Western Governors Meet To Talk Invasive Species, Water Management

Top politicians are in Vail, Colorado, this week for the annual meeting of the Western Governors Association. The governors of 11 Western states will meet Wednesday with Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. They spoke Monday with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt about everything from Medicaid to crumbling infrastructure at national parks. “We have proposed as part of our budget submission a proposal to use a revenue from activities on public lands to fund a funding source that would allow us to enhance that infrastructure,” said Bernhardt. “We just need to have the support of the American people to move forward because the infrastructure is crumbling, our roads are crumbling and it's time to address that problem.” Bernhardt’s predecessor, Ryan Zinke, had planned to move the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to this part of the country. Bernhardt said he's in the process of reevaluating whether some could be better done out West, and if some are necessary at all. "I expect fully that we'll move forward pretty soon in doing that and that it will involve a substantial element of the BLM folks in D.C. being repositioned,” said Bernhardt. Denver was proposed as one new location for the Bureau of Land Management headquarters. As the Mountain West News Bureau has reported, it's unclear if Congress will grant the funding necessary to make that move happen...MORE