Cheney Invited to Testify About Klamath Salmon Kill

Jesse Lee at The Gavel reports: U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, today confirmed that Vice President Dick Cheney, a former Member of the Committee, has been invited to testify at a July 31 oversight hearing on his apparent role in influencing scientific and policy decisions at the Department of the Interior. As reported in The Washington Post on June 27, 2007, Cheney’s intervention in the development of a 10-year water plan for the Klamath River resulted in the 2002 die-off of an estimated 77,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border – and the subsequent collapse of the West Coast salmon-fishing industry. The hearing will seek to examine the causes and consequences of political intervention in the decision-making process at the Interior Department, an alarming trend the Committee began exploring at a May 9 hearing that delved into the role of the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in politicizing the Endangered Species Act (ESA).