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Democrat melts down after Secretary Doug Burgum drops bombshell about NGOs during committee hearing
Sec. Doug Burgum; Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Democrat melts down after Secretary Doug Burgum drops bombshell about NGOs during committee hearing

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum faces pressure over his decision to gut some federal programs.

Democrats had a meltdown during a committee hearing while grilling Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on all of the programs he is attempting to shut down.

And no one was ready for his answer.

'We found organizations that were receiving grants from Interior where 80 to 100% of the revenue of that NGO was a grant from the federal government.'

In a Monday House Committee Hearing, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) asked for clarification on Burgum's proposed "complete elimination" of some programs in the Fish and Wildlife Service, including some state and tribal wildlife grants.

Burgum replied with a shocking statistic about where some "nongovernmental organizations" get their money.

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Heather Diehl/Getty Images

"There was a review done of the grants," he said.

"And that is an area where there's been substantial review. We found organizations that were receiving grants from Interior where 80 to 100% of the revenue of that NGO was a grant from the federal government."

"And yet those organizations, we were the sole source of their revenue, but they would have a CEO making $650,000 and four $400,000 lobbyists," Burgum continued.

DeLauro stammered in reply: "It would be very interesting because we can't get any information. We may agree with you. Give us the reasons why all of these grants are cut, the organizations are cut. ... We just can't take your word."

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Cooper Williamson

Cooper Williamson

Cooper Williamson is a research assistant at Blaze Media and the profiles editor for Frontier magazine. He is a 2025 Publius Fellow with the Claremont Institute.
@Coawi2001 →