Ryan Zinke and Scott Pruitt engaging in ‘likely illegal’ political process for federal funding grants

Many politicians accuse their fellow leaders of playing politics with the day-to-day government, but according to The Washington Post, that's exactly what Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is doing.

According to an internal memo, Scott Pruitt's Environmental Protection Agency, under the Department of Interior, is requiring all grants be signed off by a political appointee in the public affairs office.

According to the memo, Scott Cameron, the principal deputy assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, told other assistant secretaries that grants had to be submitted for approval by his aides. So, any grant of over $50,000 “to a non-profit organization that can legally engage in advocacy” or “to an institution of higher education" must go through the political appointee's office.

Grants to universities and nonprofits are also subjected to this process. According to former Interior officials, hundreds of millions of dollars might be affected.

The memo attached Zinke's "Top Ten Priorities" explaining how the applications should be analyzed. The approval process has never been directed this way and former Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes said that there are existing laws that govern the process.

“Subjugating Congress’ priorities to 10 of the Secretary’s own priorities is arrogant, impractical and, in some cases, likely illegal,” said Hayes. “Our senior leadership team never set up a process like this — that is, a process that identifies broad categories of contracts, at modest financial levels, that must be kicked upstairs to headquarters for political sign-off.”

According to Hayes, their office held that any political interference would "sully the integrity of contracting processes that applicants have a right to expect are governed with fairness, impartiality, and integrity as their guide.”

At the close of 2017, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow speculated on who would be next to be kicked out of President Donald Trump's cabinet. She was torn between Zinke and Pruitt.