GARDNER SAYS BLM IS MOVING ITS HQ TO GRAND JUNCTION

Senator says HQ will be in Grand Junction; conservation group calls it a PR stunt

The federal Bureau of Land Management will move its headquarters to Grand Junction, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Monday, ending years of successful lobbying efforts by officials in Colorado.

“Today is a historic day for our nation’s public lands, western states, and the people of Colorado,” said Gardner, a Yuma Republican, in a press release. “Relocating the Bureau of Land Management to the Western Slope of Colorado will bring the bureau’s decision makers closer to the people they serve and the public lands they manage.”

Details of the relocation — such as how many employees will move to Grand Junction and what the economic benefits will be — have not been made public by BLM. Gardner’s announcement came a day before the agency was expected to announce the news and provide further details. The Washington Post reported the Interior Department expects to move about 80 employees.

During a stop in Vail on June 10, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said there was value in moving the BLM headquarters out of Washington but offered no insight into which city would be chosen.

“The problem with Washington is too many policymakers are far removed from the people they are there to serve,” Gardner said. “Ninety-nine percent of the land the BLM manages is west of the Mississippi River, and so should be the BLM headquarters.”

Gov. Jared Polis had previously said Grand Junction would be the best location for the new headquarters, but Denver would also be a good place for it.

“From an economic development perspective for our state, Grand Junction would be a site that would make a bigger contribution to our state, but we support anywhere in Colorado that wants to move forward,” Polis told The Denver Post last month.

On Monday, Polis said he was “thrilled” with the announcement. “As I stated to Secretary Bernhardt many times, Grand Junction is the perfect location for the BLM because of community support, location closer to the land BLM manages and the positive impact it will have on our western Colorado economy,” the Democratic governor said in a statement.

Not everyone in Colorado was thrilled with the announcement. The Center for Western Priorities, a Denver-based conservation group, called it nothing more than a public relations stunt.

“More than 90 percent of BLM staff already work outside of Washington, DC, and the agency has dozens of offices across the

West. Moving senior BLM leadership would only turn the agency into an afterthought, rather than a core piece of the Interior Department,” said Jennifer Rokala, the group’s executive director, in a news release Monday.

“Since Interior Secretary Bernhardt is stonewalling the congressional committees that would approve a spending request like this, it’s clear this is not a serious proposal. It’s merely an attempt to drain the Interior Department of career officials who have expertise in running the agency.”

Gardner first proposed the idea of moving BLM headquarters at a Senate hearing in 2016. After President Donald Trump’s election later that year, the senator organized support within the Trump administration and in Grand Junction, his office said Monday.

The city is 60 miles west of Rifle, Bernhardt’s hometown, on Interstate 70.

“As a native of Colorado’s Third Congressional District, Secretary Bernhardt knows the lands well and I applaud his leadership on making this move a reality,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, a Cortez Republican who represents Grand Junction in Congress.

Last year, Colorado’s senators sent a letter to then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke encouraging him to visit and consider Grand Junction. The support of Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet could prove key if Bernhardt struggles to get Democratic backing in Congress for the move. Some Democrats, including Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver, have been skeptical it is the best use of money.