William Perry Pendley Introduction

William Perry Pendley

Post Office Box 1983

Evergreen, Colorado 80439

sagebrushrebel@reagan.com; 303-324-7254

William Perry Pendley was born and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming. From July 2019 to January 20, 2021, he was Deputy Director, Policy and Programs, of the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior and was responsible for its 10,000 employees who manage 245 million acres of federal land, mostly in the West and Alaska. Before joining the Trump administration, he led Mountain States Legal Foundation for nearly 30 years and took it from the verge of bankruptcy to a renowned nonprofit, public-interest law firm with its own headquarters, $10 million in the bank, and many landmark victories for its diverse pro bono clients, including his three trips to the Supreme Court of the United States in a historic civil rights case.

He received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics and Political Science from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., was a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, and received his J.D. from the University of Wyoming, College of Law. He was an attorney to U.S. Senator Clifford P. Hansen (R-Wyoming) and to the U.S. House of Representatives Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. During the Reagan administration, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and Minerals of the U.S. Department of the Interior, where he authored President Reagan's National Minerals Policy, initiated the Exclusive Economic Zone proclamation, and ensured an honorable memorial to Vietnam War veterans. Prior to returning to the West, he was a consultant to Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman, Jr., and practiced law in northern Virginia.

Admitted to the bars of Colorado, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Wyoming, he appears often on radio and television as an expert, authored hundreds of op-eds, and published five books about the West, most notably, Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today (2013).