"In administrative cases before DOI, Interior Secretary Burgum intervened to make policy changes that involved or benefited the former legal clients of Karen Budd-Falen, one of his top deputies."
"In August 2022, Karen Budd-Falen, a private attorney at the time who now serves as the third highest-ranking official at the Interior Department, sent a 53-page appeal challenging a Bureau of Land Management decision to allow a conservation nonprofit to continue grazing bison on public land in central Montana while expanding its access to new areas.
The nonprofit, American Prairie Reserve, seeks to restore bison to many thousands of acres of private and public lands in the state. A July 2022 decision by the BLM authorizing it to maintain its herds on numerous parcels of federal land furthered that effort. The prairie reserve however, has drawn fierce opposition from ranching groups in the state, who see its bison restoration mission as a threat to their livestock and way of life.
Budd-Falen, a self-proclaimed “cowboy lawyer,” filed the appeal on behalf of three pro-ranching entities: the Montana Stockgrowers Association and the North and South Phillips County Cooperative State Grazing Districts. In it, she argued that the BLM’s authorization of bison grazing on the Montana allotments had violated multiple laws and regulations, including the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, and caused “significant harm” to her clients.
The appeal was filed with the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) — an administrative law body within the Interior Department that normally has the power to issue its own rulings. But in a rare move, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum personally intervened, overriding OHA’s authority over the case."
Chris D'Angelo and Jimmy Tobias report for Public Domain May 14, 2026.
