Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., speaks as ranking member Jared Huffman, D-Calif., listens during a House Natural Resources Committee markup on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. —Bill Clark–CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesIf Democrats win control of the House in November, party leaders plan to turn the final two years of the Trump era into a barrage of investigations over alleged corruption and contempt for the law.Much of the scrutiny would be expected to come from the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, the traditional engines of congressional investigations. But another, less prominent committee could emerge as an unlikely center of the fight: the House Natural Resources Committee.The 45-member panel has oversight over virtually all federal lands, giving it jurisdiction over a striking collection of controversies that have defined President Trump’s second term. That includes his efforts to remake Washington, D.C. by building a White House ballroom and a triumphal arch, and the troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It also covers the Administration’s efforts to open up national parks to an unprecedented amount of hunting, fishing and drilling, as well as a recent proposal to give a swath of California’s Yosemite National Park to a private developer.“We are no longer a backwater here at the Natural Resources Committee,” Rep. Jared Huffman, the committee’s top Democrat, tells TIME. “You check a lot of boxes with the Natural Resources Committee in terms of some of the most high-profile controversies in this Administration.”Huffman, who is likely to become the committee’s chair in a Democratic House, spoke to TIME this month from his Capitol Hill office decorated with paintings from the Muir Woods National Monument, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and other public lands in his coastal California district. Leading the House Natural Resources Committee has been the ultimate goal for the former environmental lawyer since he joined the House in 2013. “This is the top of the mountain for me,” he says. “This is what I always wanted.”Huffman has a running list of the investigations he would pursue if he takes the gavel. His plans would amount to a striking transformation for a committee more commonly associated with debates over endangered species, grazing rights, and federal water projects. Since Trump returned to office, committee Democrats have tried to investigate and call attention to Administration actions while lacking the authority to compel cooperation. With control of the House, those requests could be backed by subpoenas, sworn depositions, and public testimony from Administration officials, contractors, and private companies.Huffman says he expects a wave of government employees to approach the committee as whistleblowers, feeling more confident that Democrats will act on their concerns. “There are principled, patriotic Americans working in all of these federal agencies that are horrified with the corruption and illegality that’s been happening around them,” he says. “Some of them have already been helpful, but I think many, many more will come forward under a Democratic majority.”Read more: The Democrat Ready to Beef Up Pentagon Oversight if the House FlipsThe Trump Administration says the changes to federally controlled land are intended to make the District of Columbia “safe and beautiful” by restoring monuments, cleaning up federal parkland, and improving public safety.Under its current rules, the Natural Resources chairman has broad authority to issue subpoenas for testimony and documents. The precise scope of that position’s power in the next Congress would depend on the rules adopted by the House and the committee next year. The Trump Administration could also refuse to comply with some subpoenas, producing lengthy court battles. Huffman is perhaps best known on Capitol Hill as the founder of the Freethought Caucus, which counts 37 members and advocates for church-state separation and true religious freedom. Last month, he published a book, No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism.But if he gets the gavel, his work investigating the Administration would shift to the forefront. Huffman says he intends for the committee to revisit many of the Administration’s decisions from the previous two years. “We will not only be doing the oversight that presents itself on our watch,” he says. “We will be doing two years of catch-up for a Republican Congress that looked the other way in the face of all this corruption, self-enrichment and illegality.”Trump’s ballroom and “triumphal arch”The committee’s most visible investigations could target what Huffman calls Trump’s “vanity projects” including the $400 million, 90,000 sq. ft. White House ballroom being built on the site of the demolished East Wing. Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the construction to move forward, after a lower court had halted the work saying Trump did not have the authority to build the ballroom without congressional approval.Construction continues at the White House on Sept. 1, 2026. (Saul Loeba–AFP via Getty Images)The President is also set to break ground on a 250-foot “triumphal arch” near the Arlington National Cemetery that would be taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. He has also proposed erecting hundreds of statues in a Garden of American Heroes and transforming the East Potomac Golf Links into a championship-level course.Some of the projects have moved forward without congressional authorization or have been reviewed by commissions that Trump has filled with allies. The Administration has maintained that the work is legal and will restore grandeur to the capital."It's a dramatic abuse of the public trust for one man's ego,” Huffman says of the projects. “It's also a direct attack on the rule of law because we have long had laws like the Commemorative Works Act that spell out in great detail how monuments and other structures in the nation's capital get authorized and built.”Huffman says that if Democrats win the House the committee would seek records showing how the projects were approved, how much public money had been spent, and whether donors received or sought favorable treatment from the Administration. The private financing, he says, would receive particular scrutiny. He wants to know who donated, how much they contributed and what business they had before the federal government. Last year, the White House released a partial list of ballroom donors, including crypto and tech billionaires and defense contractors, but has not revealed how much each donor is giving.Huffman also questioned why money and Park Service personnel were being concentrated in Washington while the Administration was cutting staff and services elsewhere in the national park system.“You could look at it and say, well, you know, why die on that hill? These are just little pet projects of Donald Trump,” Huffman says. “But this is real money that is being misprioritized. It’s an abuse of the public trust.”Another Washington project he wants to investigate is the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump ordered the pool’s bottom covered with a blue coating as part of a rehabilitation that cost more than $14 million. Soon after the project was completed, algae returned and sections of the new coating began to peel. The President blamed vandalism. In July, the Administration dropped a felony charge against a U.S. Olympic canoeist it had blamed for the damage, and acknowledged in court that the damage was “a result of flawed installation by the contractor."Huffman says he expects whistleblowers inside the Park Service to provide additional information about how the contracts for the pool project were awarded and supervised, when officials learned that the work was failing, and whether employees were pressured to misrepresent what had occurred. “The fact that National Park Service employees have been told to lie about what happened, for example, we obviously want a full accounting,” he says. (The White House did not respond to Huffman’s allegation that Park Service employees were instructed to lie).If federal agencies refuse to provide the committee with records, Huffman adds, he would be prepared to issue subpoenas. “You walk softly and carry a big stick,” he says. “The subpoena is your big stick. You hope not to use it, but I think it’s very good to have.”Yosemite land swapThe recent bipartisan outcry over the prospects of a private developer gaining a swath of Yosemite National Park illustrates how the committee’s work could shift dramatically under Democratic rule. The current chairman, Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, has not announced any committee action regarding the Administration’s proposal to a land swap intended to help Kingsbarn Realty Capital, a private real estate firm, build a road between property it owns outside Yosemite and roads inside the national park. The company plans an upscale development of cabins, homes, and commercial buildings on two parcels near the park’s western boundary.“I don’t like what it would do on its own terms to Yosemite,” Huffman says. “But I especially don’t like the precedent, because if they’re allowed to do it, this will be coming to a national park near you in some other form.”Under the proposal, the government would transfer a small parcel of park property in exchange for land of comparable value that Kingsbarn would acquire elsewhere in California. The company has argued that the shorter route would reduce driving and pollution. The Interior Department has said no decision has been made and that any exchange would have to comply with federal law, environmental reviews and public-notification requirements. It has denied reports that political appointees improperly pressured the Park Service to advance the proposal.Huffman says if he becomes Natural Resources chair, he intends to seek communications between the developer, the White House, Interior officials and Park Service employees. Investigators would look for evidence that political or financial ties influenced the process, including any connections between the company and Trump or his family. Campaign finance records show Kingsbarn’s chief executive, Jeff Pori, making more than $4,000 in contributions to Trump's campaign in 2024. The company’s representative, Lanny Davis, has said politics had nothing to do with the proposal. But Huffman remains skeptical. “You’ve got to dig into the money trail,” Huffman says. “You’ve got to figure out who’s been going to Mar-a-Lago and paying tribute to the Trump family.”Wind Farms and KalshiHuffman says he would also probe the Administration’s “war on clean energy,” including its terminating offshore wind leases and redirecting money toward fossil-fuel investments. Interior officials have defended the agreements as a way to dispose of projects they regard as unreliable and economically unworkable. Democrats have questioned whether the Administration had the authority to make the deals and whether taxpayer money or federal lease payments were improperly used.Other investigations would involve government investments, loans and equity stakes in mineral companies. Huffman says he would examine how companies were selected, whether federal safeguards were followed and whether Trump’s family or associates stood to gain financially.He adds that investigations could not consume the committee’s entire agenda. He plans to pursue legislation on environmental permitting, public lands and energy, as well as tribal water settlements, health care, education and public safety. Citing the committee’s preview over Native American land and communities, he says it may also examine prediction markets such as Kalshi, which tribal leaders contend are encroaching on gaming revenue used to finance government services.“It's going to be an enormously busy Congress,” Huffman says if Democrats win the House, as most polls suggest. “The whiplash when we go from this to what will be a very fast-moving and unrelenting workload demand—I mean, it's going to be a shock for a lot of members. It's going to challenge me. It's going to challenge all of us.”