“Biden Admin Quietly Nukes Trump-Era ‘Transparency’ Initiative Tracking Settlements And Payouts To Left-Wing Activists”
by Kaminsky, Gabe;
Daily Caller;
June 21st, 2022
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) under President Joe Biden has revoked a Trump-era order that gives the public more information through a database on settlements and consent decrees between the government and outside interest groups.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland revoked the order, which was issued in September 2018, on Friday. The order made details concerning settlements and consent decrees, as well as cash amounts paid to lawyers of private entities, accessible online.
Republicans have often criticized so-called “sue and settle” cases, in which a group legally challenges a federal department it knows to agree on a specific issue, followed by the department voluntarily ending a dispute and enacting policy that perhaps would not pass through legislative or other means.
Trump’s DOI order was designed to limit so-called “sue and settle” cases, in which a group legally challenges a federal department it knows to agree on a specific issue, followed by the department voluntarily ending a dispute and enacting policy that perhaps would not pass through legislative or other means.
“The American people need to know what kinds of agreements are being made and what kinds of monies are being spent on the public’s behalf. You have the ethical problem with [government officials] on the inside now making deals with their former colleagues and not telling anybody about it,” William Perry Pendley, the Trump-era director of the Bureau of Land Management, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There is money going to groups that are turning around and using that money to fund litigation to again sue their former colleagues who are now in office.”
Karen Budd-Falen, another Trump-era official who served as deputy solicitor for the DOI’s parks and wildlife division, told TheDCNF that Haaland’s revocation “is a problem” because the public is not able to track “rulemaking” in real time.
“I think the public ought to know, right?” said Budd-Falen, who added that “digging” for information on litigation now could be “very expensive and difficult” for those interested.
For instance, the DOI handed the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental law firm, $140,000 in attorneys’ fees in 2021 after a lawsuit was brought challenging federal agencies for allegedly not complying with the Endangered Species Act.
Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity and another environmental group sued the Biden administration to block over 3,500 oil and gas leases in Wyoming and New Mexico. With the litigation website gone, “it could be devastating if these lawsuits are successful,” said Pendley, alluding to how much could get paid out to the groups without the knowledge of the public.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/06/21/biden-admin-doi-sue-settle-left-wing/
#corruption #biden #federalGovernment #doi #departmentOfInterior #haaland
by Kaminsky, Gabe;
Daily Caller;
June 21st, 2022
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) under President Joe Biden has revoked a Trump-era order that gives the public more information through a database on settlements and consent decrees between the government and outside interest groups.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland revoked the order, which was issued in September 2018, on Friday. The order made details concerning settlements and consent decrees, as well as cash amounts paid to lawyers of private entities, accessible online.
Republicans have often criticized so-called “sue and settle” cases, in which a group legally challenges a federal department it knows to agree on a specific issue, followed by the department voluntarily ending a dispute and enacting policy that perhaps would not pass through legislative or other means.
Trump’s DOI order was designed to limit so-called “sue and settle” cases, in which a group legally challenges a federal department it knows to agree on a specific issue, followed by the department voluntarily ending a dispute and enacting policy that perhaps would not pass through legislative or other means.
“The American people need to know what kinds of agreements are being made and what kinds of monies are being spent on the public’s behalf. You have the ethical problem with [government officials] on the inside now making deals with their former colleagues and not telling anybody about it,” William Perry Pendley, the Trump-era director of the Bureau of Land Management, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There is money going to groups that are turning around and using that money to fund litigation to again sue their former colleagues who are now in office.”
Karen Budd-Falen, another Trump-era official who served as deputy solicitor for the DOI’s parks and wildlife division, told TheDCNF that Haaland’s revocation “is a problem” because the public is not able to track “rulemaking” in real time.
“I think the public ought to know, right?” said Budd-Falen, who added that “digging” for information on litigation now could be “very expensive and difficult” for those interested.
For instance, the DOI handed the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental law firm, $140,000 in attorneys’ fees in 2021 after a lawsuit was brought challenging federal agencies for allegedly not complying with the Endangered Species Act.
Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity and another environmental group sued the Biden administration to block over 3,500 oil and gas leases in Wyoming and New Mexico. With the litigation website gone, “it could be devastating if these lawsuits are successful,” said Pendley, alluding to how much could get paid out to the groups without the knowledge of the public.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/06/21/biden-admin-doi-sue-settle-left-wing/
#corruption #biden #federalGovernment #doi #departmentOfInterior #haaland
“Biden Admin Quietly Nukes Trump-Era ‘Transparency’ Initiative Tracking Settlements And Payouts To Left-Wing Activists”
by Kaminsky, Gabe;
Daily Caller;
June 21st, 2022
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) under President Joe Biden has revoked a Trump-era order that gives the public more information through a database on settlements and consent decrees between the government and outside interest groups.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland revoked the order, which was issued in September 2018, on Friday. The order made details concerning settlements and consent decrees, as well as cash amounts paid to lawyers of private entities, accessible online.
Republicans have often criticized so-called “sue and settle” cases, in which a group legally challenges a federal department it knows to agree on a specific issue, followed by the department voluntarily ending a dispute and enacting policy that perhaps would not pass through legislative or other means.
Trump’s DOI order was designed to limit so-called “sue and settle” cases, in which a group legally challenges a federal department it knows to agree on a specific issue, followed by the department voluntarily ending a dispute and enacting policy that perhaps would not pass through legislative or other means.
“The American people need to know what kinds of agreements are being made and what kinds of monies are being spent on the public’s behalf. You have the ethical problem with [government officials] on the inside now making deals with their former colleagues and not telling anybody about it,” William Perry Pendley, the Trump-era director of the Bureau of Land Management, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There is money going to groups that are turning around and using that money to fund litigation to again sue their former colleagues who are now in office.”
Karen Budd-Falen, another Trump-era official who served as deputy solicitor for the DOI’s parks and wildlife division, told TheDCNF that Haaland’s revocation “is a problem” because the public is not able to track “rulemaking” in real time.
“I think the public ought to know, right?” said Budd-Falen, who added that “digging” for information on litigation now could be “very expensive and difficult” for those interested.
For instance, the DOI handed the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental law firm, $140,000 in attorneys’ fees in 2021 after a lawsuit was brought challenging federal agencies for allegedly not complying with the Endangered Species Act.
Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity and another environmental group sued the Biden administration to block over 3,500 oil and gas leases in Wyoming and New Mexico. With the litigation website gone, “it could be devastating if these lawsuits are successful,” said Pendley, alluding to how much could get paid out to the groups without the knowledge of the public.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/06/21/biden-admin-doi-sue-settle-left-wing/
#corruption #biden #federalGovernment #doi #departmentOfInterior #haaland
