Final confirmation vote in the coming days

Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

The United States Senate on Monday voted 46-45 to advance Republican Steve Pearce, a former New Mexico congressman, in a procedural vote that brings him one step closer to leading the federal Bureau of Land Management agency. 

Pearce, who represented New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District from 2011 to 2019 and led the state Republican party for several terms, will face a confirmation vote in the coming days to  lead an agency that oversees 245 million acres of public lands — including for recreation, cattle grazing and extraction of oil and natural gas — at a time when President Donald Trump is increasingly seeking to expand domestic energy production and roll back environmental protections.

Before becoming a New Mexico congressman, Pearce founded an oil and gas company in southern New Mexico. He divested from multiple oil companies and related firms when he accepted President Donald Trump’s nomination last November.

Trump’s nomination drew swift condemnation from environmental groups that pointed to Pearce’s record in Congress, including his co-sponsoring of bills undermining the Antiquities Act, which allows the president to designate national monuments, as well as his support of national forests to industry.

Following a contentious committee hearing in February, the Senate’s procedural vote Monday to advance Pearce’s confirmation Monday was anti-climatic. He was among 49 nominees that the Senate agreed to advance in a single vote over the course of roughly an hour late Monday afternoon. 

Adan Serna, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), told Source NM on Monday evening that the “most likely” path for Pearce’s official confirmation will be similar to the vote senators took Monday, with his confirmation among dozens of others voted on at the same time.

Heinrich (D-N.M.) is the ranking member of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which voted along party lines in early March to send Pearce’s nomination to the full Senate for confirmation. 

While Heinrich did not immediately comment on Pearce’s advancement toward confirmation Monday afternoon, he previously said he voted against him because he “cannot ignore” Pearce’s record in Congress, including opposing national monument designations and urging public land sell-offs.  

Those actions “remain in the memory of every New Mexican who faced his opposition in order to protect the lands they cherish,” Heinrich said March 2.

The BLM manages more than 13 million acres across New Mexico. 

Earlier Monday, the agency announced it was officially canceling the “Public Land Rule,” which required the agency to give equal consideration to conservation as it does for natural resource extraction when making land-use decisions.

Patrick Lohmann is a reporter for Source New Mexico.