Having been a department of the Interior employee for the last 10 years in my real life, here is the "fears" my co-workers have.
Republican administrations typically cut funding, and decrease hiring among the DOI positions. Democratic typically fund or increase DOI areas. That is evident in new monuments and hiring processes.
So with that thought process it is a good news / bad news situation that may be a wash? BLM will be doing the same job likely with decreased staff. For instance the BLM Las Vegas office used to have 4 rec planners and a supervisor. now they have two- So those two take on an increased workload. Increase workload causes backlog in ability to do things and can result in delay or even denial of new permits due to lack of staffing. They are trying to fill those positions currently, Come January, I dont know if they will be trying so hard or if the rumored hiring freeze will be in effect.
This already happened under the Obummer administration and resulted in BITD having to pay to travel in out of state rec planners to help an event happen due to a lack of staff in the office.
When I was hired, there were 15 people that did my job along side with me. we lost people through a very challenging supervisor and and a screwed up hiring process. Then when the shut down happened they eliminated 5 full time positions in my department. I currently have 5 co workers and have a increased responsibility. We are required to work 5 10 hour shifts a week and most of us work an extra 10 because we fear our officers safety and our co-workers well being.
Do more with less is the way it goes. It will not streamline anything, but hopefully we wont lose land daily either. I am optimistic for a better America today though than we had the last few years.
