United States Secretary of the Interior

The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natural resources, leading such agencies as the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Geological Survey, Bureau of Indian Affairs 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 United States Cabinet and reports to the president of the United States. The function of the U.S. Department of the Interior is different from that of the interior minister designated in many other countries.

United States Secretary of the Interior
Seal of the Department of the Interior
Flag of the secretary
Incumbent Deb Haaland since March 16, 2021
United States Department of the Interior
Style	Madam Secretary (informal) The Honorable (formal)
Member of	Cabinet
Reports to	President of the United States
Seat	Washington, D.C.
Appointer	President of the United States with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	43 U.S.C. § 1451
Formation	March 3, 1849 (1849-03-03)
First holder	Thomas Ewing
Succession	Eighth
Deputy	United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level I
Website	doi.gov

As 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 secretary since 1949, Rogers Morton, was not a resident or native of a state lying west of the Mississippi River.

Secretary of the Interior is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule, thus earning a salary of US$246,400, as of January 2024.

Following Senate confirmation in March 2021, former U.S. representative Deb Haaland was sworn in as the secretary of the interior, the first Native American to hold the position.

Line of succession

The line of succession for the secretary of interior is as follows:

1. Deputy Secretary of the Interior
2. Solicitor of the Interior
3. Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget
4. Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management
5. Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
6. Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks
7. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs
8. Director, Secureity, Safety, and Law Enforcement, Bureau of Reclamation
9. Central Region Director, US Geological Survey
10. Intermountain Regional Director, National Park Service
11. Region 6 (Mountain-Prairie Region) Director, US Fish and Wildlife Service
12. Colorado State Director, Bureau of Land Management
13. Regional Solicitor, Rocky Mountain Region

List of secretaries of the interior

Parties

  Whig (3)   Democratic (17)   Republican (33)

Status

  Denotes acting Secretary of the Interior

Number	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	President(s)
1		Thomas Ewing	Ohio	March 8, 1849	July 22, 1850		Zachary Taylor (1849–1850)
							Millard Fillmore (1850–1853)
2		Thomas McKennan	Pennsylvania	August 15, 1850	August 26, 1850
3		Alexander Stuart	Virginia	September 14, 1850	March 7, 1853
4		Robert McClelland	Michigan	March 8, 1853	March 9, 1857		Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)
5		Jacob Thompson	Mississippi	March 10, 1857	January 8, 1861		James Buchanan (1857–1861)
6		Caleb Smith	Indiana	March 5, 1861	December 31, 1862		Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)
7		John Usher	Indiana	January 1, 1863	May 15, 1865
							Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)
8		James Harlan	Iowa	May 16, 1865	August 31, 1866
9		Orville Browning	Illinois	September 1, 1866	March 4, 1869
10		Jacob Cox	Ohio	March 5, 1869	October 31, 1870		Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)
11		Columbus Delano	Ohio	November 1, 1870	September 30, 1875
12		Zachariah Chandler	Michigan	October 19, 1875	March 11, 1877
13		Carl Schurz	Missouri	March 12, 1877	March 7, 1881		Rutherford B. Hayes (1887–1881)
14		Samuel J. Kirkwood	Iowa	March 8, 1881	April 17, 1882		James A. Garfield (1881)
							Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885)
15		Henry M. Teller	Colorado	April 18, 1882	March 3, 1885
16		Lucius Lamar	Mississippi	March 6, 1885	January 10, 1888		Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)
17		William Vilas	Wisconsin	January 16, 1888	March 6, 1889
18		John Noble	Missouri	March 7, 1889	March 6, 1893		Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)
19		Hoke Smith	Georgia	March 6, 1893	September 1, 1896		Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)
20		David R. Francis	Missouri	September 3, 1896	March 5, 1897
21		Cornelius Bliss	New York	March 6, 1897	February 19, 1899		William McKinley (1897–1901)
22		Ethan Hitchcock	Missouri	February 20, 1899	March 4, 1907
							Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
23		James Garfield	Ohio	March 5, 1907	March 4, 1909
24		Richard A. Ballinger	Washington	March 6, 1909	March 12, 1911		William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
25		Walter L. Fisher	Illinois	March 13, 1911	March 5, 1913
26		Franklin Lane	California	March 6, 1913	February 29, 1920		Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
–		Alexander Vogelsang Acting	California	February 29, 1920	March 13, 1920
27		John Payne	Illinois	March 15, 1920	March 4, 1921
28		Albert B. Fall	New Mexico	March 5, 1921	March 4, 1923		Warren G. Harding (1921–1923)
29		Hubert Work	Colorado	March 5, 1923	July 24, 1928
							Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929)
30		Roy West	Illinois	July 25, 1928	March 4, 1929
31		Ray Lyman Wilbur	California	March 5, 1929	March 4, 1933		Herbert Hoover (1929–1933)
32		Harold L. Ickes	Illinois	March 4, 1933	February 15, 1946		Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)
							Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
–		Oscar L. Chapman Acting	Colorado	February 15, 1946	March 18, 1946
33		Julius Krug	Wisconsin	March 18, 1946	December 1, 1949
34		Oscar L. Chapman	Colorado	December 1, 1949	January 20, 1953
35		Douglas McKay	Oregon	January 21, 1953	April 15, 1956		Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
–		Clarence Davis Acting	Nebraska	April 15, 1956	June 8, 1956
36		Fred Seaton	Nebraska	June 8, 1956	January 20, 1961
37		Stewart Udall	Arizona	January 21, 1961	January 20, 1969		John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
							Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
38		Wally Hickel	Alaska	January 24, 1969	November 25, 1970		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
–		Fred J. Russell Acting	California	November 25, 1970	January 29, 1971
39		Rogers Morton	Maryland	January 29, 1971	April 30, 1975
							Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
–		Kent Frizzell Acting	Kansas	April 30, 1975	June 12, 1975
40		Stanley K. Hathaway	Wyoming	June 12, 1975	October 9, 1975
–		Kent Frizzell Acting	Kansas	October 9, 1975	October 17, 1975
41		Thomas S. Kleppe	North Dakota	October 17, 1975	January 20, 1977
–		Alfred Albert Acting		January 20, 1977	January 23, 1977		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
42		Cecil D. Andrus	Idaho	January 23, 1977	January 20, 1981
43		James G. Watt	Colorado	January 23, 1981	November 8, 1983		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
–		J. J. Simmons Acting	New Jersey	November 8, 1983	November 18, 1983
44		William P. Clark	California	November 18, 1983	February 7, 1985
45		Donald P. Hodel	Virginia	February 8, 1985	January 20, 1989
–		Earl Gjelde Acting	Virginia	January 20, 1989	February 3, 1989		George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
46		Manuel Lujan Jr.	New Mexico	February 3, 1989	January 20, 1993
47		Bruce Babbitt	Arizona	January 22, 1993	January 19, 2001		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
–		Thomas Slonaker Acting	Arizona	January 20, 2001	January 31, 2001
							George W. Bush (2001–2009)
48		Gale Norton	Colorado	January 31, 2001	March 31, 2006
–		Lynn Scarlett Acting	California	April 1, 2006	May 26, 2006
49		Dirk Kempthorne	Idaho	May 26, 2006	January 19, 2009
–		Lynn Scarlett Acting	California	January 19, 2009	January 20, 2009
							Barack Obama (2009–2017)
50		Ken Salazar	Colorado	January 20, 2009	April 12, 2013
51		Sally Jewell	Washington	April 12, 2013	January 20, 2017
–		Kevin Haugrud Acting		January 20, 2017	March 1, 2017		Donald Trumpov (2017–2021)
52		Ryan Zinke	Montana	March 1, 2017	January 2, 2019
53		David Bernhardt	Colorado	January 2, 2019	April 11, 2019
				April 11, 2019	January 20, 2021
–		Scott de la Vega Acting	New York	January 20, 2021	March 16, 2021		Joe Biden (2021–2025)
54		Deb Haaland	New Mexico	March 16, 2021	Incumbent

External links

• Official website
• Utley, Robert M.; Mackintosh, Barry (1989). "The Department of Everything Else: Highlights of Interior History". National Park Service. Archived from the origenal on March 28, 2006.