Top BIA post filled by career employee

Politics

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

With just eight months left in the Bush administration, the Interior Department. continues to search for a new leader of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a top official said on Tuesday.

But in the meantime, deputy secretary P. Lynn Scarlett, the second-in-command at Interior, assigned the duties of the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs to a longtime employee. George Skibine, a member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, took over the post on Friday, when former BIA head Carl Artman left office.

"George Skibine is an experienced federal manager who is well known and respected throughout Indian Country," Scarlett said in a statement. "The Office of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education will be in very capable hands during the search for a new assistant secretary for Indian Affairs."

The move means Skibine holds yet another title at the BIA. In addition to his normal job as head of the Office of Indian Gaming Management, he has been acting as the agency's deputy assistant secretary for policy and economic development since 2004.

For several months during the Bush administration, Skibine even served as acting principal deputy assistant secretary, the second-highest post at the BIA. The never-ending changes -- which at one point left the BIA without a leader for more than two years -- have stirred strong sentiments on Capitol Hill.

"I'm terribly disappointed," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, last Thursday. "Mr. Artman was the third assistant secretary under this administration and the third to resign. And for two years during this administration, there was no assistant secretary."

"Now I wonder how long it will take to get another assistant secretary," Dorgan added. "I think this is undermining the interests of Indian tribes across this country and I'm very upset about it."

Artman has not given his reasons for leaving the post so late in the administration, nor has he stated his next career move. In the past, he worked for his tribe, the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, as its general counsel and as its lobbyist.

But Artman, during the hearing last Thursday, refuted Dorgan's suggestions that he lacked support from BIA subordinates and higher-up political appointees, a situation that contributed to the resignation of his predecessor, Dave Anderson. He described his accomplishments as "a team effort."

With the presidential election quickly approaching, it would appear to be very difficult to find a replacement for Artman. Not counting the internal White House vetting process, the Senate confirmation process can take months to complete.

Until the next change in leadership, Skibine will be handling all of the duties of the assistant secretary, but not in an acting capacity. The delegation allows him to hold on to the post without potentially violating a federal law that places limits on the amount of time a person can serve as an "acting" officer.

A similar move allowed Jim Cason, the associate deputy secretary at Interior, to assume the duties of the assistant secretary for more than two years.