Biden administration promotes official whose Senate confirmation was tanked by Manchin

The Biden administration announced Tuesday that Laura Daniel-Davis, a senior official within the Department of the Interior, will serve in the department’s second-in-command acting position.

Earlier this year, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) pulled his support for Daniel-Davis to serve in a lower position as Interior’s assistant secretary for lands and mineral management. Manchin, the chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, blocked her confirmation over her recommendation for an oil and gas lease sale off the coast of Alaska, which proposed charging oil companies higher rates for drilling.

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The Biden administration’s move drew backlash from Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the third-ranking Senate Republican, who said Daniel-Davis was “doing everything in her power to make American energy more expensive.”

“During her tenure as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, she has undermined our nation’s energy and mineral security. She has continually blocked access to important minerals and restricted oil and gas leasing on federal lands. She is totally opposed to unleashing American energy,” Barrasso said in a statement.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Daniel-Davis was first nominated to serve as assistant secretary in 2021. The full Senate didn’t take up her nomination, and Biden had to renominate her in 2022.

Daniel-Davis will now jump from her current role as principal deputy assistant secretary of land and minerals management to acting deputy secretary.

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“The work of the Department of the Interior touches all Americans, and I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as Acting Deputy Secretary,” Daniel-Davis said in a press release. “We will continue to work in partnership with states, Tribes, industry, non-profit organizations and academia to ensure that the best available science guides our decision-making as we deliver on our promises to the American people.”

Daniel-Davis will replace outgoing Interior Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau, who oversaw major works like the Willow Alaskan oil project and the 20-year ban on mining next to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.