DENVER—In a late-night secretarial order, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced he was giving up oversight of the Interior department and handing full control of the department’s organization and staffing over to Tyler Hassen, Elon Musk’s DOGE operative who also serves as Interior’s acting secretary for policy, management, and budget. The order gives DOGE carte blanche to run “consolidation, unification, and optimization efforts” across the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other Interior bureaus. The order does not require Hassen to report back to Burgum regarding the reorganization, nor does it reserve any authority to Burgum if Hassen were to fire thousands of public lands managers, park rangers, or wildfire specialists across the country.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Jennifer Rokala:
“If Doug Burgum doesn’t want this job, he should quit now. Instead, it looks like Burgum plans to sit by the fire eating warm cookies while Elon Musk’s lackeys dismantle our national parks and public lands. This order shows what it looks like when leaders abdicate their jobs and let unqualified outsiders fire thousands of civil servants who are working on behalf of all Americans and their public lands.
“Since Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of America’s public lands, it’s up to Congress and the American people to stand up and demand oversight. DOGE’s unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no idea how to staff a park, a wildlife refuge, or a campground. They have no idea how to manage a forest or prepare for fires in the wildland-urban interface. But Doug Burgum just gave DOGE free rein over all of that.”
The secretarial order states that the DOGE reorganization will include “human resources, information technology, financial management, training and development, international affairs, contracting, communications, Federal financial assistance, and other administrative functions.”
LEARN MORE
- Interior Department to consolidate functions across the country, leading to widespread layoffs [Government Executive]
- “Doug the Diva” Burgum and the (chocolate) chip on his shoulder [Westwise]
- The Cabinet secretary who wants his cookies freshly baked [The Atlantic]
- The people carrying out Musk’s plans at DOGE [New York Times]
- Vivek Ramaswamy’s high school friend Is working for DOGE at the Interior department [Public Domain]
- Loyalists, lobbyists and industry Insiders — the new political appointees at the Interior department [Public Domain]
- March 10: DOGE official appointed head of policy at Interior [E&E News]