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Two top officials in the Trump Administration testified on Capitol Hill this week that the proposed Colorado Outdoor Recreation & Economy (CORE) Act would greatly restrict the potential future development of key energy and mineral resources and undermine the nation’s energy dominance strategy.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is encouraging people to practice social distancing in the great outdoors, announcing that it was temporarily suspending entrance fees for public lands across the country. While this is good news for the broader public, the possibility of a surge of visitors underscores the need to adequately fund park maintenance—a problem the U.S. Senate appeared on the verge of addressing before the epidemic reached the U.S.

A major national parks funding bill moved closer to a vote by the full U.S. House of Representatives this week after a key procedural move by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.).

The Congressional Western Caucus is calling on Congress to modernize the Endangered Species Act and released a draft legislative package of 19 bills that they say will do just that during a roundtable discussion this week.

Nearly 30 years after serving in Ronald Reagan’s administration, William Perry Pendley is back at the Interior Department, this time as acting director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Speaking by phone one floor down from his old office, Pendley told Western Wire he is looking forward to tackling a new set of challenges.

The BLM has never belonged in Washington. It manages 247 million acres, almost half of all public lands, and 700 million acres of mineral rights, with a unique mission. The National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service, for instance, all have very specific uses, but the BLM is tasked with managing its lands for multiple uses, in numerous categories and under a wide variety of laws.

A 10-year old agreement between Colorado and the federal government was recently extended, bringing at least a temporary end to uncertainty about how oil and gas production on the Western Slope would be regulated. The BLM also told Western Wire today that a new MOU is in the works.