It was through a series of controversial if not illegal temporary reappointments that William Perry Pendley, an anti-public lands extremist, ascended to the top of the Bureau of Land Management, an agency that oversees 245 million acres of federal land .

In late May, approximately two weeks before one of those controversial extensions was set to expire, Pendley a former property rights lawyer who spent his career arguing that public lands should not even exist crafted and signed an order to keep himself at the helm of the bureau indefinitely.

Seriously.

The order, which The Associated Press first reported on Wednesday, states that in the absence of a permanent Bureau of Land Management director, the directors authority and responsibility falls to none other than the bureaus deputy director of policy and programs, the position Pendley has held since last July.

Two weeks after Pendleys appointment to that position, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt elevated him to the role of acting director, and he has continued to lead the bureau for more than a year without ever having to face the scrutiny of a Senate confirmation process.