SALT LAKE CITY — Washington-based employees of the Bureau of Land Management have until Thursday to decide if they will move out West as part of the planned reorganization of the public lands agency under the U.S. Department of Interior, a shakeup drawing both praise and criticism.
On Wednesday, the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., live-streamed a press conference in the nation’s capital to urge delay of the reorganization, which will relocate the agency’s headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado, and send 44 additional employees to BLM offices in Utah.
“So many career civil servants are leaving rather than uprooting their family,” Grijalva said, adding there’s no “justification” for the reorganization.
Grijalva was joined at the podium by representatives of the Public Lands Foundation, made up of current and former BLM employee who are also opposed to the move.
“This is an ill-conceived plan. This reorganization, if implemented, will prove to be disastrous,” said Bob Abbey, former national director of the BLM.
“The BLM personnel will be moved where they will have a greater impact on, and input by, the people who live in the regions where their influence is greatest. Not by bureaucrats from thousands of miles away.” — Rep. Rob Bishop
The move has been widely praised by GOP leaders in the West and some Democrats, including both former and current governors of Colorado — John Hickenlooper and Jared Polis — who see the headquarters’ relocation to Grand Junction as a boon to the town of 63,000 residents in southwest Colorado.
Ogden at one point was a candidate for the relocation, which is part of the reorganization of the federal agency started under then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and continued under David Bernhardt.
Last August, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, hosted Susan Combs, Interior’s then-acting assistant secretary over policy, management and budget, on tour in Ogden as part of the city selection process.
Bishop and many others see the agency’s move to the West as a practical step to getting more agency decision-makers closer to the public lands they manage. A majority of BLM lands are in the West, with critical issues ranging from booming recreation economies, oil and gas development, grazing, greater sage grouse management and fuels reduction to stave off catastrophic wildfires.
Bishop weighed in on the issue earlier this year when the move was announced.
“The BLM personnel will be moved where they will have a greater impact on, and input by, the people who live in the regions where their influence is greatest. Not by bureaucrats from thousands of miles away,” he said.
But critics on Wednesday said many career staffers will opt to stay in Washington rather than relocate West, resulting in a steep loss of institutional knowledge.
“This is an ill-conceived plan. This reorganization, if implemented, will prove to be disastrous.” — Bob Abbey, former national director of the BLM
“This relocation plan has already adversely affected the morale of BLM employees,” Abbey said.
Grijalva has asked the General Accountability Office to review the relocation and said the planned move could be held up through the congressional appropriation process.
Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., said Native American tribes weren’t consulted over the move.
“When tribes come to Washington, D.C., they rely on people being here from the BLM,” she said. “It is imperative they have an opportunity to meet here with representatives in D.C. who owe them time and effort because that is what is part of that government to government relationship.”
About 60 core BLM staffers are expected to remain in the nation’s capital.
Notices over the move were sent to about 160 employees last month.