Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican and chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, announced last month that the committee has approved the nomination of E. Sequoyah Simermeyer to serve as chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), and sent it to the full Senate for approval.
On his nomination by President Donald Trump in June, Simermeyer received endorsements from many quarters, including Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who called him “the ideal candidate… I urge Congress to confirm him quickly.”
Earlier in his career, the nominee was counselor and deputy chief of staff to the Department of the Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. He was also counsel for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
If approved by the full Senate, Simermeyer will succeed Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri in the role. Chaudhuri, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, left to become chairman of the Indian Law and Policy Group at Quarles & Brady in Washington, D.C.
