Biden-appointed GOP lawmakers who have accepted ENGO jobs are demanding they remove themselves from pending business

First on Fox: Republican lawmakers are demanding the appointment of politicians whose roles have previously been announced abroad Environmental organizations next year to distance themselves from pending business, citing “conflict of interest” concerns.

In a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Tuesday, first shared with Fox News Digital, the Congressional Western Caucus called on the agency to identify people who plan to join an environmental nongovernmental organization (ENGO) and that they withdraw themselves. Of the pending work in their current government role. The caucus, made up almost exclusively of Republicans, seeks to be “a voice for rural America,” according to its website.

The letter specifically mentioned President Biden’s BLM Director, Tracy Stone Manning, who recently announced that after the administration ends, she will take on the role of president of the Wilderness Society, an environmental group that works against development, such as mining and drilling, in 2018. Public lands.

“Although we were not surprised to learn of this career move, we are deeply concerned about the conflicts of interest that have arisen given the competing duties of her current job and her future job,” the letter said.

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Given the Wildlife Society’s “goals and practices,” her new position poses a conflict with Stone Manning leading the state agency, the letter said.

“Over the past four years, the American West has suffered greatly as BLM has imposed policies straight from the playbook of a BLM director’s future employer,” the lawmakers wrote about The Wilderness Society. “Across the West, those who live near and depend on public lands for their economic livelihood have suffered from new resource management plans that choose conservation rather than multiple use.”

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Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, who led Tuesday’s letter along with Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital in a statement that BLM should not conflict with the public’s interests.

“The BLM’s role is to equitably administer the multiple-use mandate for America’s public lands, a mission that conflicts with the agenda of extremist environmental groups who want to lock up our lands,” Newhouse said in a joint statement with Fox. “For this reason, I have joined my colleagues in asking that any political appointees at the agency remove themselves from pending official business if they accept future positions at environmental NGOs because this represents a conflict of interest.”

Other Republicans The letter was signed by Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, Steve Daines of Montana, and Mike Lee of Utah, along with Representatives Doug LaMalfa of California, executive vice president of the Western Caucus, and Ryan Zinke of Montana.

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Fox News Digital reached out to BLM for comment but did not receive a response by press time.