NPR

BLM Acting Director Defends Agency's Controversial Move To Colorado

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's acting chief says the decision to relocate the agency's headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colo., means "locals can come and see us."
Acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley stands in the mostly empty suite of offices at the agency's new planned headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo.

The Bureau of Land Management's new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo., is a long 1,900 miles away from Washington, D.C.

In the small western Colorado city, it's impossible to ignore you are surrounded by federal public land: the towering mesas, red rock canyons and the Colorado National Monument.

It's also hard to miss the other tenants the agency shares office space with in its new building on the northern edge of town. There's Chevron upstairs. On the main floor, right next door to BLM's new glass entryway, is

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