Notorious Guccifer Hacker to Be Extradited to US To Serve Jail Time, Court Rules

After every administration change, obviously most the agency Secretaries are replaced, and thereby resulting appointments are made at the top of various agency branches (especially when an incumbent party is unseated). So, to that extent, there is some staffing change, but I haven't seen any kind of federal agency exodus that I've heard alluded to in the media. My practice is based in the Western 11 states, so perhaps there are different results East of the Rockies, but I know that the FWS, BLM, USFS and DEQ field offices I work / have worked with are trotting along as they always have been (which doesn't necessarily mean they're thrilled, as being understaffed and underfunded is their baseline).

The Administrative Procedure Act makes changes to environmental regulations an extremely slow, laborious process. Even if Pruitt / Zinke had come into their agencies guns-blazing, the actual effect of the regulatory changes (by way of the demanding and mandatory rule-making procedures) wouldn't be felt for several years still.

Pretty much every time an agency wants to make a big rule change, they get sued by either (often both) industry and environmental groups. Especially out west. Agencies just get double-teamed from both sides of the environmental policy spectrum on a daily basis. It's simply how they exist.

With respect to having the resources we need to do our job, my answer actually supports the point you make above: it really comes down to the competence of the DOJ, and the DOJ remains entirely unchanged, so far as I can tell. We're a litigation firm, so our main points of contact are either agency attorneys in the various solicitors offices, or the DOJ's natural resources / tribal (water) / public lands-focused offices around the West.

These offices remain staffed by the same tricky, cryptic, and competent bastards I've been suing or being sued with since long before Trump entered the primaries (:

So, to your point, the DOJ is a well-tuned machine, and hasn't missed a step (except for royally fucking up the Bundy prosecution, holy shit, but that went south before the election).

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