It manages 476 dams and 348 reservoirs through the Bureau of Reclamation, 433 national parks, monuments, historical sites, etc.

[citation needed] A bill authorizing its creation of the department passed the House of Representatives on February 15, 1849, and spent just over two weeks in the Senate.

395), the eve of President Zachary Taylor's inauguration, when the Senate voted 31 to 25 to create the department.

Its passage was delayed by Democrats in Congress who were reluctant to create more patronage posts for the incoming Whig administration to fill.

For example, the Department of Interior was responsible for water pollution control prior to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt faced criticism for his alleged hostility to environmentalism, for his support of the development and use of federal lands by foresting, ranching, and other commercial interests, and for banning the Beach Boys from playing a 1983 Independence Day concert on the National Mall out of concerns of attracting "an undesirable element".

Of the agency under Bush's leadership, Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney has cited a "culture of fear" and of "ethical failure."

Devaney has also said, "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior.

It highlights the systemic abuse and neglect endured by students, finding 973 children died at the schools and calls for accountability and measures to address the ongoing impact on Native American families and communities to include working closely with tribal nations on the identification and repatriation of the remains.

The department has been the subject of disputes over proper accounting for American Indian Trusts set up to track the income and distribution of monies that are generated by the trust and specific American Indian lands, which the government leases for fees to companies that extract oil, timber, minerals, and other resources.

Several cases have sought an accounting of such funds from departments within the Interior and Treasury (such as the Minerals Management Service), in what has been a 15-year-old lawsuit.