NEW: House Democrats Demand Investigation Into One Of Interior Secretary Burgum’s Top Officials
Burgum’s Shadowy Interior Refuses To Be Transparent, Answer Questions About Budd-Falen’s Failure to Disclose $3.5 Million Profit From Lithium Mine Deal
HELENA, MT – Today, Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee sent a letter to Interior Department Acting Inspector General Caryl Brzymialkiewicz demanding an investigation into Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen’s $3.5 million profit and clear corruption related to the Trump administration’s fast-tracked approval of the massive Thacker Pass lithium mine after it was exposed by Public Domain and the New York Times.
During Trump’s first term, Budd-Falen, whose husband owned water rights critical to the mine’s success, met with top executives from Lithium Americas. After her meeting, the federal government signed off on the mine, allowing the multi-million dollar private water deal between Lithium Americas and the Budd-Falens to move forward. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s department has refused to answer questions about Budd-Falen’s failure to disclose her personal stake in the lithium mine deal, her failure to include the profit on four separate financial disclosure forms, and other questions about potential corruption occurring under his management, clear conflicts of interest, and an overall lack of transparency.
“Today’s investigation request from House Democrats is an important first step towards getting transparency and accountability from Doug Burgum’s self-serving fiefdom at the Interior Department. Karen Budd-Falen, one of Doug Burgum’s top cronies, engaged in self-dealing, made millions, refused to disclose it, and got caught red-handed,” said Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill. “Now, Burgum’s Interior Department is refusing to answer questions about why a top official failed to include millions in personal profits on four separate financial disclosure forms, why a recusal wasn’t required over clear conflicts-of-interest, and why an ethics waiver wasn’t filed. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the open-air corruption happening under Burgum’s failed leadership, and we need more leaders in Congress demanding answers and transparency.”
Save Our Parks has raised several questions about Burgum’s own conflicts of interest, unethical and potentially illegal activity, and other conflicted cronies nominated or hired, many of whom have yet to provide financial or ethics disclosures.
Read more below:
New York Times: Democrats Seek Investigation of $3.5 Million Deal by Interior Official’s Husband
House Democrats asked the Interior Department’s inspector general on Tuesday to investigate whether Karen Budd-Falen, the agency’s third highest ranking official, played a role in the federal approval of a lithium mine after her husband entered into a $3.5 million financial relationship with the mine’s developer.
Representative Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Representative Maxine Dexter of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the oversight subcommittee, said Ms. Budd-Falen “failed to come clean to Congress about her financial and ethical dealings.”
Ms. Budd-Falen worked as the deputy solicitor responsible for wildlife at Interior from 2018 until 2021. She returned to the agency last year and is now the associate deputy secretary.
In a letter to Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, the Interior Department’s acting inspector general, the two lawmakers said that records showed that during the first Trump administration, Ms. Budd-Falen met with executives from a mining company, Lithium Nevada Corporation in November 2019, when the company was seeking a permit from the agency to build a $2.2 billion mine called Thacker Pass.
One year earlier, Ms. Budd-Falen’s husband, Frank Falen, had sold water from a family ranch in northern Nevada to Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of Lithium Americas, for $3.5 million, according to state and federal records. The bulk of the money from the sale depended on a permit approval for [the] company.
The New York Times and Public Domain, an environmental news outlet, reported this month that Ms. Budd-Falen did not reveal the financial arrangement on any of the four financial disclosures she submitted to the federal government when she worked at the Interior Department from 2018 to 2021.
The water-rights contract also is not mentioned on a disclosure she filed when she joined the current Trump administration in May.
“Although the full extent to which Ms. Budd-Falen participated in or influenced these deliberations remains unclear,” the lawmakers wrote, “the record unequivocally reflects an official meeting between Ms. Budd-Falen and the Nevada Lithium Corporation scheduled during the pending federal review for the Thacker Pass lithium mine, combined with a continuing, multimillion-dollar financial interest tied to the project’s success.”
The Interior Department has declined to say whether Ms. Budd-Falen played any role in decisions regarding the 2021 approval of the mine. The agency has not responded to questions about whether Ms. Budd-Falen recused herself from decisions related to the mine, or whether she filed an ethics waiver that disclosed the fact that her husband would benefit from it.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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