1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Has Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed an order assigning to the assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget, or AS-PMB, control over the Department of the Interior, including its personnel and its budget? The person currently serving as AS-PMB (which in normal times would require Senate confirmation) is DOGE operative Tyler Hassen, the CEO of a Houston-based energy company. Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of America’s public lands. Burgum has handed power over the Department of the Interior to a political operative who is holding his position in violation of the appointments clause of the Constitution. The Department of the Interior manages the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Trust Funds Administration, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey, in addition to the National Park Service. Hassen 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. Burgum appears to be on board with a plan to seek or exploit the natural wonders of America. In his confirmation hearings, Burgum made it clear that he sees selling the public lands as a source of revenue, referring to them as “America's balance sheet.” Have you given the country over to the highest bidder? There’s another name for this and it is not ‘efficiency.’ Stop this.