Interior Department Defends Reorg Plan Critics Call Wasteful, Ideological

An Interior Department official on Tuesday declined to share with House lawmakers a document detailing the Trump administration’s reorganization plan for the Interior Department, as a subcommittee chairman had demanded. The 14-month-old plan remains a general vision that the department’s political appointees praise as an efficiency tool to make it easier for stakeholders to do “one-stop shopping” business with the government. Critics deride it as a resource-draining, morale-crushing “solution in search of a problem.” Like the current dispute over moving Agriculture Department research offices out of Washington, the clash stems from the Trump team’s desire to move federal employees outside the Beltway.