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House Dems slam Interior for politicizing ESA decisions |
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Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) demanded the resignation of Interior Deputy
Secretary Lynn Scarlett yesterday, as Democrats called for the Bush
administration to take corrective action to "cleanse" the Interior
Department of a culture of political interference with science.
At a heated, nearly five-hour hearing on the Endangered Species Act
yesterday, Democrats said the recent resignation of Interior's
embattled Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald was not enough to
assuage their concerns over political appointees editing and
interfering with agency science.
MacDonald resigned last week after a scathing inspector
general's report found she had violated ethics and at least two
sections of federal code.
"Unfortunately, when she packed up she left behind a lot of
baggage, including an agency that seems bent on abdicating its mandated
responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act to protect God's
creatures for future generations," said Natural Resources Committee
Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.).
Committee members pressed Scarlett on the department's
response to MacDonald and asked for a review of every ESA decision that
has her fingerprints. Scarlett declined to commit to those reviews or
to rebuke the actions of MacDonald, saying only that MacDonald had
resigned and it was a personnel issue.
"I am more upset after this hearing than I was at the
beginning ... because a fish rots from its head, and Julie MacDonald is
not some rogue employee," Inslee told Scarlett. "You've shown a
stunning lack of awareness of that."
He was particularly frustrated over Scarlett's involvement in
a proposed spotted owl recovery plan the department released last week
(Land Letter, May 3).
The proposed recovery plan includes one option that would
allow more flexible management and would not map out designated owl
protection areas. The flexible management plan came at the request of
Scarlett and other members of a review board.
'Give me a break!'
Scarlett, who joined the Bush administration in 2001 after
serving at the head of the free-market think tank the Reason
Foundation, told the panel that Interior has taken steps to "ensure
accountability and integrity." Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has
started an "accountability board" to review personnel issues, such as
MacDonald's, and is in the process of putting in place new ethics
guidelines. Those activities started before the Office of Inspector
General's report.
At one point, Scarlett said MacDonald was "striving to do what she thought was best."
"Give me a break!" retorted Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). "If
you believe that, we are in some serious trouble and the underpinning
of the department is in serious trouble, and the ripples of her
activities are serious ones."
Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) said in an interview after the hearing
that he was concerned there were "no reassurances" from Scarlett's
testimony, though he did not know if he would go so far as to call for
her resignation.
"It's enough to get your blood boiling," Kind said of the hearing.
Witnesses from the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility said political appointees
have regularly changed scientific recommendations, altered numbers in
reports or reduced scientists' recommended critical habitat
designations.
Jaime Rappaport Clark, the Clinton-era chief of the Fish and
Wildlife Service, said that political oversight of agency decisions
always happens, but the Bush administration has differed by actually
changing and editing the science, not just going against its
recommendations sometimes.
The four hours of questioning over ESA had moments of levity.
In a line of questions on the political bent of some of the nonprofit
groups that testified at the hearing, Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) asked if
Defenders of Wildlife would ever hire Scarlett.
"I'd love to have her apply," said Clark, now a vice president of the group.
"I might be looking for a job after this hearing," Scarlett said, laughing.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 31 October 2007 )
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