The Department of the Interior is the principal federal manager of public lands and natural resources, overseeing roughly one-fifth of the land in the United States through bureaus such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It also administers water projects in the West through the Bureau of Reclamation and carries out federal trust responsibilities to American Indian and Alaska Native communities through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Open the interactive page for DOI →Created byAct of March 3, 1849 (ch. 108, 9 Stat. 395), establishing the Home Department, renamed the Department of the Interior
Head appointed43 U.S.C. § 1451: there shall be an executive department known as the Department of the Interior, and a Secretary of the Interior, who shall be the head thereof, appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. No fixed term (PAS)
Removal standardno statutory removal protection — removable at will (Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52 (1926))
Funded underDepartment of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act
Congressional oversightHouse Committee on Natural Resources · Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Inspector generalInterior OIG (PAS IG under the IG Act, 5 U.S.C. § 403(a))
Judicial reviewAPA § 702 suits in district court; National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedure Act review of land and resource decisions, 5 U.S.C. § 706
Comment on land-use and resource plans during the public-comment period at regulations.gov and on bureau planning portals; submit comments on a national park's management plan at parkplanning.nps.gov; vote for President and Senate.