Close vote in Senate to bring BLM nominee to the floor

BLM nominee Tracy Stone-Manning has our support to lead BLM | Opinion -  Deseret News

 

After Sen. James Lankford and other Republicans on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee forced a tie vote on the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to head the Bureau of Land Management, the full Senate barely agreed to the procedural move to advance her nomination.

It was a 50-49 vote Tuesday with Lankford and Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe voting against the motion to discharge the nomination. Both are among Republicans who contend Stone-Manning lied to the committee and took part in tree-spiking in a Montana forest in the 1980s as part of environmental terrorism.

She maintained she was never under investigation for the incidents but documents and investigators who probed the case contend otherwise.

The Tuesday vote was necessary to bring the nomination to the full Senate floor.

In the Senate, it could come down to Vice President Harris deciding the issue. Senate Committee chairman Joe Manchin came out in support of Stone-Manning despite the evidence against her.