Interior Official: Land Bureau Relocations Are Not Intended to 'Drain the Swamp'
Department would like to retain all employees and has instituted a hiring freeze to ensure positions are available for those who don't want to move, official says.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 01:35 PM ET
he Trump administration on Tuesday defended itself against accusations that it is trying to shrink the size of the federal workforce by relocating offices out of Washington, D.C, saying it is instead looking to retain every employee.
The decision to relocate the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters to Colorado and move hundreds of additional positions to western states was based entirely on operational concerns, William Perry Pendley, the senior official currently serving as BLM director, said at a hearing before the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Interior Department is taking great pains to ensure no employees are forced to leave, Pendley said, noting employees will receive official relocation notices next week.
BLM and the entire Interior Department have implemented hiring freezes to ensure vacancies for bureau employees who do not wish to move west, Pendley said. He added Interior was “working aggressively” so that employees can either accept their relocation or find a new position within the department.
“Our desire is to not lose a single employee,” Pendley said. He added, however, that BLM has conducted no analysis to determine how many employees will actually leave, aside from a “rough estimate” based on historical data suggesting 25% of impacted employees would retire or separate from the agency.
“I could not be more pleased with their work or their performance,” Pendley said. “I do not want to lose a single one of them. I’m not trying to drain the swamp, I’m trying to make it more possible for them to do their job.”