Tag: Trump Interior Department

GOP members confirm Bernhardt met with group tied to ex-client

Democrats might be focusing on meetings and calls kept off Interior secretary’s official calendar

Republicans on two House committees probing Interior Secretary David Bernhardt acknowledged in a report Thursday that the attorney and former energy lobbyist appeared to have met with the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, a trade group affiliated with a former Bernhardt client.

The joint report from Republican staff on the House Oversight and Reform, and Natural Resources committees also said ethics officials at the Interior Department approved the meeting with the trade group. The report, by acknowledging the meeting, may also indicate where the majority Democrats are focusing their examination into whether Bernhardt kept phone calls and meetings with industry representatives and groups off his public calendar.

Bernhardt, who became secretary in December 2018 after serving as deputy secretary, signed an ethics pledge when he joined the department to recuse himself from meetings with former clients. He listed the U.S. Oil and Gas Association as a client. The group’s website lists the Louisiana association as one of its four divisions.

View the complete August 23 article by Jacob Holzman on The Roll Call website here.

Interior secretary will be allowed to meet with former fossil fuel clients starting this weekend

Secretary David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist, previously recused himself from all decisions involving his former firm’s clients.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s ethics recusal will expire on Saturday. The ethics pledge banned Bernhardt from decisions involving his former firm’s clients for two years.

Bernhardt was also not able to meet with these companies, unless five or more other stakeholders were present and nothing relating specifically to the companies was discussed.

But all of this is set to change on August 3.

View the complete August 2 article by Kyla Mandel on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump’s pick for managing federal lands doesn’t believe the government should have any

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s pick for managing federal lands doesn’t think the federal government should have any.

This week, Trump’s Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed an order making the Wyoming native William Perry Pendley the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley, former president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, was a senior official in Ronald Reagan’s administration.

The appointment comes as a critical time for the BLM, which manages more than a tenth of the nation’s land and oversees the federal government’s oil, gas and coal leasing program. Two weeks ago, Interior officials announced the department would reassign 84 percent of the bureau’s D.C. staff out West by the end of next year. Only a few dozen employees, including Pendley, would remain in Washington.

View the complete July 31 article by Steven Mufson on The Washington Post website here.

Former Interior scientist calls out ‘culture of fear, censorship, and suppression’ under Trump

“The American people lose when we end up with manipulated, suppressed, or distorted information.”

There is a “culture of fear, censorship, and suppression” within the Trump administration that is impeding government scientists from doing their best work, former Interior Department policy director and scientist turned whistleblower Joel Clement warned on Wednesday.

Speaking to lawmakers on the House Science Committee, scientific experts spoke about the need for stronger rules to support the integrity of their research and ensure that political agendas don’t dictate or interfere with the data.

“There is not Democratic science, there is not Republican science, there is just science,” said Michael Halpern, deputy director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

EPA rule lets political officials block FOIA document requests

Rulemaking follows Interior Department actions that drew congressional criticism

A new EPA rule would allow political appointees to review and withhold documents requested by the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

The final rule, published Wednesday in the Federal Register, was signed by EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on June 14 and takes effect July 25. It was not preceded by a public comment period.

It comes one week after a similar policy was reported by CQ Roll Call  at the Department of the Interior. The practice drew criticism from lawmakers and advocates of public access to records.

View the complete June 26 article by Meg Cunningham on The Roll Call website here.

Exclusive: Trump administration delayed releasing documents related to Yellowstone superintendent’s firing

The release of internal documents sought by The Hill related to the replacement last year of Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk were delayed by the Interior Department under a new rule that gives political appointees more say over what is released.

Interior political officials held back the release of a set of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents for nearly a month after some officials questioned whether the materials should have been provided to The Hill, according to new internal Interior emails granted to the environmental group Earthjustice in a recent public records request.

The partially redacted documents were eventually released to The Hill on April 4, nearly a month after the first deadline set by the National Park Service (NPS).

View the complete June 19 article by Miranda Green on The Hill website here.

Interior Department policy let political appointees review FOIA requests

So-called awareness review process could expose department to legal action

The Interior Department has for about a year allowed political appointees to weigh in on which federal records are released to the public, creating delays that could violate open records law and expose the department to legal action.

“If political officials are becoming involved in the process and as a result of that causes the agency to not comply with its obligations” under the Freedom of Information Act, “that is a serious problem,” said Adam Marshall, an attorney for the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.

While Interior says the so-called awareness review process merely continues a practice informally exercised during the Obama administration, First Amendment lawyers say the department’s formal application of the policy is unusual.

View the complete May 22 article by Jacob Hozman and Benjamin J. Hulac on The Roll Call website here.

David Bernhardt confirmed as new Interior chief

Congress confirmed David Bernhardt as Interior secretary on Thursday, adding his name to a list of Trump Cabinet officials with lobbying ties.

Bernhardt was confirmed Thursday afternoon in a 56-41 vote with three Democrats and one Independent breaking ranks to vote for him. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Angus King (I-Maine) voted in favor of his confirmation.

Manchin, the top Democrat of the Senate committee that oversees Interior, welcomed Bernhardt’s confirmation Thursday, saying he was more than qualified for the job.

View the complete April 11 article by Miranda Green and Rebecca Beitsch on The Hill website here.

Trump’s Pick for Interior Dept. Continued Lobbying After Officially Vowing to Stop, New Files Show

WASHINGTON — A previously undisclosed invoice indicates that David Bernhardt, President Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, continued to lobby for a major client several months after he filed official papers saying that he had ended his lobbying activities.

The bill for Mr. Bernhardt’s services, dated March 2017 and labeled “Federal Lobbying,” shows, along with other newly disclosed documents, Mr. Bernhardt working closely with the Westlands Water District as late as April 2017, the month Mr. Trump nominated him to his current job, deputy interior secretary. In November 2016, Mr. Bernhardt had filed legal notice with the federal government formally ending his status as a lobbyist.

Westlands, a powerful California agribusiness group, was one of Mr. Bernhardt’s main lobbying and legal clients between 2011 and 2016. During that time, Westlands paid Mr. Bernhardt’s firm $1.3 million for lobbying services.

View the complete April 4 article by Coral Davenport on The New York Times website here.

David Bernhardt Is President Trump’s Most Conflicted Cabinet Nominee

Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt stands in the library at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Credit: Getty/Katherine Frey

On the whole, President Donald Trump’s Cabinet has not demonstrated integrity, honesty, or accountability to the American public. Four top Trump administration officials have resigned under a cloud of corruption after wasting taxpayer dollars or abusing their position for personal gain: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt; U.S. Secretary of Veteran Affairs David Shulkin; and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.

Rather than cleaning house in the wake of these controversies and resignations, President Trump is doubling down on nominating conflicted individuals to his Cabinet. In February, the U.S. Senate confirmed former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as Pruitt’s replacement at the EPA, the federal agency that enforces air and water protections. And this month, Trump nominated David Bernhardt to lead the U.S. Department of the Interior. Currently serving as the acting interior secretary since Zinke’s departure, Bernhardt is a former oil and gas lobbyist—and has so many conflicts of interest that he must carry around a list of former clients to remember them. Continue reading “David Bernhardt Is President Trump’s Most Conflicted Cabinet Nominee”