On April 5, 2019, CfA again called on federal officials to investigate whether Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and his former lobbying firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the False Statements Act by failing to disclose Mr. Bernhardt’s apparent lobbying in connection with Westlands Water District (Westlands), an agricultural conglomerate in California. New documents indicate that Mr. Bernhardt continued to work for Westlands through April 2017 despite formally withdrawing his lobbying registration on November 18, 2016.

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the recipients of the Fiscal Year 2019 Title X Family Planning Service Grants. HHS awarded $1.7 million to the Obria Group in California.

On March 29, 2019, CfA released a new report, Google’s Diplomatic Edge, documenting how Google selfishly – and perhaps misleadingly – involved itself in some of America’s thorniest foreign policy engagements for the apparent purpose of opening new markets for its products.

On March 21, 2019, CfA sent a letter to officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calling on the agency to review the error-riddled Title X application submitted by the Obria Group, in conjunction with the Heidi Group and other Texas-based crisis pregnancy centers.

On March 20, 2019, CfA asked the House Judiciary Committee to refer Scott Lloyd, previously the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services, to the Department of Justice for investigation into whether he deliberately lied to Congress. Because his tenure was so controversial, Lloyd stepped down from that position to serve Senior Advisor to the HHS Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives.

On March 20, 2019, CfA called on North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, North Carolina Secretary of Health and Human Services Mandy Cohen, and the Internal Auditor for the Department of Health and Human Services, David King, to investigate and terminate a contract between the Department of Health and Human Services and Human Coalition.

On March 12, 2019, CfA called on federal officials to investigate whether Andrew Wheeler, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), and his former lobbying firm, Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act by failing to disclose an April 2017 meeting with an Interior Department official regarding the borders of Bears Ears National Monument.

On March 6, 2019, CfA, represented by American Oversight, filed two Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) seeking records regarding the Trump Administration’s efforts to roll back Title X funding for comprehensive family planning services.

On February 25, 2019, CfA released a new report, Academic for Hire, revealing that a lawyer for the payday lending industry, Hilary Miller, funded, designed, and edited an academic study defending the payday lending industry. Mr. Miller, the chairman of the Consumer Credit Research Foundation worked closely with Kennesaw State University Professor Jennifer Priestley to develop a study for the payday lending industry to use to lobby against government regulations that would have protected consumers from payday lenders.

On February 19, 2019, CfA called on ethics officials at the Interior Department and the Office of Government Ethics to investigate David Bernhardt, the Acting Secretary of the Department of the Interior, and his relationship with his former lobbying client, Westlands Water District, an agricultural conglomerate in California. While at Interior, Mr. Bernhardt initiated a review of Endangered Species Act protections for two endangered species of fish in California, an issue he advocated for while working as a lobbyist for Westlands.