[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5093-S5094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon
because we have heard a lot here today about Tracy Stone-Manning, her
nomination to head the Bureau of Land Management, and how completely
disqualified she is for that post.
As you have heard, it is a critically important Agency, especially
for those of us in Western States. It manages almost one-eighth of the
entire land mass of the United States. In my home State of Wyoming, the
Bureau of Land Management oversees 18 million acres. If you came to the
Energy Committee, and as I told my friend and colleague Joe Manchin,
that is more territory than the entire State of his home State of West
Virginia; and in the case of the Presiding Officer, more than the size
of your State by a lot.
It is not just my State. This Agency oversees 12 million acres of
public land in Arizona, 48 million acres of land in Nevada, and 8
million in Montana. It is like that all across the West. Included in
the land that it manages is almost 65 million acres of Federal forests.
The Bureau is also responsible for hundreds of millions of acres of
mineral land below the surface. It is critical to America's energy
independence. There is a lot of energy that is under those lands.
Tracy Stone-Manning has no business leading this agency--none
whatsoever. She helped plan a tree spiking in one of our country's
National Forests. She sent a threatening letter to the U.S. Forest
Service about it. She did not cooperate with Federal investigators,
blocked the investigation, only testified when she received immunity,
and lied to our committee about it.
There is bipartisan concern about this nomination. I will tell you
Bob Abbey, who was President Obama's Director of Bureau of Land
Management, said that her actions ``should disqualify'' her. This is
President Obama's nominee to run that Bureau. Because Bob Abbey
understands the job and knows her involvement with tree spiking, it
should eliminate her from any consideration.
So Steve Ellis, who was the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Land
Management during the Obama administration, and he was the highest
ranking career official at the Agency, he raised concerns about Stone-
Manning as well. This is what he said. He said:
Much of the focus seems to be whether this is a Democrat or
Republican thing, but [he said] the lens that I look at this
through is as a 38-year career person in both agencies, and
that letter she wrote went to my Forest Service colleagues on
the Clearwater.
He makes a very important point. How can the men and women of the
Bureau of Land Management, people who have devoted their lives to work
for this Agency, how can they respect President Biden's nominee, Tracy
Stone-Manning, when they know she threatened their colleagues at the
U.S. Forest Service?
Conservation organizations have begun to pull their support as well.
The Dallas Safari Club and the Houston Safari Club, which each
represent thousands of outdoorsmen and -women have both now reversed
their support and now publicly oppose her nomination now that they have
learned this additional information.
Radical ideas are nothing new for Tracy Stone-Manning. Around the
time of the criminal tree spiking, she wrote her graduate thesis. In
her thesis, she argued that Americans need to have fewer children
because children are a threat to the environment. She even made ads to
promote these ideas. These are ideas you hear in Communist China, not
from a nominee to be the Director of the Bureau of Land Management.
Now, some Democrats have defended Tracy Stone-Manning by saying this
tree spiking was decades ago. Her radical views have not changed, I
will assure you, Mr. President, because right now many States in the
West are burning from raging, dangerous wildfires.
Management of these fires has become a constant conservation--or
conversation at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and on the
Senate floor, and we actually discussed it this morning in the Energy
and Natural Resources Committee.
Tracy Stone-Manning has current views on this one as well. Her
husband, Richard Manning, wrote in Harpers that firefighters should let
homes built in forests burn. He wrote:
There's a rude and satisfying justice [satisfying justice]
in burning down the house of someone who builds in the
forest.
Now, Tracy Stone-Manning is not responsible for the views of her
husband. But last September, as wildfires burned last year--and we had
hearings on those--she actually endorsed her husband's views on letting
it burn and letting the houses burn. In a tweet, she called her
husband's comments a clarion call. It wasn't 30 years ago. It is about
10 months ago. Tracy Stone-Manning endorsed her husband's call to
action that homes in the forest should be allowed to burn.
There are currently wildfires burning in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado,
California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and
Wyoming. All of these States have BLM lands. This year's largest fire,
the Bootleg fire, has burned over 400,000 acres, 7 homes, and more than
40 other buildings. Thousands of homes are still threatened.
This year, around 2 million acres have burned so far in the Western
States. Last year alone, wildfires burned and damaged over 17,000
structures.
And what do they call it--what does her husband call it, and what
does she tweet about? ``Satisfying justice in burning down the house.''
How can Senate Democrats vote to confirm a nominee who has advocated
to let the homes of their own constituents burn?
These views are disturbing and dangerous. President Biden has made
the threat of domestic terrorism a focus of his administration. His own
National Security Council recently released a strategy to address
domestic terrorism. It specifically includes the threat of domestic
environmental terrorists. But he has nominated someone who admitted to
conspiring with terrorists.
Every Senator needs to consider carefully if they want their name
associated with Tracy Stone-Manning. All 10 Republicans on the Energy
and Natural Resources Committee have asked President Biden to withdraw
the nomination. We all voted against her nomination last week during a
committee business meeting.
She conspired with ecoterrorists. She lied to the Senate. She still
holds radically reprehensible views.
Tracy Stone-Manning should never be the Director of the Bureau of
Land Management. The Senate must reject her nomination. I strongly
oppose her nomination and urge each and every Member to do the same.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, in Montana, public lands are a way of
life. They create thousands of jobs; they bring billions of dollars
into our State; and they form the backbone of our outdoor heritage.
Today--today--we have an opportunity to take another important step
forward in putting a real public servant who will hold herself
accountable to the taxpayer once confirmed to lead the Bureau of Land
Management.
I know Tracy Stone-Manning. Tracy Stone-Manning is a tireless
advocate for the outdoor spaces that make Montana special. She is a
collaborative--collaborative--responsible leader, and at the BLM she
will bring nonpartisan stewardship to our Nation's greatest treasures.
Tracy is dedicated to smart management of our public lands. She is
dedicated to the habitat and to the outdoors and is one of the hardest
working people that I know.
But, unfortunately, Members of this body have played politics with
her nomination. They have dragged a good person's name through the muck
in a cynical smear campaign ginned up by folks who would rather play
politics than see a qualified, competent woman running the Bureau of
Land Management.
Now, it is particularly galling that these same folks stood by
silently--or, worse, cheered--as William Perry
[[Page S5094]]
Pendley led the Agency illegally, without Senate confirmation, under
the previous administration: Pendley, a fringe climate change denier
who explicitly called for the Federal Government to sell off all its
public lands and who actively encouraged armed standoffs between law
enforcement and ranchers.
It is a shame that we have people who put politics above people and
our public lands, but that is the unfortunate reality of the U.S.
Senate in Washington, DC.
The person these folks have made Tracy out to be is not the person
that I have known and worked with over the last decade-plus. If she
were that, I would not be standing here supporting her today. She will
bring good old-fashioned Montana common sense to the Bureau of Land
Management, along with a steadfast dedication to manage our public
lands and the thousands of jobs that rely on those public lands. She
will lead the Agency with dignity and honor and integrity.
And, as she has done her entire career, Tracy will bring folks
together, from both sides of the aisle and all sides of the issue, to
get things done and make a real impact on our public lands.
I am proud to support Tracy Stone-Manning, and I look forward to
seeing the great work that she will do as the next leader of the Bureau
of Land Management. I urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all remaining time be
yielded back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). Without objection, it is so
ordered.