NOAA’s Arkgate

The story of NOAA’s Ark just doesn’t want to die. Even the “ever cooperative” (E.C.) Jane Lubchenco Administrator for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration can’t put this story to rest.

You may remember my previous blog   that told how NOAA officials in Seattle generously bought their employees a luxury Boston Whaler so they could take their families and friends on booze cruises around Puget Sound. This was no ordinary Boston Whaler, this one cost over $300,000 and came equipped with a flat screen TV and bar. No, this wasn’t a budgeted item. NOAA bought it with money acquired from fines paid by local fishermen whom NOAA officials are paid to monitor. (That sure is a good incentive for “creative monitoring”.)

The story came to light only because of an investigation into NOAA’s operating practices demanded by Congressman John Tierney of Salem. But the report issued by the Commerce Department’s Inspector General was so widely redacted that it was impossible to pinpoint any responsibility for this fiasco.

Recently Tierney called for a Congressional investigation into the incident. Tierney urged the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to step in after Commerce Secretary John Bryson failed to respond to a series of questions in a letter from the congressman.

Tierney wrote to the committee's chairman, Republican Darrell Issa of California, and the ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, to urge an investigation after getting no response from Bryson to a request for a detailed report on a variety of details, including whether anyone involved in the episode in Seattle or NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., had been held accountable.

"As of this writing, the Department of Commerce has neither responded to my letter nor extended the courtesy of letting me know when a response might be expected," Tierney wrote to Issa and Cummings. "This inattention to such a serious matter is unfortunate, yet it seems to be reflective of the lack of accountability on these issues that has been present for far too long."

At a budget hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the “ever cooperative” (EC) Jane Lubchenco was asked about the boat scandal in Seattle, but except for describing herself as "appalled" to learn about the episode, she provided no details.

E. C. Lubchenco reiterated information issued in a NOAA press release that the boat had been "surplussed," and that the incident had sparked improved vessel acquisition policy and retraining. But, as she has done in multiple congressional hearings, Lubchenco cited "the Privacy Act" as a bar to informing Congress about any personnel punishment.

E. C.  described herself as frustrated by the impediment to providing a public report, while emphasizing a "top-to-bottom" overhaul of policy and personnel — though key figures have been given new jobs.

Lubchenco's refusal to give an accounting of any disciplining of personnel for the coast-to-coast scandal in the Office of Law Enforcement has produced bipartisan, bicameral frustration, including the rhetorical question by Senator Scott Brown, "What does it take to get fired at NOAA?"