Public lands chief hangs on thanks to trick

BILLINGS, Mont. — A former oil industry attorney will continue calling the shots for a government agency that oversees nearly a quarter-billion public acres in the West, despite the White House saying over the weekend that President Donald Trump would withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley.

Pendley’s continued reign at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management comes under an unusual arrangement that Pendley himself set up months ago, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

In May, as a temporary authorization for him to lead the agency was about to expire, Pendley signed an order that made his own position, deputy director of policy and programs, the bureau’s default leadership post while the director’s slot is vacant, the document shows.

Interior Department spokesperson Conner Swanson confirmed that the arrangement outlined in Pendley’s order means he will continue to lead the bureau. The order has no specified end date. Whether another nominee will be named is up to the White House, Swanson added.

Any withdrawal of Pendley’s nomination won’t be official until the Senate returns to session.

Pendley is a longtime industry attorney and property rights advocate from Wyoming. Prior to joining the Trump administration, he had called for the government to sell its public lands.

Details of the succession plan prompted Democrats to renew their calls for Pendley’s removal.

“That’s baloney. That’s not how it works,” said Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat. “You don’t want the deputy director of policy and programs being able to dictate who’s in charge of the (bureau.) It’s too important an agency.”

The bureau’s holdings are sweeping, with nearly 10 percent of all U.S. land under its dominion, mostly across the West.