©2025 League of Conservation Voters
The Senate considered President Trump’s nomination of David Bernhardt to serve as the secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI). This position is critical to protecting our natural resources for future generations, but Bernhardt’s confirmation put our public lands and oceans, national parks and monuments, clean air and water, and wildlife at risk. With his long history of lobbying for the very industries under the Department of the Interior’s purview—creating numerous conflicts of interest—and his proximity to ethics scandals during his roles as acting Interior secretary and deputy secretary, it is clear Bernhardt has not put the public interest first. Bernhardt was the architect of some of the Trump administration’s most destructive natural resource policies, including overseeing the largest elimination of protected public lands and waters in U.S. history through President Trump’s unprecedented attempt to rescind two million acres of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, a radical expansion of offshore drilling, and the fast-tracking of efforts to drill in the pristine and sacred Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On April 11, the Senate confirmed Bernhardt to be secretary of the Department of the Interior by a vote of 56-41 (Senate roll call vote 77). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.
©2025 League of Conservation Voters