George Washington University
William Perry Pendley went to which school from 1967 to 1968?
William Perry Pendley William Perry Pendley is an American attorney , conservative activist , political commentator , and government official who served as the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management from 2019 to 2020 . Pendley was appointed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt as a Deputy Director of the Bureau of Land Management in July 2019 . He was elevated to acting director less than a month afterward . Pendley is one of a number of high-ranking acting officials carrying out official duties in the Trump administration who have not been confirmed by the Senate . No BLM director has been confirmed by the Senate during Trumps presidency . U.S . District Judge Brian Morris ruled on September 25 , 2020 , that Pendley had served unlawfully for 424 days and blocked him from continuing , although Pendley refused to acknowledge the ruling ; still , Pendley moved to another role that was not the directorship . Early life and education . Pendley is a native of Cheyenne , Wyoming . Pendley received Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in economics and political science from George Washington University in Washington , D.C . He received a Juris Doctor from the University of Wyoming College of Law . He was a captain in the United States Marine Corps . Career . During the Reagan administration , Pendley was a deputy interior secretary for energy and minerals under James G . Watt . Pendley was reassigned in 1984 when a federal commission faulted him , along with other high-ranking officials , in the underpricing of coal-mining leases in the Powder River Basin , the largest such federal sale in history . Prior to joining the Department of the Interior , Pendley worked as a Legislative Assistant to former Wyoming Senator Clifford Hansen , and as Minority Counsel to the United States House Committee on Mines and Mining of the United States House Committee on Insular Affairs . Pendley is formerly a longtime president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation , a conservative Colorado-based group that advocates for selling off federal land in the West . He has written several books opposing government regulation of Western lands . Pendley has sued against the Endangered Species Act of 1973 , has called the science of climate change junk science , and has written that climate change believers are kooks . He falsely claimed in 1992 that there was no credible evidence of a hole in the ozone layer . In a July 2017 speech to conservative activists , he joked about the killing of endangered species . Pendley has also made controversial public comments on some issues unrelated to conservation . In a 2007 fundraising letter , he wrote that illegal immigration was spreading like a cancer . In 2017 , he wrote that the Black Lives Matter movement was based on a terrible lie because Michael Brown had not said Hands up , dont shoot before he was killed by a police officer . Trump administration . Pendley was appointed to deputy director and then acting director of the Bureau of Land Management in 2019 . His role as acting director of BLM was controversial , given that Pendley had previously advocated for selling off federal lands . He said he would not pursue mass land sales that he had previously campaigned for , because the president has made it very clear that we do not believe in the wholesale transfer of federal lands . He released a list of nearly five dozen former clients , including oil , mining and agriculture interests , that he would recuse himself from decisions on for a year or two . Opponents of Pendleys appointment include the Sierra Club ; the Wilderness Society ; Backcountry Hunters & Anglers ; the CEO of the Patagonia clothing company ; Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ; Sen . Martin Heinrich , Democrat of New Mexico ; and Joe Biden , the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate . His supporters include Sen . Steve Daines , Republican of Montana . In the Trump administration , Pendley has been overseeing the relocation of Bureau of Land Management jobs out of Washington , D.C. , to Western states . Pendley said that he would prefer to relocate to Grand Junction , Colorado , but his own job was one of 61 identified as needing to be kept in Washington . Congress rejected funding for the relocations , and Rep . Raúl Grijalva of Arizona , the Democratic chair of the House Natural Resources Committee , said that Congress would investigate whether the plan was appropriate . In December 2019 , Pendley wrote that nearly two-thirds of the 153 employees told to move out of Washington had agreed to relocate . U.S . Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt officially established the bureaus headquarters as Grand Junction on August 11 , 2020 . Pendley said the biggest threat to U.S . public lands is wild horses and burros causing havoc . On December 30 , 2019 , 91 groups with connections to public lands sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Bernhardt demanding that Pendley resign or be removed from office for alleged conflict of interest . The Interior Department called the groups who signed the letter environmental extremists . The day afterward , Bernhardt acted to extend Pendleys tenure through April 2020 . Bernhardt has repeatedly issued orders extending Pendleys tenure in an acting capacity , bypassing a Senate confirmation process . In May 2020 , two activist groups , Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watersheds Project , sued over Bernhardts ongoing appointments of Pendley to run the BLM and David Vela to lead the National Park Service . In June 2020 , an unwritten order by Bernhardt extended Pendleys acting appointment indefinitely . On June 26 , 2020 , Trump said he planned to nominate Pendley for confirmation by the Senate , a move that CNN said might give Pendley firmer legal footing to continue on an interim basis . On August 15 , 2020 , administration officials said the nomination would be withdrawn . Pendley continued leading BLM . On September 8 , 2020 , the nomination was formally withdrawn . Pendley was ordered to leave his position by U.S . District Judge Brian Morris on September 25 , 2020 , after Governor Steve Bullock of Montana sued in federal court . The Interior Department said it would appeal the ruling , and Pendley refused to resign , suggesting that Judge Morriss ruling had No impact , no impact whatsoever . Pendley said in an October 2020 press conference that he couldnt be ousted because he was never officially named acting director , and that he acted instead as deputy director for policy and programs . Personal life . Pendley and his wife live in Evergreen , Colorado , and he also rents an apartment in Washington , D.C .