The Senate is gearing up this week to consider the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning, President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Bureau of Land Management who squeaked through committee after Republicans accused her of having associated with an “ecoterrorist” organization.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed cloture on Stone-Manning’s nomination on Tuesday, meaning the full chamber could vote to end debate and approve her nomination on Thursday.
Stone-Manning, a senior adviser for the National Wildlife Federation, was nominated in April. She soon became a subject of Republican ire, as GOP members on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee accused her of being previously linked to an “ecoterrorist” organization and deceived the committee about it.
BIDEN NOMINEE ACCUSED BY GOP OF DECEPTION ABOUT INVOLVEMENT IN ‘ECOTERRORIST’ TREE SPIKING INCIDENT
Energy Committee ranking member John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, accused Stone-Manning of failing to disclose her involvement in criminal proceedings in the early 1990s over a “tree spiking” incident. Tree spiking involves the placement of metal rods, nails, or other materials into trees to sabotage logging operations.
Court documents from 1993 reveal Stone-Manning testified to mailing a letter to the U.S. Forest Service for an acquaintance who had committed the tree spiking, which threatened the agency not to sell the timber. She denied having prior knowledge but said she mailed the letter because she “wanted people to know those trees were spiked” to avoid injury.
Barrasso criticized Stone-Manning in particular for not disclosing that she received immunity to testify in the spiking case.
“It is hard to imagine a nominee more unqualified than Tracy Stone-Manning,” Barrasso said. “Her actions and her lies should cost her this nomination.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
All 10 committee Republicans voted against Stone-Manning in July, but the 10 Democrats voted to advance her nomination — including Chairman Joe Manchin, who called Stone-Manning a “very well-qualified problem solver.”
Energy Committee member Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico, said he was “disgusted” by Republicans’ treatment of Stone-Manning, calling it the “worst example of character assassination I have ever seen on this committee.”
