BLM to restructure, move headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo.

July 17, 2019
US Bureau of Land Management officials confirmed reports that the agency plans to restructure its operations, move its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo., and redeploy employees so that more of them work closer to acreage they regulate.

US Bureau of Land Management officials confirmed reports that the agency plans to restructure its operations, move its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo., and redeploy employees so that more of them work closer to acreage they regulate, and fewer are based in Washington.

“The implementation plan will delegate more authority and responsibility down to the field, optimize services to the American people, is demonstrably cost-effective, and will provide an increased presence closer to the resources the BLM staff manages,” Joseph R. Balash, assistant US Interior secretary for land and minerals management, said in a July 16 letter to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.), chair of the Appropriations Committee’s Interior and Environment Subcommittee.

Balash said that in addition to moving BLM’s headquarters to Grand Junction, this would be accomplished by:

• Maintaining the necessary core headquarters in Washington.

• Optimizing the efficiency of positions currently located in Washington by moving them to BLM state offices across the West which their work supports.

• Allocating positions to those state offices to perform essential functions.

“Most of BLM’s work gets done at the state and local level. What we have begun here in this administration is pushing more of the work down to those levels. The lands that BLM manages are largely in the West,” Balash told reporters.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].