As a citizen Donald Trump dismissed climate science as a “hoax,” and as president he has continued to undermine the role of science in guiding government policy. References to global warming have been removed from government websites, and regulations designed to limit greenhouse-gas emissions—many of them promulgated through the DOI—have been reversed. Most notably, Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord. Although Secretary Zinke paid lip service to climate change during his confirmation hearings, the DOI seems to have fallen into line with the administration's overall agenda of suppressing climate science. Just a week before Clement blew the whistle, another USGS climate scientist was told not to attend a tour of Glacier National Park with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
This larger context aside, a DOI employee with knowledge of Burkett's reassignment said the move raised a number of particular red flags. Burkett's special advisory role was a newly created position, in an office that was not yet fully staffed. Typically, the employee said, assistant secretaries like to choose their own advisors. Anne Castle who served as assistant secretary for water and ccience under Obama, confirmed that it was unusual to name special advisers before having the leadership team in place. Moreover, unlike many of the other Senior Executive Service employees who were transferred, an immediate replacement for Burkett was not named. Doug Beard, another USGS scientist, is now serving as acting associate director for Climate and Land Use Change, but it is unclear whether the position will ultimately be filled or eliminated. According to another DOI employee, the reassignment was a “signal to us that the mission area not only might be renamed but might be removed.”
The DOI declined to respond to specific questions about Burkett's reassignment, but said the personnel moves were being “conducted to better serve the taxpayer and the Department's operations.”
As a citizen Donald Trump dismissed climate science as a “hoax,” and as president he has continued to undermine the role of science in guiding government policy.
Notified of her reassignment in mid-June, Burkett was given just 15 days to accept the new position, resign, or retire. But instead she was able to negotiate a departure from the Senior Executive Service, the upper echelon of federal government employees, and return to her previously held position as chief scientist of the Climate and Land Use Change mission area, taking a pay cut in the process.
Reached by phone as she was driving from Virginia to Louisiana, where she'll be stationed, Burkett said she preferred not to speculate on the reasons for her reassignment. “I'm sure it would have been a different role,” she said. “The office has a different mission.” Burkett, along with two other DOI employees, did express concern that no one had yet been named to fill her old job as Associate Director for Climate and Land Use Change at USGS, a key leadership role. “There are hiring freezes presently, and I'm just unclear about how and if the position will be refilled,” Burkett said.
This story was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, now known as Type Investigations, where Adam Federman is a fellow.