The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The U.S. Department of the Interior should not be confused with the Ministries of the Interior as used in many other countries. Ministries of the Interior in these other countries correspond primarily to the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. Cabinet and secondarily to the Department of Justice.
The U.S. Department of the Interior oversees such agencies as the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Geological Survey, and the National Park Service. The Secretary also serves on and appoints the private citizens on the National Park Foundation board. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet.
Because the policies and activities of the Department of the Interior and many of its agencies have a substantial impact in the western United States, the Secretary of the Interior has typically come from a western state; only one of the individuals to hold the office since 1949 is not identified with a state lying west of the Mississippi River.
The current Secretary of the Interior in Barack Obama's administration is former REI CEO & former Mobil Oil executive Sally Jewell of Washington. She was confirmed by the Senate on April 10, 2013. As a naturalized U.S. citizen born in the United Kingdom rather than a natural-born U.S. citizen, she is not eligible to succeed the President in the presidential line of succession.
Secretaries of the Interior
- Parties
      Whig       Democratic       Republican
- Status
Living former Secretaries of the Interior
As of August 2013, eight former Secretaries of the Interior are alive, the oldest being Manuel Lujan, Jr. (1989-1993, born 1928). The most recent to die was William P. Clark, Jr., on August 10, 2013.
See also
- Living former members of the United States Cabinet
References
- ^ . U.S. Department of the Interior http://www.doi.gov/whoweare/secretaryjewell.cfm. Retrieved 23 May 2013.Â
- ^ Salazar, Vilsack: The West’s New Land Lords
- ^ Sally Jewell sails through Senate confirmation, Politico
- ^ . U.S. Department of the Interior http://www.doi.gov/whoweare/secretaryjewell.cfm. Retrieved 23 May 2013.Â
External links
- List of Secretaries of the Interior (DoI)
- List of Secretaries of the Interior (worldstatesmen.org)
- The Department of Everything Else: Highlights of Interior History (1989)