U.S. Interior Department eyes Colorado as potential home for new headquarters

The U.S. Interior Department said Tuesday it plans to choose a Western city as the new headquarters for its vast public lands holdings by the end of September. The department also said it may move the headquarters of its U.S. Geological Survey — best known for monitoring earthquakes and publishing detailed topographical maps — to the Denver area. Both agencies currently have their headquarters in the Washington area. The department wants to move the Bureau of Land Management to the West to be closer to the land it oversees. The bureau manages nearly 388,000 square miles (1 billion square kilometers), and 99% is in 12 Western states. Officials said previously that Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico and Utah are in the running for the new bureau headquarters. The proposed moves are part of a far-reaching Interior Department reorganization launched by then-Secretary Ryan Zinke. The plan includes consolidating 49 regional boundaries of eight sub-agencies into 12 unified regions...MORE