[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 171 (Thursday, September 30, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6815-S6817]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today in having 
heard the Senator from Washington--the senior Senator from Washington, 
a Democrat leader--talk about something in this Senate Chamber, and she 
called it outrageous.
  Let me tell you what I find outrageous. Outrageous is the fact that 
people all across this country are facing crisis after crisis, all 
caused by the Democrats who are in charge of the House, the Senate, and 
the White House. And on this day, the final day of the fiscal year, we 
are spending time on a nominee who is completely unfit for the job for 
which she has been nominated. That is outrageous.
  But it has been one outrageous thing after another that I hear about 
in Wyoming each weekend. In August, it was the chaotic abandoning of 
Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of 13 American heroes; hundreds 
more individuals who lost their lives, or Afghani citizens--one of 
those brave soldiers, Rylee McCollum, a marine, age just 20, was from 
Wyoming.
  President Biden's activities in Afghanistan, they were outrageous. 
Because of his hasty retreat, the administration has enraged--enraged--
our allies around the world and has emboldened our enemies at the same 
time. That is outrageous.
  You know what is happening at the southern border?
  And I would tell you, our weak immigration policies that resulted in 
millions of illegal immigrants flooding into our country, that is 
outrageous.
  Across the West, a lack of fire mitigation and tree-thinning lacking 
has contributed to raging forest fires. These fires threaten lives, 
communities, and economies.
  And here in Congress, Democrats continue to create chaos. Runaway 
partisan spending has resulted in the biting pain of inflation and 
spiking costs for families all across the country when they go to the 
grocery store to buy food or go to the gas station and fill up. That is 
outrageous.
  So with all of these crises occurring across the Nation and the 
world, what is Leader Schumer and the Senate Democrats choosing today 
as one of their top priority for the Nation?
  Well, it is confirming a nominee who has a history of having 
collaborated with ecoterrorists.
  We talk about the threat of terrorism around the world and the threat 
of terrorism at home, and yet the Democratic leader is bringing to the 
floor today a nominee of the President of the United States and, 
apparently, endorsed and agreed to by all of the Democrats, who has a 
history of ecoterrorism and has been involved in such. It is confirming 
a nominee who collaborated with ecoterrorists, lied to the U.S. Senate, 
wrote in favor of population control as a problem related to the 
climate, and promoted the idea that homes built in the forest should be 
left to burn. This is outrageous.
  President Biden has nominated someone named Tracy Manning to serve as 
the Director of the Bureau of Land Management. Across the West, it is 
known as the BLM.
  Ms. Stone-Manning lied to the Senate--lied to this very Senate this 
year about her past association with an ecoterrorist cell that hammered 
hundreds and hundreds of metal spikes--about 500 pounds of metal 
spikes--into trees in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest.
  If these metal spikes are struck by a logger's saw, the injuries to 
the logger can be fatal. And it is not just loggers who use saws; it is 
firefighters as well, going in to help fight fires. The same impact 
would occur to them.
  Ms. Stone-Manning anonymously sent a threatening letter to the U.S. 
Forest Service on behalf of the ecoterrorists, of which she was one of 
the ring leaders, and then spent years covering up their crimes, as 
well as her own.
  The lead investigator on the case sent a letter to our committee, the 
Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The lead investigator sent that 
letter to the committee to say that Ms. Stone-Manning was investigated 
and she refused to cooperate as a result of the crime.
  She had years to come forward, years to reveal the crimes, and she 
never did. It wasn't until after she was caught and she was promised 
immunity and she received that immunity--it was only then that she 
agreed to testify.
  Earlier this year, Ms. Stone-Manning lied to the Senate Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee about her involvement as an ecoterrorist 
and in ecoterrorism. When asked if she had ever done anything to 
support tree spiking in any forest, she replied ``No.''
  This is blatantly false. Ms. Stone-Manning's troubling record goes 
beyond lying and collaborating with ecoterrorists. She has written 
articles and a graduate thesis supporting the idea of human population 
control.
  And 1 year ago--not when she was a graduate student a number of 
decades ago, but 1 year ago--she tweeted an article that her husband 
had written, calling for homes built in the forest, allowing them to 
burn during fires. She called the article a ``clarion call.''
  Now, this is for the person nominated to be the head of the Bureau of 
Land Management--a clarion call. That is not part of the 
responsibilities and is the exact opposite of what we should expect 
from the head of the Bureau of Land Management.
  Tracy Stone-Manning is a dangerous choice to be put in charge of 
America's public lands. And each and every Senator who votes to confirm 
her will be held personally responsible for that vote. Her nomination 
has been publicly opposed by the last two--the last two--BLM Directors, 
by outdoor organizations, by sportsman's groups, pro-life 
organizations, by loggers, by the Western States Sheriffs' Association. 
The list goes on and on.
  And might I mention that one of those past two BLM Directors was 
President Obama's BLM Director, who said she was unfit for the position 
to which President Biden had nominated her.
  She is the wrong choice for this job. She should never be confirmed, 
but that is exactly what Senate Democrats want to do today; and that is 
outrageous.
  At a time when America is facing mounting crises, Senate Democrats, 
each and every one, is determined to confirm a nominee who collaborated 
with ecoterrorists, lied to the U.S. Senate, and continues to hold very 
dangerous views.
  I emphatically oppose her nomination. Every single Republican in the 
Senate opposes her nomination, and I urge courageous Democrats to stand 
up and do the same.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). The Senator from West 
Virginia is recognized.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, my dear friend from Wyoming, we agree 
on a lot of things; we just happen to see this one different. We 
disagree.
  I rise in support of the motion to invoke cloture on a nomination of 
Tracy

[[Page S6816]]

Stone-Manning to be the Director of the Bureau of Land Management. I do 
so after giving very, very, very careful consideration to this 
serious--and I mean serious--allegations that many of our colleagues 
have leveled against her.
  If there were any truth--a shred of truth--or evidence to support the 
charges, I wouldn't be standing here; I couldn't support her. But I 
have found no such evidence, and I have looked.
  Now, I have said this: Every one of us, we are entitled to our own 
opinion here. And we are not bashful to sharing that opinion with 
others. We are just not entitled to create our own facts to support our 
opinions. That is it. All I am asking for is look at the facts. That is 
all.
  The facts surrounding the spiking of the trees in the Clearwater 
National Forest in March of 1989 are well known. It is public. They are 
known because the facts were tried by a jury in a Federal district 
court in Spokane, WA, in June of 1993.
  I still believe we all believe the rule of law applies to all of us, 
and that is who we are. Trial by jury is how we find facts and discover 
the truth in this country. That is it. It is the keystone in our 
criminal justice system.
  A jury heard the evidence in the tree-spiking case. They weighed its 
credibility and reached a unanimous verdict that four men spiked the 
trees.
  I repeat: Four help spiked the trees in the Clearwater National 
Forest.
  All four of them admitted that they spiked trees. All four of them 
admitted they spiked these trees. And each identified the other three 
as their accomplice. Each one identified the other.
  And you know what. Ms. Stone-Manning was not one of them. None of the 
four said she was.
  Opponents of her nomination are now seeking to impute the guilt of 
the confessed and convicted tree spikers to her. But Ms. Stone-Manning 
was never charged with tree spiking. She was never indicted or tried. 
There is no evidence in the trial record that she participated in the 
tree spiking. Her opponents claim that is because she was given 
immunity for her testimony.
  I have heard that, so I want to investigate that.
  But while the Federal prosecutor agreed not to use her testimony 
against her, she still could have been prosecuted if there was any 
other evidence against her. If there was any evidence against her, she 
could have been prosecuted. But there wasn't. And no charges were ever 
brought against her--none.
  Finally, opponents of Ms. Stone-Manning's nomination accused her of 
lying to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which is the 
committee that I do chair and the committee, Madam President, that you 
sit on with us so honorably. On her committee questionnaire, they said 
she lied to us.
  As the Chairman of that committee, I took that allegation seriously. 
I wanted to find out if she lied to us or not.
  Each nominee that comes to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources is asked whether he or she has ever been investigated, 
arrested, or charged with a violation of law.
  Ms. Stone-Manning responded, ``No, I have never been arrested or 
charged and to my knowledge I have never been the target of such an 
investigation.''
  She then went on to disclose that she testified before a Federal 
grand jury as part of a tree-spiking investigation in 1989, and later 
testified at the tree-spiking trial. This allegation seems to be that 
her response was false and misleading because she was subpoenaed, 
because she was asked to come and testify and had been required to give 
fingerprints and hair samples to the grand jury investigating the tree 
spiking in 1989.
  Being required to testify or give physical evidence to a grand jury 
does not make someone the target of a grand jury investigation. It just 
doesn't.
  Again, I go back to the rule of law, which is unique in this world 
today that we are still able to treat everybody as innocent until 
proven guilty. And there is no evidence, and she was not involved.
  The Justice Department defines a ``target'' as someone the grand jury 
is considering indicting. That is the target: They are considering to 
go after you.
  The Federal prosecutor in the case asked the Forest Service's 
criminal investigator--they asked the criminal investigator whether the 
investigation in 1989 had identified possibly anyone as a subject in 
the investigation. The Forest Service investigator replied under oath--
I repeat: under oath--no; no, it didn't happen.
  She could not have been a target of an investigation that had not 
identified her or anyone else as a subject. Her response is further 
corroborated by recent comments in the press made by the former 
Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted this trial.
  You being a prosecutor, Madam President, understands.
  They prosecuted the tree-spiking case. This is the person who did 
that, who confirmed--he confirmed that Ms. Stone-Manning was not a 
target of the investigation in 1993. He confirmed that.
  In sum, I am unable to find any credible evidence in the exhaustive 
trial record of the tree-spiking case that supports the allegations 
levied against Ms. Stone-Manning. What I find instead in the 
committee's hearing record on her nomination is compelling evidence 
that Ms. Stone-Manning has built a solid reputation over the past three 
decades as a dedicated public servant and someone who has worked with 
one of our colleagues, a dear friend of ours from Montana, who is about 
to say what he believes in his heart, and as he knows, as that person's 
credibility.
  As a problem-solver, she has been and is a consensus-builder. She 
faithfully served Senator Tester for 5 years in a position of trust and 
responsibility on his staff. She went on to serve Governor Bullock of 
Montana for 2 years as director of Montana's Department of 
Environmental Quality and 2 more as Governor Bullock's chief of staff. 
That is the evidence on which I will base my vote to support her, and I 
would encourage every one of my colleagues to do the same.
  This is a person who basically has given herself to public service. 
This is a person, as a youth, basically in her compassion--all of the 
things she might have believed does not make her guilty. This is a 
person who basically deserves an opportunity to be able to serve all of 
us in America with her knowledge, her desire, and her absolute, 
unwavering dedication to the outdoors and everything that we hold near 
and dear.
  I just want to say that we are not here to prosecute people. That is 
not our job. We are not here to pass judgment, basically, once judgment 
has already passed and basically regurgitate something that is not 
credible. So I say again: You are truly entitled to your own opinion. 
You really are. But before you pass judgment, look at the facts. It 
could be you. It could be me. That is not going to happen.
  So with that, I urge my friends, I urge all of them to please--John 
Adams, the first person to preside in the Senate, said:

       Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, 
     our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot 
     alter the state of facts and evidence.

  They cannot. So let us put our partisan passions aside. Put them 
aside and look at the facts. Let's vote to confirm Ms. Stone-Manning's 
nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, for Senator Toomey, I won't be long 
because it doesn't take long to tell the truth.
  I am here to support Tracy Stone-Manning as next Director of the BLM. 
Why? Because she understands the value of public lands. She understands 
public lands need to be managed and need to be managed in a way so they 
can stay in public hands. She understands that the way you get things 
done is, be collaborative, bring people together, and talk issues out. 
That is Tracy Stone-Manning.
  I often wonder on the Senate floor, if you tell a lie enough times, 
if it becomes the truth. The chairman of the Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee has laid out the facts. And the truth is, Tracy 
Stone-Manning did nothing wrong. In fact, the people who went to jail 
went to jail because of Tracy Stone-Manning.
  But that aside, character assassination isn't something we should put 
up with in this body. God only knows, if

[[Page S6817]]

we look back into the past of everybody who serves here, what we might 
find.
  But I am here to tell you, to listen to the Senator from Wyoming 
stand up and say: We are going to hold every Democrat accountable--you 
are damn right. Hold me accountable for Tracy Stone-Manning. I worked 
with her. I know what she does. I know she can get the job done. She 
can bring people together of all political ilks, and she can do what is 
necessary for the American people--in this case, with our public lands.
  I am going to point out one thing that Tracy Stone-Manning did that 
was wrong. She actually agreed to be Governor Bullock's chief of staff. 
If somebody wants to go into the investigation and find out what has 
happened over the last 3 years with the Governor running against a 
sitting Senator in this body and her being the Governor's chief of 
staff, you will find out why folks stand up and make stuff up about 
Tracy Stone-Manning because the facts don't back up what they are 
saying.
  Yes. Listen to it again. If you are out there, the folks who have 
come to the floor on the Republican side of the aisle and bashed Tracy 
Stone-Manning--the facts don't back up what the claims are, and the 
character assassination is not something you should be proud of. Ye who 
throws stones ought to be very, very careful.
  With that, I want to say this: Tracy Stone-Manning is not new to this 
process. She has been a leader. She is somebody who knows how to bring 
people together. She is somebody who has utilized our public lands. She 
is somebody who knows how valuable these public lands are. She is 
somebody who will do a great job as the head of the BLM.
  I encourage any of the Senators on the other side of the aisle to 
take up any other claims with me, not her. I would love to answer them.
  I encourage this body to vote for the confirmation of Tracy Stone-
Manning because it is the right thing to do.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.