通常情况下，众议院自然资源委员会是一个相对不知名的国会小组，处理的工作远离那些能登上全国头条的高调政治争端。但在唐纳德·特朗普担任总统期间，该委员会的重要性以出人意料的方式增强了。
Ordinarily, the House Natural Resources Committee is a relatively obscure congressional panel that tackles work far from the kind of high-profile political disputes that generate national headlines. But during Donald Trump’s presidency, the committee’s importance has grown in unexpected ways.
原因很简单：众议院自然资源委员会对内政部拥有监督权，而内政部是白宫所依赖的内阁机构，用来推进特朗普的许多虚荣工程，包括宴会厅、倒影池改造以及建造一座“凯旋”拱门的计划。
The reason is simple: The House Natural Resources Committee has oversight authority over the Interior Department, the Cabinet agency the White House has relied on to advance many of Trump’s vanity projects, including the ballroom, the Reflecting Pool overhaul and plans for a “triumphal” arch.
如果即将上任的民主党多数派想要就政府在这些项目上的相关工作得到答案，信息将来自这个常被忽视的委员会。
If the incoming Democratic majority is going to get answers on the administration’s efforts related to any of these projects, the information is going to come through this often-overlooked committee.
有鉴于此，本周CNN的一篇报道令人震惊：举报人指控内政部官员已经预料到民主党将展开监督，并已开始销毁内部文件。
With this in mind, it was striking to see a CNN report this week on whistleblowers who have alleged that Interior Department officials have already begun destroying internal documents in anticipation of Democratic oversight.
内政部发言人称举报人的说法“百分之百虚假”，但预计将在下一届国会担任自然资源委员会主席的加州民主党众议员贾里德·赫夫曼显然对此事十分重视。《华盛顿太阳报》报道：[赫夫曼]周一向36个联邦机构和私营公司发出信函，命令它们保存与委员会调查特朗普政府相关的文件、通信和其他记录。
An Interior Department spokesperson called the whistleblower claims “100% false,” though Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California, who’s expected to chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, is clearly taking the matter seriously. The Washington Sun reported: [Huffman] sent letters to 36 federal agencies and private companies on Monday, ordering them to preserve documents, communications and other records tied to the committee’s investigations of the Trump administration.
赫夫曼在信中表示：“过去两年，特朗普政府多次阻挠国会调查，未能向众议院自然资源委员会提供履行职责所需的必要信息。”
“For the past two years, the Trump Administration has repeatedly obstructed congressional investigations by failing to provide the House Committee on Natural Resources with information necessary to fulfill its oversight responsibilities,” Huffman’s letters state.
这位民主党议员的反击将产生什么结果，以及我们从这些明显的举报人那里能了解到什么，还有待时间检验，但值得强调的是，内政部的过往记录已经令人怀疑。
Time will tell what becomes of the Democratic lawmaker’s pushback, and what we learn from the apparent whistleblowers, but it’s worth emphasizing that the Interior Department’s track record is already suspect.
《政治报》8月报道称：“据三名目击此事的职员说，（内政部）官员经常粉碎官方文件，并使用会自动消失的Signal消息——甚至用于日常的日程安排事务——以避免通信记录被留存，而《联邦记录法》要求必须留存这些记录。”众议院监督委员会势将成为国会调查的热点，但有充分证据表明，从明年年初开始，其他国会小组委员会也将忙得不可开交。
Indeed, Politico reported in August, “According to three staffers who witnessed it, [Interior Department] officials have routinely shredded official documents and use disappearing Signal messages — even for mundane scheduling matters — to avoid communications being preserved, as is required by the Federal Records Act.”The House Oversight Committee is poised to be a hotbed for congressional investigations, but there’s ample evidence to suggest other congressional panels will also have their hands full starting early next year.