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Trump Swamp: Interior Dept Keeping Acting Directors in Office Without Senate Confirmation
Trump swamp creature David Bernhardt is at it again, destroying our Department of Interior that he leads despite hating its existence. You likely don't know his name and that's because he's very good at destroying the United States quietly without the prior scandals of swamp creatures like Ryan Zinke and Scott Pruitt. The United States rapid decline into a totalitarian nation under Trump continues.
A new Interior Department move to leave controversial temporary leaders in place indefinitely may violate laws on filling vacancies, legal experts say, and skirts requirements for Senate confirmation.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has indefinitely extended the terms of the acting directors of the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, sidestepping the typical Senate confirmation process for those posts.
William Perry Pendley is still at the helm of the BLM and David Vela is still in charge at the NPS, the Interior Department said.... Bernhardt extended Pendley’s appointment for another month, meaning that Pendley has led the agency for more than 10 months without being confirmed.
The Bureau of Land Management & the National Park Service now have "acting" directors that will stay on forever effectively bypassing the Constitutional process of Senate confirmation and allowing the appointment of unqualified hacks.
Interior said leaders for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service (NPS) will continue to serve in their roles pursuant to “updated succession orders.”
However, Interior refused to provide a copy of the new orders, leaving unclear the breadth of the directive leaving acting BLM head William Perry Pendley and acting NPS director David Vela in place.
Pendley had long advocated for selling off the public lands he now manages, while Vela has faced scrutiny for reopening national parks during the coronavirus outbreak.
This story of course doesn't exist in the mainstream media due to our current insanity, but it's wild that this presidency has effectively destroyed Congressional oversight.
Bernhardt has faced criticism for issuing orders to keep Pendley and Vela in their posts for several months at a time.
Updating the succession orders would mark a shift in the strategy used to keep Pendley and Vela in office. The move leaves the men in their roles without the expiration date hanging over their authority that accompanied the earlier orders from Bernhardt.
The effort quickly drew criticism from outside groups, who argued the administration is once again avoiding the Senate to keep controversial leaders in place.
Lawsuits to fight this are underway but, as we know, those take forever so they don't solve the issue at hand.
Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued in April, arguing the orders violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act by keeping the men in their posts beyond 210 days.
...two environmental groups are suing Bernhardt in federal court, arguing that this avoidance of Senate confirmation violates the Constitution and federal law.
Read more about Bernhardt in our prior posts:
http://smartdissent.com/article/zinkes-successor-acting-interior-secretary-agency-insider-and-oil
http://smartdissent.com/article/great-dismantling-americas-national-parks-underway
http://smartdissent.com/article/acting-interior-secretary-david-bernhardt-busy-attacking-endangered
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