politics
Senate Confirms Stevan Pearce to Lead Bureau of Land Management
The Senate voted 46-43 on Monday to confirm Stevan Pearce as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Pearce will oversee more than 244 million acres of federal land and more than 700 million acres of subsurface minerals.
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The Senate confirmed Stevan Pearce on Monday to lead the Bureau of Land Management. The chamber voted 46-43 to confirm Pearce’s nomination along with 48 other presidential nominees as part of an en bloc package. In his new role, Pearce will oversee more than 244 million acres of federal land and over 700 million acres of subsurface minerals.
Pearce is a former Republican congressman from New Mexico.
Pearce received some pushback from Democrats during his confirmation hearings over his past comments about shifting ownership of public land to state or private entities. In 2012, Pearce, alongside then-Rep. Rob Bishop, wrote a letter proposing to divest some federal land to help reduce the deficit.
“The federal government owns roughly 650 million acres of land, or 1/3 of the entire landmass of our country. Over 90% of this land is located in the Western states, and most of it we do not even need,” the two congressmen wrote at the time. Pearce attempted to reassure Democrats during his committee hearings that he would not recommend rolling back national monument designations, and that laws like the Federal Land Policy and Management Act prohibit the sale of large swaths of public land.
” “And while Congressman Pearce has said that his past actions opposing national monument designations and calling for public land sell-offs are in his rearview mirror, they remain in the memory of every New Mexican who faced his opposition in order to protect the lands they cherish,” he added.
Environmentalists have called him “sell-off Steve,” urging lawmakers to oppose his nomination and arguing he has pushed for the sale of public land and sought to expand oil and gas operations. “’Sell off Steve’ doesn’t have any credentials to manage 245 million acres of national public lands other than he knows how to make himself and his buddies oil and gas millionaires by exploiting the public’s coffers,” Margaret Kran-Annexstein, the director of Colorado Sierra Club, said in a statement earlier this year.
