President Donald Trump's nominee to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land has withdrawn her nomination following revelations that she criticized the Republican president in 2021 for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The withdrawal of Kathleen Sgamma to lead the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management was announced Thursday at the start of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
A former interior secretary under Trump, David Bernhardt, said her withdrawal was "self-inflicted," and he included a link to a website that posted her 2021 comments. Bernhardt suggested that people whose views don't align with Trump's should not seek political appointments.
"I am disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump's role in spreading misinformation that incited it," Sgamma said in the comments earlier reported by Documented, which describes itself as a watchdog journalism project.
The Associated Press left a telephone message with Sgamma seeking comment.
The longtime oil and gas industry representative appeared well-poised to carry out Trump's plans to roll back restrictions on energy development, including in Western states where the land bureau has vast holdings. The agency also oversees mining, grazing and recreation.
Sgamma's withdrawal underscored the Trump administration's creation of a "loyalty test" to weed out subordinates who are out of step with him, said Aaron Weiss with the left-leaving Center for Western Priorities.
"That's the world we're in — if that's what happened — where being sane and acknowledging reality with the White House is enough to sink a nomination," he said.
The Bureau of Land Management plays a central role in a long-running debate over the best use of government-owned lands, and its policies have swung sharply as control of the White House has shifted between Republicans and Democrats. Under former President Joe Biden, it curbed oil drilling and coal mining on federal lands while expanding renewable power.
Trump is reversing the land bureau's course yet again.
On Thursday, officials announced that they will not comprehensively analyze environmental impacts from oil and gas leases on a combined 5,500 square miles (14,100 square kilometers) of bureau land in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The leases were sold to companies between 2015 and 2020 but have been tied up by legal challenges.
Also this week, Trump signed an executive order aimed at boosting coal production. That will end the Biden administration's ban on new federal coal sales on bureau lands in Wyoming and Montana — the nation's largest coal fields.
The land bureau had about 10,000 employees at the start of Trump's second term. It went four years without a confirmed director during his first term. Trump also moved the agency's headquarters to Colorado before it was returned to Washington, D.C., under Biden.
Sgamma's withdrawal was announced by Senate energy committee Chairman Mike Lee of Utah. The Republican said he would work with the administration to find a new nominee for the bureau.
"Its work directly impacts millions of Americans — especially in the West—and its leadership matters," Lee said. Utah officials last year launched a legal effort to wrest control of Bureau of Land Management property from the federal government and put it under state control. They were turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Daly reported from Washington, D.C.