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Newly disclosed meetings with industry create ethics questions for Interior secretary
We interrupt your thread about corruption to bring you my thread about corruption.
Hat tip, Walt Shaub:
I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's the thoroughness of the corruption in this administration that's so impressive.
Link to tweet
New @rollcall/@CQnow investigation: Acting Interior Secretary originally described meetings as “external” or “internal” but were actually meetings with representatives of fossil fuel, timber and mining industries. More than 100 undisclosed policy meetings.
Link to tweet
Congress
Newly disclosed meetings with industry create ethics questions for Interior secretary
Lawmakers interested interior secretary’s calendars because of former career as energy lobbyist
Posted Apr 8, 2019 5:04 AM
Recently posted versions of acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s daily schedules contain at least 260 differences from his original schedules, with the newest records showing meetings previously described as “external” or “internal” were actually with representatives of fossil fuel, timber, mining and other industries, according to a review by CQ Roll Call.
Events left out of the original calendars but now disclosed or detailed further include a keynote address at the Trump International Hotel in Washington for the industry group Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, encounters with executives at Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell, and a meeting with the chairman of a conservative group Bernhardt previously represented in litigation that environmentalists believe was geared toward weakening the Endangered Species Act.
Lawmakers are interested in his calendars because of his previous career as an energy lobbyist, which required him to sign an ethics agreement when he joined the Interior Department in August 2017 that prohibits him from “personally and substantially” participating in “any particular matter” involving groups he used to represent.
Bernhardt’s original schedules only vaguely described with whom he met. Interior quietly posted the new documents on April 2, two days before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved his nomination to become the secretary in a non-acting capacity. The full Senate could vote on his nomination as soon as this week. ... The previously unreported details of the meetings raise fresh questions about how he’s spent his time as a government official and how he’s adhered to federal record-keeping laws.
....
Also watch: ‘Roll Call’s not printed by the Koch brothers’: Congressional Hits and Misses
Correction 10:59 a.m. | This story was corrected to reflect that an Interior Department spokeswoman said that Bernhardt did not meet with the chairman of the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability on Feb. 27, 2018.
Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.
Newly disclosed meetings with industry create ethics questions for Interior secretary
Lawmakers interested interior secretary’s calendars because of former career as energy lobbyist
Posted Apr 8, 2019 5:04 AM
Recently posted versions of acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s daily schedules contain at least 260 differences from his original schedules, with the newest records showing meetings previously described as “external” or “internal” were actually with representatives of fossil fuel, timber, mining and other industries, according to a review by CQ Roll Call.
Events left out of the original calendars but now disclosed or detailed further include a keynote address at the Trump International Hotel in Washington for the industry group Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, encounters with executives at Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell, and a meeting with the chairman of a conservative group Bernhardt previously represented in litigation that environmentalists believe was geared toward weakening the Endangered Species Act.
Lawmakers are interested in his calendars because of his previous career as an energy lobbyist, which required him to sign an ethics agreement when he joined the Interior Department in August 2017 that prohibits him from “personally and substantially” participating in “any particular matter” involving groups he used to represent.
Bernhardt’s original schedules only vaguely described with whom he met. Interior quietly posted the new documents on April 2, two days before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved his nomination to become the secretary in a non-acting capacity. The full Senate could vote on his nomination as soon as this week. ... The previously unreported details of the meetings raise fresh questions about how he’s spent his time as a government official and how he’s adhered to federal record-keeping laws.
....
Also watch: ‘Roll Call’s not printed by the Koch brothers’: Congressional Hits and Misses
Correction 10:59 a.m. | This story was corrected to reflect that an Interior Department spokeswoman said that Bernhardt did not meet with the chairman of the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability on Feb. 27, 2018.
Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.