Is it possible that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, in applauding President Trump's signing into law the Great American Outdoors Act, not only went against his department's own guidelines when it comes to political activity but actually violated the Hatch Act? Several times?

The Interior secretary has been overly boisterous in pointing out the president's signing, going so far as to claim Congress delivered the bill at Trump's request.

To set the record straight, members of Congress have been working for some years to tackle the National Park Service's estimated $12 billion maintenance backlog. Indeed, you can go back to President George W. Bush saying he would wipe out the backlog in five years.

And there were several efforts to whittle down the backlog going into the Park Service's centennial year in 2016.

Indeed, early that year the Park Service highlighted structural problems with the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., in a bid to raise congressional awareness of the problems with deferred maintenance.

And U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Arizona, when the National Park Service Centennial Act was being discussed late in 2016, near the end of the centennial year, proposed that Congress appropriate an additional $300 million per year for fiscal years 2017, 2018, and 2019 to help the Park Service address the backlog. 

Over a year's time from 2017 into 2018 there were at least three efforts in the Senate to pass legislation addressing the backlog. 

They all failed.

But the House and the Senate kept after it, and in June the Senate, prodded by Sens. Cory Gardner and Steve Daines, two Republicans up for election this fall and looking for something positive to show their voters, passed the legislation, with the House following in July. 

So, President Trump wasn't the first to recognize there was a deferred maintenance issue with the National Park System, nor the first to call for it to be addressed. But he has during his time in office asked for reductions in the Park Service's budget, waived environmental laws so parks could be trampled for construction of the US-Mexico border wall, and supported mining projects that can be viewed as environmentally dangerous to parks (See Pebble Mine and Ambler Road).

He also drastically reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah (though that action is still being litigated).

So it's a bit disingenuous for Secretary Bernhardt to be saluting the president's signing of the Great American Outdoors Act as proof of his love for the national parks or the environment, or of his political prowess.

And as for the Hatch Act, the Interior secretary's National Park Service probably shouldn't be encouraging field staff to retweet the following, and providing the link to make it easy.

Certainly Bernhardt knows about what he can and can't do under the Hatch Act. Or he should. After all, it was back in March when his chief of staff, Todd Willens, sent out a memo to all Interior Department employees (some 70,000) titled Prohibited Partisan Political Activity Reminder as Required by the Hatch Act.

In that memo Willens noted that, "The Hatch Act generally prohibits Federal employees from engaging in political activities while on duty, in a Government room or building, while wearing an official uniform, or while using a Government vehicle. Under the Hatch Act, 'political activity' is defined as any activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group."

The memo, which you can find here, also differentiated between "less restricted" employees, such as that ranger who takes your entrance fee, and "further restricted" employees, such as, well, the Interior secretary. 

In the case of Secretary Bernhardt, the Hatch Act bans him from "active participation in political management or partisan political campaigns, even when off duty," Willens wrote.

And that "active participation" should definitely not slip over into the Twittersphere.

"When using social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., Department employees should be mindful that prohibitions of the Hatch Act apply," the chief of staff took the time to note. "Accordingly, the Hatch Act prohibition on engaging in political activities while on duty or in a Government office applies to all social media and other online activities. Employees are prohibited from 'posting,' 'blogging,' 'retweeting,' and 'liking' partisan political content while on duty."

And as for that NPS memo suggesting park staff retweet the secretary's congratulatory tweet?

"Department supervisors must be vigilant that their social media and other online activities do not appear to influence their subordinates," Willens wrote. "Therefore, Department supervisors should not send subordinate employees email messages or links to webpages that are directed at the success or failure of a partisan political group or candidate."

While some might say Bernhardt was simply congratulating President Trump, let's not forget that he also was promoting "Candidate" Trump.