Mr. POMBO. Mr. Speaker, over the years I have become very disturbed
with the high levels of unethical behavior from various Federal
Government officials.
In the past 8 years, narrow-minded, radical environmental Federal Government employees have violated the trust of the American people.
Today, we should be shocked that a recent investigation revealed several Federal and State employees submitted unauthorized control samples for analysis as part of an ongoing nationwide Canada lynx survey. The “lynx” fiasco illustrates just how vulnerable the public’s access rights are to agenda-driven advocates within the Federal and State land management agencies:
Then there is the case of Donald Fife, a professional scientist specializing in environmental mining and engineering geology, who learned from a former U.S. Forest Service official that plants listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) had been secretly placed on his property in an attempt to close about 30,000 acres of the highest mineral valued land in southern California.
Then there is the case of a high-ranking official at the Northwest Regional Office at National Marines Fisheries Service (NMFS) who took the time to share her thoughts about the implementation of the Endangered Species Act.
And I quote from the International California Mining Journal (January 2002):
* * * when we (NMFS) make critical habitat designation we just designate everything as critical, without an analysis of how much habitat an ESU (Evolutionarily Significant Unit) needs, what areas might be key, etc. Mostly we don’t do this because we lack information. What we really do is the same thing we do for section 7 consultations. We just say we need it all.
The nature of all these events highlight the lack of trust with the Federal agencies that are charged with the task of managing our public lands. The Federal land agencies must be held to the same standards of truth, honesty and accountability as the private sector.
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