Quick update

Hi all. It's been a quiet month here, between the busy-ness of the holiday season, the need to take care of a bunch of things that I postponed over the past year (hello house maintenance), and a lot of moving pieces as things are in flux at many scales including coalition and Capitol Hill work. Thank you for your patience. There is a small stockpile of quite future-facing articles that are in various stages of development that will publish as capacity allows, but one tangential item to note this morning.

Federal stats

I expect that most people who focus on Interior don't think much about the Federal Statistical System. But the work from the system informs all manner of decisions in and out of government...think of population, economic, labor, and other statistics that shape our discussions of policy and management. Well, there's a new head to the FSS, a guy named Stu Levanbach. You might read that Stu has a PhD and think this is a good--or if not good, then at least not bad--appointment for statistics and reality.

But it isn't, because Stu places ideology before facts and reality.

My very first introduction to Stu was with him completely mangling basic statistics about how the US Fish and Wildlife Service implements the Endangered Species Act. Stu does not like the ESA and does not like the Service, and he sought to twist the statistics to blame staff for the duration of ESA consultations. (Happy to dive into the details if anyone is interested.) Even after I explained in detail why his interpretation was factually correct, he clung on. I was never clear if he didn't get it or just didn't care. And everything I've seen and heard about him reinforces this disposition.

Now he's overseeing the direction of the Federal Statistical System from over at the Office of Management and Budget. While Stu won't have line authority over the statistical agencies like the Census Bureau, he can do a lot of harm by setting bad direction, helping to bury inconvenient statistics, and more. Since federal statistics shape so much of our understanding of the status and trends of the country, and the decisions made across sectors that affect the mission of the Department of the Interior directly and indirectly, this kind of role and an adherence to reality matters a great deal to the Department and all the people it serves.

Reconstruction

In the reconstruction of the federal government, a premium has to be placed on the value of facts and knowledge. Yes, Interior should have at least one and maybe multiple recognized statistical agencies; critical minerals, Indian Country statistics, and nature statistics come to mind. We will need to invest big in the FSS too, between modernizing and restoration. More on those ideas later.

But even before we get to those details, we have to have agreement that we as a society value reality, and that reconstruction will place a premium restoring and elevating reality. (To be clear, policy is not devoid of opinion or values-based interpretation! But when those are placed before facts and reality, seek to bury and deny reality, it is a recipe for disaster.) Given how disconnected so many people are from reality these days, that's one of our biggest foundational challenges to address.