Biden pick to lead public lands bureau poised for full Senate vote

[July 23, 2021]  By Nichola Groom

(Reuters) -A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday voted 10-10 along party lines on President Joe Biden's nomination of Montana conservationist Tracy Stone-Manning to lead the Bureau of Land Management, setting the stage for a vote by the full Senate.

The bureau, a division of the Interior Department, manages more than a tenth of the nation's surface area. Its director will be central to Biden's effort to address climate change through the management of public lands, including a current review of the federal oil and gas leasing program.

Because of the tie vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat will have to take procedural steps to bring the nomination to the full chamber for debate and a vote.

Following the vote, Schumer voiced his support for the nominee.

"We need someone like Ms. Stone-Manning to manage our public lands: A staunch advocate for conservation but also an honest broker," he said on the Senate floor.

All of the Republican members of the committee voted "no" on Stone-Manning. In the weeks leading up to the vote and at Thursday's hearing, Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, Steve Daines of Montana and others voiced vehement concerns about her ties to a radical environmental group when she was a student in the 1980s.

Most recently, Stone-Manning was senior adviser for conservation policy at the National Wildlife Federation, advocating against former President Donald Trump's push to maximize fossil fuel production at the expense of other public land uses.

Prior to joining the NWF in 2017, Stone-Manning served as chief of staff to the Democratic former governor of Montana, Steve Bullock.

U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management trail marker is shown along the Arch Canyon trail in Bears Ears National Monument, New Mexico, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen/File Photo

During the hearing, Democrats and Republicans disagreed over whether Stone-Manning lied to the committee when she said she was never the target of an investigation by law enforcement. Stone-Manning received immunity decades ago for her testimony in a case involving tree-spiking by the radical group Earth First! in an Idaho national forest.

Tree spiking involves hammering a metal rod into a tree to prevent logging.

Calling the debate "one of the more emotional ones we've had" in his more than a decade on the committee, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, a Democrat, praised Stone-Manning's track record working with both political parties during her time in state government in Montana.

"She's had an exemplary performance," he said.

(Additional reporting by Valerie VolcoviciEditing by Sonya Hepinstall, Frances Kerry and Giles Elgood)

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