House Democrats seek investigation into Interior official’s husband’s $3.5 million water deal

House Democrats asked the Interior Department’s acting inspector general on Tuesday to investigate whether Karen Budd-Falen, the agency’s third-highest official, played a role in federal approval of the Thacker Pass lithium mine after her husband entered into a $3.5 million financial arrangement with the mine’s developer.

Records show Frank Falen sold water from a family ranch in northern Nevada to Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of Lithium Americas, in 2018, and that the bulk of the payment depended on a permit approval for the company’s $2.2 billion Thacker Pass project. The lawmakers said Ms. Budd-Falen met with Lithium Nevada executives in November 2019 while the company was seeking a permit from the agency.

The New York Times and the outlet Public Domain reported that Ms. Budd-Falen did not disclose the water-rights contract on any of the four financial disclosures she filed while at Interior from 2018 to 2021, nor on a disclosure she filed when she joined the current administration in May.

Ms. Budd-Falen worked as deputy solicitor responsible for wildlife from 2018 to 2021 and returned to Interior last year as associate deputy secretary. The letter to acting inspector general Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, from Representative Jared Huffman and Representative Maxine Dexter, said the record shows an official meeting coinciding with a continuing multimillion-dollar interest tied to the project and accused Ms.

Key Topics

Politics, Karen Budd-falen, Thacker Pass, Lithium Americas, Lithium Nevada, Frank Falen