{"id":568289,"date":"2021-06-18T17:21:44","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T21:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=568289"},"modified":"2021-06-18T17:21:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T21:21:46","slug":"biden-environmental-appointee-faces-conflict-of-interest-scrutiny-on-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-environmental-appointee-faces-conflict-of-interest-scrutiny-on-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Environmental Appointee Faces Conflict of Interest Scrutiny on Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-environmental-appointee-faces-conflict-of-interest-scrutiny-on-hill%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=568289&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1233528780_736x514.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">House Republicans have joined a watchdog complaint against the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, questioning whether the former environmental activist has improperly given favor to her former employees.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Following a <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/top-biden-official-promoting-policy-agenda-of-former-employer-ethics-watchdog-says\/\">Monday complaint<\/a> by Protect the Public&#8217;s Trust regarding acting director Nada Culver&#8217;s implementation of her former employer&#8217;s policy agenda, Reps. Bruce Westerman (R., Ark.) and Paul Gosar (R., Ariz.) wrote to the Department of the Interior&#8217;s ethics office requesting further information about any conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Ms. Culver&#8217;s known positions on the issues she is now tasked with deliberating raises serious doubts about her impartiality during the decision-making process,&#8221; the Republican congressmen, both on the House Committee on Natural Resources, <a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-naturalresources.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/2021-06-15_westerman_gosar_to_culver_gottry_doi_re_culver_ethics_compliance.pdf\">wrote<\/a> in a letter. The initial complaint alleges that Culver did the bidding of the National Audubon Society, a radical environmentalist special interest group, by taking lead on the Biden administration&#8217;s ban on drilling in Alaska.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The letter comes as President Joe Biden&#8217;s nominee to permanently helm the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/06\/16\/biden-land-management-nominee-collaborated-with-eco-terrorists-traded-testimony-for-immunity\/\">comes under fire<\/a> for collaborating with eco-terrorists who spent years in prison over &#8220;tree-spiking,&#8221; a dangerous tactic used by environmentalists to stop deforestation. Culver will remain the agency&#8217;s acting director until the Senate confirms her replacement.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Westerman told the <em>Washington<\/em> <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that his committee is taking oversight of new Biden administration officials seriously, and Culver&#8217;s favoritism toward her former employer is &#8220;deeply concerning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Culver&#8217;s various conflicts of interest\u2014particularly when it comes to her involvement in Public Land Orders and previous non-government employment\u2014are deeply concerning,&#8221; Westerman said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Protect the Public&#8217;s Trust, the watchdog group, said the congressional letter raised new conflicts it wasn&#8217;t aware of regarding her decades of lobbying the agency she now runs. While working at the Wilderness Society as an attorney, she created the &#8220;BLM Action Center,&#8221; which worked to push the bureau toward conservation goals by &#8220;engaging in the agency&#8217;s decision making process.&#8221; The Wilderness Society filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration&#8217;s Bureau of Land Management while she was with the group.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Michael Chamberlain, the watchdog group&#8217;s executive director, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> the letter adds to its existing concerns.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Combining the information revealed by the members of the committee with what Protect the Public&#8217;s Trust was able to uncover, the American public would rightfully have very serious concerns about Ms. Culver&#8217;s ability to act impartially,&#8221; Chamberlain said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Chamberlain said the Biden administration is falling short on ethics issues, especially after lofty promises.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;The Biden administration promised to be the most ethically vigorous administration in history,&#8221; Chamberlain said. &#8220;If high-level officials are being allowed to do their former employers&#8217; bidding, the American public is right to be skeptical of that promise and to question what purpose the Biden Ethics Pledge serves.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Bureau of Land Management did not respond to requests for comment on the complaint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Republicans have joined a watchdog complaint against the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, questioning whether the former environmental activist has improperly given favor to her former &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2280737,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1233528780_736x514.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Biden Environmental Appointee Faces Conflict of Interest Scrutiny on Hill","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1233528780_736x514.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Biden Environmental Appointee Faces Conflict of Interest Scrutiny on Hill","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}