[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 129 (Thursday, July 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5027-S5028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NOMINATION OF TRACY STONE-MANNING

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, now on another matter, today in the 
Energy and Natural Resources Committee, President Biden's nominee to 
lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, will receive a 
vote to advance her nomination to the Senate floor.
  While it sometimes flies under the radar, the Bureau of Land 
Management is responsible for overseeing nearly 250 million acres of 
public lands and 700 million acres of mineral rights, a vast track of 
the United States of America. No Agency is more important to the 
maintenance of public lands for public use. BLM, the Bureau of Land 
Management, that is, will play a huge role in the fight against climate 
change as well.
  Over the past 4 years under Donald Trump, the Agency abandoned its 
mission, shrunk public lands, targeted our national monuments, and 
opened up those beautiful landscapes for corporate industrial 
development. In short, the next leader of the Bureau of Land Management 
has a tall order in restoring and protecting America's public lands.
  Ms. Stone-Manning is exceedingly qualified to take on this important 
job.

[[Page S5028]]

After serving on Senator Tester's and Governor Bullock's staff, she 
went on to lead the environmental agency in Montana, where she was 
respected not only by conservationists but by ranchers and fossil fuel 
interests as well. She developed a reputation as an honest broker, 
someone who is firm in their principles but always willing to try and 
build consensus.
  Yet the members of the Republican minority on the committee are 
trying to turn this consensus-driven, well-respected nominee into 
another partisan flashpoint, dredging up a letter she forwarded while 
in graduate school and claiming it was evidence that she is ``an echo-
terrorist.'' The claim is just as hysterical as it sounds.
  Ms. Stone-Manning has the full support of the chair of the committee, 
the Senator from West Virginia; Mr. Tester, the Senator from Montana; 
and from me.
  We need someone like Ms. Stone-Manning to manage our public lands, a 
staunch advocate for conservation but also an honest broker, someone 
who will repair the damage of the last 4 years and be a faithful 
steward of America's national treasures, someone who understands that 
conservation policy has a critical role to play in the fight against 
climate change. Ms. Stone-Manning has all of those qualities, and I 
look forward to moving her nomination to the Senate floor.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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