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APNewsBreak: Interior boss alters overhaul after pushback
APNewsBreak: Interior boss alters overhaul after pushback
By MATTHEW BROWN and DAN ELLIOTT, MATTHEW BROWN and DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press
Published: February 23, 2018, 10:19 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is revamping a planned sweeping overhaul of his department with a new organizational map that more closely follows state lines instead of the natural boundaries he initially proposed, he told The Associated Press on Friday in an exclusive interview.
The changes follow complaints from a bipartisan group of Western state governors that Zinke did not consult them before unveiling his original plan last month. The agency oversees vast public lands, primarily in the U.S. West, ranging from protected national parks and wildlife refuges to areas where coal mining and energy exploration dominate the landscape.
Zinke told AP that his goal remains unchanged: decentralizing the Interior Department’s bureaucracy and creating 13 regional headquarters. ... “At present we are mismanaging and squandering our assets through a layered bureaucracy that reflects a very old department that really has not reorganized since the turn of the last century,” he said. “We will be moving assets to the front lines and moving authority to make decisions and, I would argue, better decisions to the front lines.”
The redrawn map shows that states such as Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming would fall within a single region instead of being split among multiple regions. Other states remain divided, including California, Nevada, Montana and Oregon. ... Aspects of the original map — which was first made public by AP — remain, with some regions labeled according to river systems, such as the Upper Colorado Basin and the Missouri Basin. But the new lines tend to cut across geographic features and follow state lines, not boundaries of rivers and ecosystems.
By MATTHEW BROWN and DAN ELLIOTT, MATTHEW BROWN and DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press
Published: February 23, 2018, 10:19 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is revamping a planned sweeping overhaul of his department with a new organizational map that more closely follows state lines instead of the natural boundaries he initially proposed, he told The Associated Press on Friday in an exclusive interview.
The changes follow complaints from a bipartisan group of Western state governors that Zinke did not consult them before unveiling his original plan last month. The agency oversees vast public lands, primarily in the U.S. West, ranging from protected national parks and wildlife refuges to areas where coal mining and energy exploration dominate the landscape.
Zinke told AP that his goal remains unchanged: decentralizing the Interior Department’s bureaucracy and creating 13 regional headquarters. ... “At present we are mismanaging and squandering our assets through a layered bureaucracy that reflects a very old department that really has not reorganized since the turn of the last century,” he said. “We will be moving assets to the front lines and moving authority to make decisions and, I would argue, better decisions to the front lines.”
The redrawn map shows that states such as Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming would fall within a single region instead of being split among multiple regions. Other states remain divided, including California, Nevada, Montana and Oregon. ... Aspects of the original map — which was first made public by AP — remain, with some regions labeled according to river systems, such as the Upper Colorado Basin and the Missouri Basin. But the new lines tend to cut across geographic features and follow state lines, not boundaries of rivers and ecosystems.
