Karen Budd-Falen, a senior Interior Department official, has financial connections to the controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine through her family's ranch. Home Ranch LLC, managed by her husband, sold water rights to the mine's developer in 2018. These ties raise questions about potential conflicts amid the project's advancement under the Trump administration.
Karen Budd-Falen serves as associate deputy secretary at the Interior Department under Secretary Doug Burgum, a role she assumed in March without needing Senate confirmation. She previously held a high-ranking legal position there during Donald Trump's first term. Her family's Home Ranch LLC, valued over $1 million and managed by her husband Frank Falen, entered a water rights sale agreement with Lithium Nevada Corporation in November 2018. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, is documented in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing listing Frank Falen.
During her earlier tenure, Budd-Falen's calendar included a November 6, 2019, lunch meeting with Lithium Nevada representatives. The company, a subsidiary of Canadian firm Lithium Americas, sought rapid approval for the Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management granted that approval in January 2021, covering 5,700 acres of public land for a $2.2 billion open-pit operation.
The project faces strong resistance from Paiute Shoshone tribes and environmental groups, who highlight risks to water supplies, endangered species, and sacred sites. Thacker Pass, or Peehee Mu’huh, marks the location of an 1865 massacre of at least 31 Paiute people. Planning documents from July 2021 reference using Home Ranch's stock water wells for monitoring mining impacts.
In 2018, Budd-Falen declined the BLM director position to retain family ranch interests, avoiding required divestment. The current Trump administration has advanced the mine further, securing a 5 percent equity stake in September in exchange for Department of Energy loan releases. Critics question Budd-Falen's involvement. "Did she have any oversight of the environmental review process regarding Thacker Pass? It is a big question," said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network. Her ethics agreement remains unreleased, leaving potential recusals unclear.
