Before joining DOGE, Hassen spent nearly two decades as an executive at Basin Holdings, an enterprise involved in the manufacture, sale and servicing of oil rigs worldwide. A financial disclosure report obtained by AP shows Hassen made millions annually from these companies, owned by John Fitzgibbons — an industry giant who is well-connected in Russia.
These and other potential conflicts of interest are compounding the concerns of Democratic lawmakers, conservation groups and environmental advocates, who say Hassen’s appointment appears designed to evade Senate confirmation and oversight while testing the limits of congressional authority.
“It’s a dereliction of duty to offload decisions about staffing and funding at the Interior Department to someone who hasn’t even been confirmed by the Senate,” said Kate Groetzinger, with the Center for Western Priorities, a nonpartisan conservation group.
Interior officials didn’t respond to requests to interview Hassen.
Department spokesperson Katie Martin said in an email that Hassen is helping achieve the president’s vision for major changes, and Interior will “continue to prioritize retaining first responders, parks services and energy production employees.”
A draft copy of Interior’s new strategic plan includes increasing “clean coal, oil, and gas production through faster permitting” while reducing regulations to “generate more revenue from lands and resources for the U.S. Treasury.”
It’s unclear how Hassen became involved with Musk. There’s little information about him online. He told FOX News that before DOGE, he was “running five businesses in Houston.” He said this work “is me giving back to the country.”
Hassen was an executive at Fitzgibbons-owned Basin Holdings — the privately held parent company for Basin Energy and Basin Industries — since 2008. An old Facebook page for Tyler Hassen includes a 2010 photo of him at the “Samotlor Field, Western Siberia – largest oilfield in Russia.”
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said Interior officials are committing fraud “by calling someone by a different name so that they don’t have to file a really important document where they explain how they’re going to comply with ethics standards.”
Hassen sought to fire a top department lawyer in April for refusing to give him and other DOGE officials access to a highly sensitive personnel database as he pushed for massive department-wide staff reductions through buyouts, early retirements and layoffs. Hassen wrote that Tony Irish, an associate solicitor, was “subverting, obstructing and delaying the process” and should be removed for misconduct.
Jacob Malcom, a former Interior Department executive, said Burgum’s order directing Hassen to make “appropriate funding decisions” for administrative changes and ensure “the appropriate transfer of funds, programs, records and property” is unconstitutional — Congress appropriates funds, not assistant secretaries.
“Unless Congress has explicitly authorized those funds to be moved, they can’t actually transfer the funds,” Malcom said. “That’s just flat out illegal.”
Although Hassen didn’t file a divestment commitment, he did file a financial disclosure in February — revised five times, the most recent dated April 21 — revealing he made almost $4 million annually from Fitzgibbon’s oilfield services companies. Hassen said he sold his equity in these companies and is being paid in installments through June 2026.
Hassen’s potential conflicts of interest have raised concerns among environmental groups and some U.S. lawmakers.
He’s attempting to remove regulations constraining the fossil fuel industries, said Josh Axelrod, a senior policy advocate with the National Resources Defense Council. “As a member of those industries, he’s uniquely qualified to flag the ones they don’t like.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, the ranking Democrats on Interior’s Senate and House oversight subcommittees, have demanded a stop to Hassen’s large-scale reorganization.
Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico told Burgum in a May 7 letter that “delegating sweeping authorities and responsibilities to a non-Senate confirmed person in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act is baffling and extremely troubling.”
