VA Senate Rejects Trump EPA Chief For Position In Gov. Youngkin's Cabinet

RICHMOND, VA — The Virginia Senate voted Tuesday to reject Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s nomination of Andrew Wheeler to be the state’s next secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.

Wheeler served as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump, where he worked to roll back many environmental regulations put into place during Barack Obama's presidency.

The Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority, voted 21-19 to support a committee amendment removing Wheeler from a list of Youngkin appointments working its way through the Senate. The Cabinet list will face a final Senate vote on Wednesday.

Wheeler, who lives in Alexandria, would be the first Virginia cabinet nominee in 16 years to be rejected by the legislature, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The last cabinet nominee to be rejected was then-Gov. Tim Kaine’s pick for secretary of the commonwealth, former Virginia AFL-CIO president Daniel LeBlanc, in 2006.

Wheeler drew immediate criticism when he was nominated. The objections included a letter signed by more than 150 former EPA officials calling on Virginia lawmakers to reject him for the cabinet post due to his record at the agency.

Among his supporters, a group of 130 former EPA employees and others who have worked directly with Wheeler during his career in government and as a coal industry lobbyist wrote to the Senate in late January to urge lawmakers to approve his nomination.

RELATED: Trump's EPA Chief Picked To Head Natural Resources Under Youngkin