Any decision made by President Joe Biden’s Senate-confirmed nominee to lead the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could be null and void because she doesn’t meet key requirements to hold the post, multiple conservationists and legal experts told the Washington Examiner.
Two conservationists told the Washington Examiner they warned the 20 members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in late 2021 that the nominee, Martha Williams, lacks a “scientific education” in a relevant field, a requirement Congress codified into law during the Nixon administration. Despite the warnings, the committee voted 16-4 in January to advance Williams’s nomination to lead the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Senate confirmed her nomination by voice vote on Thursday.
“No individual may be appointed as the Director unless he is, by reason of scientific education and experience, knowledgeable in the principles of fisheries and wildlife management,” the law reads. Experts say the word “and,” as opposed to “or,” is crucial and mandates a nominee have knowledge derived from both experience and education.
Williams, who earned a law degree from the University of Montana in 1994 after graduating from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, “flatly violates” the statutory requirement to lead the agency she was just confirmed to lead, said Robert Aland, a retired attorney-turned-grizzly bear activist.
“Twenty senators, the White House, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, they didn’t give a damn about the statute,” Aland told the Washington Examiner. “Science has been thrown to the wind, even though it’s right in the statute.”
Williams herself acknowledged that she didn’t hold a scientific educational background during a 2017 interview with a local Montana news outlet following her appointment to lead the state’s Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.
“I’m not a biologist, but I’ve spent my career translating science to decision-makers and courts,” Williams said in 2017.
The Senate confirmed Williams’s nomination in a voice vote Thursday, a sign of the widespread bipartisan support she has in the chamber. Williams also received broad support from pro-hunting groups across the country.
During the Trump administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expanded hunting on National Wildlife Refuges and removed species such as gray wolves from the list of animals on the Endangered Species Act.
Conservationists who spoke with the Washington Examiner said they opposed Williams’s nomination in part because of the support she has received from the pro-hunting lobby. In addition, they said Williams had made no effort as acting head of the agency, a post she has held since Biden’s first day in office, to reverse the Trump-era policies.
Protect the Public’s Trust, a government ethics watchdog group, warned in a press release Friday that any decisions Williams makes as head of the Forest and Wildlife Service could be imperiled as her “apparent lack of required qualifications creates a risk that her appointment is contrary to law.”
“While the confirmation of Martha Williams was bipartisan, it was nevertheless precedent-breaking and could create legal issues for the Department’s major priorities that might not have been fully considered,” said Michael Chamberlain, the watchdog group’s director. “From the environmental analysis of Alaska energy projects to revised Endangered Species Act regulations, Ms. Williams’ lack of statutory qualification presents a serious issue for the Department.”
Aland said he agreed with the warning, adding that there’s a real possibility that any actions Williams takes could be taken to court due to her lack of credentials.
“It’s not an easy legal question. If there’s a clear violation of statute, as there is here, there ought to be a remedy,” Aland said. “There’s a cloud hanging over any decision she participates in, which is every decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
David Parsons, a wildlife biologist who served at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 24 years, said he was shocked when Biden nominated Williams to head the agency in October despite her lack of educational credentials. Parsons said in a blog post in December that Williams would be the first confirmed director of the agency in 57 years who would lack biological science credentials.
“It just sets a really bad precedent, especially under a Democratic president, to break that law for the first time,” Parsons told the Washington Examiner. “It’s a law. It’s not a policy. It’s actually a codified federal law that sets those standards for anyone to be appointed director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.”
Both Aland and Parsons told the Washington Examiner they warned staffers with the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in late 2021 that Williams doesn’t meet the statutory requirements to lead the agency. Parsons provided the Washington Examiner with copies of his email communications with the staffers warning about Williams’s credentials.
“It’s not like they didn’t know. They chose to ignore it,” Parsons said.
Williams was not asked about her educational credentials during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in November, which Aland described as a “lovefest.”
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Committee staffers did not return requests for comment asking if Williams’s statutory eligibility was taken into consideration during her confirmation process.
The White House did not return a request for comment.
