Heidi King

King was born December 21, 1964 in Ventura, California. She received a B.A. from University of California, Irvine in 1995 and a M.Sc in economics from California Institute of Technology in 1998.[1]

She was a regulatory policy analyst in the Office of Management and Budget from 1998 to 2000. She then worked for Telcordia Technologies, and in 2002 moved to Pfizer. In 2007, she returned to government service in the Office of Management and Budget, and then in 2011 as chief economist of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In 2013, she returned to the private sector as GE Capital's global director for environmental safety and risk.

In 2017, she returned once more to government service as Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. She was, in effect, the head of the agency, since the previous administrator, Mark Rosekind, left just before Trump's inauguration in January 2017. The White House announced April 5, 2018, that Donald Trump intends to nominate Heidi King to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.[2]

The nomination was opposed by the Center for Auto Safety over what it called her failure as Deputy Administrator to address key safety issues and her focus on delaying the reduction in emission standards and promoting driverless cars.[3] It was opposed by the Natural Resources Defense Council over her role in the proposal to freeze corporate average fuel economy standards at model year 2020 levels as well as unlawfully blocking inflation adjustments to penalties for violating said standards.[4] In Senate hearings, she explained the delay as the need to involve consumers and other stakeholders in decision-making.[5]

The nomination was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee by a 14–13 vote over Democratic Party opposition on June 17, 2018.[6] After failing to receive consideration by the full Senate, her nomination was returned to President Trump at the close of the 115th Congress.[7] The nomination was submitted to the 116th Congress on January 16, 2019, and later withdrawn on September 19, 2019, after again having failed to receive consideration by the full Senate.[8][9]