David Bernhardt

On February 4, 2020, he was chosen as the designated survivor during President Trump's State of the Union Address.

In a February 18, 2020 op-ed in the Washington Times, Bernhardt celebrated the National Park Service expansion of the "African American Civil Rights Network", which was created in January 2018 to "present a comprehensive narrative of the people, places, and events associated with African American Civil Rights movement in the United States from 1939 through 1968."

In 2019, Politico reported that heads of the oil industry lobbyist group Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) boasted about their ties to Bernhardt. Bernhardt had IPAA as a client during his legal career.

In April 2019 it was reported the Inspector General opened an investigation of Bernhardt.

On January 2, 2019, Bernhardt became Acting Secretary of the Interior, replacing Ryan Zinke. On February 4, 2019, President Trump nominated Acting Secretary Bernhardt to be Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior. He was confirmed by the Senate on April 11, 2019, by a vote of 56 to 41.

In May 2019, the House Oversight Committee was investigating whether Bernhardt was complying with record-keeping laws.

In September 2019, the GAO released a report that found acting Secretary Bernhardt had broken federal law when in January 2019 he issued the directive to use park entrance fees for maintenance in keeping parks open during the government shutdown. The report found that the Interior Department moved funds between accounts without authorization from Congress, thus violating federal law. Interior explained that they "completely disagree with the GAO's erroneous opinion regarding our appropriate and lawful use of [Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act] funds."

President Donald Trump nominated Bernhardt to be the United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior in April 2017. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 24, 2017, and sworn into office on August 1. He became acting Secretary of the Interior on January 2, 2019, replacing Ryan Zinke after he resigned from office. Bernhardt was nominated to officially become Secretary of the Interior in February 2019 and was confirmed on April 11, 2019.

Through Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Bernhardt represented San Joaquin Valley's Westlands Water District in "a lawsuit that sought to undo court-imposed protections for endangered salmon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta". Berhardt also represented entities such as the proposed Rosemont Copper open pit mine in Arizona. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck was involved in representing other mining, oil, and extractive industries, as well as projects such as the Cadiz, Inc. groundwater pumping project in the Mojave Desert in California. Cadiz later refuted that Bernhardt had lobbied directly for the company, though environmentalists at the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity suspected Bernhardt's involvement when the DOI changed its views to be positive towards the project in March 2017.

Until resigning by early 2017, he was on the board of the Center for Environmental Science Accuracy and Reliability.

On April 28, 2017, Trump nominated Bernhardt to be the United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior of the Trump administration. The role made Bernhardt the "top deputy to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and COO of the federal lands and energy agency". The appointment was praised by Zinke, as well as U.S. Representative David Valadao of California, Representative Scott Tipton of Colorado, and Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado. Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne also supported Bernhardt with his comments.

Other groups criticized Bernhardt as a "high-powered lobbyist" with conflict-of-interest concerns, due to his firm's work on regulation issues with the DOI and his history of representing oil companies and agricultural interests. The appointment was met with strong criticism from conservationists and fishing interests in California, where Bernhardt had worked as a lobbyist and attorney. Also criticizing the choice, the Western Values Project sued the Interior Department to obtain documents about Bernhardt's tenure for the department under George Bush. The head of the Center for Biological Diversity said Bernhardt had "always sided with big business at the expense of our most imperiled wildlife. If confirmed he'd be a disaster for all endangered species." In the middle of May 2017, before his confirmation hearing, the Outdoor Recreation Industry Roundtable sent letters to Senators Maria Cantwell and Lisa Murkowski expressing support for Bernhardt. Letters of support were also received from Ducks Unlimited and the Boone and Crocket Club.

He appeared at his confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on May 18, 2017. During his questioning, he testified that "we will apply the law and be honest with the science" in reference to the Interior department. During the hearing, he said the president's views, rather than the recommendations of scientists, would guide the Interior Department's policies whenever possible. Ethics issues were raised by Senators such as Maria Cantwell, with Bernhardt replying he took ethics very seriously. He said that unless he received authorization to do so, he would not involve himself substantially in any particular matter involving his former clients.

On July 24, 2017, the Senate confirmed Bernhardt's nomination by a vote of 53–43. He was then sworn into office on August 1, 2017.

Until the end of 2016, Bernhardt remained an attorney and lobbyist for the San Joaquin Valley's Westlands Water District. In November 2016, he de-listed himself as a lobbyist, to avoid "running afoul of the new president's ban on lobbyists joining his administration". After withdrawing his formal registration as a lobbyist, Bernhardt became a consultant to the Westlands Water District. While remaining a lawyer at Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, after November 2016 Bernhardt was briefly in charge of the Interior Department transition team for President Donald Trump. In that role, he was in charge of overseeing staffing in the DOI along with Devin Nunes. In recent years, he served on the board of directors for the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries, resigning prior to January 2017. By April 2017, he was on a $20,000-a-month retainer for Westlands.

As part of his 2017 Senate confirmation hearing Bernhardt had submitted a written statement saying, "I have not engaged in regulated lobbying on behalf of Westlands Water District after November 18, 2016." Westlands Water District is an agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley. During his time in office he has received criticism for using his position to enact some of the policies he worked for while a lobbyist for Westlands Water District. In March 2019, The New York Times disclosed documents that show he had been working as a lobbyist for the Westlands Water District at least as late as April 2017. If the information obtained by the Times is correct, Bernhardt's activities could violate federal laws requiring lobbyists to disclose their activities.

In 2011, Bernhardt filed a lawsuit for Westlands that "sought to force the feds to make good on a commitment to build a multibillion-dollar system to dispose of the poisoned water" resulting from toxic irrigation in the Westlands district. Later, through the 2017 bill HR 1769, Westlands agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for forgiven debt and long-term access to water from Central Valley Project facilities. In April 2017, the House Natural Resources Committee approved the settlement, but rejected an amendment that would have "barred former Westlands officials or lobbyists — meaning Bernhardt — from working on the drainage issue for five years".

Bernhardt served as DOI Solicitor until 2009. That year he rejoined the Colorado-based law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. He became a shareholder in the firm and chairman of the firm's natural resources law practice. Bernhardt's clients included Halliburton, Cobalt International Energy, Samson Resources, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Bernhardt served as Solicitor of the United States Department of the Interior from 2006 to 2009. President George W. Bush nominated him in November 2005, subject to Senate confirmation. He was the DOI deputy solicitor at the time. Bernhardt was sworn into office in November 2006, after being unanimously confirmed by the Senate.

Growing up in Rifle, Colorado, Bernhardt's father was a county extension agent and his mother was in the real estate business. He was active in Colorado politics from the age of sixteen, when he made his case to the Rifle City Council not to levy taxes on arcade games at a teen center he was starting in his hometown. He left high school early, earning his GED, then his bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Colorado in 1990. While at the University of Northern Colorado, he applied for and received an internship at the Supreme Court of the United States. He graduated with honors from the George Washington University Law School in 1994. He was admitted to the Colorado Bar Association later that year.

Bernhardt began his career as a lawyer in Colorado. In the 1990s, he worked for U.S. Representative Scott McInnis, a Grand Junction Republican. In 1998 he became an associate with Brownstein Hyatt and Farber, a Denver law and lobbying firm.

David Longly Bernhardt (born August 17, 1969) is an American attorney, energy industry lobbyist, and government administrator. He currently serves as the 53rd United States Secretary of the Interior. He was a shareholder at the Colorado law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, he began working for the United States Department of the Interior in 2001, and served as the department's solicitor from 2006 to 2009, among other roles.