News outlets are reporting that Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a five-term Republican representative from eastern Washington state and chair of the House GOP Conference, is to be tapped to lead the Department of the Interior.
McMorris Rodgers serves as vice chair of the Trump transition team and the highest-ranking woman in Republican leadership. The Hill says that her office is declining to comment.
If confirmed by the Senate, McMorris Rodgers would lead the 70,000-employee, $12 billion Interior Department, which manages federal lands for both preservation and energy and mineral development, controls offshore drilling and oversees national parks.
She would be Trump’s point person on public lands energy development, something Trump said he wants to expand as president.
Trump opposes the Obama administration’s moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands and, in a September speech, proposed a “top-down review of all anti-coal regulations issued by the Obama administration,” an effort that would include the Interior Department.
Trump’s transition website said he “will encourage the production of [fossil fuels] by opening onshore and offshore leasing on federal lands and waters.”
Trump, though, has professed a view of federal land ownership that is relatively moderate compared to some conservatives.
She received IWF's Barbara K. Olson Woman of Valor award in 2013.
She would join another IWF Woman of Valor, Elaine Chao, who has been nominated for Transportation secretary, in a Trump Cabinet.