The Treasury Department just announced that they have canceled its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, a government contractor and consulting firm that runs Recreation.gov, the website that National Parks and National Forests use to sell timed entry permits, campsite reservations and other services. According to a press release issued earlier today:
Today, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced the cancelation of all contracts with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. The Treasury Department currently has 31 separate contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.
“President Trump has entrusted his cabinet to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” said Secretary Bessent. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”
Most notably, between 2018 and 2020, Charles Edward Littlejohn — an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton — stole and leaked the confidential tax returns and return information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers. To date, the IRS determined that the data breach affected approximately 406,000 taxpayers. Littlejohn has pled guilty to felony charges for disclosing confidential tax information without authorization.
Right now, it's not exactly clear what will happen to Recreation.gov. If you recall, there was a
class action lawsuit that was filed against Booz Allen Hamilton in 2023, claiming that Recreation.gov was charging "junk fees" to consumers. Several months later, however, the lawsuit was
dropped. Hopefully, we'll soon have a better understanding of the future of Recreation.gov, especially for those wishing to visit a park or area this year that requires a permit or reservation of some type.
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