16. Department of the Interior · Notable
Move BLM headquarters back to the American West
Printed page 524 16. Department of the Interior
“BLM Headquarters. BLM headquarters belongs in the American West. After all, the overwhelming majority of the 245 million surface acres (10 percent of the nation’s landmass) managed by the agency lies in the 11 western states and Alaska: A mere 50,000 surface acres lie elsewhere. Moreover, 97 percent of BLM employees are located in the American West.”
What has happened
- Not started
No relocation of BLM headquarters was found. Interior's Secretary's Orders series through SO 3453 contains no order moving it and no reinstatement of SO 3382; the Federal Register corpus for the window has no BLM headquarters notice; BLM's FY2027 congressional justification refers to "the BLM Headquarters Offices" without proposing a move and does not mention Grand Junction at all; and Interior's 2025–2026 press releases record no announcement. The Department's reorganization in the window has run through SO 3429 (consolidation of administrative functions into the Office of the Secretary, 2025-04-17) and the April 2026 "strategic initiative", neither of which relocates a bureau headquarters west.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
SO 3382 moved BLM’s headquarters to Grand Junction in 2019; the Biden administration moved it back to Washington in 2021 and kept Grand Junction as a “Western headquarters”. Nothing in the window moves it west again.
- Action
- transfer
- Object
- Bureau of Land Management headquarters
- ID
- 1480