Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reportedly will be investigated for urging Alaska's U.S. senators to vote for repeal of the Affordable Care Act or face the consequences of less federal support.
Editor's note: This updates with details from the OIG letter.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who leaned on Alaska's U.S. senators in a bid to secure their votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, will be investigated by his department's Office of Inspector General for possible ethical and/or legal violations.
Secretary Zinke placed phone calls to U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan late last month to urge them to vote for repeal or be prepared for a little less help from Interior on issues key to Alaska.
"I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop," Sen. Sullivan, who voted for repeal, told the Alaska Dispatch News in describing his conversation with Secretary Zinke. "I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. … We're facing some difficult times and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear."
Sen. Murkowski was one of three Republicans to vote against repeal. The others were Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine.
OIG staff sent letters late Thursday to both U.S. Reps. Raul Grijalva and Frank Pallone, the top Democrats on the House committees on natural resources and energy, respectively, to announce that they would look into what the Democrats perceived as threats against the senators.
Rep. Grijalva had asked the OIG on July 27, the day after Secretary Zinke called the senators, to investigate the matter.
The phone calls, the Arizona Democrat said at the time, were "an alarming sign of how far the administration’s ethical standards have fallen and how irresponsible the Interior Department has become."
The letter sent to the representatives was short and brief, essentially a confirmation that OIG would look into Rep. Grijalva's concerns.
"You requested that the Office of Inspector General for DOI investigate this matter and address a number of potential legal and ethical violations," said the letter, a copy of which the Traveler obtained Friday evening. "The OIG is undertaking a preliminary investigation into this matter. We will advise you about what further action the results of this inquiry lead the OIG to take."
Comments
Yes wild it happens every day. And no Mike, there is nothing unethical or illegal about an administration official lobbying Congress. The fact the complicit liberal media is excited about this means nothing except they are the complicit liberal media.
So FOX is now part of the "complicit liberal media" because this was reported by them yesterday?
Interesting.
Zinke being investigated is a news event. I would expect Fox and everyone else to report it. Zinke talking to a Senator is not a news event. Well covered and made an issue by the complicit liberal media. Since I don't watch FOX don't know whether they participated in that or not but have not seen any prior stories from them online.
"My favorite moment came when Trump dispatched Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to warn Murkowski that if she continued to vote against the bill, her home state of Alaska would lose stuff it wanted from the federal government.
Perhaps we will read about this in “The Art of the Deal: Presidential Edition.” (“If you need to win over one special vote, try to do it with threats. This is particularly effective if your target has more power than you do.”) The administration, which so far has barely managed to exercise enough clout to get a building renamed, was trying to strong-arm an influential committee chairwoman whose Senate term does not end until 2023 — a date that, many of her colleagues believe fervently, is a lot longer than they are likely to be dealing with Donald Trump. Murkowski and Collins continued voting “no” because they believed that Trumpcare would be bad for the people in their states. Other Republican senators felt the same way, but lacked the same nerve."
"... cynical minds noted, he was basically warning Murkowski that if she didn’t behave, he might attempt to protect the environment."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/opinion/health-susan-collins-murkowsk...
And "complicit liberal media" is now one of those buzz word phrases we'll hear more often because some idologue pundit pushed it out to his gullible wingnut followers. We've all seen how well "baseless accusations" caught on. Using these phrases and words is sooooo much easier than thinking.
Good Grief, Tahoma, PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU POST HERE!
I went to the New York Times article and made the big mistake of clicking on a link to take me to a photo of Texas representative Farenholt. I'll be fighting nausea for a week now. Yet right there was the entire GOP personified.
Except there is no evidence that actually happened. In fact, despite Mulkowski saying it was inappropriate to call the conversation a threat - news outlets, including this one, continue to contradict her. She was on the conversation, those calling it a threat weren't.
Between congressmen yes, but when the clown in chief gets the secretary of interior doing his dirty work thats another story all to gether.