a safe place once again for the people of The United States of America and the visitors that choose to visit our country legally. If there are no further questions, we will now move on to our third and final panel. I'd like to thank the witness for the testimony. You're now dismissed, while the clerk resets our witness table. I will remind the witnesses under committee rules they must limit their oral statements to five minutes, but their entire statement will appear in the hearing record.
I'd also like to remind our witnesses of the timing lights, which will turn red at the end of your five-minute statement, and to please remember to turn on your microphone. As with the second panel, I will allow all witnesses to testify before member questioning. It is good to have you all here. First, I want to introduce Mr. Greg Pemberton, chairman of the DC Police Union. Chairman Pemberton, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Speaker 14
Thank you, sir. Good morning, chairman, ranking member, members of the subcommittee. My name is Gregory Pemberton. I'm the president of the DC Police Union lodge two, representing roughly 3,000 officers, detectives, and sergeants of the Metropolitan Police Department. I've served the city for more than 20 years.
From this experience, I'm confident that HR 5103 can play a vital role in enhancing public safety in the District of Columbia. Let me be direct. The nation's capital is in crisis. Crime remains out of control, and our police department is dangerously understaffed. That did not happen by accident.
It is the result of radical anti-police laws and rhetoric that began in 2020. In Washington DC, the city council stripped away officer rights, restricted proven tools, and openly celebrated defunding. The results speak for themselves. In 2020, the MPD had nearly 3,900 sworn members. Today, we are under 3,200, the lowest in half a century, leaving us with more than 800 vacancies for the position of sworn officer.
The impact on public safety has been devastating. Between 2020 and 2023, homicides surged, carjackings doubled, robberies spiked, and entire neighborhoods became unsafe. While some progress has been made this year, violent crime is still up 15% from pre-2020 levels, and our staffing shortages continue to hinder effective policing across the district, including on federal lands. The crisis extends directly to the federal parks and public spaces under the subcommittee's oversight. The National Mall, monuments, memorials, and other federal properties are not just symbols of our democracy.
They are active public spaces visited by millions annually. Yet these areas have become increasingly vulnerable to vandalism, graffiti, litter, and criminal activity that undermines their safety and cleanliness. In 2024 alone, MPD responded to more than 500 incidents on or adjacent to the federal parklands, including assaults, thefts, and defacement of monuments. Graffiti removal requests in these areas have risen 40% since 2020, often tied to protests or opportunistic crime that spills over from surrounding neighborhoods. Our ability to patrol and maintain safety in these federal spaces is severely compromised by the MPD staffing crisis.
Federal parks fall primarily under the jurisdiction of the United States Park Police, but effective policing in the district requires close cooperation between the MPD and the US Park Police. MPD officers frequently assist US Park Police in responding to emergencies, crowd control, and routine patrols on federal lands, especially where boundaries blur with city streets and sidewalks. MPD and US Park Police often patrol areas like Meridian Hill Park, where 11 acres of park and gardens are situated among the densely populated surrounding neighborhoods. However, with our ranks depleted, we have been unable to provide the level of support needed. Response times to incidents on the National Mall have increased by 25% in the last two years, as MPD units are stretched thin covering citywide calls.
This leaves federal parks more exposed to crimes like robberies and carjackings, which have targeted tourists and visitors in areas like the Tidal Basin and near the Lincoln Memorial. Cleanliness and safety go hand in hand. Neglected spaces, littered sidewalks, vandalized statues, and overgrown areas signal disorder and invite criminal behavior. We've seen this in action. Unclean federal parks become hotspots for illegal encampments, drug use, and violent encounters.
MPD's crime suppression teams with partner US Park Police for joint operations have been reduced to vacancies, limiting our joint efforts to clear gravity, remove debris, and deter crime. Without adequate staffing, these collaborative patrols happen less frequently, allowing problems to fester and erode the dignity of these national treasures. This is why the DC police union strongly supports HR 5103, the Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act. This bill establishes a much-needed program under the secretary of the interior to beautify the district. By requiring consultation with key stakeholders like the attorney general, the mayor, federal agency heads, and even the chief of police and the police union, it fosters interagency cooperation essential for success. Critically, the program will enhance MPD's partnership with the US Park Police, allowing us to better align resources for patrolling federal lands.
The bill's creation of the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Commission is equally vital. The executive branch body will provide ongoing oversight and planning, ensuring federal and local officials work together to address these issues. It encourages private sector participation, which could bring additional resources for maintenance and security, something MPD and US Park Police desperately need. By time beautification is safety, HR 5103 recognizes that clean, well maintained federal parks deter crime and protect visitors, residents, and the symbolic heart of our nation. The lesson is clear.
When city leaders undermine police, communities and national landmarks suffer. If this is not corrected, the crisis will deepen. I urge congress to pass HR 5103 to support cooperation between all stakeholders. Officers want nothing more than to protect these cherished spaces, but they cannot do it without help from the elected officials. Thanks for the opportunity to testify, and I welcome any questions to the subcommittee you may have.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Thank you very much, Chairman Pemberton. I will now recognize Mister Kenneth Spencer the third, chief of staff of the United States Park Police Fraternal Order of Police. Mister Spencer, you are recognized for five minutes. It's not working.
Speaker 12
There it goes. Good morning, Chairman Tiffany. Ranking member Ngoose and members of the subcommittee. My name is Kenneth Spencer, and I serve as a master patrol officer with the United States Park Police and as government affairs chief of staff for the United States Park Police FOP. Our organization represents approximately 350 officers of the US Park Police in DC, New York, and San Francisco.
Before I say anything else about legislation or statistics, I want to speak from the heart about what happened on November 26 when two members of the National Guard were shot while standing post here in DC in support of the president's Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful initiative. One of those soldiers has since died from her injuries, and the other remains seriously wounded. We were out there to protect this city and its people. On behalf of the officers I represent, I want to express our deepest condolences and prayers for them and their families. Their sacrifice is a stark reminder that making DC safe and beautiful is not an abstract slogan.
It is a dangerous work that men and women in uniform do every day and night. I also want to recognize Miss Cook who is appearing on this panel. Miss Cook is a grandmother whose grandson was murdered on the streets of this city. She has been clear that the criminal justice system did not work to deliver justice in this case because of weak sentencing and limited accountability. As a career law enforcement officer and as a father, I am deeply sorry for her loss.
Her family's experience is a painful example of what happens when violence outpaces the system's ability to respond, when serious crimes are not met with serious consequences. The US Park Police was created in 1791 and has full police authority throughout the DC. We share jurisdiction with the Metropolitan Police Department and work with them every day, from the National Mall to federal parkways and neighborhoods. On an average day, we protect roughly 160,000 visitors, patrol more than 30,000 acres of federal land, and safeguard icons like the Lincoln Memorial, the National Washington Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial. DC is a wonderful city, but in recent years has faced a very real crime crisis.
Homicides rose sharply after 2019, and carjackings and other violent offenses surged to levels that are simply not acceptable for the capital of the United States. At the same time, US Park Police staffing has fallen to levels not seen in decades. Experts have said that we need at least 650 officers to meet our essential missions. Today, we are well below that number. And in the nation's capital, the national capital region, we are hundreds of officers short of the minimum staffing level that we need, that our own agency says that we need to have. That is why the US Park Police FOP strongly supports HR 5103, Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act, and why we believe its success is directly tied to HR 1260, the US Park Police Modernization Act.
HR 5103 sets direction. It recognized that we must clean up and protect federal and district facilities, monuments, parks, highways, transit systems, and other public spaces, and it creates a commission that is specifically charged with facilitating a more robust federal law enforcement presence on the National Mall, at Union Station, along our parkways, and in other key locations. But you cannot have a more robust federal law enforcement presence with yesterday's staffing and yesterday's pay structure. HR 1260 is the piece that allows us to recruit and retain the officers who will actually stay on the post and walk the beats that HR 5103 envisions. It would finally put the US Park Police pay, benefits, and retirement on par with other federal agencies like the US Capitol Police and the United States Secret Service uniform division. Without that reform, we will continue to lose good officers to better paying agencies, and we will not be able to fill the ranks of that this city needs.
These are bipartisan bills, and I want to thank the members who have led that effort. Representative Nicole Meliotakas and Representative Josh Gottheimer have worked together across party lines to champion HR 1260 and to support the broader effort to make this city safer. Representative Pete Stauber, a cosponsor and a former law enforcement officer himself, understands in a very personal way what it means to put on the uniform, answer calls, and worry about whether you will make it home at the end of your shift. The officers I represent are grateful for their leadership. I also want to thank Secretary Bergum and his team at the Department of Interior.
Secretary Bergham came up and did a ride along with our officers. He has listened to our concerns, supported a hiring surge, and shown real interest in restoring the strength of the US Park Police. We appreciate that. But we also know that support now has to take the form of acting backing for H.R. 5103 and H.R. 1260 and for the appropriations needed to make them real. On behalf of the men and women of the US Park Police, I respectfully ask of this committee and the full house to move both bills quickly forward so that we can do our part in making DC safe and beautiful again.
Thank you for your time, and I welcome any questions you may have.
Speaker 1
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Spencer. I'll now recognize Miss Forlicia. Am I saying that correctly? Yes.
Forlicia Cook, a native Washingtonian who's been personally affected by violent crime for her testimony. Miss Cook, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Speaker 15
Okay. Thank you. I'd like to thank the honorable representatives for taking the time to listen to me and my family and present and represent to hear our concerns regarding the issues of the judiciary system and the District Of Columbia. I have shared a document outlining the events that occurred during the investigation, charges, trial, and conviction related to the murder of my grandson, Marty William McMillan. The devastation it caused our family deeply affected our family.
It highlights the urgency of the need to reform the broken judiciary system. I never realized this system was so flawed until I became involved in the process surrounding a murder case. I was horrified by what I witnessed and how the system treats the families of murder victims like mine. It was shocking to see how easily some individuals who commit murder can return to the streets without facing adequate consequences. I understand why people feel emboldened to kill without fear of repercussions.
I'm sorry, y'all. I am truly grateful with the administration for bringing these laws to light. It has far been too long since these issues have been addressed. My family has not received justice for the horrific murder of my grandson. Was shot seven times.
He was killed at 23 years old. His murderer was 40 years old. Was only charged with second-degree murder. May serve a total of seven years for my grandson's death, with five of those potentially served as probation. This is not justice.
These laws need to change to ensure the killers think twice before pulling the trigger. There is so much more to the story that I do not have time to share, but I have attached it by testimony. My name is Felicia Cook, I'm the grandmother of Marty McMillan. I just wanna add to this that if you don't give the killers a reason to not kill, then why aren't they gonna stop? What our president is doing about changing the laws in the district behind murder is necessary.
Really, it is. And you may not understand, and Lord knows our hope that it doesn't knock on your door before you do. We need to let these killers know we need to send a message that killing is worse. Okay? If you kill somebody, then the consequences, you do life or something else.
You take a life, you do life. My grandson never has an opportunity. I will never hear his voice again. I will never see him again. And I have to live with this, and I've been living with it for eight years, and it don't go away.
I just get stronger at how I deal with it. Two massive card attacks behind it. Thank you for listening, senators. I appreciate everything that you're doing. Keep doing what you're doing, and President Trump is doing it.
Let him do it. Thank you.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Miss Cook. I now want to introduce Mister Bob Woodard, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners in Dare County, North Carolina. Chairman Woodard, you're recognized for 5 minutes.
Speaker 16
Ranking members and members of the subcommittee, good morning. Bob Woodard, I've had the honor of serving as chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners for the past eleven years in North Carolina. I wanna thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to provide a local perspective on HR 4931, the National Park System Long Term Lease Investment Act. First and foremost, I wanna express my appreciation for your consideration of this most important bill. From the standpoint of a local government leader, I can assure you that the legislation will make a meaningful difference not only in Dare County, but in communities across the country where public-private partnerships with the National Park Service are vital to local economies and visitors' experiences.
Let me share with you an example close to home. In Dare County, we're proud of a model partnership at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, which is located within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. A local entrepreneur has stepped forward and made a substantial capital investment in this facility. They have constructed a fishing center and carried out significant infrastructure improvements, investments that have improved service for our commercial and recreational fishermen, visitors, and the local economy alike. As chairman of the Darrow County Board of Commissioners, I can tell you that my colleagues and I have been very impressed with the results.
The partnership has been a resounding success. I've also spoken with the National Park Service superintendent for Kay Patters, and he too has praised the quality and impact of this collaboration. It is, in every sense, as our congressman has stated, a win-win for our county, for the National Park Service, and for the millions of visitors who come to the Outer Banks each year. I firmly believe it should serve as a model for the rest of the country. But here's the problem.
The fishing center is now five years into a 20 year lease. The operator has expressed a desire to extend the lease so that they can protect their investment and continue to build upon their success. Unfortunately, under current law, that simply is not possible. The only option is to open the lease to a new competitive bidding process. That makes no sense for a partner who has already invested millions of dollars in long term improvements, and it discourages others from pursuing the kind of meaningful investment that the National Park Service so desperately needs.
HR 49 31 provides a straightforward solution. It would give the secretary of the interior, acting through the director of the National Park Service, the authority to extend an existing leaf lease if it has been in place at least 5 years and if the director determines that such an extension is in the best interest of the park service. This bill does not require extensions. It simply gives the park service the flexibility to make smart, practical decisions when circumstances warrant it. In doing so, I would provide this certainty that private partners need in order to invest wisely while still preserving the authority of the National Park Service to act in the public's interest.
In closing, I urge you to support H.R. 4931 in Dare County. We have firsthand the tremendous benefits of public-private partnerships when they are given room to succeed. By passing this legislation, you will empower the National Park Service to nurture those partnerships, encourage responsible investment, and ensure facilities like the Oregon and Efficient Center continue to thrive for generations to come. Again, thank you for your time, your commitment to strengthening the National Park Service, and I would be happy to answer any questions.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Chairman Woodard. I'll now recognize Miss Denise Boden, mayor of the town of Chincoteague. Do you ever have a spelling contest in the town?
Speaker 1
Yeah. We have. Chincoteague, Virginia. Mayor Bowden, you are for five minutes. Welcome.
Speaker 17
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm here to speak on Representative Kiggins' HR bill 5063. Assateague Island, Virginia, which is owned by the federal government, is such a valuable resource for recreation, not only to our locals, but also to our 1,000,000-plus visitors each year. Between the golden sands of sunbathing, the rich fishing areas, to the swimmers and surfers, and even to the beachcombers and bird watchers, the area is populated heavily during peak summer season. There have always been lifeguards on Assateague Island, Virginia, for as far back as I can remember to my childhood.
They play such a vital role in the safety of those mentioned above, and this past summer, it was very difficult not having them in place for the whole part of the summer season. They have saved countless lives and have provided first aid in many situations. The nearest rescue squad is on neighboring Shingatee Island, Virginia, which, while not far away, traffic getting to Assatee Island can make it exceedingly difficult, getting to the patient or drowning victim in a timely manner, given all the tourism that is there. We have people reach out to the town this past summer to let us know that they were rethinking their trip to Shingateeg due to the lack of a safe experience at the beach itself. As you know, Shingateeg Island is dependent on tourist dollars, along with the surrounding Eastern shore.
We do not want to lose revenue in any circumstance. The National Park Service ended up funding the majority of the lifeguard services this past summer, with the town of Shingatee and Akamac County picking up the rest of the tab for contracted services out of Virginia Beach, Virginia, to which the town nor the county has been reimbursed. However, an agreement could not be reached until well into the summer season, cutting lifeguard coverage short for most of the summer. We cannot afford to do that again, nor should we have to. In total, there was only 35% of coverage.
Funding lifeguards is critical. It is paramount and should take precedence for the summer season on this federal land. Saving dollars is one thing. Saving lives is a whole different story. You cannot put a price tag on someone's life, especially if they're just trying to enjoy that life sitting on a beautiful beach with their family and friends.
And I thank you, and I welcome any questions.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Mayor Bowden. I'd now like to recognize Doctor Matt Ron, founder and research director at the Wildfire Conservancy. Doctor Ron, you're recognized for five minutes. Morning. Thank you for.
Speaker 18
The opportunity. Chair, members of the committee, my name is Doctor Matt Ron. Like I said, I'm the director of the Wildfire Conservancy, an organization dedicated to improving attack effectiveness and the health and safety of our firefighters in the United States. I'm here strongly in support of HR 4671. The bill addresses one of the most painful gaps in federal wildfire operations, the absence of a clear, compassionate, and standardized system for supporting families after catastrophic injuries, severe occupational illness, or line-of-duty deaths.
Wildfire incidents, as you know, are becoming more severe and more lethal every year. Firefighters now face extreme conditions that include sustained peak heart rates, dangerously high core body temperatures, rapid respiratory rates, and severe dehydration. And on top of all that, they endure constant exposure to toxic, hazardous, and carcinogenic substances. In short, they're working in environments no human was ever meant to endure. For families, the impacts are devastating.
They often have no route map for navigating the federal benefits, medical transfers, or crisis support. Many of them become de facto case managers overnight, something no family should ever have to shoulder while dealing with trauma or loss. HR 46 71 finally changes that. It creates a unified casualty assistance program, ensures trained personnel are available, provides travel reimbursement, improves interagency coordination, and establishes long-term case management. These are critical and deeply overdue reforms.
In my written testimony, I not only commend the significant progress being made here, but also provide some humble recommendations for your consideration. This includes creating explicit links to occupational illness, surveillance, and exposure documentation, making medical screening, health monitoring, and clinical follow-ups available, making explicit the inclusion of chronic or delayed onset conditions, and including periodic statutory review cycles. I'd also recommend that a lot of the progress being made here today, while focused on the Department of Interior, should also translate to our folks serving in the US Forest Service. While this bill makes essential progress, I think we also have to acknowledge the fundamental truth that directly affects the long-term effectiveness of this legislation. If we do not address the root causes of injury, illness, and death among wildland firefighters, especially toxic respiratory and dermal exposures, we will tragically be administering the same kinds of assistance again without any efforts to stem the tide.
Indeed, this bill is vital for families after a tragedy, but I humbly suggest that Congress must also act on what causes the tragedies in the first place. For decades, a myth persisted that wildland smoke was somehow cleaner than structural smoke because it comes from the trees and vegetation. That's simply wrong. And today's fires aren't just burning vegetation, they're burning the communities in which we live. And we've seen the devastation earlier this year in Los Angeles.
Wildland crews are now exposed to the same, and sometimes greater, hazards than structural firefighters. Make no mistake. Those exposures are tantamount and equivalent, if not exceeding, those exposures we saw in 09/11. Yet structural firefighters have had self-contained breathing apparatus, clean cab programs, decontamination protocols, and advanced PPE modernization over the last half century. Sadly, we can't say the same for wildland firefighting.
They work twelve to twenty-four hour shifts, often for days or weeks at a time, often in the same gear without any meaningful respiratory protection, without field decontamination, without modern PPE designed explicitly for respiratory or dermal protection. These gaps are not theoretical. They are directly linked to the cancer, cardiac disease, respiratory illness, and early mortality of this workforce. And so I want to emphasize this committee's opportunity. We must reduce exposures, just not respond to them.
We must prevent casualties, not just assist after they occur. And we must act now because we can either pay now or pay a lot more later. Ignoring exposure reduction means higher federal medical costs, higher disability claims, more long-term care, more early retirements, and more deaths. Each one requiring exactly the services provided in HR 4,671. This is a critical foundation, but it should be paired with legislation that invests in advanced respiratory protection, modernizing the PPE, creating clear field decontamination protocols and policies, and scientifically grounded exposure-reduction practices.
It's a cost-saving measure. It's a moral obligation. It's a matter of basic federal workforce protection. If we don't take these steps, the tragic outcomes that this bill addresses will continue unchecked. Let me close by saying that H.R. 4671 deserves strong support, and I commend the authors for their leadership.
I urge this committee to see this bill as part of a larger necessary transformation, one that finally confronts the preventable hazards driving illness and death in our wildland firefighter force. Our firefighters are struggling to adapt to a new wildfire reality. It's time for our federal policies to adapt as well. Thank you, and I make myself available for any questions.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Doctor Ron. I'd like to recognize Mr. Matt McClure, executive director at the Gateway Arch Park Foundation. Mister McClure, you're recognized for five minutes.
Speaker 19
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to present my testimony today in support of HR 5254, the Gateway Partnership Act of 2025. My name is Ryan McClure, and I have the honor of serving as the executive director of Gateway Arch Park Foundation. The foundation is the nonprofit conservancy and official philanthropic partner of the Gateway Arch National Park in Saint Louis. We are dedicated to ensuring the park and neighboring downtown spaces will remain vital, welcoming, and well-supported resources for future generations.
Saint Louis's $380,000,000 city arch river project, which our foundation led and coordinated, is still to this day the largest private investment in a national park project in US history, and it's a model of how public-private partnerships can succeed for a park and a community. With the project fully completed as of this year, Gateway Arch National Park has more event spaces than ever before, and demand to activate those spaces is prevalent. These are extraordinary assets for the National Park Service and the millions of residents, visitors, and businesses that are the heartbeat of the St. Louis region. Gateway Arch National Park is one of the only national parks embedded in the center of a major US city, making it uniquely positioned to host corporate events, community gatherings, weddings, and other private events. Yet, despite these opportunities, the park cannot currently meet the demand due to limited staffing and resources.
It has been restricted in its ability to host private events over the last few years, and no private events are being hosted currently. Each potential event that passes means the park misses out on opportunities and additional revenue, and the Saint Louis region misses out on economic impact. A recent study found that operations and visitors to Gateway Arch National Park and surroundings generated more than 572,000,000 in economic impact for the Saint Louis region. Imagine the additional impact if we could draw more people to the grounds for private events. In short, we have built world-class spaces.
The public wants to host private events there, and yet the park is not able to take advantage of these opportunities. I'm here to tell you today that Gateway Arch Park Foundation is ready to help solve this challenge in service to our park and in service to our region. And with your support, we can make this a reality. HR 52 54 will allow the foundation to assist Gateway Arch National Park by formally managing private event execution and marketing on behalf of the park. Having managed and marketed many events on the arch grounds ourselves, we've garnered trust from both our park partners and the community.
We know what it takes to get the job done in a way that serves our park and our region at the same time. The same economic impact study I mentioned earlier found our foundation produced events attracted nearly 76,000 visitors to Gateway Arch National Park and its surroundings in 2024, generating nearly $10,000,000 in regional economic impact. To go back even further, after the city Arch River renovations of the arch grounds were completed, we hosted 15 private events each year in 2018 and 2019, until the pandemic halted demand across the entire events industry. Today, that demand has returned, and the community is ready to re-engage. With our experience, the foundation is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between the park's mission and the public's interest in private events at Gateway Arch National Park, which is why I am here today to seek your support.
Current projections show private events at the park could generate up to $780,000 in additional annual revenue, creating more opportunities to support park operations, enhance visitor experiences, and bolster the surrounding regional economy. Even more, this legislation is about ensuring that a national treasure and Saint Louis' calling card to the entire world can continue to be a place where people gather, celebrate, learn, and connect with our history and American culture. In conclusion, the foundation has the trust, expertise, and operational capacity to manage private events at the park. HR 52 54 would provide the framework that will allow us to make this critical step forward for our park and our region. This will allow us to build on our strong track record of serving Gateway Arch National Park in monumental ways.
I wanna sincerely thank Representative Bell, Representative Wagner, and Representative Bezinski for their sponsorship of this legislation and support of our park. And thank you all for your consideration and your commitment to strengthening our national parks. I look forward to your questions.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Mr. McClure. And we are now going to take members' questions and gonna start with myself for five minutes. First of all, mister McClure, real simply, private public partnerships can work in our national parks?
Speaker 19
Absolutely. I think we've shown that in Saint Louis. The private, as I said, the private commit community stepped up in a major way and invested in the arch grounds to the tune of 250,000,000 dollars in private funding from Saint Louis. So that, yes, they work.
Speaker 1
Same question, Mr. Woodard. Private-public partnerships can work in our national parks.
Speaker 16
Absolutely, they can, mister chairman. And it's proof at the Oregon Inlet Center that this has worked extremely well. We had a prior lessee that, if we had not had this go out in an entrepreneur come in and invest millions of dollars, we would have lost the commercial fishing fleet out of Oregon Inlet because the bulkheads, the infrastructure was deteriorated so bad that they were moving their vessel to another location. And this has come to fruition within the last several years, and it's been a huge success for us. And we now have a full fleet of commercial and recreational boaters in the inlet in Oregon.
Speaker 16
Absolutely. Okay. Fishing industry is the oldest profession of mankind, and we're trying to keep it alive in Dare County.
Speaker 1
Did President Trump do the right thing by demanding law and order here in Washington, DC?
Speaker 15
Because they decided to take a plea. They didn't have confidence that they could go in the courtroom with a jury because the grand jury denied everything the detective tried to present and told him he could not use that. As a fact, he could not use the fact that my grandson, not only was he murdered, he was thrown out there on Suitland Parkway. It took us 9 months to find his remains. We were searching everywhere.
And when they found him, do you know if we have gone to court in front of the jury, the grand jury said we could not present that to the jury in court? So when they stripped us of everything, the attorney felt she had no choice but to offer a plea. The plea took it down from first degree, second degree, and also took a lot of the years off the time he would've had done had to do. So he already had eight years he was doing for guns and drugs that were found in that apartment where he killed my grandson. But they couldn't, she couldn't bring the court with him moving the body.
Speaker 15
I think he's gonna serve to me, it appears he may not serve no more 8 years or whatever. He's got 16 years. That's all together with the time he's already serving. He had been in by the time we got to court after COVID, he had been in jail about six years. So, you kinda gotta do the math, I haven't done it, but I can't do it because every time I see that, it hurts.
Speaker 15
We did not find him for 9 months. He was found by the Park Service that was cleaning the highway. He was lying out there wrapped up in a comforter, throw it out there on Suitland Parkway. Me and my family, and we searched. We had search parties.
I'm working with advocates, and we would search. We searched everywhere. Walking through woods, in alleys, everywhere we could walk. And in DC, in parts of Maryland, can you imagine? Walking out there, searching, looking for your loved ones' remains.
It was terrifying, but we never found them. We didn't know about Suitland Parkway. That's why it was found by a construction worker, a lawn worker, whatever you call them, that works out on the highway. That's why he was found.
Speaker 1
Don't you think whether it's Washington DC or anywhere else in America, we Americans should have the expectation that we can travel on safe streets?
Speaker 15
Yes. Absolutely. I'm a Washingtonian. I'm 69 years old. I've lived in DC all my life.
And I'm telling you, nobody has taken the initiative ever, and I must say it, to clean it up as I have seen with this new administration. And I appreciate it, and I know it's a lot of Washingtonians, us that left DC, moved to Maryland because we wanna live in a safe community, and hated to leave our home. It's proud of what he's doing because he's making DC great again. And I don't care who likes it and who doesn't like it. I'm gonna say it.
Speaker 20
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a pulmonologist, I have spent the past two decades treating patients, including firefighters, who suffer life-threatening health consequences that come, as we have heard today, with toxic exposures related to their work. Since ranking member Huffman and I held a forum on the health of wildland firefighters in September, my team and I have been hard at work trying to fully understand and address the health threats our wildland firefighters are increasingly dealing with. One of the ways we can show up for our firefighters is to make sure they have health insurance and disability coverage, especially when they get sick from their work exposures.
HR 4,671 would be a big step in the right direction, and I strongly support it. Unfortunately, as Doctor. Ron has talked about more needs to be done. Doctor. Ron, thank you so much for being here today.
It's good to see you again. You've been kind to answer our team's questions and work with us on the package that we are developing. And we have a wide range of improvements that we need to bring forward, protection for those who protect us. I want to ask you about some of our discussions, for the record and for my colleagues. What steps are necessary to ensure that federal wildland firefighters have access to effective respiratory protection, Mr. Doctor Ron?
Speaker 18
Well, thank you for the question. First, Congress can act by directing federal agencies to adopt modern science-based respiratory standards aligned with the NFPA guidelines and those with NIOSH as well, tailored to wildland and urban interface firefighting. And accelerating the research, you know, we don't have a perfect product right now out there that we can apply to wildland firefighting. And yet, you know, we kind of joke that the wildland firefighting is, you know, hundred years of tradition unencumbered by progress. We could do a lot better.
We just need to focus our attention. We need deployable, field-ready options and even interim solutions for now that can provide some level of meaningful protection. And then also integrating exposure monitoring for these folks so that they have some sort of medical background on which to base their claims in the future.
Speaker 20
Thank you so much. And I cannot stress the importance of that longitudinal tracking of the impacts of the exposures. We also know wildland firefighters absorb toxic chemicals, as you discussed, through their skin from soot, smoke, and ash. How can we improve dermal protections in the near term? And in other words, what immediate action should be taken to protect our wildland firefighters?
Speaker 18
Thanks again for the question. And as I mentioned, you know, unfortunately, a lot of our wildland firefighters are working days and weeks in the same gear. Let's be real, candid about this. They're working with gear and PPE that's heavily contaminated by toxic, hazardous, carcinogenic substances, all without washing or decontaminating these for those days or weeks at a time. Make no mistake there.
That is a hazardous material site on their back. And we need to do better in decontaminating our firefighters and providing them with clean gear. I'll just say real quickly that we just completed a study related to the Los Angeles firefighter firefighting incident and identified a 40 to 60% reduction in metabolic markers for cancer-causing substances just by starting the firefighters out with clean gear at the start of their shift. There's clean cab protocols, there's decontamination of the apparatus, there's all sorts of things. Even skin wipes, you know, periodically during their shift, would go a long way in producing the kind of results we're looking for.
And then lastly, I would say technology now exists where we have dermal protective fabrics. We've documented a 90% reduction in particle exposure to our firefighters with this new fabric. It needs to be used.
Speaker 20
Thank you so much. And my understanding is that cultural norms within the wildland firefighting community can make it challenging to introduce new technology or new respiratory protective equipment, like we've discussed. What changes are needed to successfully implement new protective equipment and procedures? Arguably, the leading benefit would be to leadership, adopting those changes, demonstrating their importance.
Speaker 18
but also just making our firefighters more aware. They go into this profession not fully understanding the risks they are going to face. So leadership and training, number one.
Speaker 20
Great. Thank you so much. I know that I'm running out of time, so I just wanna reiterate the importance of this work. I thank the committee and the bipartisan nature of approach to this. Clearly, our wildland firefighters have enormous importance in our community and in, you know, our history, and we need to do better to protect them.
Thank you very much, Doctor Ron.
Speaker 1
Gentlemen, ladies. I now recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Stauber, for five minutes.
Speaker 11
Thank you, Chairman Tiffany. Mister Spencer, it's great to see you again. As the subcommittee has heard today, the dedicated men and women of the US Park Police play significant roles on behalf of the American people in protecting our nation's capital. US Park Police officers in recent years have responded to several high profile emergencies in and around our nation's capital, ranging from the plane crash at Reagan National Airport earlier this year to the June 2017 congressional baseball shooting, helping save the lives of several members of congress and US Capitol police officers who were injured in that shooting. It is my understanding that the US Park Police also played a significant role in the tragic shooting of two National Guard members last week in Downtown Washington DC near Farragut Square, which is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Police.
Mister Spencer, can you expand upon the Park Police's response?
Speaker 12
For the question, congressman. I appreciate your support for law enforcement. The US Park Police received a call, or an alert over the radio, that there had been a shooting in the vicinity of Farragut Square. Our helicopter aviation unit, which we refer to as the Eagle, was already out on a call for something out in Great Falls. They responded to the Washington Monument grounds to make sure they could medevac any potential victims.
Our ground units assisted the metropolitan police to block off roadways and to make sure that any ground units could get to our Eagle. I think they believed that both patients would have been transported by our helicopter for whatever reason on the ground. EMS personnel decided that it would be better for the other patient to be transported by ambulance.
Speaker 11
So your response was immediate, lifesaving response immediate. As you always do, and, to make sure that the suspect, or suspects are in custody or at least, held so they can't harm any more individuals. Is that correct?
Speaker 11
Has there been just a time short here, mister Spencer. Has there been a noticeable shift for the support of federal law enforcement agencies from the Biden administration to the Trump administration?
Speaker 12
Since the beginning of this year, we have received an extremely large amount of support from the current administration. We have been, our union has been raising the flag for years, for over a decade, across multiple administrations for our staffing shortages. This administration under secretary Bergham has helped us significantly with recruiting and retention incentives.
Speaker 11
And I believe the president's executive order 14252, making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act, is part of that shift. Would you agree? I agree. That's why I think it's important that we pass H.R. 5103. Administrations come and go, and their executive orders and other executive actions do as well.
We've seen incredible support for federal law enforcement, in my view, under the Trump administration. We need to make sure future administrations continue to support federal law enforcement agencies like the US Park Police. Passing HR 5103 and codifying President Trump's executive orders 14252 will help lock in that support. With the time I have left, Mister Spencer, I want to turn to HR 1260, the US Park Police Modernization Act. I know that this legislation is not under the jurisdiction of the subcommittee and not on the agenda today, but I believe it is an important tool to help support the brave men and women of the US Park Police. Can you please expand upon the bill, and how this would help your officers?
Speaker 12
Thank you for the question, Congressman. Basically, what our bill HR 12 for through, representative Nicole Malia Takis does, HR 12 sixty. It just levels the playing field for our officers with the other federal agencies. We're one of the only ones left that you have to work over 30 years to receive your maximum retirement benefits. Most of us age out at age 57, which a lot of us are prior military.
So, therefore, you'll never be able to reach your max retirement benefits. You'll age out before that happens. All it does is compress the pay scale and the time it takes to reach that pay at the end of your career.
Speaker 11
I will commit to you my full support to get that done. You are professionals, and I appreciate your service to our nation and our national parks. Miss Cook, with my last few seconds here, I want to thank you for sharing that tragic story of your grandson.
Speaker 11
It should never have happened. Should never have happened. We need to get serious in our prosecution to make sure that if you do a crime, you pay for the crime.
Speaker 11
I think it's unconscionable. Yes. That you take a life and you do five or 7 years only. And I yield back.
Speaker 1
You're welcome. Time has expired. I now recognize Doctor Kennedy for five minutes of questioning.
Speaker 13
Thank you, mister chair, for again convening this. And, Miss Cook, thank you for your touching testimony. I'm sorry for you and your family's loss, and I can feel that loss. You mentioned it's been eight years that you and your family have suffered through the brutal murder and dumping of his body on a side street and not even being able to, for nine months, find his remains and give respect to the 23 year old young man that he was. And I find it reprehensible that this city is the nation's capital and a beacon for the world, and that these kinds of filthy acts are conducted in this city without repercussions is what you've testified of.
And I'm very touched, by not only what you initially said with your introductory statements, but what you continue to say is that these unacceptable acts need to be prosecuted appropriately. And I'm very grateful for your willingness, the bravery, the boldness, and the power and strength represented in your testimony to come here and talk to us about these issues. A room, unfortunately, that is almost empty, but I know that these comments are being broadcast to those who care around the country. And I'll stand with you and President Trump and decry these disgusting behaviors that we accept in this city. Because, Miss Cook, I'm ashamed to say that it's not just you and your family that suffered, but I'm gonna list the names of, as a freshman, I've been here for less than a year, and these are the names of people that I'm aware of that have been brutally murdered, assassinated on the streets of this city.
We have Sarah Bextrim and Andrew Wolf, the National Guard troops that were just last week, the day before Thanksgiving, assassinated by what sounds like an insane individual who came here from across the country to kill these people. We have two young Jewish people who are about to get engaged and begin their lives together, Sarah Milgram and Jaren Lachinsky, who stepped outside of the Jewish Museum just a short distance from where we sit right now, and were brutally assassinated by another insane individual in this town, the town that is not only a nation's capital, but a beacon for the world. And then an intern for one of our congressional colleagues, Ron Estes. This young man, Eric Tarpinian Yakim, was also killed in a random act of violence near the Washington Convention Center just a few months back. And that's just a shortlist that I can give of the number of people.
And we both know that there are any number of unnamed individuals that are not reported by the media that have been killed on this street's capital just in the past several months, let alone the past several years, as you with the and I will name Marty William McMillan junior, your grandson, who is on that list. And I sorrow with you, and I know my congressional colleagues sorrow with you. And when I hear people complain about president Trump and what he's trying to do to make this nation's capital not only beautiful, but also safe again, I hope that they would, before they decry these behaviors of president Trump and say how terrible it is that he's sending national guard troops to this capital, to try to keep us safe from these disgusting behaviors, these violent acts, these murderous acts that are perpetrated on our people. I hope they would come and talk to you and talk to your family and see the impact over the past eight years that you'd had to suffer as a result of these violent behaviors before they go on public and they do media interviews and talk about how terrible it is that president Trump's trying to enforce the laws of our land, that murder is not acceptable here in this country.
And I'll also say to mister Spencer and chairman Pemberton, thank you for what you do in trying to keep our streets safe associated with this effort of the Trump administration and good people like you on a daily basis put your lives online as you go out on the streets and try to help protect miss Cook's family, her grandson Marty, from these disgusting behaviors. Miss Cook, I just want to give you a chance with my remaining time to say anything else you'd like to say associated with the murder of your grandson and what you feel about President Trump's effort to try to protect us in these terrible times.
Speaker 15
And his effort, and I don't care what they say about what he's doing in the national guard and all that. I walked through Union Station when I came down here for the last hearing. I had never walked through Union Station and felt that safe since I have been here. It was so clean. And in the park, you could sit down at a seat.
It wasn't someone homeless. It wasn't dirty, and you didn't feel any fear. These are the things that he's bringing. This is what we need. You know, for people that say that, I wonder what they are hiding from.
What kind of criminal activities are they participating in? Why don't you want him here, you know, digging up the old stuff? Because it's been corrupt for years. Democrats, Democrats didn't do anything about it. Okay?
They didn't talk, and they were the problem where I couldn't get justice for my grandson with the new laws that they've given these criminals. Do you know the criminals have more rights than the victims? Well, every time you go, they're giving you a paper talking about your rights. Well, what about our rights? The judge says to us, you know, after we gave our impact statements, she looks at the killer and asked him, I noticed it has been a terrible day.
I know it's been a stressful day for you. Are you having anything you want to say? A stressful day for him? No. Are you kidding?
This is what the judge says. Okay. So, no, he needs to really change that judiciary system, get that out of there however way they can. We educate them, train them on something so that they have some of the laws there. In Texas or somewhere like that, you kill someone there.
You're gonna get the life. And some states they're giving the death penalty. You're gonna get the death penalty. We don't have that here, but something needs to be drastically changed with the judiciary system, and I pray that you all do it. Because I am tired of suffering.
I'm tired of watching people and their children getting murdered. The babies, the children are getting murdered. And we're getting minimal. And that's not right. A life is very important.
That's the most valuable thing we have is life. And when you lose a loved one, you can't get that back.
Speaker 13
Bless you, Miss Cook, for that testimony. With that, mister chair, I yield back.
Speaker 1
Gentlemen's time has expired now. Recognize Miss Kiggins for five minutes.
Speaker 6
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just to additionally recognize Missus Cook, and thank you for sharing your very powerful testimony and using your voice for and speaking for all victims. I think that is so important. And I would encourage you to share your story in as many places as you can and let them know that you agree with what's happening here in Washington and that we are trying to put good positive change in place that does look out for victims and for families and loved ones as a mother of a 23 year old. You know, I can only imagine the grief that your family experienced.
So I wanted just to thank you. It was very powerful, and I encourage you to continue to share that story with all kinds of communities. Just to switch gears, too, I wanted to welcome Mayor Bowden from my district. Welcome here to Washington. We've met several times back home in Virginia's 2nd District about a variety of issues.
So thank you very much for being here today. And just wanted to ask a couple questions about our goal to make our beaches safer, everywhere, but especially in Virginia's 2nd District. So we know, and you mentioned in your opening statement, that Chickatique's economy relies heavily on tourism, and reliable beach safety plays an important part in that. And can you just speak to the practical impact that consistent lifeguard coverage has on visitor confidence, local businesses, and the overall experience on your part of the Eastern Shore?
Speaker 17
It's safety on Assatiga is paramount. It's right before the contracted lifeguards came on board this year, we had a very, very close call, with a victim who was in distress. Actually, people that were recreational recreating on the beach actually went out and helped that person and brought that person in, and we had our rescue squad go over. So it's, you know, the impact that has on our small little area is significant, and especially when people say, well, I don't know if I want to come this year. You know, we don't people spend a lot of time on the beach.
You know, they come to the beach. They come to see the ponies, and that's it. You know, all they do on Shingy Tig is sleep and eat. But on Assatiga, the safety over there is, because there's nothing else there. You can't just get help in a matter of a few seconds or a couple minutes.
You have to have things in place.
Speaker 6
Certainly, a large part of your local economy, just the tourism aspect. So you noticed, you noted in your written testimony that the town has taken on additional responsibilities to keep visitors safe during the busy season over the summer. So can you walk us through how Chickatikas managed the financial burden of providing lifeguard services when the federal coverage was not available?
Speaker 17
Well, it was a partnership with the county as well, and we, along with the county, talked to the National Park Service about a company out of Virginia Beach, Virginia. And our emergency operations coordinator, mister Rush, for the town of Shenghenytig, was also in on those talks to get a company there that would provide these services. And so, of course, that took thirty to 35 days, before we could get anything done there. So when they finally came on board, the first time that we had lifeguards on the beach was July 17, and they were there for exactly 30 days through August 17. And then we had August 23 and 24, which added two more days.
August 30 and 31st, which added two more days. And then September 1, for a total of 35 days. And, so it worked out well, but it just took too long to work out well. Mhmm. The lifeguards actually ended up hiring a few of the local people that we or the contractor services ended up hiring a few of the local people that, you know, were lifeguards over there before, and it worked out well.
But we can't go through this again. We have to have something in place for the summer season coming up. Right. It is just the number one priority for. Agree.
Speaker 6
And by July, most of your summer is quickly wrapping up. Mhmm. So I know that the town of Chickadee formed a reimbursement agreement this summer with the Department of the Interior. And to your knowledge, what is the current status of this reimbursement agreement, and what amount of money is the town currently owed from the federal government for hiring lifeguards this summer?
Speaker 17
So we have not been reimbursed yet, and neither has the county. And I want to say that the town is owed in the neighborhood of around $14,000, and the same with the county.
Speaker 6
Great. Thank you. We will continue to make sure that reimbursement happens. And, just in closing, the Safe Beaches and Safe Swimmers Act is intended to provide clarity about federal and reduce uncertainty for towns like yours. So in your view, how would establishing a clear federal framework for supporting lifeguard services improve your planning and ensure consistent safety for residents and visitors?
Speaker 17
It would be most helpful, especially with our emergency services on Shingateg Island itself. We may have a heart attack victim on Shingate, and then we have to scramble to get people to go over to Assatig to help. So having that partnership in place either with the National Park Service or if the Park Service can contract with life saving services from wherever would it would just be wonderful, and it would help greatly. The amount of money that the Park Service brings in over there to Assateague Island, along with the US Fish and Wildlife, it makes no sense why it's not happening. So, we're willing to do our part the best we can, but we need the federal government to step up and do what they've been doing.
Speaker 6
Thank you. And we are certainly ready to do our part as well. Thank you for your testimony and for being here, and I yield back.
Speaker 1
And, generally, his time has expired. Now Mister Crank from Colorado, you have five minutes for questions.
Speaker 21
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, Miss Cook, thank you for your testimony. I'll tell you one thing. There's a gentleman named Marty William McMillan junior staring down today, pretty proud of his grandma. So I'm sure he is.
You've been just incredible testimony. So thank you for that. You know, over the last several years, the US has experienced one of the most alarming surges in violent crime in modern history. And this rise didn't happen in the shadow. It happened in broad daylight, in cities and in communities across the country, as policy shifted, accountability weakened, and public safety took a back seat.
During the Biden administration, violent crime spiked to levels we haven't seen in decades. And across the nation, an average American city saw homicide rates jump by nearly 30%. That's not a normal fluctuation. It's not a statistical blip. This is a public safety emergency.
Families felt it. Businesses felt it. Officers on the street felt it. Every community, urban, suburban, rural, lived with the consequences of the policies. And it wasn't just homicides.
Aggravated assaults increased. Robberies increased. Carjackings soared in big city and small city. People were attacked at bus stops, in parking lots, even outside their own homes. These aren't talking points.
They're real people's lives. Our nation's capital was no exception, and this city doesn't belong to just a few people who pay local taxes here. It belongs to every American, and every American pays taxes that support this city. This is America's city. Washington DC, the city that should symbolize order, accountability, and the rule of law, experiences some of its deadliest years on record.
Washington is ranked among the least safe cities in America, driven largely by a homicide rate that outpaces almost every major jurisdiction in the country. That should alarm every member of Congress because this is a city where people live, where our staff walk to work, and where millions of our constituents and millions of Americans visit every single year. And yet, despite these staggering numbers, DC leaders under the approval of the Biden administration chose to weaken accountability even further. They passed the comprehensive policing and justice reform amendment act, and they restructured sentencing laws in ways that embolden criminals and discourage law enforcement. What's even more disturbing is the lack of serious prosecution.
Crimes that once resulted in actual real penalties are now pled down, they're dismissed, or they're simply ignored. Criminals know it. Communities know it. And the message being sent is unmistakable. Crime pays, and accountability just doesn't matter anymore.
And this mindset is spreading. Other states and cities have adopted similar soft-on-crime policies. My home state of Colorado is one of them. Families in Colorado have watched violent crime increase. They've watched car thefts explode.
They've watched repeated offenders walk free because the laws are written to favor leniency over safety. And my colleagues and I sent a letter urging our governor to reverse some of these dangerous policies. But as of today, we're still waiting for decisive action, and it's unacceptable. It's why I'm proud to support the administration's executive order, making the District of Columbia safe and beautiful. And it's why we're, in this house, have taken real action, passing legislation to repeal harmful laws in DC that tie law enforcement's hands and allow violent criminals back on the street.
Our capital should set the example for America. It should be the safest, cleanest, most secure city in the United States. I have a question for Mr. Pemberton. Mister Pemberton, based on your testimony, you've seen firsthand the consequences of DC's soft-on-crime policies. Do you think the American people deserve a capital city that's safe, secure, and welcoming?
Speaker 14
Of course, this is the nation's capital, as you mentioned. This city doesn't just belong to 700,000 residents. It belongs to every American in this country, and it should be an example of how we live our lives in this country. Whether you live here, you're a visitor or a tourist, even if you're from another country and you wanna come experience the District of Columbia, you shouldn't be subject to, you know, some sort of backstreet violence or being robbed or carjacked just because you wanted to come down here and see the memorials or the museums or any of the other things that the city offers.
Speaker 21
Thank you. We have a responsibility to do the right thing as members of Congress. Thank you, Mr. Pemberton. Thank you, Miss Cook, for your testimony today. Mister chairman, thank you.
Speaker 1
Gentlemen, yields, and I would like to thank all you witnesses for your testimony and the members for your questions here today. Members of the subcommittee may have some additional questions for you, and we will ask that you respond to those in writing. Under committee rule three, members of the subcommittee must submit questions to the subcommittee clerk by 5 PM on Friday, 12/05/2025. The hearing record will be held open for 10 business days for those responses. If there is no further business, without objection, the subcommittee on federal lands stands adjourned, and wishes all of you a Merry Christmas.
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