FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 2, 2019

Contact: Bryan Dewan, bdewan@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a nonprofit watchdog group focused on public accountability, announced that the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) confirmed it is reviewing CfA’s request for investigation into Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and his relationship with his former lobbying client, Westlands Water District (Westlands), an agricultural conglomerate in California.

Click here to read the letter from the Office of Inspector General.

In response to this notification, CfA Executive Director Daniel E. Stevens issued the following statement:

While serving as Deputy Secretary, David Bernhardt took action to roll back protections for two endangered species of fish, an issue he lobbied on while working for Westlands prior to his tenure at the Interior Department. By doing so, Acting Secretary Bernhardt appears to have violated the ethics pledge he signed after taking office. We’re glad the Inspector General’s office is reviewing the matter, and we hope they will conduct a full investigation to determine whether Mr. Bernhardt violated ethics rules.

On February 19, 2019, CfA sent a letter to ethics officials at the Interior Department and the Office of Government Ethics calling for an investigation into Acting Secretary Bernhardt’s relationship with Westlands Water District after he reportedly directed David Murillo, the Acting Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation, to roll back environmental protections for two species of fish that live in the San Francisco Bay Delta region: the delta smelt and the winter-run Chinook salmon.

Click here to download a PDF of the complaint.

Acting Secretary Bernhardt worked as a lobbyist for Westlands between March 30, 2011 and November 18, 2016, while employed at the lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. During this time, Mr. Bernhardt lobbied to eliminate environmental protections for these two species of fish. Westlands has lobbied federal authorities to roll back the protections for decades, with The New York Times describing this policy change as Westlands’ “chief goal.”

By reportedly taking action on this issue, Acting Secretary Bernhardt may have violated Executive Order 13770, which requires presidential appointees to forgo working on an issue for a period of two years if they lobbied about that issue during the two years before joining the administration.

Click here to read more about Acting Secretary Bernhardt’s relationship with Westlands.

Previously, on July 20, 2017, CfA called on the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to investigate whether Mr. Bernhardt violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act by continuing to lobby for Westlands despite formally withdrawing his lobbying registration.

Click here to read more about CfA’s 2017 complaint.

Mr. Stevens continued, “When government officials dole out favors to their former clients, it erodes confidence in our public institutions. It is imperative that the Inspector General look into this issue to determine whether the Acting Secretary violated ethics rules. If David Bernhardt broke his ethics pledge and sacrificed the public interest for the benefit of Westlands Water District, he needs to be held accountable.”

UPDATE: On April 3, 2019, CfA received a letter from Scott A. de la Vega, Director, Departmental Ethics Office and Designated Agency Ethics Official, responding to CfA’s request for an investigation into Mr. Bernhardt’s relationship with Westlands.  Mr. de la Vega wrote, “we have found the Acting Secretary’s actions have complied with all applicable ethics laws, rules and other obligations, including the requirements of Executive Order 13770.”

Click here to read the letter from the Departmental Ethics Office.

In response to this letter, CfA Executive Director Daniel E. Stevens issued the following statement:

It’s frustrating that the American public understands David Bernhardt’s conflicts of interest better than his own agency’s ethics officials.  The Interior Department’s ethics officials seem to exist only to figure out a way to clear its executives of any wrongdoing after they’ve taken official actions to support their cronies.  Apparently it’s up to Congress to hold federal officials accountable since agency ethics officials aren’t up for the job.

UPDATE: On April 15, 2019, CfA received a letter from Mary L. Kendall, Deputy Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Interior, notifying CfA that the Office of Inspector General had opened an investigation into alleged conflict of interest violations by then-Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, in response to CfA’s complaint.

Click here to read the letter from the Office of Inspector General.

In response to this letter, CfA Executive Director Daniel E. Stevens issued the following statement:

We support the Inspector General’s decision to open an investigation into Secretary Bernhardt’s conflicts of interest. Mr. Bernhardt has so many conflicts of interest that he has to carry a card around with him so that he doesn’t violate ethics rules. The Inspector General needs to get to the bottom of this matter and determine whether Mr. Bernhardt violated ethics rules when he intervened to roll back environmental protections in California. Mr. Bernhardt needs to be held accountable for his actions.

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.