“How do you know when you are working too hard? When your vacation is reported as a career change,” a LinkedIn post from Deputy NHTSA Administrator Heidi King reads, who will now be resigning effective August 31, 2019.
The post highlighted King’s discomfort with not being named as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). She has worked there for two years. King suggested she would be stepping down from her position last week, and at the time did not state a reason why.
King has been trying to gain confirmation as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) since June 2018, when she was chosen by the administration to lead the agency for the first time. King however, did not gain Senate approval in last year’s Congress and was nominated by the administration for a second time at the start of 2019. When she gained the Senate’s approval in April 2019 there was no set timeframe for deliberations from the Congressional Floor.
Now she has decided to step down amid a battle between the federal government and California over gas mileage rules.
King will be replaced by U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Deputy General Counsel James Owens, who will serve as deputy NHTSA administrator and the agency’s acting chief according to the DOT.
