Nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning

Floor Speech

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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.

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