Karen Budd-falen Video Sparks Ethics Inquiry Over Grazing Policy
Karen Budd-Falen, an Associate Deputy Secretary and Trump appointee to the Interior Department, said in a December video that grazing regulations were “the thing that probably was the closest to my heart.” She also described grazing policy as part of her job. The recording now sits at the center of a conflict-of-interest challenge.
December Video
Budd-Falen spoke before a Congressional Western Caucus event in December, where she discussed relaxing limits on grazing through a categorical exclusion. She said the change would also apply to land controlled by her husband after the death of her father-in-law. In the same remarks, she said she wanted to increase the number of grazing allotments handed out to ranchers and no longer declare areas as critical habitat for endangered species.
The video matters because The Washington Post reported that Budd-Falen and her husband own at least five cattle or ranch operations in Nevada and Wyoming. Her federal financial disclosure forms value each operation at more than $1 million. The couple’s companies also 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.
Campaign for Accountability
Campaign for Accountability said it plans to send a letter to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee. The group wants Congress to investigate whether Budd-Falen violated ethics laws and whether the Interior Department’s ethics office failed as an independent check on her conflicts of interest. Michelle Kuppersmith, the group’s executive director, said, “The situation with Karen Budd-Falen seems to be quite brazen in the scheme of conflicts of interest.”
She added, “She is, by her own admission, working on policy for grazing that will likely directly impact her own financial interests.” Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer under the George W. Bush administration, said that if Budd-Falen has received federal grazing rights from Interior, “that would be a pretty slam-dunk financial conflict of interest.” Three independent ethics experts and two watchdog groups said this is the latest example of the Trump administration’s pattern of disregarding conflict-of-interest laws.
Interior Department Ethics
The practical question now is whether the ethics review inside the Interior Department handled those ranch holdings and grazing allotments as a real conflict before Budd-Falen spoke publicly about policy changes. Her remarks tied the policy debate to land she and her husband use, and the planned congressional letters show the issue has moved beyond the video itself into oversight territory.
