Lawmakers say big US land agency moving out West
Jul 15, 2019, 7:37 PM
FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2018, file photo, Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., arrives at the Senate Chamber for an abbreviated pro-forma session at the Capitol in Washington. The headquarters of the U.S. government's largest land agency will move from the nation's capital to western Colorado, a Republican senator said Monday, July 15, 2019, a high-profile component of the Trump administration's plan to reorganize management of the nation's natural resources. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
DENVER (AP) — The Latest on Bureau of Land Management headquarters moving from Washington to Colorado
Utah Republican Congressman Rob Bishop says some federal jobs will move to his state when the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management moves out of the nation’s capital.
Bishop was the second GOP lawmaker to claim Monday that some bureau positions were moving to his state. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner said earlier that the bureau’s Washington headquarters and some of its jobs would move to his state.
Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner says the Trump administration is moving the headquarters of the federal government’s largest land agency to western Grand Junction Colorado.
Gardner didn’t say when the headquarters would move. A Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman in Washington said she couldn’t confirm or deny the move. She declined to give her name.
The agency has about 9,000 employees, with fewer than 400 in Washington. The rest are scattered among 140 states, district or field offices. Also, the bureau manages nearly 388,000 square miles (1 billion square kilometers) of public land, and 99% is in 12 Western states. Gardner, Bishop and other Western politicians have long argued the agency headquarters should be closer to the land it manages.
Neither Bishop nor Gardner said how many jobs their state would get and the bureau hasn’t confirmed the plans, so it was unclear how many jobs would move where.
