DOI Staff Prevented from Attending Scientific Conference

DOI Staff Prevented from Attending Scientific Conference

On May 3, 2018, the Washington Post reported that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) prevented at least 14 staff from attending the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to the report, 17 BLM staff had been scheduled to participate in the meeting, but only 3 were allowed to attend. Several of those prevented from attending had been scheduled to speak at a symposium titled “Tough Issues in Land Management Archaeology” which had to be cancelled due to the lack of participation by government scientists.

A BLM spokesperson indicated that officials reviewed “the conference topics and agenda, and . . . sent the people who could best represent the BLM.” Officials decided to allow only 3 BLM staff to attend due to “the potential travel and other costs” of the trips.