Bruce Edward Babbitt (born June 27, 1938) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 47th United States Secretary of the Interior from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.

(Perry) and Paul James Babbitt Sr.[1] His family owned a department store in Flagstaff, a ranch in northern Arizona, and multiple Indian trading posts.

[3] As attorney for the Scottsdale Daily Progress newspaper, Babbitt worked with publisher Jonathan Marshall in crafting legislation that became Arizona's "open meeting law."

Babbitt, as attorney general, was next in the line of succession, and thus served the balance of the term to which Raúl Héctor Castro had originally been elected in 1974.

With the retirement of Republican Barry Goldwater from the U.S. Senate in 1986, many in Arizona expected Babbitt to oppose Representative John McCain for the seat.

He enjoyed positive press attention (called a "boomlet" in USA Today), but after finishing out of the top tier of candidates in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, he dropped out of the race.

[8] After leading the League of Conservation Voters, Babbitt served for eight years, 1993–2001, as the Secretary of the Interior during the Presidency of Bill Clinton.

The argument was that the federal government in effect was subsidizing ranchers, with a few major corporations controlling millions of acres of grazing land.

[10][11] In 1993, Babbitt was seriously considered by President Clinton to replace retiring United States Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

[12] In 1998 Babbitt was the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into whether he had lied to Congress about having denied an Indian casino license in Wisconsin in return for political donations.

Babbitt defended both projects, one on Hearst Corporation land in central California and the other on the Ahmanson Ranch north of Los Angeles.