Name: Lucy Murfitt
Hometown: Fords, N.J.
Position: Public lands and natural resources director, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Age: 46
Alma mater: University of Scranton; Loyola University Chicago Law School
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Washington Examiner: You were an environmental attorney in the Army before coming to the Hill. What kind of issues did you work on in the Army?
Murfitt: Basically, everything the Army does has an environmental component to it. So, for instance, at Fort Bragg, we were sued regularly by the EPA [during the Clinton administration] for all kinds of environmental violations. Things like Clean Air Act violations, Clean Water Act violations, you name it.
Also, there are a lot of endangered species issues that affect our Army training on Army installations, and we happen to have on Fort Bragg a residential endangered species — the red-cockaded woodpecker — that affected training.
So, I would spend a tremendous amount of time negotiating deals to settle lawsuits like the ones I mentioned with the EPA, but also showing and training our soldiers as to how to deal with endangered species issues on the installation.
Washington Examiner: What was it like going from the Army to politics? Were you political before?
Murfitt: I will date myself a little here. I used to read Newsweek. And we used to watch “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert, and I always enjoyed and kept up with the goings-on of what was going on in government. Also, when I was stationed here at the Pentagon, we provided legal support on many of the legislative initiatives that the Army was trying to advance. So, getting a little taste of it there made me interested in wanting to come to the Hill.
Washington Examiner: The Army is non-political. How does that inform your work on the Energy Committee, which is generally known for being cooperative on a bipartisan basis?
Murfitt: It does. Because if you can all agree you have a similar goal and are willing to put aside some of the more contentious things, you are much more able to advance the ball.
If you are willing to take 90 percent rather than 100 percent of something, maybe you come back again later after you’ve seen whether that’s enough.
That’s been sort of a philosophy we’ve had that the Army really engenders.
Washington Examiner: The debate over oil and gas drilling in [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], which the energy committee led, was contentious. Republican efforts to drill in ANWR had failed many times before. What was your role with pushing it through Congress this time as part of the tax reform bill?
Murfitt: ANWR, in many ways, is a lands issue. People sometimes forget that. And my expertise is on the lands side of the committee. We had been looking at ANWR for a long time, probably since I came to the committee. But there never was an opportunity ripe like this, when we had the situation develop this past Congress where we had a vehicle, in this case the tax bill, that we could potentially utilize, and fresh eyes.
I consider my eyes fresh because folks have tried this before, and there have been at least 13 attempts at ANWR previously. I was just involved with this latest attempt.
The thing we probably had to our advantage this time around is a situation where there were a lot of distractions nationally. And including it within the tax bill itself, there was a lot of focus on the tax provisions and less focus on ANWR.
We tend to work best around here when we are under the radar and able to do the work that’s necessary to get things buttoned up before all hell breaks loose, and everyone is poking in on things.
Washington Examiner: Knowing that your boss, chairwoman Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was extremely invested in this issue, what did it mean for you to see it succeed?
Murfitt: I always sort of take on the commitment and desire for the issue that my boss has, whether it was my past boss or my current boss. In this instance, the ANWR issue is legendary.
To have had an opportunity to work on it was amazing. And then, to be able to deliver that for Alaskans, knowing how important it is and knowing how much it meant directly to the senator, who is Alaska-born and has been invested in this issue her whole life, is just amazing. It is. It’s amazing to share that with your boss.
Washington Examiner: What do you like to do outside work?
Murfitt: I am an avid hiker. I absolutely love to hike. I have been to every national park and forest land in Arizona. I have been to a bulk of them in Alaska. I love to recreate outside and enjoy our public lands. That’s what they are there for.
Washington Examiner: What are you reading right now?
Murfitt: Current reading list? Oh boy. I actually just finished reading Donna Brazile’s book. I did [laughs].
Washington Examiner: What was your takeaway from reading that?
Murfitt: I am glad I am not a Democrat [laughs].
