Sen. Ken Salazar has some homework to do.
If he's confirmed as Interior secretary, he inherits a massive bureaucracy beset by perennial headaches, and some of the toughest issues are far outside his Colorado comfort zone.
He'll have to get up to speed on American Indian issues, tribal recognition and gambling, the Arctic ecosystem and polar bear protection, the Wyoming snowmobile debate, security at national monuments, a national park maintenance backlog and the complexities of an $11 billion budget.
For starters, he could expect to see his name listed as the lead defendant in a 12-year-old class-action lawsuit accusing the Interior Department of a century of mismanagement of trust accounts set up to compensate American Indians for the use of their lands for energy development or grazing.
The lead plaintiff, Elouise Cobell, issued a statement last week highlighting President-elect Barack Obama's promise to work with Salazar "to make sure the tribal nations have a voice in this administration." But it stopped short of glowing praise for the Cabinet pick.
"We don't think he knows enough about the case at this point, which is a surprise in a way, given that two secretaries have been held in contempt," said Cobell spokesman Bill McAllister. "We're not discouraged with the nomination at all. We hope he'll be well briefed by the time he takes office."
Any time a new Interior secretary is nominated, debates over oil drilling on public lands often dominate the spotlight. But McAllister, a former newspaper reporter and longtime observer of the Interior Department warns, "There's a lot more to the Interior Department than, frankly, meets the eye."
"The environmental groups are so aggressive in getting their message out that a lot of the other groups that are affected by Interior are lost in the conversation," he said. "There are millions of people whose lives are controlled by this department."
Salazar's resume includes varied experience as a water lawyer, state national resources director, attorney general and now legislator. But with its nine big bureaus, including the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior is a one-of-a-kind challenge.
There's a long-simmering fight over whether to allow snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park. The department has to make tough decisions on threatened or endangered species.
Once an Interior secretary takes office, the details get delegated to deputies. But during confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate, senators often like to quiz nominees on the broadest possible array of issues.
Since the election, Obama's transition team has gotten briefings and gathered information about the inner workings of various departments across the government, including Interior. But the department has not received any requests to brief Salazar, said Larry Jensen, a deputy solicitor who leads the Interior Department's transition team.
"I think in the past there have been some modest requests for information. That's pretty much the role the department plays" before a nominee is confirmed, Jensen said. "Once he's confirmed, obviously we're very intensely involved. ... Getting him confirmed is a responsibility that falls elsewhere."
Once that happens, Jensen said, "He'll have plenty of people ready, willing and able to give him advice."
(Reach M.E. Sprengelmeyer at sprengelmeyerm(at)shns.com.)
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