Acting interior Secretary David Bernhardt is Trump's pick for the full-time job
President Trump's very empty cabinet has a potential new addition.
Trump announced Monday he'd soon nominate David Bernhardt to be the next Secretary of the Interior. The former deputy Interior Secretary has been serving as acting Interior Secretary for the past month ever since Ryan Zinke left the top spot in the new year.
I am pleased to announce that David Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Interior, will be nominated as Secretary of the Interior. David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2019
Bernhardt worked in the interior department under former President George W. Bush, and was a lawyer and lobbyist for the coal and mining industries after that. The announcement comes as four other Cabinet-level positions remain empty, with two nominees stalled in confirmation proceedings. Another potential Cabinet official, Trump's pick to serve as U.N. ambassador, was announced in December but hasn't actually been nominated.
The news also comes just a day after Trump told CBS News that he prefers acting secretaries to permanent ones, despite the concern that anything a non-Senate-confirmed official does can be called into legal question.