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." 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...more
This is an agency that was allocated $3 billion in "stimulus" funds and they are complaining about spending $1.5 million?
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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