The Bureau of Land Management has brought back a former senior official who had been moved out of the bureau during the first months of the Trump administration to help oversee the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars in Inflation Reduction Act funds.
Janine Velasco recently started a “short detail” at the BLM director’s office, a bureau spokesperson confirmed to E&E News, but declined to provide details.
Velasco, who has more than 30 years of experience at BLM and other federal agencies, will coordinate the bureau’s efforts to implement funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, said a senior Interior Department official granted anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss the issue.
Interior and the bureau have prioritized using the IRA funds to make investments in large-scale landscape restoration projects, renewable energy and transmission line permitting. IRA funding, which was approved by Congress in 2022, is also being used by BLM to hire 30 park rangers and outdoor recreation planners to help the bureau deal with increased visitation to the 245 million acres it manages.
make investments
to hire 30 park rangers and outdoor recreation planners
