The U.S. Senate approved by voice vote late Thursday the nomination of Charles F. Sams III as the first confirmed National Park Service director since 2017.
Sams, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, Ore., will be the first tribal member to lead the Park Service in the agency’s 105-year history.
At his confirmation hearing, Sams said he would work to rebuild the Park Service workforce and improve morale. The Park Service was without a confirmed director for all of Donald Trump’s presidency. The agency manages 423 sites, including 63 national parks, that see hundreds of millions of annual visits across all 50 states.
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There was no opposition to his confirmation at the Committee or Senate votes.