Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and is thus responsible for enforcing the nation's Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as numerous other environmental statutes. The Administrator is nominated by the President of the United States and must be confirmed by a vote of the Senate.
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency | |
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![]() Seal of the Environmental Protection Agency | |
Inaugural holder | William D. Ruckelshaus |
Formation | 1970 |
Website | www |
President Trump's first EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, resigned effective July 6, 2018, amid a series of scandals. Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, started serving as Acting Administrator on July 9, 2018.[1] Wheeler was confirmed as EPA Administrator on February 28, 2019.[2]
Rank in the Cabinet
The EPA Administrator is customarily accorded Cabinet rank by the President and sits with the President, Vice President, and the 15 Cabinet secretaries. The Administrator of the EPA is equivalent to the position of Minister of the Environment in other countries. Since the late 1980s, there has been a movement to make the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency a Cabinet secretary, thus making the EPA a 16th Cabinet department, dealing with environmental policy.
List of Administrators
Officeholder | Term | President | |
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William Ruckelshaus | December 4, 1970 – April 30, 1973 | Richard Nixon |
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Robert W. Fri Acting |
April 30, 1973 – September 12, 1973 | |
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Russell E. Train | September 12, 1973 – January 20, 1977 | |
Gerald Ford | |||
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John Quarles Jr. Acting |
January 21, 1977 – March 6, 1977 | Jimmy Carter |
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Douglas M. Costle | March 7, 1977 – January 20, 1981 | |
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Steve Jellinek Acting |
January 21, 1981 – January 25, 1981 | Ronald Reagan |
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Walter Barber Jr. Acting |
January 25, 1981 – May 19, 1981 | |
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Anne Gorsuch Burford | May 20, 1981 – March 9, 1983 | |
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William Ruckelshaus | May 18, 1983 – January 4, 1985 | |
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Lee M. Thomas | February 8, 1985 – January 20, 1989 | |
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William K. Reilly | February 6, 1989 – January 20, 1993 | George H. W. Bush |
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Carol Browner | January 23, 1993 – January 20, 2001 | Bill Clinton |
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Christine Todd Whitman | January 31, 2001 – June 27, 2003 | George W. Bush |
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Marianne Lamont Horinko Acting |
July 14, 2003 – November 5, 2003 | |
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Mike Leavitt | November 6, 2003 – January 26, 2005 | |
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Stephen L. Johnson | January 26, 2005 – January 20, 2009 | |
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Lisa P. Jackson | January 23, 2009 – February 15, 2013 | Barack Obama |
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Bob Perciasepe Acting |
February 15, 2013 – July 18, 2013 | |
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Gina McCarthy | July 18, 2013 – January 20, 2017 | |
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Catherine McCabe Acting |
January 20, 2017 – February 17, 2017 | Donald Trump |
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Scott Pruitt | February 17, 2017 – July 9, 2018 | |
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Andrew R. Wheeler | July 9, 2018 – February 28, 2019 (acting) February 28, 2019 – present |
Acting Administrators
Acting Administrators usually assume the office in the interim period between the resignation of a previous Administrator and the confirmation of his or her successor, including during the transition period between two presidential administrations, before the successor has been nominated and confirmed. Acting Administrators come from within the EPA and usually hold an office that is subject to Senate confirmation before becoming the Acting Administrator. Linda Fisher and Stephen L. Johnson had served as Deputy Administrator when they became Acting Administrator. Marianne Lamont Horinko was an Assistant Administrator at the time. They are not subject to Senate confirmation to serve as the Acting administrator, though to continue to serve as a full-fledged Administrator (as in the case of Lee M. Thomas or Stephen L. Johnson), they must be confirmed by the Senate.
Line of succession
The line of succession for the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is as follows:[3]
- Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- General Counsel
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
- Chief Financial Officer
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Administration and Resources Management
- Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information
- Regional Administrator, Region 7 (Kansas City, Kansas)
- Principal Deputy General Counsel
- Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
- Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 2 (New York, New York)
- Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 5 (Chicago, Illinois)
See also
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency. |
- "About the Office of the Administrator". Washington, D.C.: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. February 25, 2020.
- "Three things to know about Andrew Wheeler, the acting head of EPA". Vox. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- "Andrew Wheeler, who's been leading Trump deregulatory charge, confirmed by Senate as EPA chief". USA Today. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
- "Providing an Order of Succession Within the Environmental Protection Agency". Federal Register. August 17, 2016.