Top Trump officials tell Bureau of Land Management staff most of them must leave D.C. by end of next year

The Interior Department will relocate 84 percent of headquarters staff to the West 

Senior Trump administration officials confirmed Tuesday that the vast majority of Bureau of Land Management headquarters staffers must leave Washington by the end of next year under the Interior Department’s reorganization plan. In a 17-page letter to lawmakers, Joe Balash, Interior’s assistant secretary for land and minerals, detailed how the administration plans to move 84 percent of the agency’s headquarters staff west of the Rockies by the end of 2020. The relocation, which The Washington Post first outlined Monday, will move all but 60 Washington-based staffers, a sweeping change to the agency that manages more than 10 percent of America’s land. “This implementation plan will delegate more responsibility and authority down to the field, optimize services available to the American people, is demonstrably cost-effective, and will provide an increased presence closer to the resources the BLM staff manages,” Balash wrote to Sen. Tom Udall (N.M.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee on Interior and environment. A total of 27 leadership jobs will be relocated to Grand Junction, Colo., about 60 miles south of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s childhood home of Rifle, “as part of an initiative to establish the Headquarters,” Balash said. Colorado will receive more reassigned positions than any state — 85. Seventy-four of the reassigned employees will report to BLM state directors instead of headquarters staff, he said, and staffers will be reassigned to states including Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Although Balash provided an estimated cost benefit of the reassignments — at least $50 million over 20 years — there was no analysis of the price of the actual move beyond $5.6 million for the first 27 employees who volunteer. Hours before Interior formally notified Capitol Hill of the move, Balash and Casey Hammond, the principal deputy assistant secretary of land and minerals management — who has been running the bureau on an acting basis since May — provided employees with details about the reorganization. According to a participant in the employee briefing at the agency’s office in Southeast Washington, the tension in the room was palpable as employees questioned what the move would mean for those with two-career families or other obligations that might tie them to Washington. The staffer spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. “This announcement is deeply unsettling, and has created a lot of uncertainty for us,” the participant said. “The best part of my job is my co-workers, and they are working to tear us apart for purely political reasons. I’m sick to my stomach.” Hammond and Balash emphasized the relocation would save the government money because the cost of living was cheaper out West and the lease on the BLM’s main building, in Southeast Washington, was set to expire. But one employee suggested in the meeting that staffers’ pay will also decline once they relocate and urged colleagues to write their member of Congress, prompting applause. Other employees embraced the reorganization, according to the meeting participant, asking how early they can leave Washington. Balash also said that officials are looking to relocate staffers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, but the department has not done as comprehensive an analysis of those moves...MORE

Does Senator Udall support this reorganization, which will result in 32 more federal positions in NM? It does not appear so:

“The Interior Department has not made a convincing argument for why such a relocation is necessary or in the best interests of the Bureau of Land Management or the American people. Congress needs much more information from the Interior Department about this proposal to evaluate whether it is legal or advisable, as well as how much taxpayer money it would cost. I support putting more land management staff and resources on the ground in Western states, which is why I have fought to reject the administration’s disastrous budget proposals over the last three years and to increase BLM’s funding. But BLM leadership must be accessible and accountable to all affected states and to Congress, which sits in Washington. A sudden relocation would also likely mean BLM would shed essential staff, crippling the agency’s ability to carry out its responsibilities to protect and manage our precious public lands. Based on what I know so far, I have serious reservations about this plan..."

This demonstrates his close ties to the environmental community. He will turn aside jobs for NM just to do their bidding.