Interior's second in command: BLM to leave Washington

The Bureau of Land Management is going to decamp from Washington, D.C., the second in command of the Interior Department said Friday. "This is real," Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said of plans to move the agency, which manages more than 245 million acres of land, most of it in 12 states in the West, to a headquarters nearer the West. Bernhardt spoke Friday by hookup from the White House to more than 30 western Colorado officials and others gathered for a Western-issues forum at Colorado Mesa University. U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, both Colorado Republicans who attended the forum, said they welcomed Bernhardt's comments. "Cory and I looked at each other," Tipton said. "It was great to hear." Noting that Bernhardt said money is being included in the agency's 2019 budget to begin the process, Gardner said it's clear that Interior is serious about the move. Gardner and Tipton have offered companion bills to move the BLM headquarters out of Washington and to a Western state...MORE