Nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning

Floor Speech

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Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, I rise today to associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman from Idaho and the gentleman from Utah, who just spoke about one of the most egregious nominations to ever receive a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

I am speaking of President Biden's nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management.

I have been here in Washington, DC, for close to a decade now, and I know that oftentimes it feels there are few things that unite us as Democrats and Republicans. I would have hoped that just one of those things that would have united us would be opposition to ecoterrorism; and yet, in about an hour, the Senate will be voting to confirm a known ecoterrorist collaborator to lead one of the most consequential land management agencies.

I am flabbergasted. I am aghast. I am horrified. This is a solemn, bad day for land management in the United States.

Here we are, $28 trillion-plus in debt--28 trillion-plus in debt. Inflation is threatening every single American. We have a global pandemic, a major crisis at our southern border, a massive government expansion, and debt ceiling debate, and Senate Democrats want to put an ecoterrorist collaborator to manage one of the biggest land management agencies in the United States.

The Bureau of Land Management administers about 245 million acres of land. It manages 18.4 million acres of public land surface in my State and nearly 43 million acres of Federal mineral estate in my home State of Wyoming.

As is required by law, the Bureau of Land Management operates under a multiple-use mandate that balances recreation needs, energy development, grazing, conservation, mining, wildlife habitat, and more. Leading this Agency requires someone who is balanced and committed to supporting this multiple-use mandate. It is the law that governs the Bureau of Land Management.

Do we have that in Ms. Stone-Manning?

As reported by the Washington Post, of all places, Ms. Stone-Manning was a spokeswoman for Earth First!, the group responsible for the ecoterrorist tree spiking spoken of by Mr. Risch and Mr. Lee moments ago in Idaho's Clearwater National Forests.

So what is the motto for the group for which Ms. Stone-Manning served as a mouthpiece?

Here it is: ``No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth.''

No compromise. None. And yet we are supposed to trust that Ms. Stone- Manning will compromise on the inevitable conflicts that will come before her as BLM Director, the requirement that she balance the interests on use of BLM land?

For President Biden and my Senate colleagues across the aisle, do you really want your names associated with a ``no compromise'' mouthpiece of a convicted ecoterrorist organization; someone who lied under oath to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee?

In her testimony, she lied under oath. Someone who has advocated for population control as a means to save the environment; someone who has written that grazing is ``destroying the West.''

Now, pair that remark with what you just heard from Senator Risch. Senator Risch says: She and her husband want those houses in the interface with the forest to burn.

What prevents them from burning?

It is grazing. Grazing done right helps keep the forest floor and the grasses from igniting conflagrations. Grazing is good for the West, yet she has written that grazing destroys the West. Grazing is one of the elements of multiple use.

Does that mean that she is going to use her position to try to eliminate grazing in the West?

That would add to catastrophic fires. That would add to carbon emissions from these monster fires that we are having.

Management requires land management. That is why it is called the Bureau of Land Management. It is not the bureau of land let it be, let it burn, let it rot, let it be ignored. It is the Bureau of Land Management, with a multiple-use mandate.

Ms. Manning is wholly unqualified to serve in this position-- absolutely unqualified.

I urge President Biden to withdraw her nomination before 7:00 tonight, and for Senate Democrats to join us in saying no to this nominee. This nominee is an insult to the American West.

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