BLM exodus: Agency loses half of DC staff slated for relocation

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/486237-blm-exodus-agency-loses-half-of-dc-staff-slated-for-relocation

By Rebecca Beitsch - 03/05/20 07:20 PM EST

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has lost more than half of its Washington-based employees who were slated to move out West as the agency pushes ahead with a controversial plan to relocate staff.

New internal numbers from the Interior Department obtained by The Hill show 69 employees have left the agency rather than accept the new assignment. Another 18 left after the plans were announced but before they could be reassigned.

Those 87 employees outnumber the 80 who have agreed to the move.

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The new internal figures show the agency is experiencing an exodus similar to the ones at two U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies. One of the two agencies, the Economic Research Service, lost nearly 80 percent of its staff last year and had to cancel several projects as a result.

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Previous reporting from The Hill found the move would split apart a key team that reviews the environmental effects of major land decisions, spreading them across seven states.

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“The Trump administration is destroying the Bureau of Land Management by mistreating its staff and politicizing its mission and then lying to Congress and the public about the damage it’s causing. This is what happens when you put fossil fuel industry lobbyists and anti-public lands extremists in charge of government agencies,” Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva said in a statement Thursday to The Hill.

“We can expect more loss of expertise that will hurt public lands for years to come,” he added.