
News Link • United States Infrastructure
DOGE Is Now in Charge of U.S. National Parks
• Fodors TravelThe Interior Department has come under the control of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This means that the tech mogul's team will be able to make changes to more than 400 national parks in the U.S. and over 500 million acres of federal land.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed an order to give control to DOGE executive Tyler Hassen to oversee the department for "consolidation, unification, and optimization of administrative functions."
Hassen, a former oil executive, is the assistant secretary of policy, management, and budget in the Interior Department. The order effectively gives him the reins of the offices of "human resources, information technology, financial management, training and development, international affairs, contracting, communications, federal financial assistance, and other administrative functions." He now has the power to fire employees, transfer funds, and make policy decisions without Burgum's approval. According to the Washington Post, his team has been reviewing all contracts and grants and looking to potentially terminate them.