The Trump administration is shifting most of the Bureau of Land Management’s personnel in its Washington, D.C. headquarters out west by the end of next year.
Joe Balash, assistant secretary of Department of the Interior, sent a 17-page letter to lawmakers on Tuesday outlining the reorganization, according to the Washington Post. Over 80% of the agency’s D.C. staff will be relocated to further west to states such as Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.
Twenty-seven management positions will be moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, to build a second agency headquarters. Dozens of other employees will begin reporting to state managers instead of officials in Washington, D.C.
BLM employees pushed back against the plan in an briefing given by department heads on Tuesday. Several employees raised questions on the impact on families that have other ties to the Washington area, such as a spouse with another career.
“This announcement is deeply unsettling, and has created a lot of uncertainty for us,” one person at the briefing 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.”
The planned reorganization has gained support from Republicans in Congress. Rob Bishop, the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee said moving personnel out of Washington will give farmers and ranchers greater access to the government officials who regulate them.
“The problem with Washington is too many policy makers are far removed from the people they are there to serve,” Republican Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner said in a statement. “99% of the land the BLM manages is west of the Mississippi River, and so should be the BLM headquarters.”
