One of the things that you see when you read Project 2025 is not just the racist dog whistles, but some ideas that were exactly lifted from some of the most extreme white supremacists ever.
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Department of the Interior
other contracts will save money for the American people. For example, in fiscal 2020, the BLM estimated $1.6 million in travel costs savings, which will grow slightly over time, and $1.9 million in savings from its terminated lease in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, BLM estimated that, by October 2022, the BLM move West would generate a net savings of $3.5 million, which, the following fiscal year, would increase to $10.3 million.
Those funds can be devoted to reducing the risk of wildfires, increasing recreational opportunities, conserving public lands, and addressing tough issues such as wild horses and burros. Moreover, those funds will be used more wisely thanks to the efficiency of senior, seasoned managers working closely with BLM field employees in near daily contact with western officials, stakeholders, and neighbors.
In late 2022, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the return of headquarters and scores of highly paid, senior employees to Washington, D.C. Subsequently, BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning revealed 56 BLM jobs in BLM’s
“Western Headquarters” and 70 other BLM jobs will remain in Grand Junction, an increase of 15 from the 41 announced by Trump’s BLM in 2019, and an increase of 40 other jobs above the 16 first announced by Biden officials. Thus, the director, the two deputy directors, six of seven assistant directors (ADs) and their staffs are now or soon will be in Washington.
The Biden Administration failed to recognize the wisdom of having BLM’s leadership, including its director, deputy directors, and ADs in the West. That is why, decades ago, the AD and staff in charge of BLM’s firefighters were relocated to Boise, Idaho, where they remain. Not so the head of BLM law enforcement and security, who supervises over 200 uniformed law enforcement rangers and 76 special agents stationed mainly in 11 western states and Alaska. Haaland moved that official to Washington, far from state troopers, county sheriffs and deputies, and city police with whom BLM law enforcement officers keep the peace in the West’s wide-open spaces. BLM’s “top cop” might as well be on the moon.
The AD in charge of oil, gas, and minerals was also moved to Washington, D.C., notwithstanding that most oil, gas, and minerals are in the West and Alaska; New Mexico’s Permian Basin, for example, is second only to Alaska in petroleum potential, and Montana and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin contains the world’s best low-sulfur coal. The AD responsible for wild horses and burros was moved east as well, despite the fact that the uncontrolled growth of wild horses and burros poses an existential threat to public lands; 60 percent of the nation’s wild horses are in Nevada,* but thousands are in nine other western states. There is no way these and other ADs can professionally manage issues thousands of miles and multiple time zones away.
It is not just effective and responsive management that has been lost; Colorado lost its chance to become a must-visit destination for BLM’s stakeholders. Those seeking to develop world-class mineral deposits in Minnesota or another Prudhoe