Republican former New Mexico congressman Steve Pearce has cleared the first confirmation hearing on his way to becoming the next director of the Bureau of Land Management.
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Wednesday voted 11-9 along party lines to approve the nomination of the former chair of the New Mexico Republican Party. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), who serves as the committee’s ranking member, voted against Pearce’s nomination.
While questioning Pearce last week, Heinrich acknowledged their shared home state and long working relationship, including places of stark disagreement.
“He called for the selling-off of public lands,” Heinrich told his colleagues. “And that makes it challenging for me to view his tenure, his potential tenure at the BLM, as one of stewardship.”
While serving in the House, Pearce in 2012 called for the federal government to sell off some of its “vast land holdings” to help pay down its deficit. His own politics aside, he assured Heinrich of Interior Secretary Doug Bergum’s position on the matter.
“The secretary has been very straightforward that he does not visualize any large-scale sales of land,” he told Heinrich. He went on to say that the BLM director is not allowed to “have these large-scale sales.”
In his opening statement, Pearce declared his support for multiple uses of public lands, from preservation to recreation and mineral development.
“The security and economic health of the country, especially the western states, rests squarely on the shoulders of the BLM,” he told the panel. “We can and must balance the different uses of public lands.”
Heinrich said he's heard from many officials in southern New Mexico concerned over the future of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument outside Las Cruces — since Pearce opposed its creation while in Congress.
“I very rarely look in the rear-view mirror,” Pearce told Heinrich. “Especially looking at this job, and the amount of work ahead of us, I don’t anticipate going back and reviewing that.”
The senator expressed appreciation for that position, and others.
“I also want to say how much I appreciate your interest in orphaned wells and abandoned mines,” Heinrich told Pearce. “That’s a place where I think we can really build some bipartisan support for that kind of work.”
Ahead of voting against advancing Pearce’s nomination Wednesday, Heinrich said he intends to hold Pearce to his testimony on these matters. “But,” he added, “I also know that commitments to follow the law by previous Trump administration nominees have proven unreliable at times.”
Pearce heads next to the full Senate for consideration. A date for that hearing has not yet been set.