As part of its effort to slash spending and dismantle the federal government, unelected billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has terminated the office leases for two federal agencies in Oklahoma: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Carnegie, Oklahoma.
According to its website, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for upholding federal laws around wildlife and protecting endangered species. Part of the agency’s role involves supporting state efforts to preserve wildlife and ecosystems through federal aid funding.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is charged with protecting and preserving trust assets of Natives and tribal nations. Notably, Oklahoma is home to the largest concentration of federally recognized tribes and tribal nations. The closure of the Carnegie office will likely impact the following tribes:
- Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
- Caddo Nation of Oklahoma
- Comanche Nation
- Delaware Nation
- Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
- Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma
- Wichita and Affiliated Tribes
According to DOGE figures, closing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Broken Bow saves the federal government $30,612, and closing the BIA office in Carnegie amounted to $2,798 in savings.
Oligarch Elon Musk on a mission to dismantle federal government
Since helping twice-impeached, felony-convicted and sexual assault-liable Donald Trump secure his second presidential term with over $250 million in contributions, Elon Musk has gleefully overseen the dismantling of core federal programs and services for millions of Americans and people around the world.
His unofficial DOGE team of coders and private security have targeted programs from Oklahoma to Washington. Private security has blocked members of Congress from accessing federal buildings in Washington, and he’s labeled social security payments that have come out of Americans’ taxes their entire working lives as “entitlements.”
Ultimately, Musk, a billionaire who paid virtually no federal income tax in 2024, wants Americans to believe he’s working to make their lives better.
“The president is the elected representative of the people, so he’s representing the will of the people. And if the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the president from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy,” Musk said in an interview with Sean Hannity.
Musk has claimed the Trump administration’s arbitrary firings of federal employees and termination of federal leases has saved billions of dollars so far, but DOGE’s own data shows the number is actually in the millions.
Oklahoma harmed by DOGE cuts
Despite being the only state where all 77 counties voted for Trump across three presidential elections (2016, 2020, 2024), Oklahoma hasn’t been immune to the negative consequences of DOGE cuts and potentially losing federal funding.
Trump’s federal aid freeze could cost Oklahoma $14 billion in federal grants. “While we’re grateful the courts put a temporary block on this planned federal aid freeze, the actions signal grave concerns for our state moving forward,” Oklahoma Policy Institute’s executive director Shiloh Kantz previously stated.
It’s unclear exactly how the closure of the two federal offices will impact Oklahomans.
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