Salazar Lauds President's Nomination of David J. Hayes as Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior

David J. Hayes

WASHINGTON, D.C - Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today praised President Obama's nomination of David J. Hayes, one of the nation's foremost natural resource experts, as the next Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior.

“David Hayes is the right person at the right time for this job,” said Secretary Salazar. “He is an experienced and thoughtful leader, a dedicated public servant, and has a strong record of helping find common sense solutions to some of our nation's most complex natural resource and environmental challenges. He will bring a steady hand to the management of the Department and a career's worth of expertise – from his service in the Clinton Administration to his work in natural resource law and on climate change policy.”

If confirmed by the United States Senate, Hayes would be the second highest ranking official at the Department, with statutory responsibility as the Chief Operating Officer to help lead a Department of 67,000 employees and an annual budget of approximately $16 billion, including annual and permanent funding.

Hayes served as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior from 1999 to 2001, during which time he played a lead role in helping introduce modern water management approaches in the West, settling long-standing Indian water and land disputes, and establishing new National Parks, including Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.

Most recently, Hayes was a leader in President Obama's Transition Team, heading the agency review process for the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hayes was a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he earned distinction as one of the nation's top natural resource lawyers. In 2007 and 2008, he was a consulting professor at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment, where he led a project to find achievable and practical climate change policy solutions.

Hayes graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1975, received his J.D. from Stanford University in 1978, and was an editor of the Stanford Law Review. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Visitors for Stanford Law School. He and his wife, Elizabeth Haile Hayes, have three children, Katherine, Stephen, and Molly.