"Records show that Karen Budd-Falen, a top Interior Department official, didn’t disclose a contract between her husband and the developers of a mine approved by the agency."
"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.”
The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment.
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."
Lisa Friedman reports for the New York Times January 20, 2026.
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