1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I urge you to vote against confirming Steve Pearce as director of the Bureau of Land Management. The committee vote is expected soon and your decision will determine the future of 245 million acres of public land. During his confirmation hearing, Pearce was asked multiple times whether he had changed his views on selling and privatizing public lands. He failed to provide reassurance. When Senator Ron Wyden asked if there is too much public land in the West, Pearce admitted "I'm not so sure that I've changed." His record includes voting in 2005 to sell millions of acres of federal lands at below-market prices, criticizing Theodore Roosevelt's conservation legacy in 2012, and co-sponsoring a 2016 bill to sell huge tracts of Western public lands. While Pearce admitted that federal law prohibits wholesale sales of BLM land, the BLM director has authority under the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976 to sell unlimited parcels of up to 2,500 acres each without congressional authorization. This gives the director significant power that Pearce will seek to use to chip away at our public lands heritage. I ask you to vote no on Steve Pearce's confirmation and protect our public lands.