The Roots of Power

It was during the late 1980's and early 1990's that the US Fish and Wildlife
Service (and every other Federal agency from what I heard) reduced and even
eliminated the requirements for hiring and promoting employees.  Academic
requirements and experience requirements for hiring and to determine the
entry grade were all but eliminated.  Simultaneously, standardized entrance
exams (with their comparable grades) were also eliminated.  The reason for
all this was the implementation of DISCRIMINATORY hiring and promoting
practices disguised as EQUAL " Opportunity " for women and approved racial and
ethnic groups.  Government began keeping race records and sex figures with
all the thoroughness and zeal of bygone racist regimes throughout history.

The reason that the entrance and hiring requirements disappeared was that
the top government managers in each Federal agency were rewarded with
bonuses based on the percentages of hires and promotions of women and
approved minority groups. When white male employees and applicants began
complaining and suing because women and approved minority groups without
"required" experience were being hired and promoted: the top government
managers fought back to get access to their large (tens of thousands
annually) bonuses for hiring and promoting women and approved minority
groups.  They did this by pulling out the rug of standards and requirements
for hiring and promoting.  The rest as they say "is history".

An avalanche of women and approved minorities were hired and promoted every
year.  Top managers collected their bonuses and retired to their gated
communities.  It was a "win-win" for everyone except white males and the
citizens that had come to rely on Federal rural policies as well as other
facets of American life.  As an example of what I am familiar with: the
women and approved minority hires and promotions were in the 60 and 70 % of
all such actions (the more discriminations, the higher the bonus) and within
a few years the change in philosophy and policies and politics was over
whelming.

Foresters were no longer "foresters": they became anti-use and
anti-management zealots.  Wildlife biologists were no longer wildlife
managers: they became wildlife "protectors" and anti-human and anti-private
property fanatics.  Refuge managers, fishery biologists, range managers,
natural resource law enforcers: it made no difference they were either newly
hired and promoted radicals or they adopted the "new" philosophy much as
someone hired by an insurance company adopts to the culture of what they
hope is a career.  The Universities smelled this change and began clamoring
for the newly available grants and other funding like the exploding
"Conservancies" and "Federations" and "Institutes" et al.  The Universities
obligingly eliminated "management" curriculums in favor of "research and
protection" agendas that were little more than open-ended pandering to
maintain a fiction of professionalism and "science".

All this came back to me as I read about the investigation of the
longest-serving Republican in the US Senate.  Back in the mid-1990s his
daughter was suddenly hired as a GS-14 in the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The hiring for a questionable position was kept quiet until it was done.  I
saw the paperwork and there was nothing in her very limited background that
was in any way connected with our activities.  For the record, at that time
and for at least 25 years earlier when I was hired, you had to pass an exam
with one of the top 3 scores and then get hired as a GS-5 if you had a
Bachelor's Degree or possibly as a GS-7 if you had a Master's degree.  A
GS-14 is the grade I retired at after 32 years and makes 2-3 times the
salary of the GS-5.

Within a couple of years, the Senator's daughter was promoted to a GS-15 and
given a constructed "position" in a Regional Office in the West.  It was
during her tenure there that your humble servant was put-upon by the Clinton
appointees for defending trapping, state fish and wildlife agency programs,
and the fur market.  While concealing their tight connections with
environmental and animal rights radical organizations the Clinton appointees
maintained a public façade of supporting management and use of wildlife.

When the Republican House Resources Committee invited me to tell them what
was going on: I complied and incidentally mentioned that the US Fish and
Wildlife Service seemed to be disbursing a lot less of the hunting and
fishing excise taxes to the states than were being collected.  Again, the
rest "is history".  The General Accounting Office was sent in and discovered
that $45 to 60 Million had been stolen (the correct word) by US Fish and
Wildlife Service administrators in just the previous two years from funds
earmarked for state hunting and fishing programs administered by state fish
and wildlife agencies.  The stolen money was used to pay bonuses to top
Service administrators (illegal) and to do two things THAT CONGRESS HAD
REFUSED TO FUND: 1.) Introduce wolves into Yellowstone Park, and 2.) Open an
Endangered Species-oriented office in California where radical groups and a
bevy of Federal politicians wanted more control of Federal activities.

When the House Resources Committee found this out (remember this was a
Republican controlled Committee and a Democrat President): they were
incensed and figured they were really going to go after the US Fish and
Wildlife Service but a funny thing happened.  The US Fish and Wildlife
Service connected the Senator's daughter to the office.  When her name was
recognized by House Committee and Senate Committee staffers they blanched
and sped off to other things.  Again it was a "win-win" for the bureaucrats
and the radicals that have infiltrated those agencies.  The only losers were
and are rural residents, rural communities, hunters, fishermen, loggers,
ranchers, and on and on.  Not only was there never any accountability in the
US Fish and Wildlife Service (no one even missed bonuses); the state fish
and wildlife agencies never even complained (they were becoming addicted
like the Universities to Federal largesse); the state fish and wildlife
agencies NEVER EVEN ASKED FOR THE MONEY TO BE REPLACED (thereby shorting the hunting and fishing programs they are always complaining "need" more money
by $60 or more Million).

I do not write about this with any vindictiveness or regret.  The Senator's
daughter is now a top SES Administrator in the Washington Office with a very
high salary and large bonuses and a large retirement ( a long-ago retired
employee once referred to this as "the gift that keeps on giving").  So far
as I know she is an honest employee and her Dad is innocent but that is not
why I write this.

When we speak of a "Root" most often we think of where something came FROM,
as in "money is the root of all evil".  There is another meaning for root
and that is what I mention here.  Roots not only create things, THEY SPREAD
and ruin foundations and roads and driveways and boat ramps, etc.  It is
this latter meaning I mention here.

As we complain about Federal laws and bureaucracies running amok and
destroying our freedoms we must be aware of the hidden destruction of the
seeping power beneath the surface.  Because the US Fish and Wildlife Service
could hire anyone thanks to DISCRIMINATORY LAWS, they chose to hire a
political "chit" that might pay off later.  It paid off in spades.  Although
certainly not the only reason the hunting and fishing money was never repaid
and certainly not the reason it was stolen and not even the reason that the
state agencies have evolved into Federal handmaids: the fact that a Federal
agency can hire and promote the dependents of powerful politicians and then
employ them in shameless ways to avoid accountability CONTRIBUTES TO the
dire situation we face today.  The power of these agencies and the hidden
agendas and hidden alliances with politicians and radical groups needs
exposure to the light of day and open discussion.

I tried to get someone to listen to me in the Washington media about this
but they wouldn't return my calls and when I tried to tell a columnist, his
phone-answerer made it clear unknowns can't speak to the known and after
about two minutes of trying to explain this, he lost interest and said he
was busy and to send him an e-mail.  So here you have it: my paltry attempt
to explain how "The Roots of Power" not only grow what you see, they go out
underground and destroy things that you don't realize until it is too late.

Jim Beers
1 August 2007

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- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist,
Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.
He was stationed in North Dakota , Minnesota , Nebraska , New York City , and
Washington DC .  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western
Pacific and on Adak , Alaska in the Aleutian Islands .  He has worked for the
Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security
Supervisor in Washington , DC .  He testified three times before Congress;
twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60
Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to
expanding Federal Invasive Species authority.  He resides in Centreville ,
Virginia with his wife of many decades.