Inside Secretary Deb Haaland introduced Friday that the Bureau of Land Administration will transfer its headquarters again to Washington, a reversal of a closely criticized Trump administration choice to relocate the general public lands company to Grand Junction, Colo.
Greater than 87 p.c of the employees of the company, which oversees oil and fuel growth in addition to recreation on tens of millions of acres of federal lands, left the company when its leaders established the brand new headquarters, in a constructing shared by Chevron and an oil and fuel lobbying affiliation. Critics contended that was the last word motive behind the transfer to Colorado, pushed by an administration promising to “drain the swamp” of Washington bureaucrats.
In asserting the return to Washington, Ms. Haaland mentioned that the previous few years had been “extremely disruptive” to the company, and mentioned the B.L.M. should have “the suitable construction and assets” to deal with local weather change and broaden entry to public lands.
“There’s little doubt that the B.L.M. ought to have a management presence in Washington, D.C., like all the opposite land-management businesses, to make sure that it has entry to the coverage, funds and decision-making levers to finest perform its mission,” she mentioned in a press release.
Ms. Haaland mentioned the Grand Junction workplace will stay intact and “will develop and broaden because the bureau’s official Western headquarters.”
Democrats and environmental teams applauded the transfer. Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, mentioned he was “disillusioned” that his state was dropping the headquarters however referred to as the creation of a brand new Western workplace “a really optimistic growth.”
Republicans referred to as the dual-office compromise a waste of federal tax {dollars}. Senator Steve Daines of Colorado, a Republican, accused the Biden administration of taking the company within the “unsuitable route” by shifting those that make choices about public lands farther away from the assets they handle.
“Clearly, they’re extra considering ballooning the D.C. forms than in making authorities work higher for the folks,” he mentioned.
