"The administration failed to follow key practices to show the reason for reforming a workplace and why employees were asked to relocate"

"In a move that threatened to tear parents from their children and pull married couples apart, the Trump administration relocated more than 300 Interior Department jobs from the District of Columbia to cities in the West without fully supporting its reasons for doing so, a federal government watchdog group said Friday.

The administration’s assertion that moving the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters nearly 2,000 miles away to Grand Junction, Colo., and other areas would “maximize services to the American people” was among several assumptions the Interior Department failed to explain, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Officials at BLM said relocating its headquarters to the region where its services are delivered would increase “BLM’s presence closest to the resources” the agency manages. The bureau oversees 245 million acres of federal land and a vast array of underground energy resources mostly in 12 Western states. Relocation would improve management, oversight, communications and customer services, the officials said."

Darryl Fears reports for the Washington Post March 6, 2020. [2]