Senior Interior Department official says she was involved in policy changes that benefited her family's ranches

Source: The Independent

Sunday 10 May 2026 12:36 EDT


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.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/interior-department-karen-budd-falen-b2973832.html