BOOK REVIEW - YOU REPORT TO ME -Accountability for the Failing Administrative State

 

BOOK REVIEW

By Don Amador

December 12, 2024

 

 *This book gives elected or appointed officials - tasked with a leadership and oversight role in a federal land management or regulatory agency - a better understanding of the challenges they face as they seek to bring accountability to the administrative state

 

YOU REPORT TO ME – Accountability for the Failing Administrative State

 

As a fellow political appointee, CA State Park Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commissioner (circa 1994-2000) with 34 years of experience working with government agencies and elected officials on recreation and resource management policy and legislation, I appreciate David Bernhardt’s  book where he shares his insights into how some career bureaucrats successfully jam the reform efforts of a new administration.  

 

Just how the administrative state (aka deep state) operates to obfuscate, hinder, or bury issues and ignore leaders they disagree with has been a topic of many conversations I have had – on a bipartisan basis – with appointees, elected officials, recreation groups, scientists, agency staff, attorneys, and other stakeholders.

 

Often those discussions center on actions taken by an agency that just don’t make any sense.  When a regulator is questioned by an appointee or the public, the response (if one is given at all) is irrational or confusing.  Those non-responses are exacerbated when millions of dollars are unaccounted for or misspent resulting in lost recreational opportunity.

 

The book is full of examples of how the administrative state operates. However, one of my favorite stories is about the “Surname” process where letters and other documents are “required” to jump through lengthy approval or clearance procedures.

 

The book goes on to detail how unelected rule makers can run-out-the-clock by slowing down a NEPA process they don’t like or agree with by creating an unusable or shoddy work product that extends the final plan until after the current leadership or elected official leaves office.  

 

Bernhardt also illustrates how judicial deference has empowered agencies with more authority than was originally intended by Congress.    

 

Regardless of political affiliation, this book may help inform those with questions about what happened with the EPA digging it their heels regarding the closure of the BLM Clear Creek Management Area to OHVs or even at the state level with Oceano Dunes and the Stipulated Order of Abatement.

 

I believe this is a must read book for all stakeholders who want to get a better understanding of how the administrative state operates and on potential strategies and solutions to restore accountability in federal agencies.  

 

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Don Amador has been in the trail advocacy and recreation management profession for over 33 years.   Don is President of Quiet Warrior Racing LLC. Don serves as the Western States Representative for the Motorcycle Industry Council. Don is Past President/CEO and current board member of the Post Wildfire OHV Recovery Alliance. Don served as a contractor to the BlueRibbon Coalition from 1996 until June, 2018. Don served on the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission from 1994-2000. He has won numerous awards including being a 2016 Inductee into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame and the 2018 Friend of the AMA Award. Don served as the government affairs lead for AMA District 36 in Northern California from 2019 – 2023. Don is a Co-Founder and current Core-Team member on FireScape Mendocino.  Don is a contributor to Dealernews Magazine. Don writes from his home in Cottonwood, CA.