Santa Fe New Mexican

Interior boss pushes reorganiza­tion

- By Dan Elliott

DENVER — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is pressing ahead with a massive overhaul of his department, despite growing opposition to his proposal to move hundreds of public employees out of Washington and create a new organizati­onal map that largely ignores state boundaries.

Zinke wants to divide most of the department’s 70,000 employees and their responsibi­lities into 13 regions based on rivers and ecosystems, instead of the current map based mostly on state lines.

The proposal would relocate many of the Interior Department’s top decision-makers from Washington to still-undisclose­d cities in the West. The headquarte­rs of some of its major bureaus also would move to the West.

The concept — supported in principle by many Western politician­s from both parties — is to get top officials closer to the natural resources and cultural sites they manage. The Interior Department oversees a vast expanse of public lands, mainly in the West, that are rich in wildlife, parks, archaeolog­ical and historic sites, oil and gas, coal and grazing ranges.

It also oversees huge dams and reservoirs that are vital to some of the West’s largest cities and most productive agricultur­al land.

Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, suspects the plan is an attempt to undercut the department by pressuring senior employees to quit rather than relocating, leaving positions unfilled and creating confusion about who regulates what.

“I think it’s a very thinly disguised attempt to gut the Department of Interior and its bureaus,” he said.

Grijalva also questioned the value of moving more department employees West, saying more than 90 percent are already in field offices outside Washington.

Grijalva and Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin of Virginia, also a member of the Natural Resources Committee, on Wednesday accused Zinke of withholdin­g key informatio­n from lawmakers and trying to implement the plan piecemeal while avoiding full scrutiny from Congress.

Congress has the final say over the proposal.

And a bipartisan group of Western governors complained to Zinke two weeks ago that he shut them out of the planning for the reorganiza­tion. The Republican-dominated Western Governors Associatio­n expressed concern that organizing the department around natural features instead of state lines would weaken their states’ influence on department decisions.

Zinke’s spokeswoma­n, Heather Swift, said Wednesday that moving more Interior Department employees to the West has received overwhelmi­ng backing from Congress and state government­s, and that managing by ecosystems, instead of state borders, has “a lot of support.”

Six Republican members of the House Natural Resources Committee told Zinke last month they support the reorganiza­tion. They said it would improve agency efficiency and responsive­ness.

The Interior Department has been unusually tight-lipped about the plan and has not said how many of its Washington-based employees would be moved, where in the West they would land, when they would go, or how much the overhaul would cost.

Swift said the department has briefed both Republican and Democratic congressio­nal staffers and state officials on the proposal. She also said the department does not have a final plan.

 ?? RICK BOWMER/AP FILE PHOTO ?? U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke speaks Feb. 9 at the Western Conservati­on and Hunting Expo Friday in Salt Lake City.
RICK BOWMER/AP FILE PHOTO U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke speaks Feb. 9 at the Western Conservati­on and Hunting Expo Friday in Salt Lake City.
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