Senate confirms Steve Pearce to run Bureau of Land Management
The U.S. Senate confirmed Steve Pearce to lead the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management on Monday, approving President Donald Trump’s pick in a 46-43 vote. Pearce, a former congressman from New Mexico, is expected to assume the role following the confirmation, taking charge of a federal agency responsible for large-scale management of western public lands.
The confirmation sets the stage for how the administration’s land policy will be carried out as it pushes ahead with mining and drilling while reversing conservation plans from the Biden era. The Senate action came as Trump and Republicans in Congress moved to unravel regulations viewed as burdensome to industry, opening millions of acres for extraction and canceling land strategies developed under the prior administration.
Pearce’s confirmation was contentious, according to the Associated Press, with Democrats and environmental groups strongly opposing him. The AP reported that Democrats in New Mexico had called him an “outright enemy of public lands,” and it said the Center for Western Priorities characterized the confirmation as part of a wider assault on public-land protections, citing recent cancellations of grazing rules and other changes.
As the new BLM director, Pearce will oversee an agency that manages about 10% of U.S. land and employs roughly 10,000 workers, according to the AP. The agency also administers federal mineral resources underground, including responsibility for hundreds of millions of acres of underground minerals—assets the AP described as including major reserves of oil, natural gas and coal.
During a February confirmation hearing, Pearce sought to address concerns about his stance on conservation. In testimony reported by the AP, he said, “The security and economic health of the country, especially the western states, rests squarely with the BLM,” adding that “We can and must balance the different uses of public land. Local economies and future generations depend on us doing our job right.”
The AP also described Pearce as having a background shaped by ranching and public-land politics. It said he grew up on a family farm, and that in his congressional work he supported public land leasing. It reported that he served seven terms in the U.S. House representing a district spanning oil fields, including portions of the Permian Basin and other areas with substantial public land.
As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who served in the Vietnam War, Pearce had become associated with efforts to reshape national monument designations. The AP said he urged the Interior Department to reduce the size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument outside Las Cruces, and that the proposal drew sustained opposition from environmentalists who argued the nomination should be rejected.
In remarks attributed to him by the AP, Pearce said his visits to constituents during his time in Congress led him to believe the federal government had become what he called an “absentee landlord,” ruling over local communities rather than partnering with them. As director, he vowed to ensure local input would be part of the decision-making process.