Just In Time
On March 30, 2007, I put up a post on Julie MacDonald, the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service who liked leaking Interior Department info to industries affected by new regulations. Interior's Inspector General issued a report that detailed her questionable behavior.
Well, Ms. MacDonald is back in the news. From today's NY Times we learn that Ms. MacDonald has resigned her position, and the timing is, shall we say, interesting.
The resignation came about a week before a House committee was set to hold hearings on political interference with biologists, and the same day that Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, wrote Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne demanding that he take action to address the concerns about the official, Julie A. MacDonald, who was overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The only surprising part is that it took the White House about five weeks to determine that this was a case the Democrats in Congress weren't going to take a pass on. Given the nature of the findings of the Inspector General's report, the White House should have been paying more attention. Here are just a few of the findings:
Among other actions that drew the ire of wildlife biologists and lawyers, Ms. MacDonald had heavily edited biologists’ reports on sage grouse, a species that in the end was not placed on the threatened or endangered lists. Their habitat overlaps with vast parts of the Rocky Mountain West, where oil and gas drilling and cattle ranching are prevalent; listing the grouse as endangered or threatened could have curbed those industries’ access to federal lands.
In another case in the inspector general’s report, Ms. MacDonald demanded that scientists reduce the nesting range for the Southwest willow flycatcher to a radius of 1.8 miles, from a 2.1-miles, so it would not cross into California, where her husband has a ranch.
She also gave internal agency documents to industry lawyers and a lawyer from the Pacific Legal Foundation, all of whom frequently filed suit against the Interior Department over endangered species decisions.
It is the last finding that may very well be the most damaging and the most interesting for Congressional hearings to pursue. It is unlikely that Ms. MacDonald was acting on her own initiative, or that she was acting in a solo capacity. Apparently at least one committee chair has figured that out:
Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Tuesday in a statement, “The problems at the Fish and Wildlife Service are not merely a matter of people and personalities; the faults run much deeper than Julie MacDonald.”
Rep. Rahall is right, but his assessment shouldn't be limited to just the Fish and Wildlife Service. The entire federal government appears to have been affected by the disease.
Pass the popcorn; it's going to be a long session.
Well, Ms. MacDonald is back in the news. From today's NY Times we learn that Ms. MacDonald has resigned her position, and the timing is, shall we say, interesting.
The resignation came about a week before a House committee was set to hold hearings on political interference with biologists, and the same day that Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, wrote Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne demanding that he take action to address the concerns about the official, Julie A. MacDonald, who was overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The only surprising part is that it took the White House about five weeks to determine that this was a case the Democrats in Congress weren't going to take a pass on. Given the nature of the findings of the Inspector General's report, the White House should have been paying more attention. Here are just a few of the findings:
Among other actions that drew the ire of wildlife biologists and lawyers, Ms. MacDonald had heavily edited biologists’ reports on sage grouse, a species that in the end was not placed on the threatened or endangered lists. Their habitat overlaps with vast parts of the Rocky Mountain West, where oil and gas drilling and cattle ranching are prevalent; listing the grouse as endangered or threatened could have curbed those industries’ access to federal lands.
In another case in the inspector general’s report, Ms. MacDonald demanded that scientists reduce the nesting range for the Southwest willow flycatcher to a radius of 1.8 miles, from a 2.1-miles, so it would not cross into California, where her husband has a ranch.
She also gave internal agency documents to industry lawyers and a lawyer from the Pacific Legal Foundation, all of whom frequently filed suit against the Interior Department over endangered species decisions.
It is the last finding that may very well be the most damaging and the most interesting for Congressional hearings to pursue. It is unlikely that Ms. MacDonald was acting on her own initiative, or that she was acting in a solo capacity. Apparently at least one committee chair has figured that out:
Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Tuesday in a statement, “The problems at the Fish and Wildlife Service are not merely a matter of people and personalities; the faults run much deeper than Julie MacDonald.”
Rep. Rahall is right, but his assessment shouldn't be limited to just the Fish and Wildlife Service. The entire federal government appears to have been affected by the disease.
Pass the popcorn; it's going to be a long session.
Labels: Cronyism, Interior Department
posted by Diane at 2:50 PM
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