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Speculation about Trump Cabinet appointments

Heitkamp

Speculation is rising about President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointments.

With Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., set to meet with Trump in New York today, the talk is that she might be picked for Energy or Interior secretary.

Heitkamp worked as an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency early in her career, but a close associate said it is more likely that she would be interested in Energy or Interior secretary than EPA administrator.



The source said that, even if Trump does not pick her, the fact that she was considered would help her in a 2018 re-election race because Trump is so popular in North Dakota.

But at the same time there is speculation that Trump might pick Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., for Energy secretary.



Meanwhile, another name that has been floated for EPA administrator is attorney Gary Baise, who served as chief of staff to William Ruckelshaus, the first EPA administrator, from 1970 to 1972. Baise was later a partner with Ruckelshaus in a law firm and has made his name as a representative of agricultural interests before federal agencies and in court. He is now with the OFW law firm.

Finally, Catherine Bertini, a former USDA official and executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, has been floated for consideration as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

President George H.W. Bush appointed Bertini assistant secretary of food and consumer services at USDA. He later proposed Bertini for the WFP post in 1992, and U.N. officials accepted her. President Bill Clinton endorsed her for a second term in 1997.

After her Rome-based WFP post, Bertini became U.N. undersecretary general for management and security coordinator.

Bertini is vice chair of the Public Administration and International Affairs Department of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She has been closely associated with USAID’s Feed the Future program to encourage agricultural development in low-income countries.

–The Hagstrom Report