A top official in the Department of the Interior appeared to casually admit she helped reduce federal regulations that benefited her family’s ranches, valued at more than $5 million.
Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen, the number three at Interior, boasted in December that she was “so excited” about reducing regulations that made it more difficult for ranchers, such as herself, to obtain grazing permits – which allow ranchers to feed their cattle and other livestock on government-owned land.
“I mean, people talk a lot about oil and gas….but my job in Interior is really the everything else. I’m a rancher, and so the thing that was probably the closest to my heart was grazing regulations,” Budd-Falen said at a Senate Western Caucus event hosted by Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis in December, according to a public video first reported by The Washington Post.
Her admission raised concerns from an independent government watchdog group.
According to Budd-Falen’s financial disclosure report, she and her family own and operate at least five cattle or ranch operations in Wyoming and Nevada, each valued at $1 million minimum. Budd-Falen and her husband, Frank Falen, also hold allotments that allow them to graze cattle on federal land overseen by the Interior Department, according to the Washington Post.
Campaign for Accountability, a nonpartisan nonprofit watchdog group that discovered the public video of Budd-Falen, sent letters to congressional committees, requesting that they investigate the top official for potential ethical violations.
“Ms. Budd-Falen has been actively directing federal public lands policy in ways that appear to benefit her family’s extensive ranching operation, and the DOI ethics office, in dereliction of its mandate, seems eager to ratify, rather than remedy, the behavior,” the Campaign for Accountability said.
During the Senate Western Caucus meeting in December, Budd-Falen also said relaxed regulations on cattle grazing through “categorial exclusion” directly benefited her father-in-law in Nevada.
In a statement to The Independent, the Department of the Interior said: “All appointed Department of Interior personnel undergo rigorous ethics screenings by Departmental ethics staff and the Office of Government Ethics, including Karen Budd-Falen, who has complied, and continues to comply, with any and all legal requirements, ethical standards and ethics guidelines as directed by the Office of Government Ethics and the Department Ethics Officials.
“Karen Budd-Falen is a highly qualified, principled public servant who brings the utmost expertise to her role at the Department. Frankly, your attempt to smear a successful woman who is passionate about her work and dedicated to improving life for the American people is an insult to every hardworking woman across this country.”
Budd-Falen served in the Interior Department during President Donald Trump’s first administration in 2018 and, at the time, signed an ethics document that prohibited her from working on or discussing grazing policy so she could retain her ranching holdings.
But since returning to the government – and raising questions about her ethical ties – the Interior Department issued Budd-Falen a waiver, allowing her to work on grazing policies despite her personal interest in the policy, according to the Substack, Public Domain.
However, that waiver was only issued after Public Domain inquired with the Interior Department, the online publication said.
An Interior Department spokesperson told the Washington Post that Budd-Falen has “complied, and continues to comply, with any and all legal requirements, ethical standards and ethics guidelines.”
Spokeswoman Aubrie Spady told the paper: “Karen Budd-Falen is a highly qualified, principled public servant who brings the utmost expertise to her role at the Department.”
The Campaign for Accountability’s letter marks the second time a letter has been sent to government officials requesting an inquiry into Budd-Falen’s ethical compliance while serving as a top official in the department.
In January, congressional Democrats asked the Interior Department’s inspector general to investigate whether Budd-Falen’s personal financial relationship with a lithium mine developer had influenced the government’s permit approval for the mine during the first Trump administration.
The Democrats said Budd-Falen failed to disclose that her husband had sold water from a family ranch to a subsidiary of the mining company for $3.5 million a year before Budd-Falen met with the mining company’s executives.
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