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William Perry Pendley, acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, will appear before the House Natural Resources Committee this morning to testify on the agency's relocation plans. Pendley, who has spent his career advocating for selling off public lands, has not been considered by the Senate, making him one of the many Trump administration officials in an "acting" capacity. As a result, this is the first time he will appear before Congress and will be lawmakers' first opportunity to question him.
Since it was announced, there has been widespread opposition to the relocation, based on the fact that the vast majority of BLM employees are already located in the West and the remaining staff in Washington D.C. are placed there for a reason. Steve Ellis, former deputy director of operations for the BLM, expresses this concern: "It will be very difficult for the headquarters staff dispersed across the West to have daily, informal interactions with their counterparts in other national organizations who will remain in Washington, D.C. My concern is that over time, the BLM's voice will be lost in the national conversations about natural resource management. A loss that will likely result in national policies that are less balanced, and potentially smaller budgets for public lands."
Today's hearing is the House Natural Resources Committee's first since returning from the August recess and will begin at 10am ET.
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When this oil and gas leasing happens on or near sacred lands, it risks destabilizing the bedrock (of the structures)... Hovenweep is in all of our stories, and to threaten the integrity of these structures jeopardizes everything we've carried forward as resilient people.”
