The Interior Department has refused a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to records showing how it is implementing an order to scrub “disparaging” content about American history from national parks. The move prompted Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a whistleblower protection nonprofit, to file a FOIA lawsuit against the agency on June 17.
The lawsuit demands that DOI’s Office of the Secretary turn over documents detailing how Secretary Doug Burgum’s Secretarial Order No. 3431, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” is being carried out across the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Bureau of Reclamation. Specifically, PEER wants to know which properties were reviewed, what content was flagged, who made the final calls, and what was removed, altered, or “restored” as a result.