On August 21, President Trump announced that he will nominate Robert King to be assistant secretary for postsecondary education, filling a position that has been vacant since January 2017.
King is a former member of the New York State Legislature and a friend and colleague of former New York Governor George Pataki, for whom he served as budget director from 1998 to 1999. Pataki nominated King to the chancellorship of the State University of New York (SUNY) system in 1999, where he spent five years before suddenly resigning amid questions from the state legislature over compensation for his upcoming sabbatical.
King returned to education in 2009, becoming president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education; he has held a number of supplementary positions, including a membership on the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and a board position at A.T. Stills University.
This appointment requires U.S. Senate confirmation.