On a straight party-line vote Wednesday morning, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ratified the nomination of former New Mexico congressman Stevan Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management.
All eight Democrats and the lone independent on the committee voted against Pearce while all 11 Republicans voted to send his nomination to the full Senate for confirmation. If Pearce’s nomination receives a majority of votes in the full Senate, he will become President Trump’s first permanent BLM director. In Trump’s first term and over a year into his second, the position was filled by acting directors that didn’t receive Senate confirmation.
The outcome of this morning’s vote had been uncertain following Pearce’s initial appearance before the committee last week, when he refused to distance himself from statements suggesting that the United States “did not need” as much federal land as he would oversee as BLM director.
In last week’s hearing, Pearce said he “was not so sure” his views on the matter had changed, but characterized them as having taken place years ago as he addressed constituents who were clamoring for more local control of federal lands in New Mexico. Pearce told the committee that the larger policy question of divesting of federal land is a matter for Congress, and not agency leaders.
But that assurance didn’t sway Democrats on the committee, who cited last summer’s attempt by committee chairman Mike Lee (R-UT) to sell more than three million acres of federal land as part of the federal budget reconciliation process. That attempt failed, but it continues to resonate with some Senators.
Following the roll-call vote in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), the ranking Democrat on the committee, detailed the basis for his opposition to fellow New Mexican Pearce.
“I cannot in good faith vote to advance his nomination to serve as our Bureau of Land Management Director,” Heinrich said in a statement. “I also know that commitments to follow the law by prior nominees have proven unreliable.”
“This administration has aggressively interpreted existing laws to bypass established public processes in pursuit of their policy objectives,” Heinrich added. “Prior nominees and senior officials have provided explicit assurances to Congress during confirmation proceedings that were followed by actions that diverged significantly from those commitments once in office.”
Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D), also cited the proposed public-land selloff in last year’s budget bill.
“From sportsmen to conservationists, Nevadans have consistently stood together against the Trump Administration’s anti-public lands policies, including Republicans’ disastrous attempt to include a mass selloff of public land in their One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” said Cortez Masto. “Now, the president wants the Senate to confirm a BLM director who has a decades-long record opposing public lands. Managing Nevada’s 48 million acres of BLM land is a huge responsibility, and I cannot support Steve Pearce’s nomination for BLM Director.”
Committee Chair Lee noted that Pearce, as well as two other nominees for energy-related posts, “demonstrated that they’re committed to ensuring the United States can meet rising energy demand, prepared to advance reliable, affordable energy by backing domestic production, [are] ready to exercise disciplined regulatory judgement over transmission, wholesale markets and natural gas infrastructure, and prepared to work with local communities when administering how our public lands under the multiple use, sustained yield mandate.”
A full Senate vote on Pearce’s nomination has not yet been scheduled.