Eight Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee asked the Interior Department’s deputy inspector general on Monday to investigate Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision to reassign roughly 50 senior career officials last month, on the grounds that it could constitute an “abuse of authority.” In the letter to Interior Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, obtained by The Washington Post, and signed by all but three of the panel’s Democrats, the senators note that one of the reassigned Senior Executive Service officials — Joel Clement, the department’s top climate change official — has alleged he was punished for his work on the issue.