Watt's first political job was as an aide to
Republican Party Senator
Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, whom he met through Simpson's son,
Alan. A lifelong
Republican, he served as Secretary to the
right-leaning Natural Resources Committee and Environmental Pollution Advisory Panel of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 1969, Watt was appointed the deputy assistant secretary of water and power development at the
Department of the Interior. A number of attorneys who worked for Watt at the firm later became high-ranking officers of the federal government, including
Ann Veneman and
Gale Norton.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior and his Cabinet in 1981, including Watt (back row, sixth from the left) in 1982 In 1980, President-elect Reagan nominated Watt as his
Secretary of the Interior. restructuring the department to decrease federal regulatory power, and recommending lease of wilderness and shore lands such as Santa Monica Bay to explore and develop oil and gas. Watt proposed that 80 million acres (320,000 km2) of undeveloped land in the United States all be opened for drilling and mining by 2000. According to the
Center for Biological Diversity, Watt had the record, among those who served as Secretary of the Interior, of listing the fewest
species protected under the
Endangered Species Act. Watt periodically mentioned his
Dispensationalist Christian faith when discussing his method of environmental management. Speaking before Congress, he once said, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the
Lord returns, whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations." One apocryphal quotation attributed to Watt is: "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back." Glenn Scherer, writing for
Grist magazine, erroneously attributed this remark to 1981 testimony by Watt before Congress. Journalist
Bill Moyers, relying on the
Grist article, also attributed the comment to Watt. After it was discovered that the alleged quotation did not exist,
Grist corrected the error, and Moyers apologized. "I never said it. Never believed it. Never even thought it," Watt later wrote of the statement. "I know no Christian who believes or preaches such error. The Bible commands conservation—that we as Christians be careful stewards of the land and resources entrusted to us by the Creator."
Beach Boys concert From 1980 through 1982,
The Beach Boys and
The Grass Roots separately performed at
Independence Day concerts at the
National Mall in
Washington, D.C., attracting large crowds. In April 1983, Watt banned the concerts, asserting that "rock bands" who had performed on the Mall on Independence Day in 1981 and 1982 had encouraged drug use and alcoholism and had attracted "the wrong element", who would subsequently rob attendees of similar events. During the ensuing controversy,
Rob Grill, lead singer of The Grass Roots, stated that he felt "highly insulted" by Watt's remarks, which he termed "nothing but un-American." Nancy Reagan apologized for Watt. The White House staff gave Watt a plaster foot with a hole for his "having shot himself in the foot".
Other controversies In early 1982, Congress voted to cite Watt in contempt due to refusing to hand over documents.
Mad magazine listed ten Watt controversies on the back cover of their October 1982 issue, under the title "Watt... We Worry!" In an interview with the
Satellite Program Network, Watt said, "If you want an example of the failure of socialism, don't go to Russia, come to America and go to the Indian reservations."
Resignation A controversy erupted after a speech to the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September 1983, when Watt mocked
affirmative action with his description of a department coal leasing panel: "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent." Within three weeks of making this statement, on October 9, 1983, he announced his resignation at deputy undersecretary
Thomas J. Barrack's ranch, near President Reagan's
Rancho del Cielo. ==Later life==