The Trump Administration is moving the Bureau of Land Management out to where it will be near most of the land it, well, manages. Out west. But the urbanite DC swamp creatures are not hankering to leave the warm embrace of DC and the inside-the-beltway smell of other people’s money.
The Trump administration says the plan will save taxpayers millions of dollars, lead to better, faster decisions and trim a “top heavy” office in Washington. Moving the bureau out of Washington is a long-cherished goal of Western state politicians who cite the preponderance of public lands in their part of the country and their lack of access to decision-makers.
One estimate, though unconfirmed, suggests this division of the US Interior Department could shed 85% of existing staff when their offices take off over flyover country to the middle of nowhere near DC.
”I think, frankly, it’s going to cripple the bureau for a long time,” said Henri Bisson, a former deputy director for the agency.
With fewer career staffers in Washington to weigh in on management of federal lands, “it will result in decisions that are more political than they are resource-based,” Bisson said.
I have a solution. Give that authority back to the people who live there – since your “staffers” won’t. I bet they can handle it (better), and it will save millions by eliminating another DC money-laundering operation.
Imitation is…
Since no one wants to dismantle it, can we move the Department of Education next? I was thinking, Alaska. I’m sure there’s room along the northern edge of that wildlife refuge everyone got schooled on back in the Bush years. The one that’s pictured as a lush woodsy nature-scape but is actually (mostly) barren tundra. What a great place to educate the department of education or what’s left of it.
And I think the EPA should set up shop on that island of plastic in the ocean about which we keep hearing. The one that (if it exists at all) is a result of Asian pollution, not anyone here in America. Give them some perspective.
In fact, we should move them all those departments out of DC. Spread them around. Put them where we need broadband and use the savings from self-terminations to resolve that problem as well. Let them skype in for hearings with Congress.
We need to force them to interact with actual Americans. Or, better yet, fill the few necessary positions with Americans who might do the job for the people instead of for access to the DC political class.
Hey, it will be great for the environment, if you are still convinced that narrative isn’t just a bunch of Bulls**t. If there’s an 85% reduction in federal staffing waste (heck, even 50%), it will significantly decrease the DC carbon footprint.
Billions saved and the planet too. Who could oppose that?
| AP
