Congress pumps brakes on push to relocate Bureau of Land Managment

The Interior Department says it is moving ahead with plans to relocate a Washington-based agency to Colorado after getting the green light from Congress, but lawmakers say no such approval has been granted.

The Department of the Interior is preparing to move 27 top officials at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo., while scattering other D.C.-based employees to existing offices out West.

The House Appropriations Committee was given 30 days to submit questions to Interior about the move and the reallocation of $5 million to cover related costs.

Lawmakers had a number of questions: What are the benefits to Interior and the American public? What problem will this solve? Why was BLM singled out for this move?

The 30-day period ended on Aug. 15, and Interior says it will now proceed with plans to move about 300 employees to Western states after answering all questions from lawmakers.

But some lawmakers beg to differ.

“The administration’s characterization of Congress having ‘blessed’ BLM’s relocation plan is false,” Amanda Yanchury, spokeswoman for Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Interior Department, said in a statement to The Hill.

“Interior’s initial relocation plan was significantly lacking in the details necessary for the Committee to evaluate this proposal. That’s why Congress, in a bipartisan and bicameral manner, requested more information — to ensure the transparency and accountability of the administration’s actions,” she added.

“The Trump administration continues to undermine the capacity of non-partisan agencies to conduct research, collect data, and make decisions based on science, rather than ideology,” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement to The Hill.

“As we’ve seen with affected USDA researchers, uprooting employees is this administration’s strategy for eliminating branches of government since it creates hardship and people are forced to quit,” she added. “It’s outrageous that this administration has now targeted BLM employees because the Interior Secretary— a former coal and mining lobbyist—doesn’t believe in the agency’s mission of preserving public lands.”

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/458352-congress-pumps-brakes-on-interior-push-to-move-bureau-of-land