Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3811 May 10-24 2019 | Page 30
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May 10 - 24, 2019
VOL.38 • ISS. 11
U.S. Senate Votes 56-41 to
Confirm Oil and Westlands
lobbyist David Bernhardt as
Interior Secretary
T
quadrupled its Interior Department
and extractive industries income since
Bernhardt’s confirmation as Deputy
Secretary in July 2017, according to
an analysis by the Washington Post,”
said Saeger.
In addition, Saeger said Bernhardt
has also been accused of lying under
oath during his committee hearing
related to his role in suppressing scien-
tific reports, and Senators were unable
to get clarification on several other
key conflicts of interest questions prior
to his final Senate vote.
“Senate Republican leadership has
ignored calls to withdraw or delay
his floor vote until his numerous
ethical and investigative queries were
resolved, even after a New York
Times report showed that he may
have conducted unreported lobbying
activity for a former client, a potential
violation of the Lobbying Disclosure
Act of 1995,” said Saeger.
Saeger and other opponents of
the confirmation said Bernhardt has
overseen some of the department’s
most controversial public land
decisions, including opening millions
of acres of public lands to industrial
oil and gas development and misman-
aging America’s national parks during
the historic government shutdown.
“He’s been involved in at least 17
scandals prior to his confirmation,”
concluded Saeger.
The Public Employees for Envi-
ronmental Responsibility (PEER)
described Bernhardt as a “monumen-
tally bad pick to lead Interior,” noting
that the former gas and oil lobbyist
sets a “new low bar for regulatory
capture.”
“The Senate has set a terrible
precedent in confirming David
Bernhardt as Secretary of the
Interior,” said Tim Whitehouse,
PEER’s executive director. “Secretary
working in the shadows to protect
corporate profits and undermine good
governance.”
“David Bernhardt has a long history
of trying to suppress science in order to
support drilling, fracking and mining on
some of the most ecologically sensitive
areas of our country,” said Peter Jenkins,
PEER’s senior counsel.
Bernhardt and his former lobbying firm
have donated almost $1 million since
2013 to senators who will vote on his
confirmation, according to a MapLight
investigation: https://maplight.org/
story/interior-nominee-and-his-lobby-
ing-firm-have-donated-almost-1-mil-
lion-to-senators/
“A MapLight review of campaign
finance data found that Bernhardt,
Brownstein Hyatt employees and the
firm’s political action committee contrib-
uted more than $225,000 to members
of the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee between 2013
and 2018,” MapLight wrote. “The firm
and its employees also donated more
than $960,000 to current members of the
Senate, who will cast the final vote on
Bernhardt’s confirmation.”
A day after the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee voted
14-6 to move the nomination of Acting
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to a
floor vote, Natural Resources Committee
Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and
Water, Oceans, & Wildlife Subcom-
mittee Chair Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San
Rafael) on Friday, April 4, launched a
new inquiry seeking documents asso-
ciated with Bernhardt and California’s
powerful Westlands Water District, a
former client of Bernhardt’s.
On April 10, Representative Jared
Huffman tweeted, “The revolving door
keeps on spinning with @DOIDepSec
David Bernhardt. Today, @RepRaulGri-
jalva& I asked him to explain why @
Interioris stonewalling an investigation
into the Dept’s accounting tricks that
spent taxpayer $$ to help Bernhardt’s
old client.” http://bit.ly/2U9rbIH
Then just jfive days after the U.S.
Senate confirmed Bernhardt as Interior
Secretary, the Western Values Project
(WVP) on April 16 filed suit in Superior
Court of the State of California for the
County of Fresno against Bernhardt’s
former client, Westlands Water District,
for three unfulfilled public records
requests under the California Public
Records Act (CPRA).
“This petition on behalf of the Western
Values Project seeks a writ of mandate
compelling Westlands Water District
to make available for inspection public
records in its possession, as required
by the California Public Records Act
(“PRA”), Gov’t Code §§6250-70. For
almost two years after the Western
Values Project submitted a number of
public records requests, the Westlands
Water District has refused to produce
responsive public records, or to identify
any basis for withholding such records,”
the lawsuit states.
WVP submitted the public records
requests on May 4, 2017, to Westlands
regarding communications with their
former lobbyist-turned Interior Secretary
David Bernhardt. “After nearly two
years, not one of the requests has been
fulfilled, a violation of California law,”
according to a statement from the group.
The group claimed Westlands Water
District has “materially benefited”
from Bernhardt’s work as a lobbyist
and later as a public official. Secretary
Bernhardt and Westlands have also been
at the center of numerous investigation
requests for potential civil and criminal
violations of the Lobbying Disclosure
Act of 1995 (LDA), said WVP.
More information on the former
lobbyist and his conflicts is available at
www.davidbernhardt.org.
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he U.S. Senate on April 11 voted
56-41 to confirm the President’s
nominee David Bernhardt, former oil
and gas corporation and Westlands Water
District lobbyist David Bernhardt, to be the
Secretary of the Interior.
Senators Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Martin
Heinrich (N.M.) and Kyrsten Sinema
(Ariz.), as well as Sen. Angus King
(I-Maine), joined Senate Republicans in
voting for Bernhardt’s confirmation.
Representatives of conservation, fishing
and environmental justice organizations
blasted the vote, with one group calling
Bernhardt the administrations “most
conflict-ridden cabinet nominee.”
”After all of the clear documentation about
his conflicts of interest and his apparent
corruption, it’s really disappointing to
seeing the Senate agree to make this guy
the secretary with 56 votes,” said John
McManus, President of the Golden Gate
Salmon Association (GGSA). “It seems to
me that the Senate had all of the information
to make a good decision and instead made a
bad decision. I am fairly certain that we will
be engaged for the next two years in fighting
off aggressive federal government efforts
to drain the Delta dry and export northern
California water hundreds of miles to grow
almonds instead of salmon.”
“It’s another shameful day in Washington,
DC as perhaps the most corrupt possible
nominee for a cabinet position is confirmed
by the Senate. The Interior Department is
now fully captured by destructive industry
and big money politics. I’m disgusted,”
echoed Noah Oppenheim, Executive
Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA).
In a statement, Western Values Project
Executive Director Chris Saeger, said,
“President Trump and his allies in the Senate
are turning back the clock to a time when
land barons again rule the departments
that are supposed to hold them account-
able. Those special interests and corporate
lobbyists now have their man at the helm
of America’s largest land managing agency
in former mega-lobbyist David Bernhardt.
History will not look kindly on the Senators
who voted to continue the decimation of
America’s public lands and wildlife for the
sake of a select few special interests.”
“Rushing to move forward with Bern-
hardt’s nomination without clarification on
his numerous ethical lapses and investiga-
tive requests is not only a disservice to the
American people, but it also means that
Interior will again be led by a secretary
shrouded in scandal. Make no mistake: a
vote to confirm David Bernhardt for Interior
Secretary was a vote against our American
birthright and the viability of our public
lands for future generations,” noted Saeger.
Saeger pointed out that Bernhardt, a
former mega-lobbyist for the powerful
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck firm, has
some 26 known conflicts of interests before
the department he will now manage.
“He carries a notecard with him to remind
him of his laundry list of conflicts and
recusals, but it hasn’t stopped him from
weighing in on decision sthat would benefit
former clients. His powerful position at
Interior has resulted in major windfalls for
his former lobbying firm, which has nearly
By Dan Bacher