Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has issued a Freedom of Information Act request to solicit information on Interior’s reorganization and what the fee structure looks like and recently filed a lawsuit after failing to get a timely response. Jeff Ruch, PEER’s senior counsel, said the fees being charged to bureaus “adds insult to injury” after they lost their staff. Bureaus, he said, are now “shortchanging their budgets” to adjust to the fees.
Around 5,700 employees have shifted to Burgum’s office, according to PEER’s estimate, which normally would trigger a reprogramming request to Congress. Current law requires Interior to seek congressional approval when it reallocates funds from one budget line-item to another or when it undertakes any reorganization effort that impacts at least 10 employees. It did not appear that Interior had received such approval for its current effort, though the department did not respond to a request for comment.