Click here to watch Ranking Member Barrasso’s remarks.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), delivered the following remarks at a nominations hearing.

The hearing featured testimony from Ms. Tracy Stone-Manning, nominee to be director of the Bureau of Land Management; Ms. Shalanda Baker, nominee to be director of the Office of Minority Economic Impact at the Department of Energy; Mr. Samuel Walsh, nominee to be general counsel at the Department of Energy; and Dr. Andrew Light, nominee to be assistant secretary of the Department of Energy for International Affairs. 

For more information on witness testimony click here. 

Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“I would also like to welcome Tracy Stone-Manning, Shalanda Baker, Samuel Walsh, and Andrew Light to the committee. 

“Congratulations to each of you on your nominations. 

“Ms. Stone-Manning has been nominated to serve as the director of the Bureau of Land Management at the Department of the Interior. 

“If confirmed, Ms. Stone-Manning will oversee over 247 million acres of federal lands. 

“That is one in every ten acres in the United States – about 12 percent overall of our nation’s landmass. 

“She will also manage approximately 30 percent of America’s minerals. 

“By law, she will be required to govern these resources in a way that ensures their multiple use. 

“The director of the Bureau of Land Management has a tremendous amount of power. 

“In this role, Ms. Stone-Manning will have authority over lands and minerals in every state – including my home state of Wyoming. 

“Wyoming is proud to be America’s leading producer of coal, uranium, trona, and bentonite. 

“Almost 50 percent of Wyoming’s surface area and almost 70 percent of our minerals are owned by the federal government. 

“We rank number one in federal natural gas production and number two in federal oil production. 

“In addition, grazing, recreation, and off-highway-vehicle access on BLM lands are all critically important to Wyoming. 

“The Bureau of Land Management needs a director who believes in, and is committed to, upholding the agency’s multiple-use mandate. 

“Based on her record, I am concerned that Ms. Stone-Manning does not fit the bill. 

“Her career has been defined by her support for policies that restrict multiple-use activities on public lands. 

“On Twitter and in other public forums, she has expressed views that threaten the livelihoods of energy producers, ranchers, farmers, loggers, and others with a stake in the responsible use of our natural resources.  

“She opposes an ‘American energy dominance’ agenda. 

“She supports prohibiting oil and gas development on federal lands and waters.  

“She believes it was wrong to relocate the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado, so it would be closer to the resources the agency manages and the people it serves. 

“Perhaps most troubling is Ms. Stone-Manning’s unvarnished political partisanship. 

“In a tweet from February, she summarily dismissed concerns expressed by me and my Republican colleagues about then-Congresswoman Haaland’s nomination to be Secretary of the Interior as nothing more than ‘a dog-whistle reserved for a candidate of Haaland’s tribal status – and gender.’  

“Last year, for political gain, she smeared a champion of commonsense conservation and member of this committee. 

“As a member of the board of director and treasurer of Montana Conservation Voters, Ms. Stone-Manning signed-off on political ads attacking Montana Senator Steve Daines. 

“Montanans saw right through it. 

“So have I. 

“I look forward to hearing Ms. Stone-Manning’s explanation for why Republicans like me, Senator Daines, and other colleagues on this side of the dais should have confidence that she will work with us in good-faith and in a bipartisan fashion. 

“I also look forward to hearing the testimony of our other nominees – Ms. Baker, Mr. Walsh, and Dr. Light. 

“I hope they will explain how they plan to promote an ‘all-of-the above’ energy strategy that successfully leverages all of America’s abundant energy resources. 

“Congratulations again to all of the nominees. 

“I look forward to hearing your testimony.”