Combs’ D.C. job may be stalled by power play
Sources: Delay a result of behind-the-scenes threat tied to health law.
Former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs all but had her bags packed last week for a new top post in the U.S. Interior Department.
Then, her path to Washington hit a speed bump.
Combs, nominated to be an assistant secretary at the Interior Department, was up for a vote by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last Thursday when the meeting was abruptly canceled less than 24 hours before it was to be held.
Leading up to that postponement was a high-stakes battle over health care.
The panel’s chairwoman, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told reporters that she had a “difficult” conversation with President Donald Trump over a key procedural vote on the GOP’s efforts to repeal the health care law.
Murkowski, who was undecided at the time, ended up being one of two GOP lawmakers who voted, “no,” and was singled out in a tweet the next day from Trump: “Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!”
Then, a few hours later, Murkowski got a telephone call from
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Zinke, according to the Alaska Dispatch News, made calls to Murkowski and GOP Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan last Wednesday in which he threatened Alaskan interests if Murkowski didn’t align with the Senate GOP on health care. The Interior Department holds significant control over public lands and oil and gas drilling in Alaska. (Sullivan’s vote wasn’t in question but the message appeared to be directed at the state.) Murkowski later told reporters that the exchange with Zinke was also “difficult.”
(Murkowski ultimately would be one of three GOP senators who, along with Democrats, scuttled the latest GOP effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.)
But Murkowski, as chairwoman of the panel that oversees the Interior Department, as well as the subcommittee that funds the department, has leverage.
There was a meeting scheduled for the next day to consider confirming Combs to be assistant secretary of interior for policy, management and budget, along with another Interior Department nominee and four Energy Department nominees.
That afternoon a terse news release from the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources said, without explanation, that the next morning’s 9:30 a.m. meeting had been postponed. It hasn’t been rescheduled.
Asked for an explanation, committee communications director Nicole Daigle told the American-Statesman, “The business meeting was postponed due to uncertainty of the Senate schedule.”
Trump has complained repeatedly about the pace of Senate confirmations of his nominees, as has the GOP leadership, blaming delays on Democrats.
Murkowski denied that the postponement was payback and told CNN that there was a “blip” in the nominations and that it would be cleared up.
“These are important people that need to get through,” she said.
But a Republican staffer familiar with Murkowski told the Statesman that the hearing cancellation was a power move in response to threats against her state. “That was pretty clear,” said the staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. A Democratic staffer who also requested anonymity said, “It seems pretty clear that the interior secretary threatening the chairman did not end well for him.”
Combs didn’t draw any committee opposition, and she is widely expected to be confirmed. The only question is when Murkowski will reschedule the vote.
At Combs’ confirmation hearing July 20, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, touted her credentials as former Texas agriculture commissioner and state comptroller for eight years, until 2015. “Her unique background makes her the perfect choice to help Secretary Zinke and his team manage America’s vast natural and cultural resources,” Cornyn said.
More than 70 conservation organizations, however, sent a letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last month opposing Combs for the position.
As state comptroller, Combs clashed often with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Interior Department, over restrictions imposed by the Endangered Species Act, which she viewed as an impediment to the state’s business development.
There was a meeting scheduled for the next day to consider confirming Combs to be assistant secretary of interior for policy, management and budget, along with another Interior Department nominee and four Energy Department nominees.