Secretary Doug Burgum has terminated 43 cooperative agreements with outside progressive organizations after a department-wide audit turned up a sprawling network of partnerships the agency says ran counter to the administration's core mission.
The Department of the Interior is cutting ties with 43 outside organizations and pulling more than $4 million in planned funding after a March review found the groups were "operating in direct opposition" to the agency's mission, the department announced this week. Among those severed: a foundation that funded scholarships for illegal-immigrant students, an outdoors group that distributed instructions on avoiding ICE detention, and a roster of prominent conservation nonprofits that had used federal partnerships to push anti-fossil-fuel and racial-equity agendas.
The scope of what auditors found is the real story. The review, launched in March, combed through nearly 3,000 active cooperative agreements with roughly 2,000 outside entities, a portfolio of advocacy and nonprofit relationships built up over years across multiple administrations. Officials said agreements that failed to provide "a clear benefit" or that did not "align with the department's mission" would be cut. Forty-three did not survive.
The department said in a statement that it was ending relationships with organizations whose advocacy for "phasing out baseload energy, defunding law enforcement services, and promoting racially preferential programs directly conflicts with this administration's priorities." Burgum characterized the terminations as "decisive action" to bring the department's outside partnerships in line with its mandate.
The Hispanic Access Foundation, which runs scholarship programs explicitly covering students in the country illegally, lost its partnership, according to Fox News. So did Latino Outdoors, which had provided members with guidance on avoiding detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Green Schools Alliance, National Geographic Society, Doris Duke Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, Conservation International, and the American Alliance of Museums all had their ties with Interior severed as well.
Conservation International was cited for its push to phase out fossil fuels and its equity-based climate work. The Cultural Landscape Foundation, which has sued the administration over changes at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, was also included in the cuts. Fox News Digital reached out to the Hispanic Access Foundation, Latino Outdoors, the American Alliance of Museums, Conservation International, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation for comment and did not receive immediate responses.
The Bigger Question
Burgum has framed the review as basic accountability. But nearly 3,000 agreements with 2,000 outside entities inside a single cabinet department is not a handful of rogue partnerships. It is a system, built contract by contract over years, and the $4 million pulled at Interior is almost certainly a fraction of what similar audits could surface across the broader federal government.
No other agency has announced a comparable review. Health and Human Services, Education, and the Environmental Protection Agency all maintain extensive nonprofit and NGO partnership networks. If Interior was carrying nearly 3,000 active agreements, the numbers elsewhere could be substantially larger. Burgum's office has indicated the Interior review remains ongoing, meaning the 43 agreements terminated this week may not be the final count.
Also read: Second Amendment groups fight back as states ban 3D-printed gun files • Trump warns of federal DC takeover if socialist wins June 16 primary • Garland Issued School Board Memo After DOJ Lawyers Said No Federal Law Applied
