Director of Agency Overseeing Offshore Drilling Is Fired, Sources Say Published May 27, 2010 | FOXNews.com
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In this May 18 file photo, Elizabeth Birnbaum, then-director of the Minerals Management Service is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo)
Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the embattled U.S. Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, has been fired, Fox News has confirmed.
Sources familiar with the matter told Fox News that she is not being reassigned and that she is out out government entirely.
Members of Congress and President Obama have criticized what they call the cozy relationship between regulators and oil companies and have vowed to reform MMS, which both regulates the industry and collects billions in royalties from it.
In the wake of the Deepwater oil rig explosion last month that has triggered a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the agency has come under fire for allowing oil drilling in that region without requiring oil companies to provide necessary permits from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Birnbaum was scheduled to testify before the House Appropriations Committee Thursday morning about the oil spill but she will not appear, Fox News has confirmed. Her deputy, Secretary David Hayes will testify in her place alongside Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Birnbaum was appointed last July after serving as staff director for the Committee on House Administration, the panel that manages legislative branch agencies. Before that, she was vice president for government affairs and general counsel for American Rivers, where she directed advocacy programs for the nation's top river conservation organization until 2007, according to her biography on the MMS website.
She previously worked at the Interior Department from 2000 to 2001 as associate solicitor for mineral resources, supervising a staff of attorneys that provided legal advice and developed regulations for the MMS, according to her bio.
Fox News' Major Garrett and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
