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Washington • America's public-lands policy is expected to make a major shift with President-elect Donald Trump's reported choice of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to be the incoming Interior secretary, a move that drew boos from the environmental crowd and cheers from Republicans.
Several news outlets reported that McMorris Rodgers, a Washington state Republican, would be Trump's choice to lead the sprawling public-lands arm of the federal government, overseeing a fifth of the U.S. land surface, though the transition team has yet to make it official.
"She would be great," said Don Peay, founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and who led Trump's campaign efforts in Utah. "She's a Westerner, she's been really involved in all the Western land issues. … She's well-versed, and she's great a great leader in Congress."
Environmental groups, for the most part, appeared concerned that the legacy of land management under President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell would be turned on its head, with increased permitting of oil and gas drilling.
"Turning the keys to our nation's public lands over to someone who has called for drilling and development in pristine landscapes is not what most Americans want," said Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society. "Representative McMorris Rodgers' record suggests she does not share the mainstream conservation values of the majority of the American people. Throughout her career, she has more often advanced policies that favor special interests rather than policies protecting our air, land and water."
The Interior Department has jurisdiction over 500 million acres in the United States, 1.76 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf, 479 dams and 348 reservoirs and 391 national parks, monuments, battlefields and other cultural and recreation sites.
McMorris Rodgers is the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, making her the fourth-highest ranking member of the chamber.
She serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and has been a proponent of hydroelectric power. She voted, like her fellow House Republicans, for offshore oil and gas drilling and co-sponsored legislation that would transfer public lands to private ownership.
"Representative McMorris Rodgers' track record in Congress should raise a red flag for Americans who care about the responsible management of our public lands and waters," said Backcountry Hunters & Anglers President and CEO Land Tawney. "President-elect Trump has pledged to keep public lands in public hands, and American sportsmen expect him to be true to his word."
League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski went further, saying Trump is posting a "massive for-sale sign" on public lands with his appointment of McMorris Rodgers.
"In Congress, Representative McMorris Rodgers has consistently voted to prioritize drilling on our public lands and waters, including in sensitive areas like the Arctic, and even to open up our public lands for sale to the highest bidder," Karpinski said. "Not only that, she refuses to accept settled climate science, which is disturbing but hardly surprising, given that big polluters have spent over $350,000 to keep her in office. McMorris Rodgers has been part of the Republican leadership of the most anti-environmental House of Representatives in history. … She simply should not be put in charge of stewarding America's wildlife, national parks and other majestic landscapes."
Some groups reacted to Trump's pick with support — or at least pause.
"President-elect Trump's choice of a Westerner with deep roots to the land is certainly reassuring," said Lesli Allison, executive director of Western Landowners Alliance. "We hope that Representative McMorris Rodgers will build on the increasingly successful collaboration happening in rural landscapes around the West. While vocal extremists at both ends of the spectrum have gained national attention in the fight over public-land management, they do not represent the rural majority.
"True change will come not in swinging the ideological pendulum ever more widely, but in finding common-ground solutions that unite rather than divide us."
"President-elect Trump said this week that his administration will honor the legacy of our great conservation President Theodore Roosevelt," said Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. "He said he will 'conserve and protect our beautiful natural resources for the next generation including protecting lands [for] anglers and hunters and all of those who enjoy the outdoors' like his sons Don and Eric."
That said, Udall added: "I am troubled that Representative McMorris Rodgers is among the Republicans in Congress who have backed misguided efforts to sell off millions of acres of public land to the highest bidder."
McMorris Rodgers must win confirmation from the Senate before taking the Interior helm, though with a majority Republican chamber, she is likely to easily pass the 51-vote threshold.