Interior Secretary Doug Burgum faced skepticism from a Democratic senator Wednesday about the department’s plans to merge two agencies that oversee offshore energy, as well as allegations that the department failed to properly notify Congress about its decision in advance.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said a provision in a budget bill passed earlier this year requires “advance notification and approval” from the House and Senate appropriations committees before funding can be “reprogrammed.”
Earlier this month, Interior announced it would combine two agencies into a new one called the Marine Minerals Administration.
“Notification is not optional, and yet, we only learned about the merger of the offshore wind regulatory and permitting agencies through the news, no advance notification of any kind,” said Merkley, the ranking member on the Appropriations Interior-Environment Committee, during a hearing on the Interior Department’s budget request. “That’s not a policy disagreement. This is just an issue of the rule of law and your decision to ignore it.”
