Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States
Incumbent Gina McCarthy since July 18, 2013
Inaugural holder	William D. Ruckelshaus
Formation	1970
Website	www.epa.gov

The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is the head of the United States federal government's Environmental Protection Agency, and is thus responsible for enforcing the nation's Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as numerous other environmental statutes. The Administrator is nominated by the President of the United States and must be confirmed by a vote of the Senate. The office of Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970 in legislation that created the agency.

The EPA Administrator is customarily accorded Cabinet rank by the President and sits with the President, Vice President, and the 15 Cabinet Secretaries. Since the late 1980s, there has been a movement to make the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency a Cabinet Secretary, thus making the EPA a 16th Cabinet department, dealing with environmental policy. The Administrator of the EPA is equivalent to the position of Minister of the Environment in other countries.

The current Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is Gina McCarthy, who succeeded acting administrator Bob Perciasepe, on July 18, 2013.

List of Administrators

Officeholder		Term	President
	William Ruckelshaus	December 4, 1970 – April 30, 1973	Richard Nixon
	Robert Fri Acting	April 30, 1973 – September 12, 1973
	Russell Train	September 12, 1973 – January 20, 1977
			Gerald Ford
	John Quarles Acting	January 21, 1977 – March 6, 1977	Jimmy Carter
	Doug Costle	March 7, 1977 – January 20, 1981
	Steve Jellinek Acting	January 21, 1981 – January 25, 1981	Ronald Reagan
	Walter Barber Acting	January 25, 1981 – May 19, 1981
	Anne Gorsuch	May 20, 1981 – March 9, 1983
	William Ruckelshaus	May 18, 1983 – January 4, 1985
	Lee Thomas	February 8, 1985 – January 20, 1989
	William Reilly	February 6, 1989 – January 20, 1993	George H. W. Bush
	Carol Browner	January 23, 1993 – January 20, 2001	Bill Clinton
	Christine Todd Whitman	January 31, 2001 – June 27, 2003	George W. Bush
	Marianne Horinko Acting	July 14, 2003 – November 5, 2003
	Mike Leavitt	November 6, 2003 – January 26, 2005
	Stephen Johnson	January 26, 2005 – January 20, 2009
	Lisa Jackson	January 23, 2009 – February 15, 2013	Barack Obama
	Bob Perciasepe Acting	February 15, 2013 – July 18, 2013
	Gina McCarthy	July 18, 2013 – present

Acting Administrators

Note that Acting Administrators usually assume the office in the interim period between the resignation of a previous Administrator and the confirmation of his or her successor, including during the transition period between two presidential administrations, before the successor has been nominated and confirmed. Acting Administrators come from within the EPA and usually hold an office that is subject to Senate confirmation before becoming the Acting Administrator. Linda Fisher and Stephen L. Johnson had served as Deputy Administrator when they became Acting Administrator. Marianne Lamont Horinko was an Assistant Administrator at the time. They are not subject to Senate confirmation to serve as the Acting Administrator, though to continue to serve as a full-fledged Administrator (as in the case of Lee M. Thomas or Stephen L. Johnson), they must be confirmed by the Senate.

Line of Succession

The line of succession for the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is as follows:^[1]

1. Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
2. General Counsel
3. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management
4. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
5. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation
6. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water
7. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
8. Chief Financial Officer
9. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development
10. Assistant Administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs
11. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Administration and Resources Management
12. Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information
13. Regional Administrator, Region 7 (Kansas City, Kansas)
14. Principal Deputy General Counsel
15. Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
16. Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 2 (New York, New York)
17. Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 5 (Chicago, Illinois)

References

See also

• White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy
• Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency.

• U.S. EPA History: Administrator photos, biographies, publications