Rhea Graham vividly remembers huddling with hundreds of somber federal engineers, scientists and geologists almost 30 years ago to formally close the federal Bureau of Mines.
Less than two years earlier, she had been nominated by then-President Bill Clinton — and confirmed by the Senate — to serve as the first African American woman to lead the agency.
But that all changed in 1996. The bureau shuttered amid congressional budget wars, forcing more than 1,000 federal employees to end decadeslong careers with just 90 days’ notice.
“There was a sense of loss,” Graham said, recalling the solemn send-off in an auditorium in the Interior Department’s Washington headquarters. “The trust that was broken,” she said. “That was the first time … where it’s been made very clear that certain investments in science and technology are not valued anymore by the public.”
