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GAO-20-397R 1 (2020-03-06)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaeasx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAOU.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 March 6, 2020 The Honorable Rail Grijalva Chairman Committee on Natural Resources House of Representatives BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT: Agency's Reorganization Efforts Did Not Substantially Address Key Practices for Effective Reforms Dear Mr. Chairman: In July 2019, the Secretary of the Interior announced that the majority of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees assigned to the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., would be transferred to BLM offices in western states and that a new BLM headquarters would be established in Grand Junction, Colorado. According to BLM's fiscal year 2020 budget justification, its reorganization is part of the administration's efforts to reorganize federal agencies. Specifically, in March 2017, the President issued an Executive Order calling for a Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.1 In April 2017, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum directing executive branch agencies to submit reform plans to OMB by September 2017 and included detailed guidance on how agencies were to develop these reform plans.2 According to the Department of the Interior's (Interior) strategic plan, its reform plan-developed in response to the President's Executive Order-aimed to better enable managers and the workforce in the field to make decisions by realigning Interior bureaus into unified regions, and shifting the workforce closer to field locations, among other things.3 The budget requests for fiscal year 2020 for some Interior bureaus-including BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Geological Survey, National Park Service, and Bureau of Reclamation-stated that funds were requested to support the Interior reorganization. In addition, the requests submitted in support of the March 2019 budget request for Interior also stated that each of these agencies was assessing what headquarters functions could be delivered more effectively in western states and identifying staff and functions to be relocated.4 On May 8, 2019, Interior provided Congress with written notification of its intent to proceed with its reorganization, beginning with the decision to relocate BLM headquarters positions to western states. According to BLM 1Executive Order No. 13781, Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch, 82 Fed. Reg. 13959 (Mar. 13, 2017). 2Office of Management and Budget, Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal Civilian Workforce, OMB Memorandum M-1 7-22 (Washington, D.C.: 2017). 3Department of the Interior, Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2018-2022. The other bureaus that moved to unified regions are the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Office of the Solicitor, and the U.S. Geological Survey. The unified regions became final on August 22, 2018. 4Recently-released budget justifications for fiscal year 2021 for these bureaus do not include this language. GAO-20-397R Bureau of Land Management Page 1

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