Oregon Public Broadcasting

Senator Ron Wyden’s effort to fight political interference with federal scientific research appears to have paid off. Rob Manning has more on a new Inspector General report.

During her years at the Interior Department, former fish and wildlife administrator Julie MacDonald manipulated dozens of decisions.

The Inspector General’s new report goes far beyond what Interior officials said was the extent of MacDonald’s interference with science used to guide federal environmental laws.

Sen. Ron Wyden called for the deeper investigation. He says the new report gets to the bottom of things - and creates new demands for president-elect, Barack Obama.

Ron Wyden: “The Obama Administration will have considerable follow-up work to do, given what Julie MacDonald did to hot-wire too many of these Endangered Species decisions to satisfy her political agenda.”

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Wyden’s Democratic colleague, Ken Salazar of Colorado, is Obama’s choice to become Interior Secretary.

Wyden says Salazar would be a “superb” choice to run Interior.