FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

September 28, 2020

MCV asks Daines for hearing on “constitutional failures’ of Pendley debacle

‘You chose to remain quiet as an agency you oversee violated the Constitution,’ group’s director tells Senator

(BILLINGS, Mont.) – Montana Conservation Voters is asking U.S. Senator Steve Daines to hold a “formal and immediate hearing examining the failures of” the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee following a judge’s removal of the “unlawful” Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Daines is Montana’s only member of the Committee, which has oversight of the BLM and the U.S. Interior Department.

U.S. Chief District Judge Brian Morris on Friday found that the BLM’s controversial acting director, William Perry Pendley, “served unlawfully as Acting BLM Director for 424 days,” and further instructed Pendley to stop “exercising authority of BLM Director.”

Pendley, a longtime advocate of selling off federally owned public lands, has not been confirmed by the Senate, as required by the U.S. Constitution, since he took over as Acting Director in July of 2019. Though the White House formally nominated Pendley for the position earlier this summer, it pulled the nomination in mid-August, “apparently in anticipation of what would have been an illuminating hearing examining” Pendley’s unpopular record.

“On behalf of MCV’s members and all Montanans who are concerned about the future of our federally owned public lands, we have long held the position that the U.S. Senate failed to follow the U.S. Constitution by choosing not to confirm Mr. Pendley, despite Mr. Pendley’s long and troubling record of willfully advocating for the selloff of publicly owned land,” MCV Executive Director Aaron Murphy wrote to Daines on Monday. “Despite your oversight role, you have not taken any public action to remove, replace or even question Mr. Pendley and his unlawful role at BLM, despite numerous requests by the Montanans you represent.”

“You chose to remain quiet as an agency you oversee violated the Constitution you claim to support,” Murphy added.

MCV’s letter to Daines is online HERE.

MCV in August launched a statewide campaign, StopPendley.org, to raise awareness about Pendley’s unlawful tenure at the BLM. The campaign included a petition to Daines and this powerful TV ad urging Montanans to contact Daines about Pendley.

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