Analysis: New "acting director" at Interior office worries public lands advocates

By Dino Grandoni November 20 at 9:16 AM

THE LIGHTBULB

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Last week, Interior named Brian Steed to be interim BLM director. Before that appointment, Steed was chief of staff for Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), an advocate for land transfer who co-founded a congressional caucus called the Federal Land Action Group, intent on crafting legislation to put federal holdings under local control. ... Some environmental groups, which prefer to see public lands managed by the federal government instead of industry-friendly states, are concerned by Steed’s appointment.
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There’s another potential issue with Steed’s appointment. Some conservation groups say that installing him as acting director of the agency violates federal law. ... Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, an agency employee must work at an office for a certain period of time before ascending to an interim role running the bureau. Given Steed’s brief tenure at BLM — he began as deputy director there only this autumn — he should be ineligible to temporarily run the agency, the groups say. ... “Even if President Trump nominated someone for the position today,” said Center for Western Priorities spokesman Aaron Weiss, “Brian Steed wouldn't be able to become acting director until he's been at the agency for 90 days.”

After the news site E&E News published a story on the vacancies issue, Swift, the Interior spokeswoman, justified Steed’s appointment by saying that Zinke delegated the responsibilities of the office to Steed without giving him the formal title of director. ... “Technically he is acting with the full delegated functions, duties, responsibilities and authority of the BLM director but does not have the title of 'acting BLM director,' " Swift told E&E News. ... But when Steed’s promotion at BLM was first announced, BLM.gov listed him “acting director” on its website.



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"Brian's position is not Acting-Director," Swift told The Post by email. ... Bobby McEnaney, a senior deputy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said even with that clarification, it is “still not clear to me how DOI {is} not violating the law.” ... This story has been updated with comment from the Interior Department.

Energy & environmental reporter for @washingtonpost and newsletter writer for @PowerPost. Follow @dino_grandoni