The Department of the Interior was created in 1849 as the United States was rapidly expanding and acquiring territory. It became known as “the department of everything else” for its enormous portfolio of missions, which ranged from western expansion to oversight of the District of Columbia jail.
Interior handles natural resources and domestic affairs – primarily managing 480 million acres (200 million hectares) of federal lands and developing the assets that they hold. Many of these lands are officially open for multiple uses, including energy development, mining, logging, livestock grazing and recreation. Those activities have numerous constituencies, whose interests can clash.
