The White House plans to pull back its nomination of a former a veteran Arizona water official to lead the Bureau of Reclamation, leaving the agency without permanent leadership nine months into President Donald Trump’s second term.
Ted Cooke, a former top official at the Central Arizona Project, told POLITICO’s E&E News on Wednesday that he has been informed his nomination will be rescinded.
“This is not the outcome I sought, and I’ll leave it at that,” said Cooke in a message.
The Interior Department referred “all questions regarding current or former nominees” to the White House, which did not respond to emails or a phone call seeking comment.
Trump tapped Cooke to lead the agency in June, and the selection drew praise from both environmental advocates and some state officials who pointed to Cooke’s knowledge of the Colorado River Basin. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources had not yet considered Cooke’s nomination.
Interior and Reclamation have been involved in negotiations for a new long-term operating plan among the seven states that share the Colorado River. Decades of persistent drought have shrunk flows in the river, requiring states to cut back on how much water they use. But state leaders are split over how to share the pain of future supply shortfalls.
A series of existing agreements that govern the Colorado River are set to expire next year, and a new agreement must be in place by Oct. 1, 2026, which marks the start of the 2027 water year.
Although it is not unusual for Reclamation to be without permanent leadership until late in the first year of a new president term, the Colorado River negotiations put more pressure on the White House to fill the post.
Cooke spent more than two decades at the Central Arizona Project before stepping down as its general manager in early 2023, which distributes Colorado River water to Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties.
