Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Chairman, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been hard at work removing statues and renaming military bases because they believe they can and should erase history.

The Board on Geographic Names was initially designed to be a part of the United States Geological Survey to ensure uniform naming on maps.

However, when Secretary Haaland took over as Secretary of the Interior, she immediately repurposed the Board on Geographic Names to the Interior Department's woke renaming board. One of the Secretary's top priorities was to deem the word ``squaw'' derogatory and remove any word with ``squaw'' in it from any geographic landmark or unincorporated town. She pursued this policy using the Board on Geographic Names.

This affected my district because the board changed the name of unincorporated ``Squawberry'' to ``Partridgeberry'' despite the opposition of local leaders.

This is complete government overreach, and it is unacceptable to allow the Federal Government to force their ideals down the throats of east Tennesseans.

This is not what the Federal Government is supposed to be tasked with, and I question how long it will be until Secretary Haaland decides to turn her attention to every geographic landmark named for Columbus or Washington or Jefferson.

I do not trust this administration to discontinue using the Board on Geographic Names to push their agenda onto Americans, and for this reason, I believe that we need to prohibit funding for the Board on Geographic Names.

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Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Chair, this is really, really a simple concept. If you don't think the Federal Government should be changing the names of localities, especially with the opposition of locales, then support my amendment. This is Federal overreach plain and simple.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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