While Kirk is newly nominated to lead the Interior IG office, Greenblatt and Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, last week said that Kirk had been installed as a political appointee within the Interior IG office. Steve Katz — who served in several senior oversight roles on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch, including assisting the Clinton administration develop standards for selecting IG nominees — argued Kirk’s nomination violates rules regarding IG selections. Additionally, the Partnership for Public Service nonprofit recently reported that the Trump administration assigned political appointees to the IG offices at the Housing and Urban Development and Labor departments for the first time in recent history.