Kathleen Sgamma is still surprised about the abrupt end last month to her nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management.
She was in Washington for most of the second week of April, meeting with Republican lawmakers keen on getting the oil and gas drilling advocate confirmed as President Donald Trump’s BLM director. Two hours ahead of her Senate committee confirmation hearing on April 10, Sgamma, her son, her parents and several other family members were stepping out of an Airbnb and getting into their cars to drive to the Capitol when she got a call from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Sgamma said the message the former governor of North Dakota delivered was short and clear.
“He basically told me that I had failed vetting and that I needed to withdraw my nomination,” she said in a recent interview with POLITICO’s E&E News that marks the first time she’s publicly discussed her ill-fated BLM nomination.
