Allegations that acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt helped former lobbying clients while running the department deserve Inspector General scrutiny, an ethics watchdog group said, mirroring complaints from two Democratic senators.
Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance and ethics watchdog group, Feb. 28 asked Interior’s Inspector General to look into whether Bernhardt had a duty to sit out from certain provisions of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act that could lead to more water for agricultural users rather than to habitat for protected fish.
He had lobbied on behalf of agriculture while representing the ...