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The director of US Minerals Management Services, Elizabeth Birnbaum has been fired, reports Fox News. However, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a congressional committee on Thursday that she had resigned.
"She resigned today on her own terms and on her own volition," he said in a written statement. "I thank her for her service and wish her the very best."
Birnbaum, in her written statement said that she is ‘grateful’ to President Obama and Salazar for allowing her "to serve this administration and the country."
"It's been a great privilege to serve as director of MMS," she said. "I have enormous admiration for the men and women of the MMS who do a difficult job under challenging circumstances. I'm hopeful that the reforms that the secretary and the administration are undertaking will resolve the flaws in the current system that I inherited."
Sources close to the matter informed Fox News that she is not being given any assignment and that she is out of the government.
Obama is scheduled to address the oil spill and announce new safety protocols very soon. Birnbaum was criticized by members of the Congress and also by President Obama for the cozy relation between regulators and the oil companies.
The agency came under fire after the Deepwater Horizon explosion last month which led to a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The agency has been allowing oil drilling in that region without requiring oil companies to provide necessary permits from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Birnbaum was supposed to testify on Thursday before the House Appropriations Committee but did not turn up.
She was appointed the Director after serving as staff director for the Committee on House Administration. She had also worked at the Interior Department from 200 to 2001.
"This is a clear admission that the Obama administration failed in their oversight responsibilities, but there are still well-documented failings at MMS that must be fixed," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash, the ranking member on the Natural Resources Committee.
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