House Democrats will investigate outgoing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke next year, regardless of the secretary’s resignation and departure on Jan. 1.
“We will continue to do oversight of Secretary Zinke’s major policy decisions, including the destruction of the national monuments in Utah, the decisions to lease public lands to fossil fuel industries,” and other areas of his regulatory record, said Adam Sarvana, spokesman for the House Natural Resources Committee and its top Democrat Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, who is slated to lead the panel’s agenda next year as chairman.
The committee is responsible for oversight of the Interior Department and will spend a good chunk of its time probing the basis for Zinke’s policy directives.
“We want to know who he consulted with in making some of these decisions,” Sarvana told the Washington Examiner.
Zinke outraged environmentalists by advancing a plan to reverse the Obama-era expansion of the Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah in order to open the land up to development. Zinke has also looked to reverse the Obama administration’s plan to protect the chicken-sized sage grouse in order to open lands in the western part of the U.S. to drilling and mining.
In addition to who Zinke did or did not consult in making those decisions, the committee’s Democratic leadership will probe whether he followed proper procedure, Sarvana said.
“Our interest in those questions has not waned at all just because he is leaving office,” he said.
About a month before his resignation on Saturday, Zinke personally attacked Grijalva by calling him a drunk, lashing back at the Democrat’s criticisms of his alleged ethics violations.
“It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” Zinke tweeted.
The Justice Department is continuing to investigate Zinke over allegations that he used his position in government for personal benefit and gain.
Sarvana said the committee will not seek to duplicate the investigation underway at the Justice Department. The Interior Department’s inspector general is also looking into similar matters.
Instead, the Natural Resources Committee’s “first job” will be policy oversight, Sarvana said.
President Trump announced Zinke’s departure on Saturday via Twitter. Later in the day, Zinke issued a separate statement explaining that the cost of mounting a legal defense to fight “false accusations” was a primary motivation in him leaving.
One of the more serious claims against Zinke is that he is involved in a real estate development project with David Lesar, the chairman of the oil services firm Halliburton. Zinke founded a group in Montana that is leading discussions with Lesar on the project and has met with him while serving as secretary. Zinke has rebutted the claims that he violated the law and has demonstrated that he no longer headed the group working with Lesar in Montana, which is currently run by his wife.
“This is no kind of victory, but I’m hopeful that it is a genuine turning of the page,” Grijalva said on Saturday after hearing of Zinke’s resignation. “The next Interior secretary should respect the American people’s desire for strong environmental standards and an end to corporate favoritism.”
