<div dir="ltr"><br><div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_160156" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:garamond,'new york',times,serif;font-size:16px"><a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106enhancr2_9762a8ce-f6aa-6475-aec3-85e3b2205739" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124068" href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-bernhardt-vote-20170724-story.html" target="_blank">Senate confirms David Bernhardt, controversial Trump pick, for No. 2 post at Interior</a><br clear="none"></div><div class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106qtdSeparateBR" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:garamond,'new york',times,serif;font-size:16px"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div><div class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yahoo_quoted" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_160167" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:garamond,'new york',times,serif;font-size:16px"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_160166"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_160165" style="font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif"><div class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106y_msg_container" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_160164"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_160163"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_160162" style="font-family:garamond,'new york',times,serif"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124127"><br clear="none"></div><div class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yahoo-link-enhancr-card gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106ymail-preserve-class gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106ymail-preserve-style" dir="ltr" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106enhancr2_9762a8ce-f6aa-6475-aec3-85e3b2205739" style="max-width:400px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif"><a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yahoo-enhancr-cardlink" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124093" href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-bernhardt-vote-20170724-story.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-decoration:none"><table class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106card-wrapper gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yahoo-ignore-table" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124092" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="max-width:400px"><tbody id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124091"><tr id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124090"><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124089" width="400"><table class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106card gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yahoo-ignore-table" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124088" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%" style="max-width:400px"><tbody id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124087"><tr id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124086"><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" valign="top" class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106card-primary-image-cell" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124085" bgcolor="#000000" style="background-image:url(https://s.yimg.com/vv//api/res/1.2/FgMXUWggFMW6unL1kPd_6g--/YXBwaWQ9bWFpbDtmaT1maWxsO2g9MjAwO3c9NDAw/http://www.trbimg.com/img-5976929a/turbine/la-me-bernhardt-vote-20170724.cf.jpg);background-color:rgb(0,0,0);background-size:cover;min-height:200px;background-position:50% 50%"><table class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yahoo-ignore-table" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124084" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width:400px"><tbody id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124083"><tr id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124082"><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" valign="top" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124081" bgcolor="transparent" style="background-image:url(https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/12/overlay-tile.png);background-color:transparent;min-height:200px;background-position:0% 0%"><table class="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yahoo-ignore-table" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_1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arget="_blank" style="color:rgb(255,84,67);font-weight:700;font-size:14px;line-height:1;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;text-decoration:none">Contact Reporter</a></span></div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123910" style="font-size:10px;line-height:13px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.5px;text-transform:uppercase;color:rgb(102,102,102);margin-top:25px"></div></div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123912"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123913"><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123914" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);margin-top:13px">The <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123915" title="U.S. Senate" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/u.s.-senate-ORGOV0000134-topic.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(69,145,184);text-decoration:none">Senate</a> <span class="gmail-aBn" tabindex="0"><span class="gmail-aQJ">on Monday</span></span> confirmed David Bernhardt, who has a history of lobbying for oil, mining and western water interests, as deputy secretary of the Interior Department.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123916" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Both of California’s Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123917" title="Kamala Harris" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/kamala-harris-PEPLT00008198-topic.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(69,145,184);text-decoration:none">Kamala Harris</a>, voted against his appointment — which was approved, 53 to 43, with little discussion.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123918" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">As the No. 2 official, Bernhardt will oversee an Interior Department that has dealings with clients who have paid his law firm millions of dollars in legal and lobbying fees, including two major players in California water: Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest irrigation district, and Cadiz Inc., a company that wants to pump Mojave Desert groundwater and sell it to Southern California cities.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123919" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Bernhardt terminated his federal registration as a Westlands lobbyist late last year, after then President-elect Trump nominated him for the deputy secretary position. But Bernhardt has continued to work for the water district, according to documents obtained through <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123920" title="California Public Records Act" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/crime-law-justice/laws-legislation/california-public-records-act-EVGAP00047-topic.html" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(69,145,184);text-decoration:none">California Public Records Act</a> requests.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123998" style="clear:both;margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Westslands emails released by Patricia Schifferle of the environmental group Pacific Advocates show that since November, he has drafted letters for the water district, as well as reviewed a draft executive order and the text of federal water legislation that Westlands supports.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_123999" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Bernhardt’s firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, also billed Westlands for a trip he took from Washington to Sacramento last winter.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124000" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">In a <span class="gmail-aBn" tabindex="0"><span class="gmail-aQJ">May 1</span></span> letter to Interior’s ethics officer, Bernhardt wrote that if confirmed he would “withdraw” from his law firm partnership. He said he would recuse himself from client-related matters before the department for one year — “unless I am first authorized to” participate in them.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124001" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">And at a Senate committee hearing in May, Bernhardt testified: “If I get a whiff of something coming my way that involves a client or a former client for my firm, I’m going to make that item run straight to the ethics office. And when it gets there, they’ll make whatever decision they’re going to make.”</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124003"></div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124004" style="clear:both;margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">But given Brownstein Hyatt’s extensive list of clients involved in natural resource matters overseen by Interior, environmentalists argue it is likely Bernhardt will get administration waivers to participate in decisions affecting former clients.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124005" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Westlands repeatedly has attacked endangered species protections, administered by the Interior department, that restrict water deliveries. Bernhardt’s firm has represented Westlands in four lawsuits against the agency, and he personally argued one appeals case challenging salmon protections.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124006" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Bernhardt personally lobbied Congress and the department on behalf of Westlands from 2011 through late 2016, during which time the district paid his firm $1.385 million in fees.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124007" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Cadiz has paid Brownstein Hyatt $2.75 million in lobbying fees and granted the firm 200,000 shares of stock — with a promise of more as plans progress for the company’s potentially lucrative groundwater project.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124008" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Those plans got a boost in March, when an acting assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management revoked two legal guidances that underpinned the bureau’s 2015 decision that <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124009" href="http://news.latimes.com/bin/latimes.pl?state=ijbg96.1.1&f=doc&p_u_all=#h5" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(69,145,184);text-decoration:none">Cadiz</a> could not use an existing federal railroad right-of-way for a new water pipeline.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124010" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The 2015 decision, which is now under review by the department Bernhardt will help manage, has been a huge obstacle to the Cadiz project.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124011" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><span class="gmail-aBn" tabindex="0"><span class="gmail-aQJ">Monday’s</span></span> confirmation marks the second time Bernhardt will have moved from Brownstein Hyatt to Interior. He left the firm in 2001 for a series of posts under President George W. Bush, rising to the position of solicitor, the department’s top lawyer. He rejoined the law firm after President Obama was elected.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124012" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The Brownstein Hyatt website, along with Bernhardt’s ethics filings, show that he and the firm have performed legal services or lobbied for clients that have dealings with virtually every branch of Interior.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124013" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">They include Cobalt International Energy, which holds major oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico; Rosemont Copper Co., which wants to develop a large open-pit mine in Arizona; the Navajo Nation, which has been involved in water rights settlements; and the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America, which represents oil and gas producers.</div><div id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124014" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">In a statement <span class="gmail-aBn" tabindex="0"><span class="gmail-aQJ">Monday</span></span>, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said: “Finally, after months of waiting for confirmation in the Senate, I’m excited to welcome David Bernhardt back to the department.</div><div dir="ltr" id="gmail-m_3207085961479034468yiv1263924106yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1500998426340_124015" style="margin-bottom:18px;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;font-family:Georgia,'Droid Serif',serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">“David’s extensive experience serving under previous Interior secretaries, his esteemed legal career, and down-right love of our land and resources is exactly what is needed to help streamline government and make the Interior and our public lands work for the American economy.”</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>