Tyler Hassen Discusses Government Waste and Fraud
Tyler Hassen, the former Acting Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management and Budget at the U.S. Department of the Interior, recently shared his insights on addressing waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, stating that these issues are currently “out of control.”
In his appearance on Breitbart News Saturday with host Matthew Boyle, Hassen recounted his experience reviewing contracts within the Department of the Interior and mentioned that he actively discussed these matters with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
“Managing five businesses in Houston has always made me sensitive to debt,” Hassen explained, reflecting on the administration’s agenda to tackle fiscal irresponsibility by focusing on waste, fraud, and abuse.
He described feeling “compelled” by the Department of the Interior’s initiative to confront these issues. “I didn’t have any particular ties to Elon Musk or anything like that; I just kind of manifested it. I went through all the interviews and arrived in D.C. eager to address the deficit,” he elaborated.
During his efforts, Hassen stated he reviewed “ten thousand contracts in the Department of the Interior.”
“I would often show these to Secretary Burgum on Saturdays,” he recounted. “He’s a great guy who’d come in wearing jeans and a baseball cap. Together, we analyzed the contracts using Excel Cloud, which I had prepared. We discovered numerous contracts that seemed pointless. For instance, one was a $4.2 million contract to evaluate groundwater in Mauritania.”
When asked what guidance he could offer to others working in the federal government, Hassen emphasized the importance of evaluating the significance of contracts. “I often asked, ‘Is this mission critical?’ This is how we should be approaching our spending. Sure, some things might be nice to have, but with $40 trillion in debt, we need to be pragmatic. When I graduated in 2005, the debt was just $8 trillion. It’s shocking to think it could reach $100 trillion by the time my daughter is in her mid-twenties,” he remarked.
“I want everyone in our government to scrutinize these contracts and ask, ‘Why are we allocating $12 million for ocelot studies or $3 million for larval fish monitoring?’ I would even reach out to civil servants around the country, asking them directly about these contracts,” he said.
“Sometimes, they provided solid explanations, and I appreciated that. But we need to make it a priority to at least ask these questions. The waste is rampant, and it extends beyond just contracts; it involves entire organizations as well.”
