The U.S. Secretary of Interior has extended the tenure of the Trump administration’s top steward of public lands, rebuffing calls by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado and other Democrats for his termination.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Monday extended William Perry Pendley’s role as Bureau of Land Management acting director to Jan. 3. Pendley’s appointment had been slated to expire Monday.

Pendley has been in the acting post since July. His permanent job with BLM is deputy director for policy and programs.

BLM administers 245 million acres of federal land across the West, including 8.3 million acres in Colorado.

Senate Democrats, including presidential candidates such as Bennet, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, had called for Pendley’s exit as acting director over his longstanding support for selling public lands.

Bennet, Sanders and Harris were among 12 senators who last week signed a letter asking Bernhardt to end Pendley’s tenure as acting BLM director, citing his past advocacy for selling off public lands and other issues.

“As the BLM considers a major reorganization, there is no reason for this effort to be led by an Acting Director who spent his career attempting to dismantle the agency,” the letter said. Keeping Mr. Pendley atop the BLM is an affront to all Americans who believe in the balanced, multiple use and sustained yield mission of the agency.”

Pendley, a Wyoming native who served as the Interior Department’s deputy assistant secretary for energy and minerals during the Reagan administration, was president of the Lakewood-based Mountain States Legal Foundation for nearly three decades.

As a property rights attorney, Pendley represented clients including mining, energy and agriculture interests. He championed ranchers and others in standoffs with the federal government over grazing and other uses of public lands.

He has written books accusing federal authorities and environmental advocates of “tyranny” and “waging war on the West.” He argued in a 2016 National Review article that the “Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold.”

Since becoming BLM’s acting chief, Pendley has said his past support for selling federal lands has little bearing on his new role, adding that he’s now in an administration that “adamantly opposes” the wholesale sale and transfer of public lands.

“I understand the chain of command. I understand and know how to follow orders,” Pendley told Montana radio station KBUL-AM. “I get it, so whatever I’ve said and done in the past is irrelevant.”

Earlier this month, Pendley recused himself from work involving dozens of former clients following conflict of interest allegations.

Monday, Bennet issued a statement decrying Bernhardt’s decision to extend Pendley’s acting-director role:

“The American people deserve better. Mr. Pendley’s views simply do not reflect Colorado’s values and commitment to conservation. Only this administration would allow someone like Mr. Pendley – who has spent his entire career advocating for the wide spread sale of public lands – to lead an agency responsible for maintaining our nation’s public lands, and fail to put forward a permanent nominee for such a vital position. It is hard to imagine an acting director more at odds with how Coloradans think about our economy and western way of life. Mr. Pendley has no business leading the BLM.”

BLM says it plans to move its headquarters and a small executive staff from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction. Earlier this month, BLM signed a lease agreement for office space in the western Colorado city in a building that also houses oil and gas interests.

Benhardt on Monday also extended the tenures of the acting heads of the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.

Colorado Politics and The Associated Press contributed.