Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

13. Environmental Protection Agency · Notable · Needs Congress

Create a Senate-confirmed Assistant Administrator for the American Indian Office

Not started

440 13. Environmental Protection Agency

“AIO should be led by a politically appointed, Senate-confirmed Assistant Administrator, ideally one with strong ties to a federally recognized tribe. He or she should have political deputies and staff to assist the political leadership in carrying out agency policies.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    Requires Congress, and Congress created nothing. There is no statutory Assistant Administrator for an American Indian Office; the Senate instead confirmed Usha-Maria Turner as Assistant Administrator of EPA in the existing International and Tribal Affairs slot on 2025-10-07, by en-bloc roll call vote 547, filling the post vacated by Jane Nishida. No bill in the 119th Congress creates a tribal Assistant Administrator at EPA, and the office the Quote wants the post to lead does not exist either (#1178).

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Among the Senate nominations we keep and search are ten EPA nominations confirmed in the window; none is for a tribal office. A search of the titles of the bills we keep and search for “American Indian” or “tribal” together with “Environmental” or “EPA” found no EPA tribal-office bill.
  • Evidence is attached to the not started event so the page shows what happened instead: the existing OITA Assistant Administrator post was filled, which is the opposite of splitting a new tribal office out of it.
  • The confirmation is recorded here but Turner is not added to our roster of people: Turner is not a person credited in the Mandate’s front matter.
Action
create
Object
Senate-confirmed Assistant Administrator for the American Indian Office
ID
1181