David Bernhardt

Bernhardt began his career as a lawyer in Colorado. In the 1990s, he worked for U.S. Representative Scott McInnis, a Grand Junction Republican.[3][14] In 1998 he became an associate with Brownstein Hyatt and Farber, a Denver law and lobbying firm.[3][12][14]

Bernhardt worked for the Department of the Interior during George W. Bush's presidency.[15] Early in his career with the DOI, he was deputy chief of staff and counselor[3] to then-secretary of the interior Gale Norton.[2] He also served early on at the DOI as director of congressional and legislative affairs. Later he became solicitor at the DOI[3] after unanimous confirmation from the Senate. He was also the United States commissioner to the International Boundary Commission, U.S. and Canada.[15]

Bernhardt served as the solicitor of the Department of the Interior from 2006 to 2009.[3][4] President George W. Bush nominated him in November 2005, subject to Senate confirmation.[16] He was the DOI deputy solicitor at the time.[3] Bernhardt was sworn into office in November 2006,[4] after being unanimously confirmed by the Senate.[5][17]

Bernhardt served as DOI solicitor until 2009.[5] That year he rejoined the Colorado-based law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.[12] He became a shareholder in the firm[1] and chairman[5] of the firm's natural resources law practice.[12] Bernhardt's clients included Halliburton, Cobalt International Energy, Samson Resources, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.[18]

Through Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Bernhardt represented San Joaquin Valley's Westlands Water District in "a lawsuit that sought to undo court-imposed protections for endangered salmon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta".[19] Berhardt also represented entities such as the proposed Rosemont Copper open pit mine in Arizona.[1] Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck was involved in representing other mining, oil, and extractive industries, as well as projects such as the Cadiz, Inc. groundwater pumping project in the Mojave Desert in California.[20] Cadiz later refuted that Bernhardt had lobbied directly for the company, though environmentalists at the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity suspected Bernhardt's involvement when the DOI changed its views to be positive towards the project in March 2017.[1]

In 2011, Bernhardt filed a lawsuit for Westlands that "sought to force the feds to make good on a commitment to build a multibillion-dollar system to dispose of the poisoned water" resulting from toxic irrigation in the Westlands district. Later, through the 2017 bill HR 1769, Westlands agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for forgiven debt and long-term access to water from Central Valley Project facilities. In April 2017, the House Natural Resources Committee approved the settlement, but rejected an amendment that would have "barred former Westlands officials or lobbyists — meaning Bernhardt — from working on the drainage issue for five years".[19]

He was previously a member of the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries,[12] and chairman of its Finance, Audit, & Compliance Committee.[21] He resigned prior to January 2017.[22]

Until the end of 2016, Bernhardt remained an attorney and lobbyist for the San Joaquin Valley's Westlands Water District.[19] In November 2016, he de-listed himself as a lobbyist, to avoid "running afoul of the new president's ban on lobbyists joining his administration".[20] After withdrawing his formal registration as a lobbyist, Bernhardt became a consultant to the Westlands Water District.[23] While remaining a lawyer at Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, after November 2016 Bernhardt was briefly in charge of the Interior Department transition team for President Donald Trump.[5] In that role, he was in charge of overseeing staffing in the DOI along with Devin Nunes.[20] By April 2017, he was on a $20,000-a-month retainer for Westlands.[20]

Until resigning by early 2017, he was on the board of the Center for Environmental Science Accuracy and Reliability.[24]

Deputy Secretary Bernhardt

On April 28, 2017, Trump nominated Bernhardt to be the deputy secretary of the interior.[5][15][1][25] The role made Bernhardt the "top deputy to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and COO of the federal lands and energy agency".[2] The appointment was praised by Zinke,[12][5] Republican members of Congress,[19][13] and former-interior secretary Dirk Kempthorne,[1] as well as Outdoor Recreation Industry Roundtable, Ducks Unlimited, and the Boone and Crocket Club.[26] His nomination was strongly opposed by conservationists,[19][1][20] fishing groups,[19][20] and California Democrats,[20] who cited his history of representing and lobbying on behalf of oil companies and agricultural interests[1] as well as conflict-of-interest concerns arising from his firm's work on regulation issues with the DOI.[5] Among the conservationist groups who opposed the nomination were the Western Values Project,[12] which sued the Interior Department to obtain documents about Bernhardt's tenure for the department under George Bush,[5] and the Center for Biological Diversity, whose head said Bernhardt had "always sided with big business at the expense of our most imperiled wildlife. If confirmed he'd be a disaster for all endangered species."[1]

At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in mid-May 2017,[27] Bernhardt testified that he would "apply the law and be honest with the science" at the Interior Department[26] but also said the president's views, rather than the recommendations of scientists, would guide the Interior Department's policies whenever possible.[27] Ethics issues were raised by Senators such as Maria Cantwell, with Bernhardt replying he took ethics very seriously. He said that unless he received authorization to do so, he would not involve himself substantially in any particular matter involving his former clients.[26]

On July 24, 2017, the Senate confirmed Bernhardt's nomination by a vote of 53–43.[28] He was then sworn into office on August 1, 2017.[7]

During Bernhardt's tenure as deputy secretary and acting secretary, the Department of the Interior has substantially increased fossil fuel sales on public land and embarked on a program of deregulation.[29]

In 2019, Politico reported that heads of the oil industry lobbyist group Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) boasted about their ties to Bernhardt.[14] Bernhardt had IPAA as a client during his legal career.[14]

As part of his 2017 Senate confirmation hearing Bernhardt had submitted a written statement saying, "I have not engaged in regulated lobbying on behalf of Westlands Water District after November 18, 2016." Westlands Water District is an public agency of the State of California in the San Joaquin Valley. During his time in office he has received criticism for using his position to enact some of the policies he worked for while a lobbyist for Westlands Water District. In March 2019, The New York Times disclosed documents that show he had been working as a lobbyist for the Westlands Water District at least as late as April 2017. If the information obtained by the Times is correct, Bernhardt's activities could violate federal laws requiring lobbyists to disclose their activities.[30]

In April 2019 it was reported the inspector general opened an investigation of Bernhardt.[31]

Bernhardt as secretary of the interior and President Trump in Bakersfield, California in February 2020

On January 2, 2019, Bernhardt became acting secretary of the interior, replacing Ryan Zinke.[8] On February 4, 2019, Trump nominated Bernhardt to be Secretary of the Interior.[9] He was confirmed by the Senate on April 11, 2019, by a vote of 56 to 41.[32]

In May 2019, the House Oversight Committee was investigating whether Bernhardt was complying with record-keeping laws.[33]

In September 2019, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report finding that Bernhardt, then acting secretary, had twice broken federal law[34] when in January 2019 he directed the National Park Service to use park entrance fees for maintenance in keeping parks open during the government shutdown.[35][36] The report found that the Interior Department moved funds between accounts without authorization from Congress in violation of the Antideficiency Act and federal appropriations law.[34][36] The Interior Department rejected the GAO's conclusion, and maintained that the directive was an "appropriate and lawful use of Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act funds."[35][36]

As Secretary of the Interior, he defended the Trump administration's rollback of environmental regulations.[37]

Bernhardt was chosen as the designated survivor during Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address.[38]

In May 2020, two activist groups, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watersheds Project, sued over Bernhardt's ongoing interim appointments of William Perry Pendley to run the Bureau of Land Management and David Vela to lead the National Park Service, appointments that bypassed a Senate confirmation process.[39]

Bernhardt relocated the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado, on August 11, 2020.[40]

Bernhardt on August 17, 2020, announced plans for an oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, clearing the way for drilling in the remote Alaskan area.[41]

On August 20, 2020, Bernhardt designated the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot for inclusion in the National Park Service's African American Civil Rights Network. It is the 30th site to achieve such a designation, which includes sites associated with the civil rights movement in the United States, such as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama and the Pullman National Monument in Chicago.[42]

On September 11, 2020, Bernhardt introduced Trump at the Flight 93 Memorial.[43]