cameron, scott

===<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-teams-rolling-back-regulations-led-by-hires-with-deep-industry-ties">https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-teams-rolling-back-regulations-led-by-hires-with-deep-industry-ties</a><p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">President Trump entered office pledging to cut red tape, and within weeks, he ordered his administration to assemble teams to aggressively scale back government regulations.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">But the effort — a signature theme in Trump’s populist campaign for the White House — is being conducted in large part out of public view and often by political appointees with deep industry ties and potential conflicts.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Most government agencies have declined to disclose information about their deregulation teams. But ProPublica and The New York Times identified 71 appointees, including 28 with potential conflicts, through interviews, public records and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Some appointees are reviewing rules their previous employers sought to weaken or kill, and at least two may be positioned to profit if certain regulations are undone.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The appointees include lawyers who have represented businesses in cases against government regulators, staff members of political dark money groups, employees of industry-funded organizations opposed to environmental rules and at least three people who were registered to lobby the agencies they now work for.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">At the Education Department alone, two members of the deregulation team were most recently employed by pro-charter advocacy groups or operators, and one appointee was an executive handling regulatory issues at a for-profit college operator.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">So far, the process has been scattershot. Some agencies have been soliciting public feedback, while others refuse even to disclose who is in charge of the review. In many cases, responses to public records requests have been denied, delayed or severely redacted.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The Interior Department has not disclosed the correspondence and calendars for its team. But a review of more than 1,300 pages of handwritten sign-in sheets for guests visiting the agency’s headquarters in Washington found that appointees had met regularly with industry representatives.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Over a four-month period, from February through May, at least 58 representatives of the oil and gas industry signed their names on the agency’s visitor logs before meeting with appointees.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The EPA also rejected requests to release the appointment calendar of the official leading its team — a former top executive for an industry-funded political group — even as she met privately with industry representatives.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">And the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security provided the titles for most appointees to their review teams, but not names.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">
Meghan Burris, a spokeswoman there, said: “As previous administrations have recognized, it’s good government to periodically reassess existing regulations. Past regulatory review efforts, however, have not taken a consistent enough look at regulations on the books.”When asked for comment about the activities of the deregulation teams, the White House referred reporters to the Office of Management and Budget.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">With billions of dollars at stake in the push to deregulate, corporations and other industry groups are hiring lawyers, lobbyists and economists to help navigate this new avenue for influence. Getting to the front of the line is crucial, as it can take years to effect regulatory changes.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">“Competition will be fierce,” the law firm Clark Hill, which represents businesses pitching the Environmental Protection Agency, said in a marketing memo. “In all likelihood, interested parties will need to develop a multi-pronged strategy to expand support and win pre-eminence over competing regulatory rollback candidates.”<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Jane Luxton, a lawyer at the firm, said she advised clients to pay for economic and legal analyses that government agencies, short on staff, could use to expedite changes. She declined to identify the clients.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">“You may say this is an agency’s job, but the agencies are totally overloaded,” Luxton said.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">On a cloudy, humid day in March, Laura Peterson, a top lobbyist for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/business/scientists-loved-and-loathed-by-syngenta-an-agrochemical-giant.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration-line: none;">Syngenta</a>, arrived at the headquarters for the Interior Department. She looped the letter “L” across the agency’s sign-in sheet.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Her company, a top pesticide maker based in Switzerland, had spent eight years and millions of dollars lobbying the Obama administration on environmental rules, with limited success.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">But Peterson had an in with the new administration.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Scott Cameron, newly installed at the Interior Department and a member of its deregulation team, had just left a nonprofit he had founded. He had advocated getting pesticides approved and out to market faster. His group counted Syngenta as a financial partner.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The meeting with Peterson was one of the first Cameron took as a new government official.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Neither side would reveal what was discussed. “I’m not sure that’s reporting information I have to give you,” Peterson said.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">But lobbying records offered clues.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Syngenta has been one of several pesticide manufacturers pushing for changes to the Endangered Species Act. When federal agencies take actions that may jeopardize endangered animals or plants, they are generally supposed to consult with the Interior Department, which could raise objections.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">For decades, the EPA largely ignored this provision when approving new pesticides. But recently, a legal challenge from environmental groups forced its hand — a change that affected Syngenta.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Pesticide lobbyists have been working behind the scenes at agencies and on Capitol Hill to change the provision. Companies have argued that they should be exempt from consulting with the Interior Department because they already undergo EPA approval.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Along with spending millions of dollars on lobbying, they have funded advocacy groups aligned with their cause. Cameron’s nonprofit, the Reduce Risks From Invasive Species Coalition, was one such group for Syngenta.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The organization says on its website that its goals include reducing “the regulatory burden of the Endangered Species Act on American society by addressing invasive species.” One way to do that is to use pesticides. The nonprofit’s mission includes creating “business opportunities for commercial products and services used to control invasive species.”<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Because donations are not publicly reported, it is unclear how much Syngenta has contributed to Cameron’s organization, but his group has called the pesticide company one of its “<a href="https://www.rrisc.org/featured/rrisc-holds-its-second-annual-congressional-reception-and-awards-ceremony/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration-line: none;">generous sponsors</a>.”<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Cameron also served on a committee of experts and stakeholders, including Syngenta, that advised the federal government on decisions related to invasive species. At a committee event last July, he said that one of his priorities was “getting biocontrol agents to market faster,” according to meeting minutes.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Paul Minehart, a Syngenta spokesman, said: “Employees regularly engage with those in government that relate to agriculture and our business. Our purpose is to balance serving the public health and environment with enabling farmers’ access to innovation.”<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">A spokeswoman for the Interior Department did not respond to questions about how Cameron’s relationship with Syngenta might influence his review of regulations.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Under the law, members of the Trump administration can seek ethics waivers to work on issues that overlap with their past business careers. They can also formally recuse themselves when potential conflicts arise.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">In many cases, the administration has refused to say whether appointees to Trump’s deregulation teams have done either.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">One such appointee is Samantha Dravis, the chairwoman of the deregulation team at the EPA, who was a top official at the Republican Attorneys General Association. Dravis was also president of the Rule of Law Defense Fund, which brought together energy companies and Republican attorneys general to file lawsuits against the federal government over Obama-era environmental regulations.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The Republican association’s work <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html?_r=0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; position: relative; line-height: 1; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration-line: none;">has been criticized</a> as a vehicle for corporate donors to gain the credibility and expertise of state attorneys general in fighting federal regulations. Donors include the American Petroleum Institute, the energy company ConocoPhillips and the coal giant Alpha Natural Resources.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The Republican association also received funding from Freedom Partners, backed by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch. Dravis worked for that group as well, which recently identified <a href="http://freedompartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/removing_barriers.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; position: relative; line-height: 1; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration-line: none;">regulations it wants eliminated</a>. Among them are EPA rules relating to clean-water protections and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Liz Bowman, an EPA spokeswoman, declined to say whether Dravis had recused herself from issues dealing with previous employers or their backers, or had discussed regulations with any of them.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">“As you will find when you receive Samantha’s calendar, she has met with a range of stakeholders, including nonprofits, industry groups and others, on a wide range of issues,” Bowman said.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Bowman said the calendar could be obtained through a public records request. ProPublica and The Times had already filed a request for records including calendars, but the agency’s response did not include those documents. (An appeal was filed, but the calendar has not yet been released.)<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">“We take our ethics responsibilities seriously,” Bowman said. “All political staff have had an ethics briefing and know their obligations.”<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">Addressing the agency’s regulatory efforts, she said, “We are here to enact a positive environmental agenda that provides real results to the American people, without unnecessarily hamstringing our economy.”<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">At the Agriculture Department, the only known appointee to the deregulation team is Rebeckah Adcock. She previously lobbied the department as a top executive both at CropLife America, a trade association for pesticide makers, and the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group for farmers.<p style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; line-height: 1.4;">The department deals with many issues involving farmers, including crop insurance and land conservation rules, but it would not disclose whether Adcock had recused herself from discussions affecting her past employers.