The Trump administration withdrew its nomination of William Perry Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management on Saturday after both Republican and Democratic senators said he would face tough questioning in a confirmation hearing.
Pendley will continue to lead the agency in an acting capacity, drawing ire from conservation groups.
“Withdrawing William Perry Pendley’s nomination confirms he couldn’t even survive a confirmation process run by the president’s allies in the Senate,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, said in a statement. “Keeping him on the job anyway shows the depth of disdain Secretary (David) Bernhardt and President Trump have for the Constitution.”
Pendley was one of two agency directors within the U.S. Department of the Interior appointed by President Donald Trump last year who has come under scrutiny. Eight days before Pendley’s nomination was withdrawn, David Vela, acting director of the National Parks Service, announced he would step down next month.
Both Pendley and Vela, along with Bernhardt, have been named in a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of repeatedly redesignating the two directors to lead their respective agencies in an acting capacity. The lawsuit alleges the officials and the Trump administration violated the law by skirting the Senate’s role in confirming executive appointments.
Peter Jenkins, senior counsel for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said his agency will “ramp up” its lawsuit to have Pendley removed. He also lauded the Senate for pressuring the White House to withdraw Pendley’s nomination, saying it showed the power of the confirmation process to “weed out fringe candidates.”
“The White House clearly recognized the drag the Pendley controversy was having on Republican political candidates in the West,” Jenkins said in an email. “Hopefully, they also recognized that a nominee for a position cannot also serve as the de facto acting official in that position at the same time under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.”
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who serves on the committee tasked with confirming appointments within the Interior Department, had previously said Pendley would face “tough questions” for his controversial opinions, which included calling the Black Lives Matter movement a cancer in 2017 and arguing that the federal government did not have the right to own public lands in 2016.
“I’ll continue fighting to ensure the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters move to Grand Junction is fully completed and that the future leadership of the BLM will commit to ensuring Colorado remains the home of the BLM headquarters,” Gardner said.
The campaign of former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is running to unseat Gardner in the 2020 election, also released a statement decrying Pendley’s nomination and saying Gardner should have opposed Pendley’s appointment.
“William Perry Pendley doesn’t believe public lands should exist, but he’s been in charge of our public lands for a year,” Hickenlooper said. “And now, thanks to Donald Trump’s latest stunt, Senator Cory Gardner can avoid taking a vote on his nomination. That’s outrageous.”
Jacob Wallace is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.
