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    • What does the Home Secretary do? A quick guide to the department
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    What does the Home Secretary do? A quick guide to the department

    Online Niel Posted on

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    President-elect Donald Trump this week announced North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum as his choice to oversee the US Department of the Interior.

    The position is one of 15 executive department positions up for confirmation by the US Senate, including secretaries of labor, energy, commerce, defense and treasury.

    More: Trump announced his cabinet picks. Who are the current members of the Cabinet?

    What is the US Department of the Interior?

    The department oversees much of the nation’s vast amounts of public lands and natural resources, primarily through the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. He also directs the offices of Reclamation, Indian Affairs, Ocean Energy Management, Environmental Safety and Enforcement, the US Geological Survey, and the Office of Surface Mine Reclamation and Enforcement.

    In total, Congressional Research Service estimates that the department manages more than 480 million acres of public lands, 700 million acres of underground minerals such as oil and gas, and 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf.

    The department describes itself as a protector and manager of the nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage mission statementand says that they “honor their fiduciary responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and related island communities.” Under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior has a broad impact on the lives of the nation’s 2.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives, providing services and resources for everything from tribal governance, infrastructure, education, employment and social services .

    More: Donald Trump will nominate North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior

    What does the Home Secretary do?

    With authority over 20 percent of the nation’s lands, the Secretary of the Interior was a broad mandate. The secretary will be charged with advancing the Trump administration’s policies on public lands, energy, the environment and the federal government’s relationship with Tribes.

    Duties also include overseeing a staff of around 70,000 at the end of 2024 and a significant operating budget. The budget approved in March for Fiscal year 2024 gave the department a budget of $14.8 billion, and the Biden administration requested a additional 3 billion dollars for fiscal year 2025.

    Over the past few administrations, the department has become a battleground for oil and gas development and a central player in opposing visions of the nation’s energy future between Democrats and Republicans. Trump’s secretaries during his first term focused on rolling back environmental regulations from the Obama administration and opening more nations to drilling and mining, while the current secretary under President Joe Biden stopped controversial new drilling, expanded conservation efforts and pursued climate democratic goals such as solar and wind.

    Who is the current Home Secretary?

    In 2021, former New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland was confirmed by the Senate to become Biden’s Secretary of the Interior. A member of the Pueblo of Laguna, Haaland is the first Native American to head a cabinetry agency.

    During Trump’s first term, his initial pick, Ryan Zinke, held the position for just under two years, until his resignation in December 2018 following multiple ethics investigations into his connections to the energy industry. A federal investigation by the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General was launched in February 2022 found that Zinke misused his position in connection with a development project in his Montana hometown and failed to comply with the office’s ethics obligations.

    He was succeeded by David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who was assistant secretary of the Interior Department before taking the top job.

    Kathryn Palmer is an election contributor for USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] and follow X @KathrynPlmr.

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