A Texas oil executive from Elon Musk’s government efficiency team has been given sweeping powers to overhaul the federal department that manages vast tracts of resource-rich public lands, but he hasn’t divested his energy investments or filed an ethics commitment to break ties with companies that pose a conflict of interest, records show.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently directed Tyler Hassen, who lacks Senate confirmation and has no public administration experience, to reorganize the Interior Department, which oversees some 70,000 employees in 11 agencies including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Before joining DOGE, Hassen spent nearly two decades as an executive at Basin Holdings, an enterprise involved in the manufacture, sale and servicing of oil rigs worldwide. A financial disclosure report obtained by AP shows Hassen made millions annually from these companies, owned by John Fitzgibbons — an industry giant who is well-connected in Russia.
It’s unclear how Hassen became involved with Musk. There’s little information about him online. He told FOX News that before DOGE, he was “running five businesses in Houston.” He said this work “is me giving back to the country.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico told Burgum in a May 7 letter that “delegating sweeping authorities and responsibilities to a non-Senate confirmed person in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act is baffling and extremely troubling.”
Hassen sought to fire a top department lawyer in April for refusing to give him and other DOGE officials access to a highly sensitive personnel database as he pushed for massive department-wide staff reductions through buyouts, early retirements and layoffs. Hassen wrote that Tony Irish, an associate solicitor, was “subverting, obstructing and delaying the process” and should be removed for misconduct.
Irish is on leave while appealing the firing and is represented by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “In seeking to remove Tony Irish, Tyler Hassen has demonstrated his own unfitness for federal service,” PEER executive director Tim Whitehouse said in a press release. “This type of corporate bullying is not how the people’s business is supposed to be conducted.”
Jacob Malcom, a former Interior Department executive, said Burgum’s order directing Hassen to make “appropriate funding decisions” for administrative changes and ensure “the appropriate transfer of funds, programs, records and property” is unconstitutional — Congress appropriates funds, not assistant secretaries.
“Unless Congress has explicitly authorized those funds to be moved, they can’t actually transfer the funds,” Malcom said. “That’s just flat out illegal.”
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