WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is barreling ahead to announce appointments for his administration, but it's likely to be a long while before he fills the few president-appointed positions in Alaska.
There are only a handful of Senate-approved political appointments that serve in the Alaska. Most of the positions for regional directors and Alaska state directors — such as those within the Indian Health Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management — are actually held by career civil service employees.
There are two Alaska-held positions that require confirmation by the Senate, and several more that are known as "schedule C" appointments — high-ranking officials that technically serve at the pleasure of the president, but aren't officially nominated. Those jobs and some "senior executive service" positions are established by agency heads and approved by the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.
The two Alaska-based Senate-confirmed positions are the U.S. attorney for the Alaska District, a position currently held by Karen Loeffler, and the U.S. Marshal Alaska, held by Rob Heun. Both are based in Anchorage. Heun did not respond to a request for comment on his plans. Chloe Martin, a spokesperson for Loeffler, said it's too early to say when she plans to leave her post.
[Trump's emerging Cabinet is looking more conventional than many had expected]
Those Senate-confirmed posts don't technically expire the minute Trump is sworn into office. But they're free to go at that point.
Most likely, it will take a long while to get to their replacements — long after the Cabinet secretaries and their deputies are vetted and approved by Congress. Loeffler was nominated to her post on July 14, 2009 and confirmed on Oct. 15 that year. Heun was nominated Nov. 4, 2009 and confirmed at the start of President Barack Obama's second year in office — Feb. 2, 2010.
There are a handful of other Alaska positions that are "schedule C" appointments and will be at the discretion of as-yet-unnamed or unconfirmed Cabinet secretaries.
There are two appointed Agriculture Department positions in Palmer: state directors of the Rural Housing Service and the Farm Service Agency.
In Anchorage, the Interior Department usually appoints a deputy Alaska director and a regional solicitor for the Alaska region. There is usually a senior adviser for Alaska affairs posted in the Interior secretary's office in Washington, D.C. as well — also an appointed position.
But most of the federal government positions actually running government agencies in Alaska won't change. They are held by "career appointees" — people who work for the federal government and, usually, have risen through the ranks.
That includes Anchorage-based positions leading Alaska operations for the Indian Health Service (part of the Department of Health and Human Services); the Park Service; BLM; Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management; Bureau of Indian Affairs; and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (all under the Interior Department); the Veterans Affairs Operations Clinic and Regional Office; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A Regional Forester, overseeing the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska, is under the Agriculture Department.
Alaska's longtime congressman, Don Young, said in an interview Friday the most important appointments for Alaska, in his opinion, fall somewhere in between the president's Cabinet and the state — at the deputy secretary level.
Young said what concerns him most is "who's going to be undersecretary of Fish and Wildlife, undersecretary of BLM. They're the ones that worry me the most."
Young wants a better relationship between the national offices and the state. "So whoever becomes secretary has got to recognize that, and I'm more interested in the undersecretaries than I am the secretaries as a whole," he said.
Who he'll back in those positions depends on who is appointed to the Cabinet positions going forward, Young said.
"I'm supporting a couple people for different jobs under Department of Agriculture and of course the Department of Interior," Young said, noting he'd like to see former Republican Gov. Sean Parnell get a position, "if he's interested."
The three most important agencies for Alaska are the Interior, Commerce and Agriculture departments, Young said.
"But we don't know what to push until we get the secretary," Young said, noting any secretary who has "got any brains" will "check with the delegation" before making appointments.