[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 123 (Wednesday, July 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4875-S4876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



          Nominations of Tracy Stone-Manning and David Chipman

  Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss two troubling 
nominations by President Biden for positions that have very real 
impacts on my State of Wyoming and the people who live there.
  One of the simplest yet truest rules of governance is that personnel 
is policy. We have seen this rule play out over and over under 
President Biden.
  During last year's election, the media created a narrative that a 
Biden Presidency would unite the country with bipartisanship. That has 
not happened. Many of the President's policies have been extreme 
appeals to the far left and decidedly hostile to our way of life in 
Wyoming and the West.
  I believe much of this can be traced to the people with whom he has 
surrounded himself and to those he has appointed. That is why I am so 
concerned about two of the President's nominees that the Senate is 
considering.
  First, there is Tracy Stone-Manning, President Biden's nominee to 
serve as

[[Page S4876]]

Director of the Bureau of Land Management. I am particularly interested 
in this nomination because the BLM manages about 18 million acres in 
Wyoming and huge tracts of land throughout the West. In fact, 90 
percent of Federal and public land is west of the Mississippi.
  We need a land manager who understands, respects, and implements 
multiple use of public lands with which Americans in the West are 
particularly accustomed.
  The BLM has historically managed for multiple use, which is, in many 
cases, required by law. Under Ms. Stone-Manning, I am very concerned 
that multiple-use principles will change. The reason is quite simple. 
This nominee is a radical. She has been involved with ecoterrorists in 
the past, including a tree-spiking incident in Idaho.
  Her extremist ties and past activism have even led a former Obama BLM 
Director to withdraw his support for her. Wyoming and other States in 
the West would be completely hamstrung if BLM land policy changed. 
Given Ms. Stone-Manning's militant history, I am not sure she would 
care.
  Then there is David Chipman, President Biden's nominee to lead the 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. One would be hard-
pressed to identify a worse candidate for the job.
  According to reports, Chipman may have lost his own gun while serving 
as an ATF agent. He also failed twice to define the term ``assault 
weapon'' during his confirmation hearing. This level of 
irresponsibility and lack of basic firearms knowledge is hardly an 
endorsement for someone tasked with overseeing gun use in the United 
States.
  Chipman has also reportedly accused Black Americans who were 
successful on an ATF test of cheating because, in his opinion, too many 
were passing the test.
  Let's be real. This kind of discrimination would tank a Republican 
candidate.
  Mr. Chipman has also endorsed efforts to defund the police and has 
supported the science fiction-sounding notion of precrime arrests. His 
idea of effective law enforcement would be to arrest people before they 
commit crimes.
  I came to Washington to solve real problems and get things done. I 
don't care if the solutions come from the right or the left. I am here 
to support good legislation and good policy. That is why I have backed 
President Biden's decision to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. 
That is why I have supported many of his nominees with whom I may 
disagree on some policy points, but they are nonetheless qualified for 
the roles--nominees including Janet Yellen, Pete Buttigieg, and Gary 
Gensler.
  But based on their past experience and expressed behavior, Tracy 
Stone-Manning and David Chipman have disqualified themselves and are 
direct contradictions to the bipartisanship and unity that President 
Biden called for and promised in his inaugural address.
  If these extremist nominees are confirmed, they will direct their 
respective agencies toward ends that are actively and openly hostile to 
the Wyoming way of life that I am here in Washington to support and 
defend.
  I call on President Biden to withdraw these names and, instead, send 
us nominees for these positions who better reflect the bipartisan 
reputation the President spent decades cultivating in this Senate. If 
the President does not withdraw these nominees, I strongly urge my 
colleagues to vote to reject them.
  I yield the floor
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The senior Senator from Arkansas.