Biden nominee for public lands boss hits GOP opposition

President Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee vast expanses of public land in the U.S. West is being criticized by Republicans because of her involvement in partisan politics as a longtime Democratic aide and environmentalist

BILLINGS, Mont. -- President Joe Biden's nominee to oversee vast expanses of public land in the U.S. West was criticized Tuesday by Republicans over her past involvement in partisan politics as a longtime Democratic aide and environmentalist. Tracy Stone-Manning, who worked as chief of staff to former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, has been nominated to serve as director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The agency has jurisdiction over 245 million acres (100 million hectares) of federally owned swaths of land in Western states, managing them for uses ranging from fossil fuel extraction and grazing to recreation. Senate confirmation for Stone-Manning would mark a stark change for an agency that catered to oil and gas interests under former President Donald Trump. She would take the helm after the bureau suffered turmoil in recent years when it lost nearly 300 employees to retirement or resignation after its headquarters was relocated from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado, under Trump.