[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5389-S5390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HOLD ON INTERIOR DEPARTMENT NOMINATION

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I have placed a hold on the 
nomination of R. Lyle Laverty to be Assistant Secretary for Fish, 
Wildlife and Parks at the U.S. Interior Department. Consistent with my 
policy of publicly announcing whenever I place a hold on a nomination, 
I want to notify my colleagues of my objection to allowing Mr. 
Laverty's nomination to be considered under a unanimous-consent 
agreement. and to take a few minutes to explain to my colleagues why I 
am doing so.
  The Interior Department has suffered no shortage of scandals in 
recent years. To name just two of the most egregious: Its former No. 2 
official, a Deputy Interior Secretary who previously had been a coal 
industry lobbyist, pleaded guilty earlier this year to felony 
obstruction of justice for lying about his relationship with disgraced 
lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And we discovered that the Minerals Management 
Service, an agency within the Interior Department, has known for years 
about flawed drilling leases that allow companies to pay no royalties 
on valuable oil and gas they take from Federal land in the Gulf of 
Mexico, but the MMS did nothing until news reports brought the facts to 
the public last year. Indeed, the MMS has silenced auditors on its 
staff who tried to blow the whistle on companies not paying their fair 
share.
  ``Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest 
levels of the Interior Department,'' the Interior Department's 
inspector general has warned us.
  Last year, when Dirk Kempthorne was nominated to be Secretary of the 
Interior and he appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee for confirmation, I secured from him a pledge. He told me 
that he would reform that troubled department and introduce a higher 
ethical standard. The scandals would stop coming.
  However, in late March, the inspector general once again released a 
scathingly critical report warning us about bad things happening at the 
Interior Department. This time the subject was Julie MacDonald, Deputy 
Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Mr. Laverty would be 
the immediate supervisor of the position Ms. MacDonald held.
  In detail, the inspector general told us two things about Ms. 
MacDonald. One, she violated Federal rules by leaking internal Fish and 
Wildlife Service records to business groups actively challenging the 
Government's environmental rulemaking process. In the process, she has 
been undermining her own agency's cases in court. Two, without any 
formal education in the natural sciences, she has bullied and 
threatened FWS scientists and forced changes in their reports to suit 
her own political and personal agendas. FWS attorneys no longer will 
sign off on reports if they know the reports passed through her hands 
because they no longer are certain of the accuracy.
  This sort of conduct is simply unacceptable. If you agree to work in 
the Interior Department, your loyalty should be with the Interior 
Department and protecting this country's natural treasures. Ms. 
MacDonald's loyalty lay elsewhere.
  The inspector general sent his report on Ms. MacDonald to the 
Interior Department for administrative action more than a month ago. 
The Interior Department had no public comment. Only after I announced 
that I would place a hold on Mr. Laverty's nomination did Ms. MacDonald 
resign. That removes her from the equation, but not the atmosphere that 
allowed her to operate as she did for so long.

[[Page S5390]]

  In case I wasn't perfectly clear last year at his confirmation 
hearing, I want to be sure that Secretary Kempthorne knows that I am 
serious. The Interior Department has been a source of shame to this 
government for too long. It is failing in its mission to protect the 
public land and balance the needs of the American people with wisdom 
and integrity. It has stumbled from one misstep to another, from one 
scandal to another, and I have to question who is in charge over there.
  I want to hear from Secretary Kempthorne what action he plans to take 
to be certain that we won't see this sort of problem again. I want to 
hear from Mr. Laverty what he would do, if he is confirmed to the post 
of Assistant Secretary, to end the politicization of the Fish and 
Wildlife Service. We cannot continue to have government scientists 
whose work is manipulated and conclusions are rewritten by political 
appointees. We cannot continue to have federal officials working 
secretly with groups challenging their own agencies.
  Until I receive these assurances, I will object to any unanimous 
consent agreement to allow Mr. Laverty's nomination to come to a vote 
in the Senate.

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