Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, took Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to task Tuesday for saying he plans to eliminate 30 percent of the agency’s employees because they are “not loyal” to him or the president.
“Secretary’s Zinke’s comments yesterday betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of federal civil service,” the Washington senator said. “They are non-political employees charged with implementing and enforcing laws passed by Congress and have incredible domain expertise in their areas of responsibility.”
Zinke made the comments Monday while addressing the National Petroleum Council, a federal advisory panel.
“I got 30 percent of the crew that’s not loyal to the flag,” Zinke said. He compared his agency to a pirate ship that seizes “a prized ship at sea and only the captain and the first mate row over” to complete the mission.
Cantwell said the “public servants at the Department of the Interior deserve respect from the man charged with leading them — not cheap shots in the press.”
She said replacing public servants with “purely political people will not protect our public lands or protect taxpayers from special interest sweetheart deals.” Zinke said the overhaul would shift energy permitting away from Washington to the states. He said the change would speed up the energy permitting process that President Trump wants to meet the goals of his pro-growth agenda.
Zinke addressed a clean energy conference Tuesday, but he did not discuss any topic as politically charged as the overhaul. Instead, he focused on the Interior Department’s role in developing an all-of-the-above energy strategy that does not favor fossil fuels over renewable energy.
“People ask me if I am a fossil fuel guy? No. I’m all of the above,” he said. “I don’t look at fossil fuel or alternate energy any differently. Everything should contribute,” but it has to be “competitive.”
