Top Republican skeptical of Obama Interior nominees

A leading Republican on Tuesday raised concerns over two of President Obama’s nominees for the Department of the Interior.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said President Obama’s pick to serve as an assistant secretary of the Interior, Kristen Joan Sarri, faces a high bar to winning her support, given what she considers the department’s detrimental work in Alaska.

{mosads}“If you’re an Alaskan and you’re reading the headlines, you have to wonder: What’s going on within Interior? Why do they have it out for us?” Murkowski said during an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday.

“You’re going to need to convince me that you are part of the solution and not part of the problem for Alaska at the Interior Department,” she said to Sarri. 

Murkowski, the chair of the committee, asked Sarri what role she played in last week’s Interior Department decision to cancel oil drilling lease sales in the Arctic Ocean during the next two years, something she said was “an incredible blow and a hit to the state of Alaska.”

Sarri said she wasn’t involved in those decisions and that she wouldn’t have a role in future leasing decisions in the position for which she is nominated.

“Alaska is incredibly important to energy development in this country and the safe and responsible development in the Arctic is part of that,” she said.

Murkowski also hinted Mary Kendall, the Interior Department inspector general nominee, will face a tough confirmation fight in the Senate given concerns over her work as the acting inspector general (IG). 

“I strongly believe that Interior needs a permanent IG, and I’m disappointed the administration has let the position go unfilled for six and a half years,” she said. 

“I’m also committed to ensuring that the individual that we confirm is fully independent, with good judgement in difficult situations and a firm grasp of the responsibilities of the Inspector General.”

Kendall has had several dust-ups with House Republicans, who have accused her of not investigating political appointees and failing to file investigative reports on issues within the department.

She defended herself on Tuesday, noting that the Interior Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is ranked among the top five federal OIGs in return-on-investment during her tenure. She said that she has met with committee members to go over House Republicans’ concerns.

“Whether I have done so to your individual satisfaction, I do not know,” she said. “What I do know is that throughout, I have been true to myself, my principles, my best judgment and the law.”

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee heard from six Obama nominees on Tuesday. Other Republicans pushed Kendall, Sarri and others on their qualifications and their positions, but Democrats were widely receptive of the slate of nominees. 

“We are very fortunate, I believe, to have six highly qualified and experienced nominees in front of us,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the committee.