President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.) to run the Department of the Interior in his administration as early as Friday, according to media reports.
McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference, is a strong advocate of expanding the energy industry and increasing oil and gas development through drilling. She sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee and has previously supported a number of energy expansion bills.
Sources close to Trump's transition team and familiar with their thinking on the matter told the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Reuters in separate reports that McMorris Rodgers is expected to be named secretary of the interior as early as Friday.
If nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate to be secretary of the interior, McMorris Rodgers will be charged with overseeing the use of federally-owned land and interactions with Native American tribes, among other duties. Trump will likely want his secretary to target President Obama's current climate change regulations.
McMorris Rodgers has repeatedly been on record supporting energy expansion on federal lands, including her votes to ease drilling restrictions on tribal territories and repeal the ban on oil exports. She has been a recorded skeptic of climate change.
Since being elected to the House in 2004, the congresswoman from Washington has risen through Republican ranks. She is currently the fourth-most senior member of the House leadership and the highest-ranking woman.