Interior official threatens to withhold jobs in lawmakers' districts after opposition to BLM move

An outgoing top official at the U.S. Department of the Interior said he may reconsider placing government employees in the home states of lawmakers who expressed opposition to the relocation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who oversee the Interior Department's budget through their roles on the Senate and House Appropriations committees, wrote last Friday asking the agency to suspend its relocation of BLM.
A response from Joe Balash, BLM’s assistant secretary for land and minerals management who announced Aug. 20 he is resigning from Interior, makes clear their opposition has jeopardized plans to send federal employees to their state.  "Given your apparent strong feelings about the Department's actions and intentions, we pledge to review and reconsider the relocation of additional departmental resources to your state," Balash wrote to the two lawmakers in a letter obtained by The Hill. "We are also open to working with other delegations that object to additional departmental resources being allocated to their states." While no employees are slated for Minnesota, Udall’s home state of New Mexico was set to receive 32 federal workers under the plan. "The actions of the department and the lack of justification for this proposal seem to underscore the message that Interior officials fully intended to dismantle and weaken the BLM from the outset," Udall said in a statement to The Hill. “While you may believe that ease of communication for members of Congress and its staff should be a priority for the bureau's headquarters location, we believe it is more important that the bureau's day-to-day focus should be on interacting with your constituents and the American people in fulfilling its mission,” Balash wrote...MORE

Little Tommy YouDull may inadvertently be doing us a favor. We don't need an additional 32 BLM employees in NM.

One could only hope that Steve Ellis is correct in his analysis:

“You’ve got leadership for most part in Grand Junction and then have their staff literally shotgunned around the West. How is this a model for efficiency for this agency?” Steve Ellis, who served in BLM’s highest career-level position before retiring in 2016, previously told The Hill. “If I wanted to dismantle an agency, this would be my playbook. How does it make sense? It’s a model for how not to work.”
“The agency is basically being decapitated,” he said.

Unfortunately, that is not correct. It is only hype against the reorganization. I'm afraid the BLM will be with us for as far as the eye can see.