WASHINGTON — David Bernhardt, a with the Denver-based law and lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, will face the U.S. Senate on Thursday as lawmakers consider his nomination to serve as deputy secretary of the U.S. Interior Department.
The has rotated between the federal government and the private sector, and his selection by President Donald Trump has triggered an outcry from environmentalists and watchdog groups — even as allies cite his Beltway experience as the reason he’s the right pick to serve underneath , the newly-minted head of Interior.
Bernhardt will appear before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and introducing him at the will be U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.
If confirmed by the Senate, Bernhardt will return to an agency where he once served as its top legal counsel under then-President George W. Bush.
Prior to that service — and then again afterward — Bernhardt worked at the Brownstein firm, a .
His recent clients have included mining interests, energy companies and water groups and has led some activists to question whether Bernhardt can be impartial.
“David Bernhardt is a walking ,” said Aaron Weiss of the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group. “If he does not recuse himself from working on issues he has profited from as a lobbyist, he will be the embodiment of the Washington swamp — taking a high-level government job to help his private sector partners cash in.”
Advocates, however, see that experience as critical to navigating Washington’s bureaucratic landscape, and groups such as the Colorado Water Congress and the Outdoor Recreation Industry Roundtable have written letters in support of his nomination.
“Many of us have known David Bernhardt for years through his prior public service at the Department,” wrote officials with the Outdoor Recreation Industry Roundtable. “We have found him responsive, intelligent and committed to cooperation among government agencies at all levels and the recreation community’s private sector.”
With Republicans in control of the Senate, the GOP can advance his nomination without help from Democrats if most of the caucus stays on board.
Gardner is backing his appointment, but his Democratic counterpart, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, has not said publicly whether he supports Bernhardt.