The Interior Department is moving forward with sweeping reorganization and consolidation efforts that will be overseen by a former member of the Elon Musk-led workforce reduction team.
Interior began circulating basic outlines for the reorganization last week, which a department official familiar with the plan said at the time would include consolidating communications, financial management, contracting, human resources, grants, civil rights and interactive technology. Another Interior official confirmed last week that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has spearheaded President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting efforts across the government, would lead the task.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a secretarial order Thursday that confirmed most of those details.
Under the subject line “Consolidation, Unification and Optimization of Administrative Functions,” Burgum’s order says Interior “will be unifying and consolidating many of its functions within the Office of the Secretary.”
That consolidation, the order says, “will include human resources, information technology, financial management, training and development, international affairs, contracting, communications, Federal financial assistance, and other administrative functions. Further optimization will create significant efficiencies across the Department by improving processes, eliminating redundant efforts, and helping integrate technology adoption.”
Burgum’s order also assigns the task of overseeing the effort to Interior’s assistant secretary for policy, management and budget — the duties of which are currently being performed on an acting basis by Tyler Hassen, a former DOGE member who joined the department last month.
The secretarial order offers no details on when the reorganization and consolidation plan will be executed, how many employees might be involved and when it will be completed.
An Interior spokesperson issued an emailed statement saying the plan is part of broader efforts by the agency to implement “necessary reforms to ensure fiscal responsibility, operational efficiency and government accountability” that Trump has outlined.
The statement adds, “While we do not comment on personnel matters, we are collaborating closely with the Office of Personnel Management to embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation.”
Hassen’s assistant secretary post will be responsible for developing “the appropriate prioritization, phasing, and steps required to achieve” the reorganization plan, according to the order. He’ll be tasked with making “appropriate funding decisions for the resulting consolidated administrative functions,” and for ensuring “the appropriate transfer of funds, programs, records, and property, as well as taking required personnel actions, to carry out the consolidation.”
Burgum’s order says the goal is to allow Interior to focus its efforts on meeting its “core mission,” which the secretary writes, “includes preserving more than 400 national parks and historic sites, delivering on our legal responsibility to 574 federally recognized Native American Tribes and entities, managing more than 500 million acres of U.S. land, conserving our Nation’s fish and wildlife, and offering emergency response and law enforcement capability across a broad and diverse geographic footprint.”
But a conservation watchdog accused Burgum of handing over too much power and control for the reorganization to Hassen and DOGE.
“If Doug Burgum doesn’t want this job, he should quit now,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities. “This order shows what it looks like when leaders abdicate their jobs and let unqualified outsiders fire thousands of civil servants who are working on behalf of all Americans and their public lands.”
Workforce tension
The secretarial order comes as Interior employees are on edge as they await expected departmentwide layoffs. The firings would kick off a process in which employees would compete against each other, jockeying for remaining positions using tenure, veterans’ preference, length of service and performance ratings.
Interior sent lists of specific competitive areas this week where staffers will compete for jobs, according to documents obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News. Among the areas listed: the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Office of Renewable Energy, the Interior civil rights division in Denver, the Bureau of Land Management’s communications office at Interior headquarters, and a host of BLM state offices and directorates.
Interior has offered two rounds of deferred resignation and retirement to staffers; it’s not clear how many took the offer. The National Treasury Employees Union told members of its BLM headquarters chapter that 1,000 bureau staffers agreed to leave under that buyout program, according to two employees.
It’s expected the Trump administration won’t move on mass layoffs at Interior until it determines how many employees voluntarily resigned or retired.
Burgum writes that the order signed Thursday is in response to Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order that lays out a broad outline for implementing DOGE’s governmentwide “Workforce Optimization Initiative.”
Trump’s order called for the White House Office of Management and Budget director to “submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.” It also directed government agencies to “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.”
It also directed OMB within 30 days to develop “Agency Reorganization Plans,” which among other things, should include an evaluation into whether an individual “agency or any of its subcomponents should be eliminated or consolidated.” It exempted “military personnel” or any position an agency head deems “necessary to meet national security, homeland security, or public safety responsibilities.”
Scott Streater can be reached on Signal at s_streater.80.
