Trump Nominates USGS Director; Interior Department Science Lead

President Trump this week nominated geologist Ned Mamula to be director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Trump also nominated natural resources manager Andrea Travnicek earlier this month to be assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of the Interior, a role that oversees USGS and the Bureau of Reclamation. The timing of nominations contrasts with Trump’s first term in office, when he took one year to select astronaut Jim Reilly to lead USGS.

Mamula has a long background working for the federal government. He began his career at USGS in the 1970s and went on to work at the Department of Energy and the Central Intelligence Agency. During the first Trump administration, Mamula was part of the Department of the Interior’s transition team before becoming critical minerals program director at DOE. He departed that role in 2023 to become chief geologist of GreenMet, a company that promotes the American critical minerals industry.

Travnicek was most recently state director of water resources for North Dakota and, if confirmed by the Senate, would serve under her former boss, former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (R). The Senate confirmed Burgum as interior secretary at the end of January. Prior to her state-level role, Travnicek worked at the Department of the Interior as the deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, acting assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, and acting assistant secretary for water and science during the first Trump administration.

USGS nominee focused on critical minerals

Mamula is a vocal proponent of the U.S. expanding domestic mineral extraction and described the practice of importing key minerals from China and Russia as a national security risk in his 2018 book, Groundbreaking! America’s New Quest for Mineral Independence.

In a speech at the Thorium Energy Alliance’s annual conference last year, Mamula said he loved working at USGS, describing it as a “venerable, historic, unbelievable organization to work for and with.”

He also lamented the closure of the Bureau of Mines in the mid-1990s stating that although USGS did “an admirable job” in taking over some of the bureau’s responsibilities, the bureau closure led to a loss of expertise in areas such as “deep second and third order analysis of mineral forecasting, geopolitical forecasting, [and] mining technology.” Mamula’s employer, GreenMet, is lobbying the government to reinstate the Bureau of Mines.

Despite his overall praise for USGS, Mamula criticized as “foolish” the agency’s decision to remove several items from its critical minerals list during the Biden administration, including helium, uranium, potash, strontium, rhenium, and copper.

“For the first time I can remember, I think, USGS has succumbed to, shall we say, a little bit of politics. Copper should be on there,” he said.