Trump’s relocation of the Bureau of Land Management was part of a familiar Republican playbook – The Hill

In his 1981 inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan famously proclaimed, Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. The goal, plain and simple, was to paint the federal government as an unnecessary evil.

Reagan succeeded beyond his and his advisors wildest dreams, setting the political stage for a Republican Party that has elevated anti-government grievance to an article of faith. The destructive impacts of the ensuing cuts to Medicaid, housing aid, food assistance, unemployment compensation and other crucial programs are still with us.

The Trump administration, despite some vaguely unorthodox campaign rhetoric, followed the same playbook. Trump chief of staff Mick MulvaneyMick MulvaneyJan. 6 committee issues latest round of subpoenas for rally organizers The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Alibaba - To vote or not? Pelosi faces infrastructure decision Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 11, including Pierson, other rally organizers MOREopenly gloatedabout how many federal employees he was going to force out of a job by making their lives miserable.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO)report, released last month, offers firsthand insights into the harm done by Trump and his lieutenants as they mistreated federal employees, both intentionally and through gross neglect. It lays out a very clear warning of whats in store the next time a Republican president uses this same playbooka warning every American should heed.

Almost as soon as he took office, Trump appointed federal agency leaders who openly despised the agencies they were appointed to lead. Secretary of Energy Rick PerryRick PerryWhat we've learned from the Meadows documents Trump war with GOP seeps into midterms Republicans eager to take on Spanberger in Virginia MORE ran for president promising to abolish the department he later oversaw. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott PruittEdward (Scott) Scott PruittUnderstanding the barriers between scientists, the public and the truth Overnight Energy & Environment Biden makes return to pre-Trump national monument boundaries official Trump-era EPA board member sues over firing MORE was given his job because he relentlessly sued the agency as Oklahomas attorney general.

As chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I saw this play out at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages more than 245 million acres of public landone in every 10 acres of the United States. To head the agency, Trump nominated a man named William Perry Pendley, whocalledBLM the worst neighbor you can imagine and, in a former position in the Reagan administration, had beencaughtunderpricing coal mining leases to benefit industry at public expense.

One of Pendleys top objectives under Trump was to move BLM staff headquarters from the Washington, D.C., area to Grand Junction, Colo. The plan was originally devised by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan ZinkeRyan Keith ZinkeWatchdog: Trump official boosted former employer in Interior committeemembership Overnight Energy & Environment Biden makes return to pre-Trump national monument boundaries official Want to evaluate Donald Trump's judgment? Listen to Donald Trump MORE, who resigned amid multiple ethical investigations less than a year into his tenure. Thestated reasonfor BLMs relocation was to get staff closer to the lands and resources they manage, which Pendley spoke of with great urgency despite 97 percent of the agencys employees already working in the field

BLM isnt as recognizable by name as the National Park Service, but the agency is hugely important to the fossil fuel industry, which leases millions of acres of public land for drilling and mining. One of the few groups tocheerthe move was a fossil fuel lobbying group called the Western Energy Alliance, which pushes for more drilling and mining on federal land, weak environmental standards and low public royalties.

When my colleagues on the committee and I asked for analyses showing the need to relocate BLM headquarters, or the plans for keeping key staff in place to maintain institutional knowledge, or an understanding of how the move might impact the agencys Black employees, more than 40 percent of whom worked in the headquarters office, we were either given perfunctory answers or met with total silence. The Committee sentletterafterletterafterletterafterletterafterletterasking for straight answers. In September 2019, we held a hearing on the plan where Mr. Pendley testified. In every instance, the administration dodged our questions and answered our requests with irrelevant information or already public documents.

In March 2020, under threat ofsubpoena, the administration finally sent the committee an approximately20-page Business Casefor relocation. It offers little more than vague descriptions of the moves alleged public benefits, no workforce impact analysis beyond wishful thinking (as GAO documented) and no realistic preview of the damage the move ultimately did.

As theWashington Postfirst reported, the new GAO analysis found that in the year following the move, BLM headquarters saw an increase of more than 200 staff vacancies, with the number of Black employees being reduced by more than half. BLM employees said the move impeded their ability to do their jobs, and those who hadnt already quit described a team with no sense of leadership and little ability to function beyond day-to-day operations.

The unfortunate truth is that this was Republicanism in action. Moving BLMs headquarters wasnt designed to solve a real problem. Just as Reagan before him, Trump was happy to throw public employees under the bus in the name of the angry anti-government philosophy that still animates party leaders in Washington today.

Kicking dedicated career public servants to the curb and giving more power to huge corporations and their lobbyists is not a good path forward, but its what Republican leaders keep promising and keep doing. We should start paying closer attention to the consequences and remind ourselves that the alternative to a fairly treated, productive, hard-working federal workforce is not some free enterprise utopia. Its the Robber Baron era all over again.

Ral M. Grijalva chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources. He has represented Southern Arizona in Congress since 2003.

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Trump's relocation of the Bureau of Land Management was part of a familiar Republican playbook - The Hill