Senior Interior Official Flat-Out Said Changes In Federal Grazing Policy Personally Enriched Her - 6 Months Ago
A top Trump appointee at the Interior Department acknowledged that she has been involved in changes to grazing policies that benefit ranching businesses like her family’s, according to a video of her remarks — a claim that some ethics experts say could violate federal law. Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen told a Congressional Western Caucus event in December that grazing policy is part of her job, and “the thing that probably was the closest to my heart was grazing regulations,” according to a video that Senate Western Caucus Chairwoman Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) uploaded to her public YouTube page.
The remarks, which have not previously been reported, prompted at least one nonpartisan watchdog group to call for an investigation into whether she violated ethics laws. The official’s comments are the latest example, three independent ethics experts and two watchdog groups said, of this administration’s appointees apparently disregarding conflict-of-interest laws. For instance, White House and Justice Department officials’ ownership of cryptocurrency has also drawn scrutiny.
President Donald Trump — who has major interests in his own cryptocurrency, real estate and social media companies — is exempt as president from the main federal conflict-of-interest law and is the first president not to agree to abide by it voluntarily.Budd-Falen and her husband own at least five cattle or ranch operations in Nevada and Wyoming, according to her federal financial disclosure forms, each valued at more than $1 million. The couple’s companies additionally hold allotments that allow them to graze cattle on about one-quarter-million acres of federal land overseen by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management.
In the video, Budd-Falen discusses relaxing limits on grazing using a “categorical exclusion” that also applies to land controlled by her husband, following the death of her father-in-law. She said that she aims to increase the number of grazing allotments handed out to ranchers and no longer declare areas as critical habitat for endangered species, a designation that can hurt landowners.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/05/09/karen-budd-falen-grazing-policies-ethics-probe/