Cheyenne Lawyer, Rancher Karen Budd-Falen Accepts Top Interior Department Post

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Karen Budd-Falen, a Cheyenne lawyer and rancher, is headed back to the nation’s capital, taking a high-level Interior Department job in President Donald Trump’s administration, she told Cowboy State Daily in a phone interview Monday.

The Interior Department has not announced the appointment, and a media representative said the department had no comment.

Budd-Falen, a lawyer and rancher, worked in Trump’s first administration as deputy solicitor for wildlife and parks at Interior. 

Now she has accepted a new job in the department — a stressful decision, she said, because she much prefers her country lifestyle to the urban sprawl of the Washington, D.C., area.

“I’ve been asked to go back in this Trump administration as associate deputy secretary,” she said. “After significant stress, I agreed to do it.”

The difficulty of the decision is one many Wyomingites would appreciate.

“When you live in Wyoming, moving to a city is very hard,” Budd-Falen said. “My husband and I have a ranch here.”

She said she was tapped for the job by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, as well as by Kate McGregor, Trump’s choice to be deputy secretary of the department.

Budd-Falen said her appointment does not require Senate confirmation. She said she has secured housing in the D.C. area and expects to start her new job this month.

‘Important To People In The West’

Although it was difficult choosing to “put everyone on hold and move back to D.C.,” she said she decided to do so to she could help make a for difference for Wyomingites.

“I think this is so important to people in the West,” she said, explaining that Washington bureaucrats are too often ignorant of rural Americans’ land-use needs and concerns.

According to her biography on her law firm’s website, Budd-Falen mainly represents private property owners, ranching and farming organizations, and local governments.

“For example, Karen assists local governments in asserting their rights of consistency review, cooperation and coordination in federal agency decisions; private property owners in protecting their Constitutionally guaranteed property rights, other multiple users in supporting grazing and multiple use on federal/public lands; and those who are exposing radical environmental groups’ abuse of the legal system through the attorney fee shifting statutes,” the website bio says.

Budd-Falen’s experience in Washington goes well beyond the first Trump administration. She worked at Interior during the Ronald Reagan years in the 1980s as well.

She has also worked for a conservative legal group and written many scholarly articles. She has won numerous awards and is an active volunteer with Future Farmers of America.

She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wyoming. She and her husband, Frank Falen, own Budd-Falen Law Offices LLC.