U.S. Department of the Interior
The U.S. Department of the Interior is the federal department responsible for managing and conserving the nation's natural resources, including national parks, public lands, and mineral resources. It oversees agencies including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under Secretary Doug Burgum, the department pursued expanded energy production on public lands and became a focal point of disputes over park access and staffing reductions.
Also known as Interior Department
2026 Events (18)
NOTUS investigation revealed Interior Department pressuring National Park Service to trade Yosemite land to a private developer
NOTUS reported on August 28, 2026, that National Park Service staff, under sustained pressure from U.S. Department of the Interior political leadership, have spent more than a year quietly working to arrange a land exchange inside Yosemite National Park for a company controlled by developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital, which would let Kingsbarn build a private access road into the park from its adjacent 83-acre parcel. Sources familiar with the discussions described the political pressure on Park Service staff as "very unusual," and the Park Service had rejected the same access request from the property's prior owner repeatedly over the preceding two decades. No final decision has been made, and Interior and Kingsbarn both said any exchange would proceed only through the normal legal and environmental review process.
Interior paid RWE $1.22 billion to terminate its New York, California, and Louisiana offshore wind leases
On August 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a $1.22 billion settlement with German energy company RWE under which RWE voluntarily relinquished its offshore wind leases in the New York Bight and off the coasts of California and Louisiana. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomed the deal, and RWE said it would redirect $900 million into a stake in a Louisiana LNG terminal and $300 million into natural gas turbine reservations. The settlement is the fifth Trump administration lease-termination deal with an offshore wind developer, bringing total federal buyout payments to nearly $4 billion.
Interior Department installed Project 2025 author Dennis Kirk inside its inspector general's office; former IG called it a threat to independence
Reporting on August 4-5, 2026 revealed that the Trump administration had installed Dennis Kirk, a co-author of a Project 2025 chapter on decentralizing and privatizing the federal government, inside the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General in Washington, D.C. Former Interior Inspector General Mark Greenblatt and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) both said the placement threatens the office's independence, while Interior's OIG declined to confirm or deny it. Kirk previously held a similar placement inside the intelligence community's inspector general's office in 2025.
Documents revealed federal agencies spent nearly $1M on Trump-image lobby banners; DOJ — which enforces the Hatch Act — led the spending
On July 24, 2026, documents published by E&E News/Politico and PBS showed that the U.S. Department of Justice spent nearly $1 million on large banners displaying President Trump's face in its Robert F. Kennedy Building headquarters, while the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and the Interior installed similar Trump-image banners at their headquarters buildings. The DOJ is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal agencies from using government resources for partisan political purposes.
Interior paid Duke Energy $129 million to terminate its Carolina Long Bay offshore wind lease
On June 29, 2026, the Department of the Interior announced a settlement agreement with Duke Energy under which Duke voluntarily terminated its offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area — 22 miles off southeastern North Carolina — in exchange for $129 million in federal compensation. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the deal advances President Trump's energy agenda, and Duke Energy said it would redirect the funds toward nuclear and natural gas generation. The agreement is the fourth offshore wind lease termination brokered by the Trump administration, bringing total federal wind lease buyout payments to more than $2.75 billion.
BLM approved 167MW AI data center on Boulder City public land by recycling a 2023 solar review, skipping public comment
On June 26, 2026, the Bureau of Land Management's Las Vegas Field Office, led by Bruce Sillitoe, approved converting a previously authorized 19-megawatt solar-and-battery-storage project on federal land in Boulder City, Nevada, into a 167-megawatt AI data center. BLM reused a 2023 environmental review completed for the solar project rather than conducting a new review or public comment period, even as Boulder City's own review of a related local permit led the developer to withdraw that application after a 6-1 Planning Commission vote against it. The Boulder City Council voted unanimously on July 14, 2026, to appeal the approval to the Interior Board of Land Appeals.
Interior Department proposed eliminating 90% of public comment windows for oil and gas leasing on federal lands
On June 24, 2026, the Interior Department published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would eliminate the 30-day pre-leasing public comment period and the 30-day NEPA environmental review comment period for oil and gas leasing on Bureau of Land Management federal lands, while cutting the protest period from 30 to 10 days — reducing total public input windows from 90 days to 10. The proposal would also lower cleanup bonds by more than 90% and eliminate BLM's requirement to assess resource conflicts before leasing. Environmental advocates said the changes violate the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which require public participation in federal land management by statute.
Interior Department and National Park Service directed employees to wear Freedom 250 lapel pins, threatening discipline for refusal
In a report published June 18, 2026, National Park Service employees and workers at other Interior Department agencies said supervisors had directed them to wear "Freedom 250" lapel pins on their uniforms and warned that refusing could bring disciplinary action. The pins carry the trademarked logo of Freedom 250, LLC, a group tied to the administration's 250th-anniversary programming, and were sourced through Ace Specialties, a Republican campaign vendor. Some employees described the mandate as compelled partisan expression and called the item a "Vichy pin," and a public-employee watchdog group said requiring federal workers to display the logo is unlawful.
Interior agreed to pay Invenergy $765 million from the Treasury Judgment Fund to cancel four offshore wind leases
On June 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced an agreement to pay Invenergy $765 million to terminate four offshore wind leases held by its affiliates: the 2-gigawatt Morro Bay project off central California, plus leases in the New York Bight and Gulf of Maine. Interior framed the buyout as a settlement payable from the Treasury Judgment Fund, and Invenergy agreed to redirect the payout toward natural gas plants in five states and geothermal projects. The deal brought the administration's total offshore wind lease buyouts to eight, costing more than $2.5 billion.
Interior Department severed funding partnership with Cultural Landscape Foundation after it sued over Kennedy Center, criticized ballroom
On June 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior under Secretary Doug Burgum terminated its cooperative agreement with the Cultural Landscape Foundation as part of a broader cut of 43 outside partnerships and more than $4 million in funding. Interior specifically cited the foundation's lawsuit over changes at the Kennedy Center, its criticism of White House ballroom construction, and its "Landslide 2026" initiative tracking threats to historic sites as reasons its partnership no longer aligned with the department's mission.
Interior Secretary Burgum unveils a Tom Fazio redesign of D.C.'s East Potomac Golf Links
On May 14, 2026, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum publicly unveiled, via his official @SecretaryBurgum account, a Tom Fazio design for the federally led renovation of East Potomac Golf Links, a century-old District of Columbia municipal course. Fazio Golf Design is the firm of architect Tom Fazio, who designed President Donald Trump's Trump National Golf Club Bedminster and has worked on multiple other Trump courses; Trump and Burgum will jointly oversee the East Potomac redesign. The arrangement follows the December 2025 termination by the Trump administration of the National Links Trust's 50-year lease covering East Potomac, Langston, and Rock Creek and a May 2026 National Park Service deal placing the East Potomac renovation under an NPS-led group of public and private partners rather than the NLT.
Interior official Karen Budd-Falen worked on federal grazing rules benefiting her family's ranches despite a signed recusal
On May 9, 2026, The Washington Post reported that Karen Budd-Falen, the Interior Department's third-ranking official, had acknowledged working on relaxed federal grazing regulations — including a categorical exclusion easing grazing-permit approvals — that benefit her family's cattle operations and federal grazing allotments across roughly a quarter-million acres of Bureau of Land Management land. Budd-Falen had signed a 2018 recusal from grazing matters, but the Interior Department issued her an ethics waiver on March 11, 2026 permitting her to work on matters affecting her financial interests. The watchdog Campaign for Accountability and congressional Democrats asked Interior's Inspector General and congressional committees to investigate the conflict.
Interior terminated Golden State Wind's $120M Morro Bay offshore lease via settlement of never-filed litigation
On April 27, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced it would terminate Golden State Wind's $120 million offshore wind lease in California's Morro Bay Wind Energy Area through an agreement framed as settling litigation the company never brought. The deal redirected $120 million in federal funds to pay the developer to abandon the lease and required an equal investment in out-of-state fossil-fuel projects. California's attorney general and energy commission say the arrangement violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Interior/NPS database flags hundreds of park signs on slavery, civil rights, climate for removal
An internal Department of the Interior and National Park Service database, authenticated by The Washington Post with current federal employees, flags several hundred signs, exhibits, films, and books across national park sites for removal or revision under President Trump's order to scrub "partisan ideology" and content that "disparages" Americans. Flagged materials include exhibits on slavery, the civil rights movement, Japanese-American internment, racial violence, and climate science — among them at least 30 signs at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Some materials had already been removed when the database was reported on March 2, 2026, while the department said final decisions on others had not been made.
Interior's Solicitor's Office falsely denied holding Karen Budd-Falen ethics records, then released redacted files after press inquiry
Interior Department ethics officials told a researcher for the Center for Western Priorities in writing that a "thorough search" had found no ethics records for senior appointee Karen Budd-Falen, then reversed that claim hours later once press inquiries followed, releasing 91 heavily redacted pages on February 20, 2026. The released documents omitted an updated ethics recusal for Budd-Falen's current tenure and redacted her full list of former legal clients, even though her own financial disclosure lists a dozen such clients from the year before she rejoined government.
National Park Service removed the Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement
On February 10, 2026, the National Park Service quietly removed the Pride flag — which had flown for years at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan and includes colors representing the transgender community — citing a Department of the Interior directive limiting NPS flagpoles to the U.S. flag and other "congressionally or departmentally authorized" flags. A coalition of LGBTQ+ nonprofits sued a week later, arguing NPS's own policy exempts flags that provide historical context — the same exception that allows Confederate flags at sites like Gettysburg — and the Trump administration settled on April 13, 2026, agreeing to restore the flag permanently within seven days.
National Park Service removed the George Washington slavery exhibit at Philadelphia's President's House Site
On January 22, 2026, the National Park Service removed 34 educational panels documenting the nine people George Washington enslaved while living at the President's House in Philadelphia, implementing President Trump's March 2025 executive order directing federal cultural sites to remove content that "inappropriately disparages" Americans. The city of Philadelphia sued, and a federal judge ordered the exhibit restored in February 2026, but the Third Circuit reversed that injunction in June, and NPS installed replacement panels in July that critics say soften Washington's record on slavery; Philadelphia is now seeking a rehearing of the appellate ruling.
Burgum established U.S. Wildland Fire Service by secretarial order, overriding Congress's refusal to fund it
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed Secretary's Order 3448 on January 12, 2026, formally establishing the U.S. Wildland Fire Service by consolidating wildfire management programs from four Interior Department agencies without congressional authorization. Congress had explicitly declined to fund the agency, zeroing out the administration's $6.5 billion request and directing that FY2026 Interior appropriations continue under the longstanding practice of separate agency programs. The new agency also mandated a full suppression wildfire policy requiring all fires under its management to be extinguished as quickly as possible, reviving a decades-old approach that wildfire scientists say worsens long-term fire risk.
2025 Events (6)
Interior Department terminated National Links Trust's D.C. golf-course lease on disputed grounds, clearing path for a Trump-favored redesign
On December 30, 2025, the Interior Department's Solicitor sent National Links Trust (NLT) a letter terminating its 50-year lease to manage Washington, D.C.'s three public golf courses — East Potomac, Langston, and Rock Creek — citing unmet capital-improvement obligations and roughly $8.8 million in unpaid rent. NLT disputed the stated basis, saying it had fully complied with the lease and invested more than $8.5 million in the courses since 2020. The termination followed Interior leadership privately pitching President Trump on converting East Potomac into a high-end tournament course, and Trump's own longtime architect touring the site and visiting the White House weeks before the letter issued.
Interior Department issued memo barring all bureaus from confirming deaths or injuries on public lands
In December 2025, the Department of the Interior issued an internal memo directing all bureaus and offices — including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — not to confirm deaths, serious injuries, or "emotionally sensitive incidents" on federal public lands. The memo, obtained by The Washington Post and reported June 24, 2026, states "Interior shall not confirm a death" and routes all fatality information through the department's Office of Communications. Former NPS officials said the change reversed longstanding practice of quickly informing the public about fatal incidents to prevent further harm.
Interior Dept. signed Izembek refuge land exchange with King Cove Corp. without completing statutory reviews required for the road swap
On October 21, 2025, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a land exchange agreement conveying 490 acres of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to the King Cove Corporation, an Alaska Native village corporation, in return for roughly 1,739 acres of corporation-owned land added to the refuge, to enable construction of a road through the refuge connecting King Cove to the Cold Bay airport. A federal judge later ruled the exchange violated the Endangered Species Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act because Interior had not completed the statutory analysis those laws require before authorizing a road through a wildlife refuge.
Interior Secretary Burgum ordered personal approval of every wind and solar permit on federal land
On July 17, 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered that he personally approve every solar and wind energy project on federal lands and waters, an "elevated review" covering proposed leases, rights of way, construction and operational plans, grants, and biological opinions. Interior said the order corrected "preferential treatment" for renewables, while a coalition of wind and solar developers sued, alleging it was designed to place wind and solar into "second-class status" relative to fossil fuels. A federal judge in Massachusetts later found the order likely violated federal law and preliminarily enjoined its enforcement.
Interior Secretary Burgum ordered National Park Service to review and remove public content deemed to disparage Americans
On May 20, 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued Secretary's Order 3431, implementing President Trump's Executive Order 14253 and directing the National Park Service and other Interior land-management bureaus to review all public-facing interpretive content and remove anything that "inappropriately disparages Americans" or, for natural features, emphasizes matters unrelated to their beauty and grandeur. Under the order, the Park Service removed or flagged signs, exhibits, and materials on slavery, immigration, and climate change at sites nationwide, with an initial content-removal deadline of September 17, 2025. Interior also posted signage inviting visitors to report content they viewed as negative about past or living Americans.
Interior Department rescinded Scotts Valley Band's casino eligibility without notice, days after donor-backed rival tribe's lobbying push
On March 26, 2025, the Department of the Interior rescinded its January 10, 2025 determination that the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians' proposed Vallejo, California casino site qualified for gaming, without giving the tribe notice or an opportunity to respond. The rescission came one week after lobbyists for the rival Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation — which donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration and later $2 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC — asked Deputy Assistant Secretary Ken Bellmard for precisely that two-step rescission approach. A federal judge ruled on October 30, 2025 that the rescission violated the tribe's due-process rights and vacated it.