Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan will leave the Biden administration at the end of this year, about a month before the presidential transition.
Mr. Regan may remain on the job until President Trump's inauguration, but on Friday he informed his staff that he would be leaving several weeks early.
“I am writing today to inform you that my last day as your administrator will be December 31st,” he wrote in a memo to EPA staff.
“I am very proud to be a member of the EPA family,” he wrote, highlighting the agency's regulations over the past four years aimed at mitigating climate change and environmental pollution.
Jane Nishida, director of the agency's International Tribal Affairs Bureau, will serve as acting director in Regan's absence.
The message said Regan would be “returning home” to North Carolina, but provided no other information about next steps.
President-elect Trump has already said he will nominate former Congressman Lee Zeldin (R.N.Y.) to lead the agency in the next administration.
