Incoming House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop has shaken up the panel by firing longtime staff, a move that portends a more aggressive oversight direction for the committee. The shift will include an emphasis on the Obama administration’s energy and environment policies, sources with knowledge of the changes told the Washington Examiner.
The Utah Republican is known for his fiery rhetoric and a laser-like focus on White House public lands policies. A source familiar with the committee said Bishop will look to position the panel as a more conservative voice to its Senate counterpart, whose chairman is the more moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
With Republicans now controlling both chambers of Congress, the Bishop-led committee will look to take a harder line against Obama administration efforts to use the Endangered Species Act to protect at-risk wildlife, which conservatives say stymies development. The committee also will take aim at attempts to designate more public lands and at how agencies implement the National Environmental Policy Act, an environmental review required for energy and infrastructure projects.
While the Bishop-helmed committee is preparing to bare its teeth, outgoing Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., was hardly a lap dog. His committee authored several oversight reports and used subpoena powers to investigate how the Interior Department decided to establish a six-month Gulf of Mexico drilling moratorium following the 2010 BP spill, which killed 11 people and spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf.
“They will be more aggressive. And probably more effective and on message,” Michael McKenna, a conservative energy lobbyist, told the Examiner. “I think it is a general sentiment that the range of what might actually be possible has expanded. No one wants to be caught sleeping or thinking too small.”
Much of that will begin at the staff level. While it’s not unusual for staff adjustments when committee chairmanships rotate, the breadth of the changes at House Natural Resources is unique considering the relative lack of turnover there over the years compared with other committees. Staff members with years of experience and institutional memory were given the boot, and observers expect Bishop’s replacements to show more bite than those who worked for Hastings, who is retiring.
The casualties include seven senior staff members, one of whom is retiring, along with clerical staff. Two other senior oversight staff members also have departed for other committees. The panel eliminated the Fisheries and Wildlife subcommittee, though it might add another one for oversight.
“Yes, they have gotten rid of some longtime staff, including the main fisheries expert who’s been around for decades. Given that the new chair is from Utah, I think it’s safe to say that fisheries won’t be a priority for the committee. Increased oversight sounds about right,” Beckie Zisser, an advocate with conservation group Oceana, told the Examiner.
Jason Knox, the counsel for the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee since 2012, will be moving over to Natural Resources as staff director.
The committee is not viewed as a top assignment, but it’s a favorite of many Western lawmakers because its jurisdiction includes the Interior Department.
Given that the federal government controls large swaths of forests, parks and other land in the West, the panel in recent years provided a sounding board for conservatives to rail against President Obama’s energy policies that they say keeps too much land off limits for energy production.
Obama has pledged to use more executive action to declare public lands, largely through the 1906 Antiquities Act. He already has protected more than 3 million acres using that law, which is more than any other president.
Bishop has been one of the House’s most vocal critics of those policies. As chairman, he will look to hammer at a forthcoming federal rule on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on public lands, prod Obama to open more federal onshore and offshore lands to energy production, and turn over control of national parks and forests to the states.
