CONTACT
Aaron Weiss, Deputy Director
Center for Western Priorities
aaron@westernpriorities.org
720-279-0019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2019
DENVER—The Center for Western Priorities released a new analysis today that finds in the 31 months since David Bernhardt was nominated to become the Deputy Interior Secretary, his former lobbying firm has been paid nearly $12 million to influence the Interior Department, boosted by at least 19 new lobbying clients. The revenue marks a 310 percent increase from the same period before Bernhardt’s nomination. In return, at least two-thirds of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s lobbying clients with business before Interior have seen their projects or policies advanced in some way by the department.
“This shows that the Interior Department has become a pay-for-play agency under David Bernhardt,” said Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Jesse Prentice-Dunn, who conducted the analysis. “With a direct line to the political appointees who set America’s energy and wildlife policies, Brownstein Hyatt has cashed in, tripling its business on Interior Department lobbying. It’s clear that under Secretary Bernhardt, corporations have a roadmap to get their projects approved—just hire a high-powered lobbyist, preferably at his old firm.”
The full list of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck clients, including lobbying dollars spent and regulatory outcomes, is available for download.
The new analysis includes several egregious cases where Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (BHFS) clients saw results from Interior after Bernhardt’s arrival:
- Trilogy Metals wants to dig a massive open-pit copper mine in northern Alaska’s remote Brooks Range. The mine would require a 211-mile long road be cut through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve, disrupting one of the largest remaining caribou herds in Alaska. In July 2019, Trilogy hired BHFS to lobby the Interior Department, and in August, the Bureau of Land Management paved the way for the road with a draft environmental study, even as it acknowledged the risks to local subsistence hunting, water quality, and park-related tourism.
- In Colorado, Rocky Mountain Resources wants to expand a limestone mine 30-fold in the tourist town of Glenwood Springs, sending hundreds of semi-trucks through the small town each day and potentially impacting the geothermal water flows that feed the iconic hot springs that are the backbone of the local economy. Despite widespread local opposition to the expansion, Rocky Mountain Resources is run by founder and CEO Chad Brownstein, the son of BHFS founding partner Norm Brownstein, who is also David Bernhardt’s former boss. In April 2019, RMR hired BHFS to lobby the Interior Department on the proposed expansion. Despite admitting that RMR is already operating outside the bounds of its current permits, the Bureau of Land Management has accepted RMR’s application for an expansion and expects to begin a formal study in 2020.
- In 2015, major international concessionaire Delaware North sued the National Park Service, seeking millions for trademarks it had filed while operating iconic facilities in Yosemite National Park, including the Ahwahnee Hotel. The company hired BHFS to lobby the Interior Department on “issues related to concessions contracts” in December 2017. In July 2019, after the National Park Service had already spent $1.7 million to rename facilities in the park, Delaware North settled its lawsuit with the agency, with NPS agreeing to pay the company $3.84 million in taxpayer dollars. The settlement meant BHFS got Delaware North a return of roughly 10-to-1 on its $390,000 lobbying investment.
Methodology:
The Center for Western Priorities compiled forms from the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act Database in which Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck indicated they were lobbying the Interior Department on behalf of clients. These forms include the amount of money spent and the issue on which they were lobbying. Duplicate forms were removed and client spending was calculated for the period since David Bernhardt’s nomination to be Deputy Interior Secretary (April 28, 2017 to December 10, 2019) and the equivalent period before his nomination (September 14, 2014 to April 27, 2017). For lobbying disclosure forms filed since Bernhardt’s nomination, the analysis then used publicly-available documents, news articles, and calendars for senior Interior officials to match action on clients’ self-identified lobbying issues with actions taken by the Interior Department.
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