Department of the Interior

Two DOGE staffers – Tyler Hassen and Bryton Shang – show up an Army Corp of Engineers dam in California and attempt to turn on water pumps to drain more wate one of California’s reservoirs to help fight fires in LA. This dam fed water to central California, far away from the LA wildfires the water was supposed to help.

Tyler Hassen conducts a review of every single contract and grant from DOI and sends action items for review directly to Secretary Burgum

Stephanie Holmes requests full admin access to the FPPS system to process actions for herself as well as DOGE members Katrine Trampe and Tyler Hassen

Stephanie Holmes’ request for admin access to the FPPS system is approved by an Jarrod Agen, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior

DOGE boasts in a tweet that 27% more water was released in February compared to January (unclear if this adjusts for different lengths of months)

After being provided with access to FPPS, Stephanie Holmes raises concerns she has not yet been granted full admin access to FPPS. The CIO said he would do it once the Secretary accepted the risk. Holmes did not convey the report to the Secretary.

Expressing concerns about DOGE requesting access to FPPS, the CIO and CISO of the Department of the Interior present a memo to the Interior Secretary about the risks for him to acknowledge and sign. He doesn’t sign it

Tyler Hassen places the CIO and CISO at the Department of the Interior on admininstrative leave under investigation for raising alarm about DOGE access

Julie Bednar, a senior advisor in human resources at DOI, is pulled into a call with Katrine Trampe and Gavin Kliger calling from IRS who asked to speak to the system owner for FPPS directly

The manager of the DOI’s labor relations branch initiates an investigation of the DOI’s CIO, Deputy CIO, Associate Solicitor and a Special Advisor over attempts to prevent DOGE access to DOI systems

A DOGE engineer has apparently removed the ability of government agencies to post new grants to grants.gov and requiring them to all be sent to a new email address created this week for reviews

The Washington Posts reports that both Tyler Hassen and Matt Luby are scrutinizing all grants at the Department of the Interior. They also requested a list of all grants going to Maine, perhaps to punish the state for its governor’s defiance of Trump.

The Secretary of the Interior formally designates that Tyler Hassen is in charge of implementing cuts to the agency and reorganizing its responsibilities

Stephanie Holmes, in her role as acting chief human capital officers, sends an email ordering DOI staff to stop doing any detail work by May 18 to cover for a steep loss in available staff due to DOGE’s directed cuts

DOI extends its freeze on issuing any new regulation out to June 4

A spreadsheet created by Conor Fennessy outlines a reported $26 million in grant reductions for programs in the National Parks, including those identified as “DEI” or studying climate change. It also axes a popular Scientists in Parks program, that provides educational opportunities for early-career scientists and students. A $400K project to make a park accessible for children with disabilities was targeted because it was “DEI.”

After Politico published a report that included an email from a 30-year veteran of the Bureau of Land Management telling staff to ignore instructions from Stephanie Holmes about filling in for empty roles, he is escorted out of the building by security.

An article in the New York Times reports that both Tyler Hassen and Stephanie Holmes are still active at the DOI