The Deputy Secretary of the Interior, in the United States government, advises and assists the Secretary of the Interior in the supervision and direction of the Department of the Interior and its activities, and succeeds the Secretary in his or her absence, sickness, or unavailability. The Deputy Secretary of the Interior is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. In 1990, the title of the position was changed from Under Secretary of the Interior to Deputy Secretary of the Interior.
President Obama nominated David Hayes to be the Deputy Secretary. He was confirmed on May 20, 2009.
With the resignation Secretary Gale Norton announced March 10, 2006, effective at the end of March, Lynn Scarlett became the Acting Secretary of the Interior until President George W. Bush's nomination for Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 26 of that year.
Section 3346 of U.S. Code within Title 5, or 5 U.S.C. ยง 3346, details time limitations of acting officers. An acting officer may serve no longer than 210 days after the vacancy, from the date a first or second nomination is pending before the Senate, the date a first or second nomination is withdrawn, rejected, or returned, or the date the Senate reconvenes if the appointment has taken place while Congress has adjourned sine die.
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, deputy, secretary and/or interior:
“The real charm of the United States is that it is the only comic country ever heard of.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.”
—Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac (1619–1655)
“The only law was that enforced by the Creek Lighthorsemen and the U.S. deputy marshals who paid rare and brief visits; or the “two volumes of common law” that every man carried strapped to his thighs.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. relief program (1935-1943)
“The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It was obviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The night
Makes everything grotesque. Is it because
Night is the nature of man’s interior world?”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)