Dear Director Ashe:

The Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General ("OIG") recently issued a Management Advisory regarding the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's ("Service") inaction on certain whistleblower complaints related to violations of the scientific integrity policy. Concerns have been raised that the Service failed to take timely and appropriate management action against supervisors who may have engaged in scientific misconduct and then retaliated against whistleblowers who reported the misconduct to the OIG. The Committee takes allegations of violations of scientific integrity as well as whistleblower retaliation very seriously and expects to be kept apprised of this issue.

The Committee on Natural Resources has jurisdiction over matters involving the activities, budgets, and practices of the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. In order to better understand the implementation of the Department's Scientific Integrity Policy, and how the Service is complying with this policy, it is requested that the following information and complete and unredacted copies of the following documents be provided no later than August 14, 2013:

Read the entire letter HERE