Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, President Joe Biden’s historic Cabinet pick, has been at her new post only since mid-March, but she’s already making good on her promise to visit Utah ahead of issuing recommendations on national monuments in the state.
READ: Utah leaders welcome Interior Secretary's decision to visit Utah
Haaland will be in the Beehive State next week, the Interior Department announced Wednesday, and will journey as well to New Mexico, which she previously represented as a Democratic member of the U.S. House.
During her Senate confirmation hearing in February, Haaland vowed to take the trip as part of her review of the boundaries for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante national monuments in southern Utah, which were reduced by more than 2 million total acres in 2017 by then-President Donald Trump.
Biden initiated a review of the monuments on his first day in office when he signed an executive order directing his administration to examine the boundaries of Bears Ears, which was first designated by then-President Barack Obama in 2016.
Details of Haaland’s itinerary, including exact timing and planned stops, had not been made public as of Thursday.
