Udall Demands Answers from Zinke On Interior Dept. Reorganization Plans and National Monuments

U.S. Senator Tom Udall, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees funding for the Department of the Interior, demanded answers from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about his plans to make sweeping personnel changes at his agency, including suddenly reorganizing senior career officials and taking the first steps toward drastically reducing the agency workforce as called for by the agency’s budget request. Udall blasted Zinke's move to make such large-scale and ill-advised staffing changes without informing Congress and even before Congress has acted on the Fiscal Year 2018 budget. It has been reported by The Washington Post and other media outlets that among the dozens of the department’s Senior Executive Service staff being moved to new assignments in other bureaus or regions of the country are the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) State Director for New Mexico Amy Lueders, Southwest Regional Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service Benjamin Tuggle, and newly installed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Bruce Loudermik. Udall also expressed deep concern that — in response to his questions — Zinke declined to say if he would maintain protections for New Mexico's two new national monuments, Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. The two are among the slate of national monuments designated by presidents in both parties since 1996 that are now under review by the Interior Department. Udall asked Zinke, "Will you commit to me today that you will respect the wishes of the vast majority of New Mexicans and maintain the existing boundaries of these two monuments?"...more