This post might be going into the deep state weeds for many readers, but since beltway news hounds read RRW too, this is worth posting.
Larry Bartlett, prior to being assigned to the Freedom of Information Office at the State Department, was the main career guru (under the Asst. Sec. of State level) responsible for refugee admissions during the Obama years and, as we witnessed in his performance in Idaho, here, a few years back, is a true believer in the program.
At that event he was completely dismissive of local citizens’ concerns about their safety, about the cost of the program, and about the lack of transparency citizens’ see in the resettlement process.
You can see my Lawrence Bartlett archive by clicking here.
Complaining that the State Department under Trump is partisan, two Dems in Congress show their colors by campaigning to get Bartlett back to work advocating for more refugees within the deep state.
From Talking Points Memo:
The State Department Inspector General is looking into why senior career officials who worked on Obama administration priorities like refugee resettlement and closing the Guantanamo Bay prison were temporarily reassigned to menial work processing Freedom of Information Act requests, the IG’s office confirmed to TPM on Thursday — reviewing whether the reassignments were politically motivated. [The State Department is notorious for not answering FOIA requests, so I don’t see this job as a “menial work.”—ed]
In January, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) called for an investigation after whistleblowers at the State Department shared what the lawmakers called “credible allegations that the State Department has required high-level career civil servants, with distinguished records serving administrations of both parties, to move to performing tasks outside of their area of substantive expertise.”
Cummings and Engel, who serve as the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees respectively, told the IG that they feared the moves “may constitute impermissible abuse and retaliation” against federal workers.
[….]
On Thursday, communications director Sarah Breen at the State’s Inspector General’s office told TPM: “The review requested by Congressmen Engel and Cummings is ongoing.”
Engel told TPM that the confirmation of the probe is “a good start but doesn’t come close to resolving the problem.”
“I continue to have concerns that this Administration is targeting career employees for their perceived political beliefs,” Engel said, “and I still expect the Department to fully respond to the requests from myself and Ranking Member Cummings.”
[….]
Among those roped in was Lawrence Bartlett, the former head of State’s Population, Refugees and Migration bureau, who worked on policies around refugee resettlement under the Obama administration. Bartlett is part of the Senior Executive Service — an elite class of highly experienced non-partisan federal workers.
Non-partisan federal worker my foot!
More here.