Today is the deadline for career public servants at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to decide if they will uproot and move their lives and families West to work in the newly relocated BLM headquarters. Moving the BLM has long been criticized as reckless and purposeless, and now career employees are faced with a ridiculous ultimatum: leave their home or be fired. But the anticipated mass exodus and brain-drain of expertise at America’s largest public lands agency is going exactly as the Trump administration intended.
“Now, we can all see the Trump administration’s motive as clear as day: drain the Bureau of expertise so that powerful lobbyists and extractive corporations can wield more influence,” said Western Values Project Deputy Director Jayson O’Neill. “Moving the BLM has always been nothing more than an attempt to grant extractive special interests unfettered access to America’s public lands. Congress should block all funding for the move or this former mega-lobbyist turned-Interior Secretary will fundamentally undermine America’s shared resources and public lands for generations to come.”
On its face, the move will gut the Bureau of career voices committed to preserving and protecting America’s public lands while promoting balanced used principles. The anticipated move has already resulted in major staffing losses within the BLM. Former BLM directors from both Democratic and Republican administrations have strongly opposed the move, rightfully deducing that it’s nothing more than a ‘stealth plan to erode public control of public lands.’
House Natural Resources Chair Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) announced that congressional investigators at the U.S. Government Accountability Office would examine the relocation costs and whether it was properly planned after Interior officials repeatedly failed to provide a cost-benefit analysis used to justify the move. However, Rep. Grijalva did indicate that Congress would fund the move if the key documents were turned over after Interior’s top-brass threatened to withhold incentive payments for employees relocating.
There are many other consequences that will likely come about because of the BLM move, the vast majority of them negative. The human cost and consequences of this move include a “mass exodus” of skilled employees, specific concerns for minority populations at the agency being ignored, and a stripped-down federal land managing agency that will manage America’s public lands for single-use, not ‘for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations,’ among others.
The Trump administration’s intention came into stark view when President Trump’s Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney revealed the true motive behind the decision was, indeed, to force government employees to quit. With the deadline for employees to choose their career or their home quickly approaching, it’s clear that it’s working.
After Western Values Project discovered that the new BLM headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado would be co-located with several extractive corporations and special interests, the public lands watchdog released a new website, WeDrillHQ.com, and video criticizing the controversial decision.