July 17, 2018 — Senators this week will scrutinize the Trump administration’s extremely ambitious government reorganization plan that would amplify the Interior Department’s clout.
Some lawmakers are already applauding the general idea, though key reorganization details remain lacking, including potential costs, savings, job losses, relocations, office closures and timelines.
The Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries would merge within Interior under the plan. This, too, is an old idea. President Obama proposed something similar in 2012, using familiar-sounding language
“The Interior Department is in charge of salmon in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in salt water,” Obama said at the time. “No business or nonprofit leader would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations. … It has to change.”
It didn’t change.
The plan would also merge the Energy Department’s applied energy offices on renewables, nuclear and fossil energy into one “Office of Energy Innovation.” The White House also wants to establish a new “Office of Energy Resources and Economic Strategy.”
House members did not mention or raise questions about the energy- and environment-related moves during last month’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on reorganization.
Those moves, though, will face the heat at Thursday’s hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, whose members have already blasted a proposal to privatize power marketing administrations.