CLOSE Donald Trump is expected to nominate Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers as his secretary of Interior. Find out more about the Washington State Republican representative. USA TODAY NETWORK

President-elect Donald Trump and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers pose for a photo before their meeting at Trump International Golf Club on Nov. 20, 2016, in Bedminster Township, N.J. (Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images)

BATON ROUGE, La. — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington as his secretary of Interior, a source close to the transition told USA TODAY Friday.

The timing of the announcement of Rodgers' selection has not been determined, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because transition officials were not authorized to speak publicly about the nomination.

McMorris Rodgers is chair of the House Republican Conference, which makes her the fourth highest-ranking Republican in the House and the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress.

News of the pick was swiftly criticized by environmentalists.

League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said the selection amounted to "a massive 'for sale' sign on our public lands."

"McMorris Rodgers has been part of the Republican leadership of the most anti-environmental House of Representatives in history, and she has an abysmal 4% lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. She simply should not be put in charge of stewarding America’s wildlife, national parks and other majestic landscapes," Karpinski continued.

"At best, Trump can delay the inevitable clean energy revolution, but he can’t stop it. McMorris Rodgers is clearly not the right choice for a 21st century Department of Interior that will steward public lands on behalf of the American people," Greenpeace spokesman Travis Nichols said.

The Sierra Club also joined in, saying McMorris Rodgers has often voted to open public lands to drilling, mining and logging.

Eric Washburn, a consultant to the Policy Resolution Group — a lobbying firm that represents energy companies — was optimistic that McMorris Rodgers "will be able to chart a course for the agency that allows for conservation and development to proceed hand in hand.”

Finding such a balance will be important, Washburn said, because, "OPEC just got agreement on a supply cut that will raise oil and gas prices and likely lead to more demand to drill on federal lands."

The transition team also made another important announcement Friday, but this one wasn't who would be in the administration, but rather, who would be out.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump loyalist who was considered a top contender for secretary of State, pulled himself out of the running for any Cabinet position.

"Before I joined the campaign I was very involved and fulfilled by my work with my law firm and consulting firm, and I will continue that work with even more enthusiasm. From the vantage point of the private sector, I look forward to helping the President-elect in any way he deems necessary and appropriate," he said in a statement released Friday afternoon.

Trump said he would continue to seek Giuliani's guidance and could see him joining the administration in the future.

"Rudy would have been an outstanding member of the Cabinet in several roles, but I fully respect and understand his reasons for remaining in the private sector," Trump said.

Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus added that Giuliani was vetted for "possible conflicts and passed with flying colors."

The news of Rodgers' imminent appointment followed a meeting between Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan and came on a day when Trump will conduct rallies in Louisiana and Michigan.

The House speaker, who has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Trump during the campaign, has become an enthusiastic supporter following Trump's win and called the meeting “very exciting.”

“I really enjoyed coming up here and meeting with the president-elect. We had a great meeting to talk about our transition. We are really excited about getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017. And getting this country back on track,” Ryan told reporters at Trump Tower following the meeting.

Before speaking in Baton Rouge, La. Trump had a brief call with First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon Friday. "The President-elect and the First Minister look forward to strengthening the relationship between Scotland and the United States," a statement released from the transition team said.

In Louisiana, Trump did something relatively unique: Stumped for another candidate.

While congressional and gubernatorial candidates appeared with Trump during the campaign, others declined to appear with him.

He stumped for Louisiana Senate candidate John Kennedy, who is involved in a runoff Saturday.

Louisiana’s Senate seat was not decided on Nov. 8 because of the state’s “jungle primary system” which has everyone compete on Election Day. Unless someone gets a majority, the top two candidates (regardless of party affiliation) hash it out in a runoff election.

"If you go to the polls, he's going to win," Trump told a "Get Out The Vote" rally in a hangar at the Baton Rouge airport. "If you don't go to the polls, he's not going to win."

The president-elect also endorsed U.S. House candidate Mike Johnson.

Trump then headed to Grand Rapids, Mich., for another rally in his "Thank You Tour" of states that gave him the margin of victory in the Electoral College.

Trump has been holding rallies in the battleground states that helped propel him to victory last month.

Michigan was one of the Midwest states that was considered a lock for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but Trump carried the state by about 10,000 votes.

Friday's meeting with Ryan brings Trump's number of meetings during the transition to more than 90, spokesman Sean Spicer said.

On Monday, he will have four more to add to his list, including former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Republican candidate for president Carly Fiorina. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin was slated to meet with Trump on Friday, but that meeting was rescheduled for Monday because of Manchin's work in the Senate. Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador and Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and this year, will also meet with the president-elect.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2htSOct </s> Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (right) Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. (left) and other senators return to their offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday after votes to confirm two of President Donald Trump's cabinet picks. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was confirmed as secretary of the Department of House and Urban Development on a vote of 58-41. A few hours later, the Senate backed former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to be energy secretary, 62-37. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) </s> WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (ZIN’-kee), who’s facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will leave the administration at year’s end.

Trump tweets that Zinke “accomplished much during his tenure” and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation.

Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana, is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct.

Zinke played a leading part in Trump’s efforts to roll back environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development.

His departure comes amid a staff shake-up as Trump heads into his third year in office. The president on Friday named budget director Mick Mulvaney as chief of staff </s> Washington: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who is facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will leave the administration at year's end, President Donald Trump said on Saturday.

Trump, in tweeting Zinke's departure, said the former Montana congressman "accomplished much during his tenure" and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation.

Zinke is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct. His departure comes amid a staff shake-up as Trump heads into his third year in office. The president on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as his next chief of staff.

Zinke, 57, played a leading part in Trump's efforts to roll back environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development. When he recently travelled to survey damage from California's wildfires, Zinke echoed Trump's claims that lax forest management was to blame in the devastation. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who has aggressively sought to roll back Obama-era environmental protections, will be leaving his post at the end of the year, President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday, the latest high-profile departure from his administration.

Trump did not give a reason for Zinke’s departure. However, the former Navy Seal and ex-congressman from Montana has faced scrutiny of his use of security details, chartered flights and a real estate deal.

“Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation,” Trump said on Twitter. “The Trump administration will be announcing the new secretary of the Interior next week.”

Zinke has run the Interior Department, which oversees America’s vast public lands, since early 2017. He has aggressively pursued Trump’s agenda to promote oil drilling and coal mining by expanding federal leasing, cutting royalty rates, and easing land protections despite environmental protests.

Zinke, 51, was among Trump’s most active Cabinet members, cutting huge wilderness national monuments in Utah to a fraction of their size and proposing offshore oil drilling in the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic. He became a darling of the U.S. energy and mining industries and a prime target for conservationists and environmental groups.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer welcomed Zinke’s departure in a tweet: “Ryan Zinke was one of the most toxic members of the cabinet in the way he treated our environment, our precious public lands, and the way he treated the govt like it was his personal honey pot.”

“The swamp cabinet will be a little less foul without him,” Schumer said.

Jamie Williams, president of the non-profit Wilderness Society, said he expects Zinke’s deputy and likely successor, David Bernhardt, to continue with the “drill everywhere” agenda.

“Deputy Secretary Bernhardt has made it his mission to stifle climate science and silence the public so polluters can profit,” said Williams. “Unfortunately, even with Secretary Zinke out, the Interior Department remains disturbingly biased in favor of special interests over the health of American communities and the public lands that they love.”

Critics have questioned Zinke’s ethics and some of his moves triggered government investigations.

In July, the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General began investigating a Montana land deal between a foundation Zinke set up and a development group backed by the chairman of oil service company Halliburton Co, which has business with the Interior Department.

In late October, that investigation was referred to the U.S. Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation, according to multiple media reports. The Department of Justice and the Interior Department have declined to comment.

There are two other investigations of Zinke’s conduct. Interior’s watchdog is examining whether the department purposely redrew the boundaries of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to benefit a state lawmaker who owns adjoining property.

It is also probing Zinke’s decision to block casinos proposed by two Connecticut Native American tribes. Critics allege he made that move, overruling his staff’s recommendation, shortly after he met with lobbyists for MGM Resorts International, which owns a new casino in the region.

Zinke has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier this year, Interior’s inspector general wrapped up two other investigations related to Zinke’s travel expenses. Those probes found that a $12,000 private flight he took after a meeting with a professional hockey team could have been avoided and that the security detail he took on a family vacation to Greece and Turkey cost taxpayers $25,000.

US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke arrives at the US Capitol prior to the service for former President George H. W. Bush in Washington, DC, USA, 03 December 2018. Shawn Thew/Pool via REUTERS

Trump, who has repeatedly praised Zinke, said on Nov. 5 that he would look at the allegations.

Zinke’s departure makes him the ninth Cabinet-level official to leave since Trump took office two years ago. Other departures have included Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt. </s> (CNN) The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Ben Carson and Rick Perry to Cabinet position in President Donald Trump's administration.

The chamber confirmed retired neurosurgeon as the next secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and then later in the afternoon approved the former Texas governor as the next energy secretary.

The vote for Carson was 58-41. The vote for Perry was 62-37.

Both Carson and Perry ran against President Donald Trump during a crowded Republican presidential primary, before dropping out and both eventually endorsing Trump.

Read More </s> Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation....... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018

President Donald Trump says Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who's facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will leave the administration at year's end.Trump tweets that Zinke "accomplished much during his tenure" and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation.Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana, is leaving weeks before Democrats take control of the House, a shift in power that promised to intensify probes into his conduct.Zinke played a leading part in Trump's efforts to roll back environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development.His departure comes amid a staff shake-up as Trump heads into his third year in office. The president on Friday named budget director Mick Mulvaney as chief of staff. </s> WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked a fossil fuel industry defender as his top environmental official, another retired general as homeland security chief and Iowa’s governor as U.S. ambassador to China in choices at odds with some of his recent pronouncements.

Trump, continuing to build his Cabinet as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20, said Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, 48, would be nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt sued the EPA in a bid to undo a key regulation under outgoing President Barack Obama that would curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, mainly from coal-fired power plants.

Trump tapped retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, 66, for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, whose responsibilities include immigration. Kelly, the third retired general named by Trump to a senior administration post, last year told Congress that a lack of security on the U.S.-Mexican border posed a threat to the United States.

Trump’s transition team said Republican Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, 70, who has boasted of close ties to Beijing’s leaders, was picked as U.S. ambassador to China.

In addition, transition officials said Linda McMahon, 68, former CEO of professional wrestling company WWE and wife of wrestling kingpin Vince McMahon, was Trump’s choice to head the Small Business Administration. Trump has taken part in WWE events in the past and has close ties to the McMahons. He is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.

Pruitt’s selection came despite a softer tone Trump has struck on environmental regulation since his Nov. 8 election. He has stepped back from casting climate change as a hoax, signaled he might be willing to allow the United States to continue participating in the Paris climate change deal aimed at lowering world carbon emissions, and met with former Vice President Al Gore, a leading environmental voice.

“The head of the EPA cannot be a stenographer for the lobbyists of polluters and Big Oil,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said of Pruitt.

Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, brushed off the criticism, praising Pruitt’s record and telling reporters at Trump Tower, “We’re very accustomed to the naysayers and the critics.”

Trump talked tough during the campaign about deporting all of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States and building a wall along the Mexican border. But since the election he has softened his comments on deportation and referred to some illegal immigrants as “terrific people.”

Kelly would work in tandem with Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, who is a leading advocate of cracking down on illegal immigration.

The former four-star general would head a department in charge of securing borders against illegal immigration, protecting the president, responding to natural disasters and coordinating intelligence and counterterrorism.

He formerly headed the Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was a proponent of keeping open the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Trump previously picked retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as defense secretary and retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser.

Branstad has been an eager trading partner with China, helping Iowa sell agricultural goods to the Asian powerhouse. His choice came after Trump rattled the world’s second-largest economy with tough talk on trade and a telephone call with the leader of Taiwan.

Trump has more key appointments to make in coming days, including the high-profile job of secretary of state. His team said former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a fierce Trump critic during the campaign, is still under consideration for a diplomatic job.

Aside from the personnel announcements, Trump basked in being named Time magazine’s “person of the year,” telling NBC’s “Today” show, “It’s a great honor, it means a lot.”

In an interview with Time, Trump continued to take on corporate America, promising to bring down drug prices and causing shares of U.S. pharmaceutical and biotech companies to fall. </s> Donald Trump has selected former Texas governor Rick Perry as his nominee for secretary of energy according to multiple transition sources.

Rick Perry is a board member for Energy Transfer Partners the oil company who have stated they will continue to pushing on with construction of the controversial North Dakota Access Pipeline.

The two men made the decision during their meeting on Monday evening at Trump Tower in New York City, sources told Fox News on Tuesday.

The next secretary of energy would lead a 13,000-strong department whose main missions include providing funds for energy research, regulating energy efficiency and overseeing the country’s nuclear weapons.

As a Republican presidential candidate in 2011, Perry said he would eliminate three federal agencies including the Department of Energy. During a primary debate in that year, he even forgot the name of the department in one of the worst gaffes in American debate history.

“I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the — What’s the third one there? Let’s see.”

Perry is a board member for Energy Transfer Partners, which is attempting to build a controversial oil pipeline in North Dakota.

Last week, the administration of President Barack Obama halted construction of a disputed segment of the Dakota Access Pipeline, delivering a major victory to Native Americans and climate activists who have staged months of protests.

However, some tribal leaders are worried that their victory may prove short-lived as the incoming Trump administration could reverse the decision.

Perry also ran for president in the 2016 campaign, and was originally very critical of Trump.

Before bowing out of the race, he called Trump a “barking carnival act” and described his candidacy as a “cancer on conservatism.”
Cathy McMorris Rogers is selected as United States Secretary of Interior.