Jewell to Hastings: Document requests costing taxpayers

E&E News
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Thursday, January 16, 2014

Document requests from the House Natural Resources Committee have saddled the Interior Department with thousands of hours of work, stalling the approval of oil and gas wells and infrastructure projects, Secretary Sally Jewell said.

On the eve of a committee meeting to authorize new subpoenas into Interior activities, Jewell accused Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) of prying beyond his constitutional limits and wasting tax dollars.

"I hope that we can work together on genuine reforms that will improve the operation of the department," Jewell wrote in a letter to Hastings last night. "However, the document requests that we received from your committee in 2013 appear overly broad to address your legitimate oversight interests and have significantly impacted the department's ability to accomplish its core mission for the American people."

The committee this morning is meeting to authorize the issuance of new subpoenas into Interior's rewrite of a stream protection rule, its implementation of wildlife laws and "apparent conflicts of interest" involving current and former agency employees (E&ENews PM, Jan. 15).

Earlier this week, the committee held a hearing to discuss the Obama administration's rationale for sequestering county payments, a probe that Republicans said was crucial to rural communities but that Democrats ridiculed as a fishing expedition (Greenwire, Jan. 14).

Jewell said she spoke with Hastings on Tuesday night about his document requests and that she wants to maintain a positive line of communication.

But she warned that Interior last year received at least 27 letters from the committee related to document requests on 14 topics. The agency "conservatively estimates" it spent more than 19,000 staff hours and nearly $1.5 million in taxpayer money responding to those requests, Jewell said.

The agency has provided 40,000 pages of documents and provided multiple briefings and narrative responses to those questions, Jewell said.

"Given the scope of the committee's requests, this investment of time and resources impacts vital department functions such as approving oil and gas leases, approving infrastructure projects, working with states to develop greater sage-grouse conservation plans and much more," Jewell wrote.

Jewell added that the committee may occasionally provide redacted documents to protect information subject to ongoing deliberations on rulemakings. Disclosure of "preliminary and pre-decisional" information would compromise the integrity of the process, she said.

She said the agency will be in a better position to respond to the committee's investigation into the Office of Surface Mining's revision of a stream protection rule once that proposal has officially been released.

She added that the agency has also been responsive to the committee's probe into its compliance with ethics and conflict-of-interest laws by providing 13,000 pages on the topic and briefing committee staff. She said Interior has also completed its response to Hastings' request involving former Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey.

"I hope we can improve the quality of communication between the department and the committee to ensure that the department can respond to the committee's legitimate information needs in a way that does not impede the department's mission area work and drain taxpayer resources," she said.

A Hastings spokesman yesterday said the information requests are reasonable.

"It is Chairman Hastings' view that there is no burden in ensuring a transparent and open government that is accountable to the American people for its decisions and actions," said spokesman Michael Tadeo.

Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the committee's ranking Democrat, said Jewell's letter raises valid concerns. The committee should shift its focus to passing legislation aiding rural communities and addressing fisheries and drought, he said.

"The majority is entirely focused on scoring more anti-Obama political points with far-fetched political conspiracies," he said. "And to top it off, they are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to do it."

DeFazio blamed Republicans for allowing the expiration of Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, the program that compensates counties that struggle to raise property taxes as a result of an abundance of federal lands.

A bipartisan, bicameral conference excluded the program from the fiscal 2014 omnibus spending bill before Congress.

"If the majority is content to let these communities wither -- that's on them," he said. "I say we get back to actually legislating."

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the Subcommittee for Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, said this week that he had been assured by House leaders that PILT would be renewed. He made the announcement after an emergency meeting held Tuesday with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio); House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.); House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.); Hastings; and Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-Calif.).