[env-trinity] Trinity Journal: River group caught up in federal suspension

[Kier Associates]

‘Anybody else sense a contradiction between returning control of government to the states and suspending advisory committees made up of state, Tribal, local government and community representatives?   

 

Bill Kier

From: env-trinity [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] On Behalf Of Tom Stokely
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 7:11 AM
To: Env-trinity
Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Journal: River group caught up in federal suspension

 

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_9d8c77a0-4599-11e7-8a1e-03d624d5bc67.html

 

River group caught up in federal suspension

·        By AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal

 The stakeholder group that provides input on Trinity River Restoration Program decisions has been suspended by the Trump administration along with more than 200 other federal advisory commissions while a review is conducted.

The Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG) advises the Trinity Management Council, the agency/tribal board of directors for the river restoration program.

The TAMWG was going to meet in early June but that meeting was canceled. Another meeting was being scheduled for mid-July, but that too was canceled because of the suspension, TAMWG Chair Tom Stokely said.

“We don’t know when it’s going to meet,” Stokely said, adding that meanwhile, things are happening.

It’s possible that the program could pass its fiscal year 2018 budget in June, Stokely said, and there are watershed project proposals being ranked.

The program’s annual budget is approximately $15 million.

The stakeholder group feels a lot of its recommendations are rejected by the management council, he said, “but at least we have an opportunity to give them input.”

There are many other advisory committees affected as well, including the Resource Advisory Committees that deliver public input to the federal Bureau of Land Management. A coalition of Western Democratic lawmakers wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke asking that he allow the RACS to do their work.

>From the Interior Department, spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email that the department is reviewing the charters and charges of advisory commissions under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to maximize feedback from these boards and to ensure their compliance with both FACA and President Trump’s recent executive orders.

“An initial roll call of the advisory committees revealed that many of the committees advising the department were not operating at their full potential, were not using taxpayer dollars efficiently, or were not meeting basic benchmarks of FACA,” she said, adding that many had several vacancies, making the board inoperable, and others simply hadn’t met for some time during the previous administration.

“As the review proceeds in the coming days and weeks, many committees will resume their regularly scheduled meetings, and the Department fully expects the majority of committees to resume by September,” Swift said. “Additionally, several committees have already been given exemptions or clearance to resume.”

“This is a standard review process which previous administrations have also conducted during the transition process,” Swift said.

Stokely responded that at the beginning of the Obama administration there were some bureaucratic delays involving the TAMWG charter and membership appointments that in turn delayed meetings. But the meetings have never been suspended with charter and membership approved, he said, and there has never been a systemwide suspension of all federal advisory committee meetings.

The TAMWG has 15 members with a variety of interests, “but a lot of the time we come together with recommendations to better the program,” he said, adding that there are a couple of vacancies but with the suspension the filling of those positions is on hold.

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