"Trump’s Interior Department Is Flooded With Industry Lobbyists"

"Lobbyists in key positions with the U.S. Department of the Interior now number 13, making the nation’s public lands agency a leading example of President Donald Trump’s policy of filling government posts with former advocates for special interests.

At the Department of Agriculture, a pesticide lobbyist is now in charge of deregulating the industry he once represented, ProPublica and The New York Times report. The president has appointed a drug lobbyist to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has swapped out top environmental experts on the Science Advisory Board for scientists with industry ties, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found last week.

And back at the Interior Department, lobbyists for loggers, oil companies, mining firms and heavy agricultural water users – along with a lawyer who specialized in helping clients game money out of a department loan program – have taken up shop managing programs they once sought to influence for financial gain, according to data provided by the Western Values Project."

Lance Williams and Matt Smith report for Reveal November 22, 2017.