A top Trump appointee at the Interior department has acknowledged that she influenced policy that benefitted her family’s ranching operation. In previously-unreported remarks at a Congressioinal Western Caucus event last December, Karen Budd-Falen, associate deputy secretary at Interior, described grazing policy as part of her job and said that “the thing that was probably closest to my heart was grazing regulations.”
Karen Budd-Falen and her husband Frank Falen own at least five cattle or ranching operations valued at more than $1 million each, according to Budd-Falen’s financial disclosure forms. These companies collectively hold grazing allotments on more than a quarter-million acres of national public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which is within the Interior department.
“The situation with Karen Budd-Falen seems to be quite brazen in the scheme of conflicts of interest,” Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, told the Washington Post. “She is, by her own admission, working on policy for grazing that will likely directly impact her own financial interests. And they’re not even trying to hide it.” Richard Painter, former chief Interior department ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, agreed that holding grazing allotments while simultaneously overseeing Interior department grazing policy “would be a pretty slam-dunk financial conflict of interest.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is calling for a review of Trump administration actions that could have benefitted Budd-Falen and her family’s companies. As Blumenthal pointed out to the Washington Post, “You don’t have to be an expert on land management to know that when she talks about how policy changes are going to benefit ‘private landowners,’ she’s talking about herself.”
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Lower Basin states announce temporary plan to save water from the Colorado River
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NM federal, local and tribal leaders celebrate legislation to protect the Caja del Rio
Quote of the day
The Caja del Rio is not acreage on a map. It is a place of memory, of identity, of ceremony, of recreation and refuge. Its future depends on our ability to embrace this shared responsibility, not just for ourselves, but for everyone who will come after us.”
—U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Source NM
Picture This
What’s Bloomin’?
The beautiful Purple Sand Verbenas (Abronia angustifolia) are in full bloom here at the park. This hardy wildflower produces pale pink to purple flowers with white centers that bloom in clusters. Peak bloom in the park is from late April into May. The silvery appearance of the plants comes from sand grains sticking to its hairy leaves.
Despite being in a desert, White Sands National Park has a wide variety of plant life. The Purple Sand Verbena is just one plant that has adapted to harsh desert living.
As always, when checking out the flowers in the park, please be sure to take only pictures and leave the plants there for others to enjoy!
– Ranger Paige
Featured image: Cattle grazing on national public lands near the Nevada-Oregon border, BLM Oregon and Washington