Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum gave a DOGE-tied aide control over the finances, contracting and staffing arms of the agency in an order Thursday, delegating him “any authority necessary” to the department’s central administrative functions.
Tyler Hassen, a former oil executive, was one of seven officials to sit with Elon Musk for a DOGE interview with Fox News in late March. A post on DOGE’s X page showed him at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, where he appeared to be involved in the controversial project to increase water flows in California. That effort nearly flooded local communities.
In March, Hassen was quietly promoted to assistant secretary for policy, management and budget at Interior. Burgum’s new order gives Hassen authority to reorganize and optimize all of the agency’s administrative functions.
Control over Interior’s administration also means control over an extensive web of government functions well beyond the agency. The Interior Department houses a key federal system for personnel, payroll and contracts across several government entities including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture and the Supreme Court.
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The Friday order granting Hassen complete authority over Interior’s restructure comes just a week after the department fired several officials, including Tony Irish, an official in the Solicitor’s Office, for requesting that Burgum sign a memo authorizing DOGE officials, including Hassen, to have unfettered access to the Federal Personnel Payroll System. The memo laid out that such access to the system would carry unprecedented legal and security risks.
In response, Hassen authored the dismissal letter that led to Irish’s firing. “I have found your misconduct to be so harmful to your trustworthiness and dependability that nothing short of removal will sufficiently deter you and others from engaging in such misconduct in the future,” Hassen wrote.
Hassen will now have the power to transfer funds and take actions with Interior employees in the “consolidation” effort, according to the order.
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Anna Kramer is a reporter at NOTUS.
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