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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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