Any decision made by President Joe Biden’s Senate-confirmed nominee to lead the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could be null and void because she doesn’t meet key requirements to hold the post, multiple conservationists and legal experts told the Washington Examiner.
Two conservationists told the Washington Examiner they warned the 20 members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in late 2021 that the nominee, Martha Williams, lacks a “scientific education” in a relevant field, a requirement Congress codified into law during the Nixon administration. Despite the warnings, the committee voted 16-4 in January to advance Williams’s nomination to lead the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Senate confirmed her nomination by voice vote on Thursday.
