Public Lands Sell Off – Part 2: Burgum Hands Management of Interior to DOGE
By Hal Shepherd
The first Trump administration's chaotic public lands management strategy was marked by the appointment of controversial former right-wing attorney, activist & political commentator William Perry Pendley as Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management from 2019 to 2021. Pendley outraged conservation and tribal organizations throughout the Western U.S. and Alaska with his incendiary statements, open opposition to social justice and diversity (including for Native and African American communities), support for privatizing public lands and for anti-government extremists, conflicts of interest, unethical conduct, and efforts to dismantle the BLM.
Pendley's conduct was so inflammatory that it quickly became obvious to Interior Secretary Bernhardt at the time that Congress would not approve his appointment as Director of the BLM if the administration followed legal requirements and nominated him for the role.
When it came to gutting environmental regulatory standards, however, the Trump administration has never been that concerned with federal law—or, for that matter, the U.S. Constitution. Bernhardt, therefore, resolved the issue of Pendley's controversial agenda by extending his administrative appointment as the agency's acting director for thirteen months.
More recently, as part of the second the Trump Administration's shock and awe campaign against environmentalists and Tribal organizations, has taken the pandemonium of the Pendley debacle a step further. On Earth Day (April 22), Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American announced:
On April 18, journalist Wes Siler reported in Wes Siler's Newsletter that the previous day, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed an unprecedented and illegal order granting the assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget (AS-PMB) control over the Department of the Interior, including its personnel and budget. The current AS-PMB is Tyler Hassen, CEO of a Houston-based energy company, appointed without Senate confirmation. Jennifer Rokala from the Center for Western Priorities commented that Elon Musk now effectively has complete control over America's public lands.[1]
According to Cox-Richardson, Siler highlights that without congressional confirmation, Burgum's action unconstitutionally places significant power in the hands of Hassen who is “'now responsible for 70,000 employees, the administration of numerous international treaties, the welfare of 574 Native American Tribes, 433 national park sites, over 500 million acres of public lands, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals, and 3.2 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf.'”[2]
According to Burgum's order, it is designed "to effectuate the consolidation, unification and optimization of administrative functions within the Department of the Interior…in order to achieve effectiveness, accountability and cost savings for the American taxpayer." .
Rather than economic efficiency, however, such dismantling of protections for fish and wildlife habitat, recreational uses, and Alaska Native traditions and culture arises primarily out of the right-wing agenda known as the "Sagebrush Rebellion," which started in the western states in the early 20th century and is characterized by push-back against federal regulations and attempts at enforcement by federal officials when such laws conflict with resource extraction interests.
According to High Country News, the Rebellion has been gaining momentum among Republicans in Congress after the beginning of Trump's second term. In fact, last March, the U.S. Senate voted down an amendment sponsored by New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, D, that would have banned selling public land to balance the federal budget.[3]Around the same time, the House adopted new rules that, opponents say, quietly lowered the bar for disposing of such lands.
That Secretary Burgum is on board with that plan is illustrated by the fact during his confirmation hearings, he made it clear that he sees selling the public lands as a source of revenue, referring to them as "America's balance sheet," he said:
[W]e've got $36 trillion in debt," he said, but "[w]e never talk about the assets, and the assets are the land and minerals." The Interior Department, he said, "has got close to 500 million acres of surface. It's 700 million acres of subsurface and over 2 billion acres of offshore…. That's the balance sheet of America…. I believe we ought to have a deep inventory of all the assets in America. We ought to understand…what is our assets, 100 trillion, 200 trillion? We could be in great shape as a country.[4]
What Burgum fails to mention, however, is that much of that $36 Trillion in debt is due to Trump's tax plan approved by Congress to give tax breaks to the rich. Rep. Heinrich told High Country News, "Republicans’ plans to sell off our public lands to pay for tax handouts for their billionaire donors is an outrageous slap in the face to all of us."
The good news is that during the Will Perry Penley debacle, the nomination was eventually removed after Republican senators facing reelection in several key states were concerned about the autocratic audacity of the Pendley appointment. Also, after the lawsuit filed by the state of Montana and several conservation organizations to prevent Bernhardt from continuing to extend Pendley's status as Acting Director of BLM, the Federal District Court of Montana enjoined him from exercising such authority and Bernhardt from unlawfully delegating the BLM director's authority. The Court's declaration that Pendley had served unlawfully as the Acting Director of the BLM for well over a year also meant that many of his decisions during that time were similarly illegal, including many decisions directly impacting public lands in Alaska.[5]
The current move to illegally hand over control over DOI will no doubt result in similar litigation and reaction from congress, hopefully putting a stop to Trump's extraction industry land grab and tax breaks for the rich.
Contact Senators Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mark Begich tell them to take action to stop the transfer of all authority of the Department of Interior to DOGE which without congressional confirmation, unconstitutionally places significant power in the hands of DOGE and will result in the loss of some of Alaska’s most unique wild places, critical watersheds, fish and hunting areas, cultural sites and traditional lands.
[1] Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American (April 22, 2025).
[2] Ibid, citing Wes Siler's Newsletter (April 18, 2025)
[3] Bob Wick, As Trump pushes public land sales, advocates rally, HCN (April 23. 2025).
[4] Letters from an American.
[5] See Harold Shepherd, Return to Ekeunick's Time, Defending Waters and Tradition in the Arctic, p. 153-54 (iUniverse, October 2024).