Published: May 19, 2026 |

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Former southern New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce, 78, was confirmed Monday as the first Senate-confirmed director of the Bureau of Land Management under President Donald Trump.

The final confirmation vote took place on the U.S. Senate floor in Washington, although there were premature reports of the confirmation a week ago based on a final procedural vote closing debate on a bloc of 49 nominations, including Pearce’s.

The outcome was in little doubt, given Republicans’ majority in the Senate. The nominations were confirmed on a party-line vote of 46-43. New Mexico’s two senators, Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, both Democrats, voted no.

President Donald Trump nominated Pearce to the position in November.

“Steve Pearce has spent decades fighting for the people of New Mexico, and there is no one better suited to understand the unique needs of our state, our industries, and our communities,” state Republican chairwoman Amy Barela said in a statement last week.

At the BLM, Pearce will be responsible for an agency overseeing some 245 million acres of public lands across the U.S., including 13.5 million acres in New Mexico plus 42 million acres of federal oil, natural gas and minerals within the state as well as 2,200 livestock grazing allotments. It also oversees management of national monuments and conservation areas.

The BLM is organized under the U.S. Department of the Interior, headed by Secretary Doug Burgum.

Royalties from oil and gas production on BLM-managed lands in New Mexico are a crucial share of New Mexico’s annual revenue, and permits to graze cattle on public land are a major priority for livestock producers.

“Having someone at the helm of this agency who is from New Mexico and values the relationship our citizens have with the land is critical for the long-term success of our farmers and ranchers,” state Senate Minority Whip Pat Woods, R-Broadview, said last week.

Pearce is also known for having supported sell-offs of public land in the past and for opposing the designation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, which President Barack Obama established in 2014.

When Pearce appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee earlier this year, he acknowledged that the BLM does not have authority to sell off public lands in large quantities and said Burgum “does not visualize any large-scale sales of land.”

The vote followed the Interior Department’s announcement a week ago that it would scrap BLM’s Biden-era public land rule requiring land use decisions to consider conservation and potential development for mining, timber, grazing, and other uses with equal weight, a move critics say will make millions of federal acres easier to deliver to extractive industries.

Pearce promised in a December letter to a federal ethics administrator that he would step down as president and board member of oil services company, Trinity Industries, upon confirmation, though his wife would continue to operate the business as president; and resign as managing member of two other Hobbs-based companies he jointly owns with his wife.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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