Latest news with #MikeNedd
E&E News
4 days ago
- General
- E&E News
Removal of top BLM official leaves leadership vacuum
The dramatic removal of Mike Nedd, the Bureau of Land Management's top career official who was escorted out of the Interior Department's headquarters this week, left a crater-sized hole in BLM's leadership team. All three of BLM's deputy directors positions are now vacant, through either attrition, transfer, or in Nedd's case, placement on administrative leave under still-mysterious circumstances. Multiple people familiar with the situation, granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, have said he is on leave. Right now, the BLM director is also a temporary leader. Advertisement Nedd's deputy director position is a big job, overseeing roughly 9,000 staffers who manage 245 million acres of federal rangelands, mostly in the West and Alaska.
E&E News
7 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
BLM removes top career official
The top career official at the Bureau of Land Management was removed Tuesday from the Interior Department headquarters and placed on administrative leave, according to three people familiar with the situation granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Mike Nedd, the deputy director of administration and programs responsible for overseeing BLM's 9,000 employees and the bureau's day-to-day operations, declined to comment on his removal. BLM also declined to comment. The Washington Post and POLITICO also reported on Nedd's removal. Advertisement Nedd's placement on administrative leave comes days after POLITICO reported that the deputy director had instructed BLM staffers to ignore an internal memorandum placing a freeze on employee reassignments or changes to work locations as part of Interior's ongoing efforts to determine what positions and staff could be cut in layoffs. That internal memo was issued by Stephanie Holmes — Interior's acting chief human capital officer and a former member of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. An Interior spokesperson last week said Nedd had not told BLM employees to disregard Holmes' memo. Nedd was named to the top career position at the bureau in 2019, during the first Trump administration. Earlier this month, an administrative law judge also overturned Nedd's 2021 decision to remove Eric Kriley from his post as BLM's former top cop. Kriley had accused Nedd of trying to improperly exert influence over internal investigations. The decision by Administrative Judge Evan Roth with the Merit Systems Protection Board retroactively put Kirley back in his position as director of BLM's Office of Law Enforcement and Security. Roth's decision concluded that Kriley qualifies for federal whistleblower protections and that Nedd — a former Army special operations officer with nearly 40 years of federal service — gave conflicting statements about when he decided to remove Kriley from his post during a deposition and a later hearing before the judge. Reporter Robin Bravender contributed to this story. Scott Streater can be reached on Signal at s_streater.80.
