FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2021
DENVER—Colorado Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet announced this morning that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit Grand Junction this Friday to tour the mostly-empty headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Jennifer Rokala:
“I’m glad that Secretary Haaland will get to see in person the extent of the damage that the Trump administration inflicted on the Bureau of Land Management. The agency has been without a confirmed director for more than four years, and without a functioning headquarters for two years.
“It’s laudable that Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet want to keep jobs in Colorado, but at the end of the day, the Trump ‘relocation’ of BLM headquarters was always designed to eviscerate the agency and force employees out, not create jobs.
“Secretary Haaland should use this visit to admit what is clear for all to see: the Bureau of Land Management needs a functioning headquarters staffed with experienced leaders, and the fastest way to do that is to rebuild the agency in Washington, DC.”
LEARN MORE
- Only three BLM employees relocated to new western headquarters [Wyoming Public Media]
- As Biden’s BLM pick awaits confirmation, its Grand Junction headquarters sit empty [Colorado Newsline]
- Will the Bureau of Land Management’s new headquarters stay in the West? [Marketplace]