NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce to serve as the director of the Bureau of Land Management.
BLM, which falls under the Interior Department, manages 245 million acres of public lands and 700 million acres of mineral estate across the United States.
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The president’s nomination is heading to the Senate for approval. Earlier this year, President Trump nominated Kathleen Sgamma of Colorado to the role; however, she withdrew her nomination after it came out that she criticized the Republican president in 2021 for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Tracy Stone-Manning of Montana, nominated by former President Joe Biden, was the last confirmed director of BLM and resigned in January.
Pearce was born in Lamesa, Texas, and later attended Hobbs High School in New Mexico before graduating from New Mexico State University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He later went on to earn his MBA from Eastern New Mexico University.
He also served as a combat pilot during the Vietnam War and was honorably discharged with the rank of captain.
Pearce served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2019. In 2018, he ran for governor and lost to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who remains in the role today. Pearce is also the former chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico, a position he held for six years.
