Tag: Trump Interior Department
Democratic lawmakers are demanding a criminal investigation, saying political appointees “orchestrated a coverup to protect” Secretary David Bernhardt.Interior watchdog: Senior official misused post to aid family
IG’s report comes after Trump’s firing or demotion of five other agencies’ watchdogs in recent weeks
A senior Interior Department official used his position to get a family member a job at the EPA, a violation of federal ethics rules and an abuse of office, the department’s inspector general said in a report released Friday.
The investigation found Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Douglas Domenech contacted an EPA official in person and via email in 2017 on behalf of a family member pursuing a job at the agency. Domenech also promoted a different family member’s wedding business to the same EPA official, according to investigators.
Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said in an email the contacts occurred before the department stepped up its ethical compliance training. He did not dispute the IG’s findings. Continue reading.
National Parks reopen without release of plan or infection data
Most parks were closed in March after being inundated with guests who were not observing CDC guidelines
The Interior Department is reopening national parks across the country even as the agency withholds data on COVID-19 cases among its employees.
Last week, some of the most visited national parks, including Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, became the latest among dozens of parks reopening. Parks had been mostly closed since March after being inundated with guests who were not observing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to minimize the spread of the novel coronavirus.
A spokesperson for Interior didn’t elaborate on how decisions to reopen were being made or whether the agency was tracking coronavirus cases among Park Service staff. The spokesperson referred CQ Roll Call to a prior statement that the “health and safety” of visitors, employees, volunteers and partners continues to be the agency’s “highest” priority. Continue reading.
Cassidy says Interior will speed waiving of royalty fees for oil firms
Move would flow billions to the industry but also leave federal, state governments dry on the brink of a recession
The head of the Interior Department agreed to “quickly process” oil companies’ requests about royalty payments, according to a key Gulf Coast Republican.
At least a dozen Republicans and a Democrat from oil-producing states are calling on Interior to waive royalty payments companies hand over to the federal government, citing the coronavirus pandemic, which has knocked back demand and sent already-cheap oil and gas prices plummeting
Supporters of the waivers also cited the effects of a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, but that was reported to have been resolved on Thursday. Continue reading.
Relocated BLM staff face salary cuts
A new internal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) website designed to answer employees’ questions about the agency’s upcoming relocation out West says staffers should expect a drop in their overall pay.
The information was included in an internal page available to staff seen by The Hill that contained questions and answers about the controversial plan to move most D.C.-based BLM employees and establish a new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo.
In the page, BLM leaders lay out their rationale for the move, touting one of the benefits of relocating as “general cost savings for the bureau because of less expensive office space, in most cases, and decreasing travel costs.”
View the complete November 26 article by Rebecca Beitsch on The Hill website.
The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam. An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit.
WASHINGTON — For years, the Interior Department resisted proposals to raise the height of its towering Shasta Dam in Northern California. The department’s own scientists and researchers concluded that doing so would endanger rare plants and animals in the area, as well as the bald eagle, and devastate the West Coast’s salmon industry downstream.
But the project is going forward now, in a big win for a powerful consortium of California farmers that stands to profit substantially by gaining access to more irrigation water from a higher dam and has been trying to get the project approved for more than a decade.
For much of the past decade, the chief lobbyist for the group was David Bernhardt. Today, Mr. Bernhardt is the Interior Secretary.
View the complete September 28 article by Coral Davenport on The New York Times website here.
Trump agency to halt House oversight trips amid complaint over staff behavior
Democrats believe the battle is a proxy fight in a larger war between Subcommittee Chairwoman Betty McCollum, D-Minn., and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
HOUSTON — The Department of the Interior has decided to halt its sponsorship of all House trips to various agency sites around the country until a resolution can be found to a dispute over the rules of engagement between congressional staff and the career and political officials who facilitate the oversight visits, according to a senior department official.
The Interior Department oversees the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several other agencies.
The decision, which had not officially been rendered to Capitol Hill as of early Wednesday evening, was driven by Interior Department chief of staff Todd Willens, according to the official, who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of internal deliberations.
View the complete September 11 article by Jonathan Allen on the NBC News website here.
Documents show extent of Interior plan to decentralize BLM
Included in the Department of Interior’s decision to decentralize the Washington office that manages the nation’s public lands is a plan to move congressional affairs staff 2,600 miles away to Reno, Nevada.
The agency announced in July that it would be moving about 300 D.C.-based Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees out West, but internal Interior Department documents shared with The Hill on Monday show the extent to which roles traditionally placed in the nation’s capital are being shotgunned across the country.
The July 15 documents include a position-by-position breakdown of Interior’s unprecedented plans for BLM’s reorganization — information that has yet to be shared with employees who are still waiting to hear where they must relocate.
View the complete September 9 article by Rebecca Beitsch and Miranda Green on The Hill website here.
Top Interior official who pushed to expand drilling in Alaska to join oil company there
Joe Balash, a Trump appointee, had served as assistant secretary for land and minerals management until Aug. 30.
Last summer, Scott Pruitt left his job heading the Environmental Protection Agency and within a few months had started consulting for coal magnate Joseph W. Craft III. Three weeks after leaving the Interior Department, energy counselor Vincent DeVito joined Cox Oil Offshore, which operates in the Gulf of Mexico, as its executive vice president and general counsel. Now, Joe Balash — who oversaw oil and gas drilling on federal lands before resigning from Interior on Friday — is joining a foreign oil company that is expanding operations on Alaska’s North Slope.
Balash, who served as the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for land and minerals management for nearly two years, confirmed in a phone interview Tuesday night that he will begin working for the Papua New Guinea-based Oil Search, which is developing one of Alaska’s largest oil prospects in years. On Wednesday, Oil Search officials said he would become senior vice president for external affairs in the company’s Alaska operations. Continue reading “Top Interior official who pushed to expand drilling in Alaska to join oil company there”
Critics fear Trump and his allies are turning national parks into sources of private profit: report
Liberals and progressives don’t agree with President Donald Trump on much, but they do agree with him that the United States’ infrastructure is in bad shape — and that includes national parks.
David Bernhardt, secretary of the U.S. Interior Department in the Trump Administration, discussed the state of national parks during a recent meeting of senior officials for the National Park Service (NPS); according to Bernhardt, they are “literally crumbling.” But exactly what steps will be taken to address the problem remains to be seen.
Yahoo News’ Alexander Nazaryan reports that Bernhardt, during the NPS meeting, said he was “begging Congress” for funds. Bernhardt, however, has agreed with Trump’s call for budget cuts for the NPS. And the Interior Department, under Bernhardt, has favored raising entry fees to national parks and has “leased hundreds of thousands of acres to energy companies,” Nazaryan writes.
View the complete September 3 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.