Weekly Watch: Karen Budd-Falen and “Selloff Steve” Pearce Take Grifting to New Heights
Burgum’s Top Lieutenant is Making a Killing in Public Service and Pearce’s Ethics Agreement Reveals He’s Planning a Similar Grift
HELENA, MT – Save Our Parks is tracking the massive assault against America’s national parks and public lands system by Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and their cronies, documenting the ongoing consequences of Trump’s unprecedented attack on our nation’s natural heritage.
One of Burgum’s favorite cronies is at it again and another is planning to do the same. After Interior Department Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen’s financial disclosure confirmed she still holds sizable investments in Big Oil companies that she’s supposed to “regulate,” new reporting showed that her self-dealing goes beyond conflicts of interest into outright corruption. Budd-Falen, now the third-highest-ranking official under Burgum, made her name at Interior during the first Trump administration, when she met with top executives from Lithium Americas. After her meeting, the Trump administration fast-tracked what became the nation’s largest lithium mine. At the same time, Budd-Falen sold water rights critical to the project’s viability, making millions from the deal.
This raises even more questions about potential illegal self-dealing in this administration, and especially at Burgum’s Interior Department. Save Our Parks has spent months documenting the litany of conflicts of interest and potentially illegal activity from people like Burgum and Budd-Falen, as well as other conflicted cronies at the department, many of whom have yet to provide any financial or ethics disclosures. What we’ve uncovered so far is likely just the tip of the iceberg.
Unfortunately for Americans, the Republican-controlled Congress hasn’t even lifted a finger to address this outright corruption and protect our beloved parks and public lands. Enough is enough and Congress should immediately open investigations into Burgum’s self-dealing Interior Department. We won’t stop digging until we have answers on just how deep this rot goes.
And, while Congress has rejected the most drastic funding and staffing cuts Trump and Burgum proposed to our National Parks and public land agencies, Republicans quietly removed language affirming that national parks must remain federal lands. That means they’re now more vulnerable than ever to being sold off under Burgum’s fail-by-design plan. These anti-public lands and sell off zealots aren’t taking time to ease into the new year either. People like Utah Senator Mike Lee are already full-steam ahead on ensuring special interests get everything they want, like “permitting reform,” while one of Lee’s top aides is going to the Interior Department to do his bidding from inside the administration.
But it seems Doug Burgum, who recently learned he would have the privilege of sharing the title of Washington Free Beacon’s Man of the Year with Nick Fuentes, could care less about America’s actual interior. This international jet-setter has now pledged to spend this year helping Trump “unlock Venezuela’s oil,” adding foreign adventurism and South American oil field revitalization to the long list of things he’s focusing on instead of protecting America’s parks and public lands.
What Americans need is elected representatives at every level to step up and do their jobs of protecting and defending our parks and public lands. If they don’t, people like Burgum, Russ Vought, Karen Budd-Falen, and “Selloff Steve” Pearce will strip and sell them off the first chance they get. There’s still time for Republican Senators, especially the members of the Stewardship Caucus, to draw a line in the sand and send one of their most corrupt former members, Steve Pearce, packing.
Parks and Public Lands in the News:
Safety and Preparedness
Roll Call: Deep cuts made 2025 a difficult year for National Park Service
“‘Under this administration, our national parks and the people who protect them have been pushed to the brink through mass staff cuts, hiring freezes and pressured resignations,’ Garder said. ‘Park Rangers are doing the work of multiple people, visitor centers are closing, and morale has never been lower.’”
Deseret News: Congress rejects Trump’s $1 billion cut to National Park Service in latest spending bill
“In the latest spending package released by lawmakers on Monday, the National Park Service is poised to receive $3.27 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year — roughly $1.15 billion higher than what Trump proposed in his initial budget request last year. That figure includes $2.997 billion for the National Park Service, which includes the actual parks and lands overseen by the agency.”
“While the overall legislation includes several wins for national parks, it does strip key language that NPCA and the national park community have been fighting for weeks to keep in. This language affirmed that national parks must remain federal lands, providing an important guardrail to help prevent the selloff of our national parks.”
Privatization and Sell-Offs
New York Times: The Trump Administration Approved a Big Lithium Mine. A Top Official’s Husband Profited.
“A high-ranking official in the Interior Department is drawing scrutiny from ethics experts because she failed to disclose her family’s financial interest in the nation’s largest lithium mine that had been approved by her agency, according to state and federal records.”
Common Dreams: Top Official’s Disclosure Failure Underscores ‘Naked Corruption’ of Trump Interior Department
“Ethics experts this week raised red flags over a senior US Interior Department official’s failure to disclose her family’s financial interest in the nation’s largest lithium mine, which opponents say was illegally approved by the Trump administration.”
LA Times: How the Trump administration sold out public lands in 2025
“Trump directed the Department of Interior to inventory mineral deposits on federal lands and prioritize mining as the primary use of those lands. He instructed officials to dramatically fast-track permitting and environmental reviews for certain types of energy and critical minerals projects — and designated metallurgical coal a critical mineral, enabling companies that mine it to qualify for a lucrative tax credit.”
Deseret News: What will be the biggest public land stories of 2026?
“Since federal land being sold to the states was an idea with such support from Utah’s congressional leaders (and the governor and state attorney general’s office), there’s a chance that the state’s delegation seeks ways to put it back on the national agenda.”
Community Impacts
PEER: Burgum’s Offshore Wind Halt of Questionable Legality
“The Secretary of the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) abrupt cessation of all leases for major offshore wind electric generation facilities under construction is not legally defensible and raises significant conflict of interest issues, according to a letter Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) sent to congressional committees today.”
E&E News: EPA delays next round of air cleanup plans for national parks
“EPA is giving states three more years to turn in new plans for improving visibility in some of the nation’s best-known hiking and recreational areas, overriding objections from conservation groups.”
The Hill: Senators call on Trump administration to pause hike in national park fees
“The senators argue the fee increases are taking place without proper notice, will slow entry into the parks and will limit visits from international tourists.”
SFGate: DOI cracks down on stickers covering Trump's face on national park passes
“The Department of the Interior recently updated its ‘Void if Altered’ rules for 2026, explicitly flagging stickers and other coverings as alterations that could invalidate the pass. The move appears to respond to visitors preparing to cover the image of Trump, which was set to begin appearing on passes Jan. 1 despite legal challenges.”
Stories on the Trail
@TheDailyShow: .@Nick_Offerman schools Trump on the importance (and pronunciation) of national parks
@americanhuntersanglers: Welcome to 2026. Get ready for more land grab proposals from Sen. Mike Lee and the White House. National parks, forests, refuges… all of it is in the crosshairs. Mike Lee wants it sold. We say: HELL NO.
@National_Parks_Traveler: Placing stickers on the annual America the Beautiful pass could now invalidate it, according to an internal email to regional National Park Service staff obtained by SFGATE. The email was sent from department business specialists Allison Christofis and Jeff Beauchamp and shared updated guidelines for passes in 2026, highlighting changes to the Department of the Interior’s altered pass policy.
@NPCA: Update: While this Senate appropriations bill will not cut funding or staffing from parks, it does strip key language affirming that national parks must remain federal lands. This removes an important guardrail preventing the selloff of national parks.
@protectNPS: National parks face growing threats, from shrinking monuments to declining funding, morale, and staffing. The new Threatened & Endangered Parks series from @ParksTraveler examines what’s at stake, and what could be lost.
The Crisis Continues:
The crisis continues to escalate across America’s 640-million-acre public lands system and is poised to get worse after Trump’s spending package, passed by Congressional Republicans, slashed some $267 million of previously committed funding for national parks. The National Park Service has lost nearly a quarter of its permanent workforce since Trump took office, with some parks now operating without superintendents and at half-staff during peak visitation. Between Trump, DOGE, and Republicans’ draconian budget cuts, hiring freezes, and workforce reductions, the staffing shortages are forcing scientists, park rangers, and other safety personnel to clean toilets and pick up garbage instead of conducting critical work like ongoing maintenance and supporting visitor safety.
Save Our Parks documents and exposes conditions across America’s federal park and public lands system through monitoring reports, visitor testimonials, and accountability research. The campaign maintains comprehensive documentation through its website at SaveOurParks.us.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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