{"id":44687,"date":"2021-09-17T19:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T01:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-headquarters-to-move-back-to-washington\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:20:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:20:59","slug":"blm-headquarters-to-move-back-to-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blm-headquarters-to-move-back-to-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"BLM headquarters to move back to Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Bureau of Land Management\u2019s Grand Junction office is housed in this office building on Horizon Drive. Currently, of the 480 BLM headquarters jobs spread across the West, 100 remain vacant.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Bureau of Land Management\u2019s headquarters will move from Grand Junction back to Washington, D.C., the Interior Department announced Friday in a decision that comes despite objections from Colorado Democrats, including the state\u2019s two U.S. senators, its governor and Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bureau of Land Management is critical to the nation\u2019s efforts to address the climate crisis, expand public access to our public lands, and preserve our nation\u2019s shared outdoor heritage,\u201d Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a written statement. \u201cIt is imperative that the bureau have the appropriate structure and resources to serve the American public. There\u2019s no doubt that the BLM should have a leadership presence in Washington, D.C. \u2013 like all the other land management agencies \u2013 to ensure that it has access to the policy-, budget- and decision-making levers to best carry out its mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haaland said, however, that \u201cthe BLM\u2019s robust presence in Colorado and across the West will continue to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand Junction will serve as the BLM\u2019s \u201cofficial western headquarters,\u201d according to the Interior Department.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration announced in July 2019 that the BLM\u2019s headquarters would be moved to Grand Junction to be closer to the millions of acres of public lands it oversees. Critics of the relocation said it was done to help then-U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican who was up for re-election in 2020 but lost.<\/p>\n

But the relocation was also backed by a number of Colorado Democrats, including Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, who beat Gardner last year, has also been advocating for the Biden administration to keep the agency\u2019s headquarters in Colorado.<\/p>\n

Rep. Lauren Boebert was also a vocal advocate of keeping the headquarters in Grand Junction, an area she represents. She recently passed an amendment in the House Committee on Natural Resources that prohibited money from being used from the 2022 budget to move the headquarters. She also introduced a bill in March mandating the headquarters remain in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fight to keep the Bureau of Land Management in Grand Junction was always bipartisan, but when it came down to the wire, Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper folded and failed to stand up for Colorado by using procedural tools to leverage the Biden regime to keep the main Bureau of Land Management headquarters, Director, and senior leadership in Grand Junction,\u201d Boebert said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper said earlier this month that he remained in \u201cfrequent conversation\u201d with the Biden administration about the relocation question.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned the hard way that if you get too excited too early, you get disappointed,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper expressed hope Friday that the BLM\u2019s expanded presence in Grand Junction will be a good thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cA western BLM headquarters in Colorado will help ensure we have a fully functioning agency that understands the West,\u201d Hickenlooper said in a written statement. \u201cWe\u2019ll keep working to secure jobs in Grand Junction, including senior leadership positions. To succeed, the western HQ must be a strong, permanent presence that engages the community and adds a western perspective and value to the BLM\u2019s mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert also said she is satisfied with the decision for a western headquarters to remain in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m disappointed with today\u2019s decision and the details are light, this could still ultimately be a win for Grand Junction and the West as a western headquarters will remain in Grand Junction, more jobs will move to Grand Junction, and all the jobs that moved out West won\u2019t be moved back to D.C.,\u201d Boebert said.<\/p>\n

Polis echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that more senior BLM officials and decision-makers moving to the Grand Junction office is a good thing for Colorado and our country. The initial presence was far too small, and now I\u2019m finally hopeful that the office will grow,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

Bennet said he will hold the Biden administration accountable to creating an expanded presence in Grand Junction despite the headquarter\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the coming months, I will hold the Administration accountable to ensure that the BLM Western Headquarters is permanent, fully staffed and informed by the voices of the Rocky Mountain West \u2013 after the last administration failed to deliver on that promise,\u201d Bennet said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n

Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, praised the decision to move the headquarters back to D.C. Like other critics, he said the decision by the Trump administration drove out career employees and leadership.<\/p>\n

More than 287 employees retired or found other jobs at the time of its relocation in 2019, according to data<\/a> obtained by The Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bureau of Land Management oversees one-tenth of all lands in the United States, and the American people deserve an agency with a seat at the table when important decisions are being made in Washington,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cThis move will help the agency rebuild and ensure that top Bureau of Land Management officials can bring their concerns directly to lawmakers, Interior Department leadership and the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracy Stone-Manning is still awaiting her confirmation vote for Bureau of Land Management director. The agency has not had a confirmed director since 2017.<\/p>\n

Durango Herald staff writer Kelsey Carolan contributed to this report. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary of Interior says Grand Junction will be agency\u2019s western headquarters and that its presence in the city will grow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86187,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44687\/revisions\/86187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44687"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}