[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 125 (Monday, July 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10959-S10961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES AND LOBBYING

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, this evening, my colleague from Wyoming and 
I come to the floor to discuss with the Senate what we believe to be a 
very important issue. It has come to our attention in the last several 
days that in a letter directed to the Director of the Bureau of Land 
Management in each of our States across the Nation, coming from the 
Acting Director, Mr. Dombeck, a letter goes to them instructing them to 
engage in an outreach informational program about a pending piece of 
legislation before the U.S. Senate.
  If this is true, and in the manner in which it has been done, it 
appears that this Acting Director of BLM, who is a civil servant 
unconfirmed, may have acted in a way as to have violated the law of 
this country.
  I say so because it is very, very clear that section 303 of the 1995 
Interior Appropriations Act states,

       No part of any appropriation contained in this act shall be 
     available for any activity or the publication or distribution 
     of literature that in any way tends to promote public support 
     or opposition to any legislative proposal on which 
     congressional action is not complete.

  The directive sent to the State directors of BLM, instructing them to 
perform in certain ways, was about the pending rangeland reform, or the 
Public Rangeland Management Act that is now pending before the Senate. 
This instruction went out prior to the committee's action, prior to the 
markup and the passing out of the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee, this legislation. It is a detailed, instructive act.
  Since that time, we have seen op-ed pieces, public comments, 
interviews, and actions taken by State Directors of the BLM and/or 
their public information personnel.
  While we are not sure that this constitutes a violation of the act, 
it clearly appears at this moment, at least to this Senator, that a 
public information, if not a political campaign was launched to spread 
what is now misinformation about a pending piece of legislation.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a memo that I 
have obtained from the Acting Director, going to the States, which 
outlines a complete campaign of information directed at a pending piece 
of legislation before the U.S. Senate.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:
                                                     July 5, 1995.
     To: State Directors, Attention: External Affairs Chiefs.
     From: Acting Director, Bureau of Land Management.
     Subject: Healthy Rangelands Communication Plan.

       Thank you for your excellent work over the past year 
     promoting BLM's efforts to improve the health of the public 
     rangelands. I believe that our approach to collaborative 
     public rangeland management best serves the people and the 
     lands entrusted to our stewardship.
       In order to further promote our approach, we have developed 
     and attached a rangeland communication plan which I expect 
     each state to implement over the next three weeks. The July 
     communication's plan focuses on three areas: Resource 
     Advisory Councils (RACs), Inreach, and Outreach.
       I commend your efforts during the RAC Domination process. 
     By now you should be working with your Governors to recommend 
     nominations for the Secretary's approval. These should be 
     submitted to the Washington Office by July 14.
       In terms of ``inreach'', during July I want you to make 
     sure that all BLM staff have the opportunity to review our 
     briefing materials and agency testimony on the differences 
     between the Livestock Grazing Act and BLM's cooperative 
     relations and grazing administration rules.
       Our primary focus for July is ``outreach''. The outreach 
     section of the communications plan identifies basic minimum 
     tasks that I expect the State Directors and State External 
     Affairs Chiefs to accomplish during July. Feel free to expand 
     or enhance these tasks as appropriate. The differences 
     between BLM's collaborative approach to public rangeland 
     management and the one presently under discussion in Congress 
     are dramatic. We have an obligation to make our constituents 
     aware of these differences.
       Barry Rose (208/384-3393) of Idaho's Lower Snake River 
     Ecosystem Office and Chris Wood (202/208-7013) of the 
     Washington Office will continue to serve as field and 
     headquarters coordinators for rangeland communication issues. 
     Please provide Tony Garrett, Director of Public Affairs for 
     the Washington Office with an status update on implementation 
     of the communication plan each week during the external 
     affairs conference call.
       Barry Rose and Chris Wood will discuss the communication's 
     plan with you at the conference call this afternoon. Thanks 
     for your continued efforts.

        TEN WAYS THE LGA UNDERMINES MULTIPLE USE OF PUBLIC LANDS        
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                            Section     
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Severely limits public involvement in public land                       
 management:                                                            
    Says only grazing permittee/lessee, adjacent                        
     landowners, advisory councils, and states may                      
     participate in development of grazing plans.                       
     Does not provide for direct participation by all                   
     others who are affected by grazing decisions or                    
     value public lands--including hikers, campers,                     
     miners, oil companies, Indian tribes............             121(a)
    Specifies that only permittee/lessee may protest                    
     or appeal a grazing decision. All other citizens                   
     could be excluded from taking an active role in                    
     the appeals process.............................      162 164(a)(1)
    On-the-ground grazing management would be exempt                    
     from the National Environmental Policy Act. The                    
     effects of grazing on the human environment                        
     would not be analyzed in a public forum or                         
     subject to public scrutiny......................          106(d)(2)
Restricts the ability of resource managers to address                   
 environmental concerns:                                                
    Could result in at least 23 years of monitoring,                    
     appeals, and other delays before management                        
     actions that protect resource health can be                        
     implemented.....................................     114, 104, 123,
                                                                     164
    Terms and conditions of a lease would be limited                    
     to grazing specific issues (kind, number, season                   
     of use, periods of use, allotments to be used,                     
     and amount of use) unless provided for by                          
     allotment management plan terms and conditions                     
     or the LGA......................................          136(a)(b)
    Terms and conditions of a lease/permit would no                     
     longer normally be used to provide for other                       
     uses and values such as winter forage for deer                     
     and elk, nesting habitat for game birds, water                     
     sources for wild horses and burros, water                          
     quality, or healthy riparian areas..............  .................
    Even emergency decisions are subject to                             
     suspension upon appeal. No provisions to put                       
     decisions in immediate effect...................    114(d), 164(b)1
Moves public land management away from a tradition of                   
 ``multiple use'':                                                      
    Broadly exempts livestock grazing from oversight,                   
     appeal, management, and enforcement requirements                   
     that apply to other public land users...........     106, 121, 123,
                                                                     136
    The definition of livestock ``carrying capacity''                   
     would allow livestock stocking rates to the                        
     point that grazing does not ``induce permanent                     
     damage to vegetation or related resources''                        
     [emphasis in italic]............................            104(21)
    Monitoring and inspection may not occur unless                      
     the livestock operator has been invited and                        
     allowed to participate. This compromises BLM's                     
     ability to conduct trespass investigations and                     
     allows the uncooperative operator ``veto power''                   
     over needed monitoring..........................   114, 123, 141(b)
    Requires that grazing violations are ``knowingly                    
     and willfully'' committed--this places a nearly                    
     impossible burden of proof on managers and makes                   
     ignorance an acceptable excuse for violations...            141(b)1
------------------------------------------------------------------------


                     RANGELANDS COMMUNICATIONS PLAN                     
------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Category             Task              Lead              When      
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resource Advisory  Review             SDs/External      July 14.        
 Councils.          nominations with   Affairs Chiefs.                  
                    Govs., forward                                      
                    to Headquarters.                                    
                   Assist National    Rose............  Draft package   
                    Training Ctr.                        due July 31.   
                    with RAC                                            
                    orientation                                         
                    package and                                         
                    training                                            
                    materials.                                          
Inreach..........  Ensure that all    B. Johns........  July 14.        
                    offices have                                        
                    briefing                                            
                    materials on                                        
                    final rules and                                     
                    Livestock                                           
                    Grazing Act                                         
                    (LGA).                                              
Outreach.........  Respond to         External Affairs  Within 5 days of
                    misinformation.    Chiefs.           receipt.       

[[Page S 10960]]
                                                                        
                   Prepare op-ed to   External Affairs  July 21.        
                    daily/weekly       Chiefs.                          
                    papers and other                                    
                    media.                                              
                   Conduct briefings  External Affairs  July 31.        
                    interest groups    Chiefs and                       
                    on differences     appropriate                      
                    between LGA and    staff.                           
                    final rule.                                         
                   Meet with key      All public        July 31.        
                    reporters.         affairs staff                    
                                       with Area/                       
                                       District                         
                                       managers as                      
                                       appropriate.                     
                   Meet with          SDs/External      July 31.        
                    Editorial boards.  Affairs Chiefs.                  
------------------------------------------------------------------------


  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I yield to my colleague from Wyoming such 
time as he may consume, to discuss the action that the Senate and the 
appropriate committees have decided to take.
  Mr. THOMAS. I thank my colleague and the chairman of the subcommittee 
that is handling this bill.
  Let me say as background, it seems to me that this country relies on 
having a civil service legally buffered from political struggles. I 
think that is terribly important.
  Our Government is organized to have two levels, a political and a 
civil service career level. Dedicated career employees implement the 
law, while those designated as political work with or against Congress 
to establish the law. It is a fine line that must be maintained.
  The Clinton administration has apparently blatantly crossed that line 
and put career civil service employees in the position of violating one 
of the oldest lobbying laws on the books, that has sought for years to 
protect against the very thing.
  Let me cite it again, section 303 of the 1995 Interior Appropriations 
Act:

       No part of any appropriation contained in this act shall be 
     available for any activity or the publication or distribution 
     of literature that in any way tends to promote public support 
     or opposition to any legislative proposal on which 
     congressional action is not complete.

  The protection, of course, is for both the employees and the public. 
The Interior Department has asked employees in  their  jobs  to  lobby  
against  the public range management action, violating both 
the antitrust and the antilobbying action and the interior act.
  We want to look into this from both standpoints--the standpoint of 
protecting career employees as well as the standpoint of obeying the 
law and not having a bureaucracy campaigning on issues that are unfair.
  As chairman of the Committee on Oversight Investigations, at the 
request of our chairman of the full committee, I have sent a letter to 
the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Babbitt, and have asked him to 
cooperate in a reasonable investigation.
  We have not yet determined whether there would be a hearing. If there 
are reasons to do that, we are prepared to have a hearing on this 
issue.
  Mr. President, I think it is one that, obviously, is important in 
this issue, but it is important in a broader sense than that. That is, 
that we do have a separation, and we should protect career employees 
from being directed to get into the political activity of determining 
the decisions and the political issues here.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
a letter that has been sent to the Secretary of the Interior.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                  U.S. Senate,    
                                               Committee on Energy


                                        and Natural Resources,

                                    Washington, DC, July 28, 1995.
     Hon. Bruce Babbitt,
     Secretary of Interior,
     Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. Secretary: Pursuant to the direction of the 
     Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Energy and 
     Natural Resources Committee, this letter is to inform you 
     that the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is 
     initiating an investigation of activities by employees of the 
     Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that appear to constitute 
     violations of the 1995 Interior Appropriations Act and the 
     Anti-Lobbying Act. These lobbying activities are being 
     systematically directed against the Public Rangelands 
     Management Act of 1995, S. 852, which currently is before the 
     Senate, and other pieces of legislation pending before this 
     Committee.
       Many of the lobbying activities relating to S. 852 appear 
     to stem from a July 8, 1995 memorandum from BLM Acting 
     Director Dombeck to all BLM State Directors which transmitted 
     a ``Healthy Rangelands Communication Plan.'' In his 
     memorandum, Mr. Dombeck states that the primary focus of BLM 
     during July is ``outreach.'' The purpose of this outreach is 
     ``to make our constituents aware'' of the differences between 
     BLM's ``approach to public rangeland management and the one 
     presently under discussion in Congress.'' As the memorandum 
     states, these differences are ``dramatic.'' Attached to Mr. 
     Dombeck's memorandum is a chart titled ``Rangelands 
     Communications Plan.'' This plan identifies five tasks which 
     apparently constitute the ``outreach'' referred to in Mr. 
     Dombeck's memorandum. These tasks involve BLM State 
     Directors, the External Affairs Chiefs and their staff in the 
     State Directors' Offices, and area and district managers. The 
     tasks include responding to ``misinformation,'' preparing 
     opinion pieces for the media, conducting briefings for 
     interest groups, meeting with key reporters, and meeting with 
     editorial boards. Mr. Dombecks' plan has resulted in BLM 
     employees in the field espousing the horrors of S. 852, and 
     numerous media stories throughout the West which cast S. 852 
     in a very disparaging light.
       It seems plain to me that the ``Healthy Rangelands 
     Communication Plan,'' and activities thereunder, was designed 
     to influence the legislative consideration of S. 852 in 
     precisely the manner prohibited by the Department of the 
     Interior and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 1995, Pub. 
     L. No. 103-322, section 303, 108 Stat. 2499, 2536 (1994) 
     (``section 303''). In addition, some of the actions taken by 
     BLM employees in implementing the plan may constitute 
     criminal violations of the Anti-Lobbying Act, 18 U.S.C. 
     section 1913. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight 
     and Investigations, BLM's ``Healthy Rangelands Communication 
     Plan'' and other activities aimed at influencing public 
     opinion on legislation pending before the United States 
     Senate greatly concerns me.
       Section 303 of the 1995 Interior Appropriations Act states:
       ``No part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall 
     be available for any activity or the publication or 
     distribution of literature that in any way tends to promote 
     public support or opposition to any legislative proposal on 
     which congressional action is not complete.''
       The language of section 303, on its face, is a very broad 
     and comprehensive prohibition on the expenditure of 
     appropriated funds. It includes four uses of the term ``any'' 
     in a single sentence. Congressional intent could not be more 
     emphatic. Moreover, the use of the word ``tends'' even more 
     clearly demonstrates that both direct and indirect conduct is 
     targeted, for, as a factual manner, even indirect conduct may 
     ``in any way tend'' to promote public support on an issue. 
     Without detailing other evidence of the breadth of section 
     303 in this letter, a close review of the legislative history 
     of this provision, which first appeared in the Interior's 
     appropriation bill for Fiscal Year 1978, and a General 
     Accounting Office opinion on this provision, clearly show 
     that section 303 is designed to prohibit any activity which 
     tends to promote public support for agency goals concerning a 
     matter pending before Congress.
       Activities of BLM employees in implementing Mr. Dombeck's 
     plan may even rise to the level of violating section 1913 of 
     the United States Criminal Code. Section 1913 provides that:
       ``No part of the money appropriated by any enactment of 
     Congress shall, in the absence of express authorization by 
     Congress, be used directly or indirectly to pay for any 
     personal service, advertisement, telegram, telephone, letter, 
     printed or written matter, or any other device, intended or 
     designed to influence in any manner a Member of Congress, to 
     favor or oppose, by vote or otherwise, any legislation or 
     appropriation by Congress . . .''
       Violation of this section is punishable by removal from 
     office or employment, a fine, and up to one year 
     imprisonment. Although section 1913 permits direct 
     communications from agency officials to Members of Congress 
     made ``through proper official channels,'' actions 
     implementing
      the ``Healthy Rangelands Communication Plan'' do not appear 
     to fall within this narrow exception.
       The possibility that BLM employees may have violated 
     section 303 of the 1995 Interior Appropriations Act and, 
     perhaps, section 1913 of the Anti-Lobbying Act is a serious 
     matter which warrants an investigation by the Oversight and 
     Investigations Subcommittee. Your assistance in this 
     investigation is therefore requested. Accordingly, I request 
     that you forward all documents responsive to the following 
     request to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, 
     Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations:
       All documents by or for any Department of the Interior 
     official or employee including, but not limited to: officials 
     or employees in the Office of the Secretary; officials or 
     employees in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Land 
     and Minerals Management; BLM officials or employees in 
     Washington, D.C., including Acting BLM Director Dombeck, Bob 
     Johns, Chief, BLM Public Affairs, Tony Garrett, BLM Public 
     Affairs Team Leader, Chris Wood, BLM Policy Analyst; BLM 
     State Directors; BLM State External Affairs Chiefs and public 
     affairs staff; BLM Area managers; and BLM District managers, 
     which discuss, analyze, implement, or 

[[Page S 10961]]
     relate in any manner to the July 8, 1995 ``Healthy Rangelands 
     Communication Plan,'' or S. 852, the Public Rangeland 
     Management Act of 1995.
       The term document shall include, but is not limited to, any 
     and all originals and drafts of any information whether in 
     written, typed, printed, recorded, transcribed, taped, or 
     audio-taped, however produced or reproduced. This request 
     shall include, but is not limited to, memoranda, letters, 
     briefing materials, analyses, talking points, computer 
     entries, electronic e-mails, telephone logs, tapes, notes, 
     diaries, journal entries, reports, studies, manuals, 
     speeches, opinion documents, position papers, messages, 
     summaries, and bulletins.
       Because of the seriousness of these allegations, please 
     forward all responsive documents by Friday, August 4, 1995.
           Sincerely,

                                                 Craig Thomas,

                                         Chairman, Subcommittee on
                                     Oversight and Investigations.

  Mr. THOMAS. I yield to my colleague.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, let me thank my colleague from Wyoming for 
his response. He chairs the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee 
of the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
  I hope the Secretary of the Interior will cooperate. I think it would 
be tragic if, in fact, the veteran career civil servants of this great, 
old organization called the Bureau of Land Management have been pushed 
into a political activity by the acting director, the national director 
of the BLM.
  At least from my cursory observation with the information that is now 
available, it appears just that. Never in my 14 years in the U.S. 
Congress have I seen civil servants asking for and gaining interviews 
with editorial boards, writing editorial or guest opinions in 
newspapers, advocating a clear position on a given piece of 
legislation. That simply is not allowed. It may well be a violation of 
the Hatch Act.
  There are other, broader ramifications here. At this moment, the kind 
of look that I have taken, and I think my colleagues in the Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee have taken, is that without question there 
appears at this moment at least to be a violation of this Senate's 
appropriations act.
  The language that the Senator from Wyoming and I read, section 303, 
is not something new. It goes in every appropriations bill, and it has 
gone in for a good many years, directing the actions of the agencies 
involved and the money appropriated and how it should not be used in 
certain cases.
  We hope that the Secretary of the Interior would cooperate so we can 
get to the bottom of this issue, so that the State directors and the 
information officers of the BLM will not continually be put in a most 
awkward position over an issue they are now being asked to advocate, 
when it is the responsibility of the United States Congress to make 
those decisions, and then for those agency personnel to carry them out 
and to promulgate the rules and regulations necessary.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________