The Department of the Interior is cracking down on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who get most of their revenue from the federal government while using it to pay their CEOs exorbitant salaries and lobby for legislation to benefit their causes.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum laid out the issue during an interview with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday, discussing issues with “grants from the Department of Interior where we were 100 percent of their revenue.”
So they really weren't a nonprofit. They were an organization created to receive money, or they actually just— we were the majority. And then they would pay their CEO $450,000. They'd pay lobbyists. They had people working for them getting paid more than anybody inside the Department of Interior. And then they would do things like lobby us for more grants, or in many cases, they would hire lawyers to sue us to stop the administration's priorities.
Burgum explained that the department investigated 2,000 NGOs that had 3,000 agreements with the federal government. “We combed through all of those. And if they were using funds coming from this administration against us or against the priorities of the administration, we've cut ties with them,” he said. “And because they were doing everything from climate extremism to DEI, ESG, you name it, and they were doing it all opposed to what the American people voted for and what President Trump promised the American people we would do.”
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🚨 HOLY CRAP! Trump Interior Sec. Doug Burgum has found NGOs getting taxpayer dollars who paid their CEOs nearly $500K and the ENTIRE REVENUE MODEL was the government
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 13, 2026
"Then they'd LOBBY US or hire lawyers to SUE US to stop the administration's priorities!" 🤯
Now the funds are… pic.twitter.com/o7ThegMIIV
Burgum also highlighted this problem during an April congressional hearing. He defended proposed cuts to grant programs by telling lawmakers that the Interior Department found organizations receiving grants “where 80 to 100 percent of the revenue of that NGO was a grant from the federal government.” He continued, “And yet, those organizations, we were the sole source of their revenue, but they would have a CEO making $650,000 and four $400,000 lobbyists!”
Great working with @SecretaryBurgum and the @Interior team in terminating 79 wasteful grants with savings of $14M. The grant recipient NGOs were not aligned with agency priorities, using taxpayer dollars for “recruiting, hiring, training and investing in staff and the… https://t.co/qUuCSlb9j3
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) September 25, 2025
While he did not name any specific NGOs that fit this description, he raised an important issue. Many of these organizations have remained almost wholly dependent on taxpayer dollars while using those funds to lobby for agendas that many taxpayers would oppose. In essence, taxpayers are being forced to fund political lobbying that might go against their beliefs.
Earlier this month, the Interior Department took steps to address this problem. It terminated 43 partnerships with outside groups after reviewing the agreements. It eliminated more than $4 million in funding for programs tied to DEI initiatives, environmental and climate advocacy groups, and others connected to illegal immigration.
Some of these groups offered scholarships to illegal immigrants while also instructing them on how to avoid being detained by immigration authorities.
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