Republican legislators say they’re surprised by the resignation of Iowa’s top environmental official. Department of Natural Resources director Paul Johnson this past week said he’s leaving the job, in large part, because the republican-led legislature didn’t spend enough money on environmental projects. Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says Johnson’s off-base. Iverson says the legislature initiated the greatest environmental program in the history of the state in the clean water initiative. Iverson says he’s “appalled at the statements director Johnson made.Iverson says Johnson shouldn’t have expected to get everything he wanted. Iverson says anyone in government know you don’t get everything you want every year.House Speaker Brent Siegrist, a republican from Council Bluffs, says Johnson insisted there was no waste in the Department of Natural Resources that he could cut. Siegrist says the legislature has to look at ways to work with the funding they have.Siegrist and Iverson made their comments during taping of the Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press.” May 11th is Johnson’s last day on the job.
