Becky Corrin

The former owner of an oil field services company, 78-year-old Steve Pierce, is a Trump loyalist who pushed conspiracy theories that there was widespread fraud in New Mexico in the 2020 election.

The main flashpoint over today's committee vote to lead the Bureau of Land Management rests on calls he once made as a congressman to sell off federal public lands to raise revenue.

That's widely unpopular in the West, including in his home state where Becky Corrin is a city councilor in Las Cruces.

He really looks at public lands in particular as places that should be bringing in more profit for corporations.

In a hearing last week, Pierce told senators he had no plans to push for selling public lands.

That's the purview of Congress.