House Republicans are digging deeper into Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s relationship with the Pueblo Action Alliance, a radical climate group based in New Mexico.
On Monday, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., who chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who chairs the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter to Haaland and the agency’s ethics director demanding documents related to the secretary’s involvement with the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA).
“Alarmingly, there is evidence that Secretary Haaland misused her position for the potential benefit of a nonprofit, the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), and used her position — or at the very least permitted the use of her position, title, and authority — to endorse PAA and PAA’s work,” the chairmen wrote.
The letter is a follow-up to lawmakers’ initial inquiry in June. A group of House Republicans probed the secretary’s potential conflicts of interest after her spring decision to choke off oil and gas development around New Mexico’s Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. The 20-year moratorium implemented by Secretary Haaland achieves a primary goal of the PAA, which happens to employ Haaland’s daughter, Somah.
[READ: Who Is Somah Haaland, The Activist Daughter Of Biden’s Interior Secretary?]
“Secretary Haaland has purportedly met with PAA leaders during her time as Secretary of the Interior to discuss PAA’s opposition to oil and gas production on federal lands,” 11 House Republicans wrote in June. Lawmakers were “concerned with Secretary Haaland’s compliance with ethical obligations and potential conflicts of interest
