Navajo confirmed as top attorney for Interior Department

Hilary Tompkins, Navajo from Ramah Chapter, was confirmed for the top legal position of the U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday this week.

Tompkins' confirmation came after a lengthy series of Republican senate holds that prevented her from being confirmed after she was approved by the Senate Committee on Natural Resources on April 23.

As solicitor of the Interior Department, Tompkins will be in charge of providing legal advice to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and run an office that employs 300 attorneys across the country. She will be in charge of all legal issues affecting the department, which oversees the management of federal land and natural resources such as minerals and water.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is also under the department.

Tompkins is the first Native American to hold the position.

Before her confirmation on June 17 Tompkins was the subject of two holds, one by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) over issues that had nothing to do with Tompkins' qualifications for the Interior position.

Bennett wanted a confirmation from Salazar that he would uphold a law to lease lands for oil and gas exploration in Utah. Coburn wanted to know if Tompkins would defend a law allowing concealed weapons in national parks or wildlife refuges.

Coburn's hold was originally placed anonymously, angering Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who said the Interior Department "bent over backwards" to accommodate the previous issues that Republican senators had with President Barrack Obama's nominees.

Coburn received a response from Tompkins and released his hold earlier this week, and it looked like she would be confirmed on the evening of June 9 without further ado, but there was another anonymous senate hold placed on her confirmation before that could happen.

Senate holds can be public or anonymous.

Tompkins was born in Ramah Chapter but was adopted as a baby and raised in New Jersey by non-Native parents.

Tompkins boasted an Ivy-League resume as well as an impressive work history including working as the top attorney for a state governor, so Bingaman, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, was often puzzled by the holds placed on her confirmation by senate Republicans.

A week ago Bingaman made his issue with the holds clear on the floor of the senate.

"I think this is a highly irregular practice to just hold someone hostage for some totally unrelated concern, which she has no ability to control," said Bingaman at the time.

In a June 18 press release after her nomination, Salazar praised Tompkins as "an outstanding professional with strong legal and managerial skills."

Tompkins received her bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1990 and went on to receive her law degree from Stanford Law School in 1996. She has worked as a law clerk for the Navajo Nation Supreme Court. Tompkins worked as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's chief legal counsel from 2005-08.

As Richardson's legal counsel Tompkins prepared state supreme court briefs and managed the legal counsels for all New Mexico state departments. She also worked to preserve tougher DWI laws passed by Richardson's administration.

Most recently Tompkins taught a class at University of New Mexico Law School this past semester.

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