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Obama’s top environmental official wanted nothing to do with politics after leaving the government. What did it take to bring her back? Washington legend has it that bureaucrats and political operatives overwhelmingly stay in issue advocacy or politics after their bosses leave office. But that notion is decades out-of-date. These days, many top officials who […]
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If politicians no longer coveted that early “Iowa bump,” would they still feel compelled to support ethanol subsidies? In the wake of Iowa’s caucus vote-counting disaster, political staffers and pollsters alike are reconsidering the state’s “first in the nation to vote” status. The quaint caucuses and infamous fry-forward state fair could disappear were Iowa to […]
Continue ReadingRead the full story in The Hill» The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has repeatedly rescheduled and delayed a meeting of an advisory board slated to review a controversial proposal that would block the agency from considering studies that don’t make their underlying data public. The rule in question is titled “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science,” […]
Continue ReadingRead the full story in The Hill» Nearly 50 different Democratic requests for documents have been unanswered by departments and agencies that oversee President Trump’s science and environment policies, lawmakers say, underscoring the brick wall the administration has put up against congressional oversight. Democratic lawmakers are expressing anger and frustration with the administration over what they […]
Continue ReadingRead the full story in The Hill» The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is blaming a component of its controversial new public records policy on recommendations made by an advisory board, according to an email shared with The Hill. In June the agency made a change to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policy requiring that all record […]
Continue ReadingRead the full story in The Hill» An advisory committee that provided input on bettering smart grids in the U.S. is the latest casualty of President Trump’s executive order to cut federal advisory boards by a third. The Smart Grid Advisory Committee that operated under the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was terminated Sept. […]
Continue ReadingRead the full story in The Hill» President Trump has quietly appointed his Social Security Administration (SSA) inspector general to also oversee a much different agency: the Interior Department. On May 28, Gail Ennis began her second job overseeing the Interior Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), a role she will keep for the foreseeable […]
Continue ReadingRead the full story in The Hill» The Trump administration Friday announced it would make 725,000 acres of land in California’s central coast open to oil and gas lease sales, ending a five-year moratorium. The decision by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) made the federal land available for fossil fuel production across Fresno, Monterey, […]
Continue ReadingRead the full story in The Hill» The Trump administration is disbanding two federal advisory boards focused on protecting marine life and battling invasive species. As of Tuesday, the government will no longer fund the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or the Interior Department’s Invasive […]
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