Watchdog questions BLM’s attempts at ‘culture change’

By Scott Streater | 03/18/2024 01:36 PM EDT

At issue are results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, in which 5,700 employees participated.

Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning prepares to testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 29, 2023.

Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning prepares to testify on Capitol Hill on March 29, 2023. Francis Chung/POLITICO

A watchdog group released a report Monday highly critical of the Bureau of Land Management and its attempts to improve its culture over the past three years.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, released the results of a 2023 federal survey that it says was never fully shared with BLM employees.

A BLM spokesperson declined to comment on the report, but the spokesperson pushed back against accusations it withheld survey results, saying in an email that the “results were broadly shared bureau-wide.”

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That Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey obtained by PEER, in which 5,700 BLM employees responded, is mostly a mixed bag in which bureau respondents view their agency as a good place to work, with 69 percent saying they recommend it.

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