What does Secretary of the Interior do? A look at the department after Trump taps Burgum
President-elect Donald Trump this week announced Republican Gov. of North Dakota Doug Burgum as his pick to oversee the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The job is one of 15 executive department positions that must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, including secretaries of labor, energy, commerce, defense and treasury.
What is the U.S. Department of the Interior?
The department oversees much of the nation's vast amounts of public lands and natural resources, primarily through its Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service. It also runs the bureaus of Reclamation, Indian Affairs, Ocean Energy Management, Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
In all, the Congressional Research Service calculates the department manages more than 480 million acres of public lands, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals such as oil and gas, and 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf.
The department describes itself as a protector and manager of the nation's natural resources and cultural heritage in its mission statement, and says it "honors its trust responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and affiliated Island Communities." Under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Interior Department has a far-reaching impact on the lives of the nation's 2.5 million American Indian and Alaska Natives, providing services and resources on everything from tribal government, infrastructure, education, employment and social services.
What does the Secretary of the Interior do?
With authority over 20 percent of the nation’s lands, the Secretary of the Interior was a wide mandate. The incoming secretary will be tasked with advancing the Trump administration's policies on public lands, energy, the environment and the federal government's relationship with Tribes.
Duties also include overseeing a staff of approximately 70,000 as of late 2024, and a significant operating budget. The budget approved in March for the 2024 fiscal year gave the department a $14.8 billion budget, and the Biden administration has asked for an additional $3 billion for the 2025 fiscal year.
Over the last few administrations, the department has become a battleground over oil and gas exploration and a central player in opposing visions of the nation's energy future between Democrats and Republicans. Trump's secretaries during his first term focused on rolling back environmental regulations from the Obama administration and opening up more of the nation to drilling and mining, while the current secretary under President Joe Biden halted controversial new drilling, expanded conservation efforts and pursued Democratic climate goals such as solar and wind.
Who is the current Secretary of the Interior?
In 2021, former Rep. of New Mexico Deb Haaland was confirmed by the Senate to become Biden’s secretary of the Interior. A member of the Pueblo of Laguna, Haaland is the first Native American to lead a cabinet agency.
During Trump's first term, his initial pick, Ryan Zinke, held the position for just under two years until his resignation in December 2018 following several ethics investigations into his connections to the energy industry. A federal investigation by the Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General released in February 2022 found Zinke misused his position over a development project in his Montana hometown and failed to abide by the office's ethics obligations.
He was succeeded by David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who was the Interior Department’s deputy secretary before taking the top job.
Kathryn Palmer is an elections fellow for Paste BN. Reach her at kapalmer@gannett.com and follow her on X @KathrynPlmr.