Biden nominee for public lands boss hits GOP opposition

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Joe Biden's nominee to oversee vast expanses of public land in the U.S. West was criticized Tuesday by Republicans Tuesday over her past involvement in partisan politics as a longtime Democratic aide and environmentalist.

Tracy Stone-Manning, a former 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.

During a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Republicans lambasted Stone-Manning over her role as treasurer and board member of the Montana Conservation Voters group, which ran ads against Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines during the last election cycle. The Republicans also raised concerns she would impede energy development.

“You've been incredibly partisan in your past,” said Republican Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. “It seems like from your heart, you really don't care for Republicans.”

Stone-Manning said her parents, both Republicans, would be “rolling in their graves” over the allegation. She indicated she wanted to move on from the 2020 election in which Daines beat back a challenge from Bullock, and added that working in a...