Daines dodges BLM nominee’s anti-conservation voting record, indicates support for Pearce

In a confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Montana Sen. Steve Daines said he “secured commitments for Montana priorities,” but offered a rosy view of Stevan Pearce’s record, ignoring key votes against conservation funding measures. 

The BLM oversees 245 million acres of federal land — including more than 8.3 million in Montana and the Dakotas — along with 700 million acres of subsurface rights for extraction and energy development, putting the nomination of its director directly in the crosshairs of energy developers and outdoor industry groups.

In Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, lawmakers probed former Republican New Mexico Rep. Pearce for his statements supporting the selloff of federal public lands as well as his close ties to the fossil fuel industry. 

Public land sales have been a flashpoint in Congress during the last year, and numerous conservation and outdoor groups have expressed opposition to Pearce’s nomination. But Daines focused his questioning time on another prominent conservation issue — the Land and Water Conservation Fund. 

“If confirmed, will you continue your support for expanding hunting, fishing, and recreation access on BLM lands through the LWCF program,” Daines asked Pearce, who replied, “absolutely.”

The LWCF was established in 1964 to use oil and gas royalties to support public access to and protection for federal public lands and water. It also provides grants to state governments to acquire and develop land for public parks and other recreation sites. 

In 2020, Daines sponsored and passed the Great American Outdoors Act which mandates permanent funding — $900 million — for LWCF, which Daines said during the hearing was “the greatest conservation win in 50 years.” In 2020, Daines was campaigning for re-election, and he will again be on the ballot in November. 

In his lead up to his question for Pearce, Daines expounded on the importance of LWCF funding to Montanans. 

He lauded the work done by Pearce in Congress, saying he had sponsored a number of natural resources bills, including the “Making Public Lands Public Act, “which directed a portion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund for increasing public access for hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting.” In his comments, Daines gave credit and a positive voting record on LWCF funding to Pearce, though that bill never received a committing hearing, nor did it ever get a consponsor.

“Seventy-five percent of our fishing access sites were funded by LWCF,” Daines said. “We have access to these amazing rivers and streams because of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and it’s been successfully used to unlock access to public lands that prior were inaccessible due to checkerboard land ownership.”

The League of Conservation Voters, a national organization that advocates for environmental and conservation policy, gave Pearce a lifetime score of 4% for his history of voting against environmental policies. 

Among the votes highlighted by LCV are several on the Land and Conservation Fund. Pearce opposed supporting the fund in all three votes. 

Daines’ office did not respond to a series of questions about Pearce’s record and why he did not probe deeper into LWCF-related votes when asking for public support, given his statements about the fund’s importance to Montana constituents. 

During his time in the House, Pearce voted against LWCF funding three times. 

In 2011, an amendment to H.R. 1, brought by Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis, sought to reduce funding under the LCWF. The amendment failed, but Pearce voted to support it. 

In 2016, the House voted on a resolution by Arizona Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva sponsored a motion to include permanent funding of LWCF into a larger bill. The motion failed, with Pearce voting against it, but Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican, bucked a majority of his party to vote for the motion.  

And in 2018, an amendment brought by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, sought to divert LWCF funding to the National Park Service maintenance backlog. Pearce voted for the amendment, which ultimately failed. Then-Rep. Greg Gianforte of Montana voted against the amendment. 

Daines did not publicly press Pearce about this history when seeking a commitment for future support. 

Daines has previously expressed public support for Pearce’s nomination, and confirmed that on Wednesday.

“I truly look forward to working with each one of you once you are confirmed,” Daines told all three individuals receiving committee hearings. 

Selling public lands

The main line of questions for Pearce from the Senate committee members revolved around public land sales and while the nominee gave the committee commitments that he would not push to sell public land, he was not firm in his opposition to the idea in general. 

Pearce has previously advocated for selling federal lands, once saying that of the federal lands in the West, “most of it we do not even need.”

“Is that something you said some time ago and you no longer believe?” asked Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. 

Pearce responded that the statement was made when he represented a district that was “at odds with federal agencies many times because the management of those lands is sometimes not as well done as it should be and local people pay the price.”

“I don’t visualize selling large swaths of land,” Pearce added. 

But when pressed by Wyden if he had a different opinion on not needing federal land, Pearce said he is “not so sure that I’ve changed.”

The hearing was led by Sen. Mike Lee — a Utah Republican who tried to include federal land selloffs in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill until opposition, including from Montana’s delegation, led him to remove it — who often reminded his colleagues that current federal policy doesn’t allow for large-scale divestment of public lands. Pearce agreed with that position, saying he would “follow the law completely,” and in all cases seek “local input.”

But the bipartisan opposition to the idea was prominently on display in the committee.  

Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch said he is a “one-issue guy,” on Pearce’s appointment, and re-emphasized that the BLM director, and the president, have no authority to sell off public lands. 

“This is a 98% issue in Idaho,” Risch said. “In all my decades of serving the state, I’ve never received such passionate and unified messages as I have on this particular topic. Idahoans do not want their public lands sold period. Full stop. Public lands are really part of us. They are really sacred to us. So any hint that that could happen really raises the ire of people.”

The committee did not vote on Pearce’s nomination. 

Following the hearing, conservation and outdoors groups from Montana expressed frustration with the hearing and emphasized their opposition to Pearce.

“Today, Mr. Pearce wisely sought to do everything he could to distance himself from his previous anti-public land positions, the unpopularity of which have never been clearer. But Montana hunters and anglers aren’t buying it,” Mike Mershon, board chairman of the Montana Wildlife Federation, said in a statement. “We want to see conservation values represented in the management of these lands, including the eight million acres of BLM lands in Montana. And we believe actions speak louder than words. For good reason, 75% of Montanans oppose the Pearce nomination, and we ask Senator Steve Daines and Senator Tim Sheehy to reflect the will of their constituents.”

But energy and extraction industry groups praised Pearce’s hearing and their support for his future leadership of the BLM. 

“Steve Pearce is exactly the kind of experienced, principled leader we need at the helm of the Bureau of Land Management,” Melissa Simpson, president of Western Energy Alliance, said in a statement. “Growing up and building a small oilfield services business in New Mexico, he understands firsthand how sound BLM policies support both family-wage jobs and responsible development on our nation’s public lands.”