Posted on 04/27/2019 4:06:51 PM PDT by Kaslin
Somebody is having trouble with the deep state, and this time it’s not President Trump. Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) is asking the president for help tackling what he views as entrenched workers in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (yes… I’m serious) who have been working to thwart oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Bet you didn’t see that one coming. (Government Executive)
A governor is asking the president to intervene with career federal employees, accusing them of “undermining” the sale of lands that would benefit his state.
In a letter to President Trump dated March 1, first made public by the Anchorage Daily News, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, R-Alaska, requesting relief from an array of activities various federal agencies are engaged in through his state. The appeals included many standard state-level concerns, such as more Medicaid funding and exemptions from forestry rules. In one case, however, Dunleavy castigated “career federal employees” he said were intentionally sabotaging efforts to sell off parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling.
“U.S. Fish and Wildlife career employees undermined seismic work this winter, so the sale will occur without valuable data, likely lowering the bids,” Dunleavy wrote. “These same U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees are working to undermine the lease sale.”
The bottom line here is that the ANWR leasing arrangement was part of the 2017 tax bill that President Trump signed. But you don’t just kick off a process like that overnight. In order for the states or the federal government to get top dollar for such leases, a number of studies have to be performed. Core samples are extracted and analyzed, and as with this case, seismic information is gathered. All of this allows energy companies to better understand the makeup of the terrain and predict how much oil and gas might be found there. The more solid (and positive) the data, the more they will be likely to bid for the lease.
In Alaska, some of those tasks fall to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But nearly two years after the measure was approved, the studies have still not been completed and signed off on. That means that some of the leases either won’t happen or will bring in less money than they should. So is this the deep state in action?
You can shout about paranoia all you like, but Dunleavy (and Trump) have some valid concerns in this regard. Back in 2017, Politico’s Michael Crowley was already talking about the reality of the deep state, though he obviously saw it as more of a conservative, military industrial complex issue. He wrote, “There really is a kind of cabal that operates independently of elected officials in Washington—even if it’s not quite what Trump or his conservative allies think it is.”
There’s no reason that the Fish and Wildlife Service should be immune to this phenomenon. Any large government organization is composed of an army of people who largely stay in that department for much of their careers and they don’t get replaced every time a new administration comes into power. How the organization evolves in its earliest days will largely determine what its deep state attributes look like. Those who rise to middle and senior management positions will no doubt lean toward hiring and promoting new talent with a similar world view. And those new arrivals will, in turn, do the same thing when they advance. Over a sufficient period of years, you find yourself with an entrenched culture that is very resistant to change.
If the agency has a liberal tilt when a new conservative director is appointed by the next president, they can either lie low or perhaps even take quiet actions to thwart (or at least slow down) new policies of the incoming leadership. And if they wait long enough, another president from the other party will be elected sooner or later and they can return to business as usual. When you consider these patterns in hiring and retention and the sort of people who would likely be attracted to the Fish and Wildlife Service (environmentalists), are Governor Dunleavy’s accusations really all that shocking?
Drain the swamp!
A little sunshine helps dry up the swamp.
Why doesn’t the Governor just ignore them and go ahead with his plans?
Fish and Wildlife don’t have their own army like other agencies, do they?
Kick the recalcitrant Feds the hell out of the state and do the work yourself.
If the agency has a liberal tilt when a new conservative director is appointed by the next president, they can either lie low or perhaps even take quiet actions to thwart (or at least slow down) new policies of the incoming leadership. And if they wait long enough, another president from the other party will be elected sooner or later and they can return to business as usual.
This isn’t rocket science. The state of Alaska has a bureaucracy. Use it.
Declare the buildings where the federal fascists work as infestations. Send in a team of bug chasers to spray everyday for the next 30 days.
Send your state cops to ticket every federal fascist for speeding, illegal parking, busted taillights and running red lights. Their licenses will be suspended in days.
Federal fascists use federal laws against us; use state laws against the federal fascists to shut them down.
Bump-o-rama.
“Fish and Wildlife don’t have their own army like other agencies, do they?”
it’s like “draining” the fbi of those Dem loyalists (accdg to a report 90% gave money to Hillary’s campaign) so it wont be easy just kicking them out. I’m almost sure PDJT leaned on Stephen Miller for the answer..
Been going on a LONG time in the FedGov eco-related agencies. Washington State agents planted lynx hairs to indicate the presence of an endangered species so as to bring land under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act. Also the “spotted owl” fiasco. And on and on and on.
Bttt.
5.56mm
If it hasn’t happened already, US F&W ought to freeze new hires and start downsizing through attrition. Probably upper and middle management would be the place to start.
In most government departments supervisors’ span of control is too small. Too few people reporting to a given supervisor. IMO, unless they have substantial other responsibilities, no supervisor should have fewer than 10-15 direct reports. These numbers can be significantly larger if most of the subordinates have similar responsibilities.
No doubt the deep state is entrenched in F&W just as it is in virtually every other government bureaucracy. It takes some management folks with big ones to suffer the slings and arrows of downsizing, but it can be done if you put the right people in the right places.
...Article reads.....“career federal employees” he said were intentionally sabotaging efforts to sell off parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling”...
Fire them!
If they can’t be fired then form a sub department of Useless slugs that can’t be fired. Make them work on that little island next to Russia. Have them walk buckets of water from one side of the island to the other and back until the ocean is drained.
Obama corrupted the entire government...
A possible solution for the Interior Secretary or President Trump to clear out the environmentalists from Alaska is to transfer them (to North Dakota?) and to replace the lot with his own loyalists.
I have personally dealt with Calif. Fish & Game...it is more difficult than dealing with the democrats....
Five state and two federal officials performed the Lynx Hair Hoax. I believe the fed hoaxers were promoted. Probably needed their expertise in the climate division.
“A possible solution for the Interior Secretary or President Trump to clear out the environmentalists from Alaska is to transfer them (to North Dakota?)”
That’s simply moving the fascist infestation to another place. You want to make life miserable for the fascists and make examples out of them to the point where DC bureaucrats fear living in the states.
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