[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2542-S2547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATION OF SARAH JEWELL TO BE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination,
which the clerk will report.
The bill clerk read the nomination of Sally Jewell, of Washington, to
be Secretary of the Interior.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 2
hours of debate equally divided prior to a vote on the nomination.
The senior Senator from Oregon is recognized.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, this afternoon we will take up in the
Senate the confirmation of Sally Jewell to head the Department of the
Interior. The Department is one of America's biggest landowners and is
the second largest source of revenue for the Treasury after the
Internal Revenue Service. The Department of Interior has the unique
mission of protecting America's treasures while pursuing balanced
approaches to promote sustainable economic development.
The Department administers the Outer Continental Shelf Program, which
is vital to the gulf coast, and Oregon's forest lands in southwestern
Oregon where we are pushing hard to increase forest health because we
know forest health equals a healthy economy.
The Department has significant trust responsibilities for Native
Americans, and it manages water reclamation projects throughout the
West. Public lands, which are administered by the Department, are a
lifeline for our ranchers, and they are especially important given the
recent droughts our country has experienced.
In addition to these traditional responsibilities, increasingly the
Department of the Interior is responsible for providing recreational
opportunities for millions of our citizens. Today millions of Americans
use these lands to hunt, camp, fish, hike, and boat. Let's make no
mistake about it. Outdoor recreation is now a major economic engine for
our country, generating more than $645 billion of revenue each year.
This is why I am especially enthused today to be able to strongly
recommend Sally Jewell to head the Department of the Interior. She has
exceptional qualifications. Somehow she has managed to pack into just
one lifetime two or three lifetimes of experiences. She has been a
petroleum engineer, corporate CEO, a banker, and a citizen volunteer.
Her qualifications clearly made an impression on the Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, which I chair. Last month our members voted 19 to
3 to approve her nomination, and I believe she got that resounding vote
because she is the right person to oversee the multitude of programs at
the Department of the Interior, several of which I have just mentioned.
She certainly made clear in her confirmation hearing that she
understands there is an enormous responsibility to balance the dual
roles of conserving and developing resources.
I think we all understand that jobs in our country come from the
private sector, and if through this Department we can come up with
innovative, fresh policies to set the climate for job growth while we
protect our treasures, that is clearly going to be good for the United
States of America.
[[Page S2543]]
Let's look at a few of the areas where she is going to be involved.
Natural gas is just one. This resource has been a huge, positive
development for our country. We have it, the world wants it, our prices
are lower, and we are seeing a significant interest among American
manufacturers in bringing jobs back home. I know this has been of great
interest to the Presiding Officer today. A lot of these manufacturers
are saying they want to come back from overseas because America has a
price advantage in terms of clean natural gas.
There are significant environmental questions associated with natural
gas. We have already talked about them in our committee. We are going
to have to deal with fracking issues and methane emissions and
underground aquifers. Based on some of the discussions we have had--and
we had a very good dialog between Frances Beinecke of the Natural
Resources Defense Council and Senator Hoeven from North Dakota where
they have a significant interest in natural gas--I believe that under
Sally Jewell, when it comes to our public lands, we are going to be
able to strike the kind of responsible balance that will make sense for
the Senate in a bipartisan way.
I see my friend and colleague Senator Murkowski is here. She has more
than met me halfway as we have tried to look at the issues associated
with these questions, such as natural gas.
I will only say that with someone with the brains and energy and the
willingness to reach out that Sally Jewell has--and she certainly did
that based on the number of visits she made to Senators--we may be able
to have a natural gas policy where we can have it all, where we can
have modest prices for our businesses and consumers that make for a
significant economic advantage, we can bring back some of those
industries from overseas to Oregon and Ohio and other parts of the
country, and we can do it by using, for example, best practices on our
public lands as it relates to managing these resources. But we will
only have a chance to accomplish those kinds of things if we have
someone with Sally Jewell's talents and professional track record of
actually bringing people together on these kinds of issues.
I do not believe you can run a multibillion-dollar company, such as
REI, which has been Ms. Jewell's current position, without showing the
ability to manage, to bring people together, and in particular to
anticipate some of the exciting trends in the days ahead in terms of
outdoor recreation, where we all have enjoyed the American tradition of
the great outdoors. I think few thought it would be a $646 billion
contributor to the American economy. But that happens because
individuals like Ms. Jewell are willing to step up to take these
positions. Because she is from our part of the world in the Pacific
Northwest, we are particularly pleased to see her secure this position.
But, again, you do not run--and run well--a nearly $2 billion outdoor
equipment company, as Ms. Jewell has, by osmosis but because you are a
good manager, you are good with people, and in particular you
understand what the challenges are all about.
At this point, I would like to give some time to my friend and
colleague. I know that Washington Senators are very interested in being
part of this debate, and before we wrap up this afternoon, I also would
like to talk about the wonderful track record of Ms. Jewell's
predecessor, our current Secretary, Secretary Salazar, who is Senator
Murkowski's and my personal friend.
For purposes of this part of the discussion, I would only like to say
to the Senate that in Sally Jewell we will have an individual with the
experience and with the expertise and the drive to lead the Department
of the Interior. I believe she will listen to Senators who have
concerns, listen to Senators who want, as Senator Murkowski and so many
in our committee have tried to do, to find common ground. So I strongly
urge the Senate today, when we vote a little bit later on, to join me
in voting to approve Sally Jewell's nomination for the Department of
the Interior.
I will now be happy to yield to my friend and colleague from Alaska.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Alaska is recognized.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I follow my colleague from Oregon, the
chairman of the Energy Committee, here in discussing the qualifications
of the nominee for Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell. We
recognize as westerners that this is an appointment, this is a position
that has great significance, great meaning to our States, so we pay
attention to these nominees, we pay attention to who is the Secretary
of the Interior.
I have taken the position that our constitutional responsibility for
advice and consent should begin with very thoughtful questions on our
part, and then, absent any seriously disqualifying factors, we should
conclude with the confirmation of the President's nominees. Our
obligation to get answers to our questions is always a serious one, and
the duty weighs most heavily when the interests of our constituents are
directly at stake.
I mention the impact the Department of the Interior has particularly
on our Western States--our States that have so much in public lands,
our States where we have national forests, where we have BLM lands,
rangelands, refuge lands. In Alaska and really in many parts across the
West, the Federal Government's biggest and most prominent role is
really that of a landlord. Sometimes you have a good relationship with
your landlord, and other times it feels as if the landlord won't even
let you put a nail in the wall to hang a picture. So, again, we look
very critically and very carefully at this position.
In several States, the Federal Government controls the majority of
the land. In Alaska, 64 percent of the State is controlled from here in
Washington, DC. So that means an individual who may have an inholding
in some Federal land basically has to get permission to get to his or
her inholding within a park. It is almost hard for many of my
colleagues to believe that so much of what it is we do has to go
through this process of approval, but that is our reality.
In Alaska, with the Federal ownership, there are more than 230
million acres that are held in Federal ownership. That is an area which
is larger than the State of Texas. We always like to compare
ourselves--Alaska to Texas--but the fact is that the Federal public
lands in Alaska are larger than the size of the State of Texas. We have
over 57 million acres of wilderness. That is about the size of the
State of Minnesota. And that is just sitting in my State.
The proportion of Federal land in Alaska is exceeded only by that of
our colleagues from Nevada. The majority leader and Senator Heller
remind us quite frequently the Federal lands held in their State are at
about 85 percent.
So when you think about what this does, the Federal land
classifications that we have to deal with, oftentimes it not only
severely restricts the usage of Federal lands by our people, but as a
practical matter they restrict the use of State and private lands too.
So, again, the Secretary of the Interior is important to the future
of a State such as Alaska and the West, but really, as it relates to
other Cabinet members, this is one to which we are going to pay serious
attention.
I had occasion to come to this floor several months ago to discuss a
decision that came out of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In that
decision, they somehow found cause to oppose a single-lane gravel road,
10 miles, that would connect the community of King Cove--near the
Aleutians--connect it to the smaller community of less than 100 people
of Cold Bay. The reason for the need to connect these two communities
is Cold Bay has the second longest runway in the State of Alaska. King
Cove, on the other hand, where most of the people live--about 900-some-
odd Native Alaskans--has an airport that is dicey at best. We have seen
accidents, we have seen lives lost as folks have tried to leave King
Cove for medical services.
It was an issue that, for me and for the people of King Cove, was far
beyond a discussion about what happens when you put a small road
through a refuge. For the people of King Cove, this was about safety,
this was about life and safety, and they felt they were not being heard
by their Federal landlord. The agencies had not heard the people. In
fact, the Department had not heard the people. Now, they had listened
to the biologists and they had gotten that message, but the people had
not been heard.
[[Page S2544]]
So through a series of very lengthy discussions with Secretary
Salazar, through a series of conversations with the nominee Sally
Jewell, and through the impassioned words of many of the people of King
Cove, who traveled over 4,000 miles to come here to Washington, DC, to
knock on the door of the Secretary and say: Please hear our voices,
there has been an accommodation, there has been an agreement reached.
And I appreciate my colleague, the chairman, helping us with this. The
Department of the Interior has agreed to have the new Secretary as well
as the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs review the public health
and safety impacts of the decision to build this road.
But I think it is important that folks understand this wasn't a
parochial issue I was raising here on the floor. I kept referring to it
as the King Cove issue, but it is not one single issue, and it is not
parochial. It is obvious to the people of Alaska why this was such a
considerable deal, why it was so important the people of King Cove be
heard. For them, it was not just about a road, it was an issue of
overreach. It was a symbol of Federal overreach on way too many
policies we see come out of the Department and the harm that causes
across our Nation.
The reality is so many of us, particularly those in the Western
States, have our own King Cove. We all have those instances when issues
have come up, where the people from the States we represent have to go
knocking on the door of some Federal agency for permission, have to try
to navigate a morass of regulations, and they do not feel as though
they are being heard. Every day we have Federal restrictions making it
harder for local people to live and to prosper.
I made a big effort to make sure the incoming Secretary of the
Interior not only understood the particulars of King Cove--and I
welcome the opportunity to travel with her when she comes to Alaska and
flies out to King Cove hopefully at the end of the summer--for her not
only to understand this issue but for her to understand the bigger role
she will assume as Secretary of the Interior and how important it is
for her to listen to all sides and to listen to the people she
represents. As Secretary of the Interior, she is the one to implement
that special trust responsibility the Federal Government has to our
first people, to our Native people, so she needs to see and hear for
herself.
She also needs to fully understand what she has in front of her--as
Senator Wyden mentioned, the massive public lands that will be under
her jurisdiction as Secretary, understanding what that means to
ranchers and farmers and those who are the recreators in our national
parks, to those who will harvest timber, to those who will use our
lands in the manner in which they are intended--multiple use--for her
to fully understand what it means to be the custodian, the landlord of
our amazing public lands in this country. We all need to be working
with her.
I have no question about Ms. Jewell's intelligence and her competence
as a manager. I have been very impressed with what I have seen as her
level of sincerity with her very distinguished private sector career.
It has been noted that she has probably spent more time in Alaska prior
to coming to the Department of Interior than any other nominee outside
of Walter Hickel, who was our former Governor and served as Secretary
of the Interior. So she gives me comfort with that, knowing that she
understands much of what we have to deal with in Alaska.
These are all important qualities as we think about her competence as
a manager, as we think about her intelligence. But dealing with an
agency the size, the scope, and the complexity of the Department of
Interior really requires the ability to focus not only on the debates
and conflicts that we are facing today, but it is going to require an
understanding of how we got here, the fact that the debates and
conflicts of today often are based on years, decades, perhaps even
centuries of history. Those who are steeped in this history raise the
importance of the Secretary understanding the context for the many
difficult decisions that will be made.
I had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions of Sally Jewell not
only in our private meeting but before the committee and then also in
writing. I asked questions about my questions. I wanted to be thorough.
And I do concede that Ms. Jewell will be on a learning curve as she
assumes the position of Secretary. But in her answers to questions at
the hearing and in her written submissions, she has pointed out her
experience and her skill at bringing diverse groups of people together
to solve difficult problems on which they have been divided
historically, and I do take her at her word there. I will certainly
commit to participating in that dialog and to bringing all of my fellow
western constituents with me, whether it is literally or figuratively.
I believe that is important.
Ms. Jewell has used the word ``convener'' when describing herself,
and I think this will be a very important task and role that she will
assume. There are conflicting groups and conflicting interests, and Ms.
Jewell has spoken to how she has reconciled that in the past with her
previous work experience, not only at REI but at other places, and I do
believe she has the skill sets to accomplish just that.
So with this commitment she has made to me and to others on the
committee, I will certainly take the view that the fact that Ms. Jewell
has perhaps not been through the full gamut of the conflicts that
surround so much of what happens within Interior, perhaps that is a
good thing because perhaps she is able to look at some of these issues
through a fresh perspective, a different lens. Perhaps because she is
not so embedded in the history, she will be able to look at this anew.
And I think that is good. I think that is a positive. I certainly will
look forward to engaging substantively with her as we complete this
process--and beyond--on these issues, on how she can really bring her
problem-solving skills to bear in a way that will serve all Americans.
I think it is telling--and it was noted in the Energy Committee
hearing by one of our colleagues--that Ms. Jewell brings to the table
as the nominee for the Secretary of Interior a business background that
is quite considerable. She is a petroleum engineer who has actually
fracked a well, so she has experience there. She has experience in
Alaska and worked on the beginning portion of how we built out the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline. She did it from the Seattle area but has that
skill set as well.
It was asked somewhat tongue-in-cheek by one of my colleagues on the
Republican side: Well, you have all these great characteristics. Why
would President Obama select you?
So I think it is important to recognize that we have before us a
nominee who brings a unique set of skill sets and experiences to us
that I am hopeful will be beneficial. This is important to me as an
Alaskan, to know we have someone who will be a listener, who will be a
convener, who will work to solve problems. I am looking forward to the
opportunity to spend time in Alaska with her as she visits with the
people up north to better understand some of the challenges we face and
hopefully work with us on these issues that are so critically
important.
I appreciate the good work of my colleague and the chairman of the
committee in getting us to this point so that we can move Ms. Jewell's
nomination forward. I look forward to supporting her and working with
her during her tenure as Secretary of the Interior.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Washington State is
recognized.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues and
urge them to vote in support of Sally Jewell, who has been nominated to
serve as Interior Secretary. I thank Senator Wyden for all of his work
in moving her through this process to today. I was thrilled when
President Obama nominated Sally for this position, and I couldn't be
more excited to support her confirmation.
Sally is going to come to the Department of the Interior at a
difficult time for our country. As a nation, we are working very hard
to protect our environment and invest in new technologies to meet our
energy demands. And on the local level, including in my home State of
Washington, Sally is going to face some complex issues, such as
protecting tribal lands and
[[Page S2545]]
treaty rights. But I can think of no one better prepared for this task
than Sally.
After she studied at the University of Washington to become an
engineer, Sally left the Northwest for the oilfields of Oklahoma and
Colorado, where she learned about the energy sector from the inside
out. She moved from the outdoors--as you can see from this picture--to
the boardroom and spent nearly two decades in finance helping
businesses grow and learning what it takes to succeed in the
marketplace.
Time and again, Sally has broken the mold to take on tough tasks--
often in male-dominated industries. When she joined Recreational
Equipment, Incorporated, the Seattle-based outdoor retailer, it was
struggling. But after 8 years with Sally as CEO, REI is now thriving,
topping $1 billion in sales, while leading the charge to protect our
environment. And finding that balance--navigating the business world
while keeping REI's commitment to the outdoors--is what will make Sally
great as our next Interior Secretary. Perhaps better than anyone, Sally
knows that businesses and the environment both benefit when we are
committed to protecting our national parks and promoting our national
treasures. At REI, Sally has proven that sustainability and
responsibility make sense for the environment and the company's bottom
line.
In Washington State, she has worked closely with me to help create
the Wild Sky Wilderness area and expand our other important
environmental protections throughout our State. She has worked with
industry and environmentalists to expand recreational opportunities
throughout the Northwest and has helped us work toward permanently
protecting BLM lands in the San Juan Islands, where my colleague
Senator Maria Cantwell was at the forefront. That is truly a gem of
Washington State and has recently been declared a national monument.
Sally has backed crucial public-private partnerships that create jobs
through recreation, and she has supported groundbreaking programs to
get young people involved in the outdoors.
So whether it is our forest lands in the Northwest or mineral
deposits in the Southwest or oil reserves along our coastlines, Sally
is going to lead an Interior Department where economic growth and long-
term sustainability go hand in hand.
I am here today to urge my colleagues to vote in support of Sally
Jewell, and I am really pleased she has been nominated. Again, I thank
Senator Wyden for all of his work in getting her to this point in this
process.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington State is
recognized.
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I join my colleagues from the Northwest
who have come to the floor this afternoon to speak in support of the
nomination of Sally Jewell as Secretary of the Interior. Like my
colleagues from the Northwest, I wish to express how much we appreciate
her willingness to serve and how proud we are of her legacy and
interests in a variety of issues so far.
Obviously, the Department of the Interior is so important to us, with
its broad range of services, including everything from our national
parks, to wildlife refuge, to offshore drilling lease management, to
the important science done by the USGS Service, and many other things.
In fact, I read somewhere kind of humorously that the Department of the
Interior was called the Department of Everything Else.
As a nominee, Ms. Jewell came before our committee. I thank her
family for their willingness to support her in her efforts to come to
Washington, DC, because Sally is the exact type of leadership we need
at the Department of the Interior. She represents a balanced person who
not only knows how to help a growing business, as she did, she has
served on the university board of regents and also worked on the
nonpartisan National Conservation Parks Association. She has done
everything in business, from dealing with oilfields in Oklahoma to
commercial banking to, of late, running REI, one of our most successful
companies in the Pacific Northwest. I know she has the kind of
leadership it takes to figure out these issues about best use of public
lands or the vigorous challenges the Department faces when it comes to
modernizing the bureaucracy or thinking about climate change at the
same time you are talking about deepwater drilling. There are a myriad
of things we have to forge through, and Sally Jewell is the right
person with the right balance to get that done.
Having grown up in Washington, where over 40 percent of our lands is
in public land, I know Sally understands these western issues, whether
it is water rights or salmon recovery or understanding the impact on
water levels, the fire season, wildlife on BLM lands, or the importance
of access to hunting and fishing. I guarantee, because she grew up
there, Sally Jewell understands these issues. I know she has been
involved in many organizations to express that, and that has been a
good training ground for her.
I am confident, because she is a trained engineer, she is going to
bring a very pragmatic, can-do attitude to the Interior Department's
management and problem-solving efforts.
I know science will be her compass, and I know she is not going to
have an ideological bent, but she is going to have a ``get it done''
mentality.
Given the importance of the Interior Department's agencies and very
challenging mission, I am excited we are going to have somebody with a
business background and a science background at the Department of the
Interior.
I hope our colleagues will vote today to move Ms. Jewell out of the
Senate so we can get her into the Department of the Interior so she can
begin this important job and continue to move our Nation's agenda
forward.
As the chairwoman of the Indian Affairs Committee I look forward to
working with Ms. Jewell on all the issues related to Indian Country as
well. There is much to accomplish and much to address. I think her
background is exactly what we need in the Department. I hope my
colleagues will move quickly on this issue.
I thank the chairman, Senator Wyden, for his leadership in moving her
nomination through the process.
I yield the floor.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, before she leaves I want to thank Senator
Cantwell for all her good work. As northwesterners know, and I hope the
rest of the country knows, Senator Cantwell is one of those who
understands the opportunity in the great outdoors. I know she is
climbing a mountain this summer and is always in shape. She is always
fit and ready for a mountain.
To have the opportunity to work with folks in the Pacific Northwest,
particularly with Sally Jewell's background, as the Senator has
eloquently outlined, I think it is going to be an advantage not just
for our region but for the rest of our country.
I see our colleague from New Mexico is here. If he would like to make
some remarks at this point, we welcome him. I have some additional
remarks as well.
Would my colleague from New Mexico like to make any remarks at this
time?
All right.
Let me, then, talk for just a few more minutes about Ms. Jewell and
some of the challenges ahead of her, particularly in natural resources.
Obviously, with authorities, as my colleagues have outlined, that range
from managing national parks, to offshore oil and gas development, to
protecting fish and wildlife, serving as Secretary of the Interior, it
is almost like an extreme sport for multitaskers. You are going to have
to juggle. Ms. Jewell knows a little bit about multitasking, as we have
outlined, from being a petroleum engineer, a CEO, a conservationist,
and a banker.
Particularly in my part of the world, Oregon, there are some
especially important challenges. The Federal Government owns most of
our land. Particularly in forestry, we need to find a way to bring
together all sides--timber owners, environmentalists, scientists--and
we need to go in there and clean out millions and millions of acres of
overstocked timber stands. We can get that material to the mills. It is
an ideal source of biomass, a clean source of energy.
Because we are working to build relationships with the environmental
community, we can also find a way to protect old growth as we get to
harvest
[[Page S2546]]
timber. But it is, again, not going to happen just by osmosis or
because somebody waves a wand in Washington, DC. It is going to happen
because we have responsible administrators like Sally Jewell who are
going to take the time to learn the checker-board pattern of O&C lands
and our local communities, and particularly understand some of our
traditions that have worked particularly well in the past and I think
can be of great benefit as we look to future solutions.
Back in 2000 I had the honor of writing the secure rural schools bill
and the timber payments bill with our former colleague, Senator Larry
Craig. What we included in that legislation is the kind of model for
collaborative forestry that we are going to see Sally Jewell pick up
on. We established something called resource advisory councils where,
in effect, on the local level people from the timber industry, people
from the environmental community, scientists, and a whole host of
others--frankly, some people who as a general rule had not done much
talking to each other, probably done a lot of litigating against each
other--they would use these resource advisory councils to come together
and try to find some common ground.
It worked. Regarding these resource advisory councils, when I meet
people from the timber industry, from any of the extractive industries,
and environmental folks, they say: Use that model. Use that
collaborative model that we are seeing used in timberlands in
southwestern Oregon as a way that we can build on the opportunity to
bring people together.
We have been able to do that with Forest Service lands in eastern
Oregon to some extent. I think we can do it also in western Oregon and
in the communities that are affected by the Bureau of Land Management
lands. Probably to do it we are going to have to extend the timber
payments law for another year to give us the time to come up with a
long-term solution. I have talked about this with Sally Jewell in the
past and about her willingness to see that this is an issue that now
finally has to be addressed, addressed in a way that will get the
timber harvest up in O&C lands but also protect our treasures. Our old
growth is some of the very pristine treasures of America. If we do not
figure out a way to promote forest health and go in there and thin out
these overstocked stands, these fires that we are seeing--they are not
natural fires, they are really magnets for infernos because of years
and years of neglect--are going to continue.
I think Sally Jewell is up to the challenge of coming up with the
kind of policies for the O&C lands, for the lands in eastern Oregon and
those my colleagues talked about in Montana and Colorado and Idaho, and
I think she is up to that challenge.
Before we wrap up today I want to take a few minutes and talk about--
I know the Presiding Officer has great affection for him as well--our
former colleague, Ken Salazar. Ken Salazar has been Secretary of the
Interior throughout the Obama administration to date. It is my view he
has done an exceptional job. I think we all understand in the Senate
that when Ken Salazar is involved, get ready for a great smile, an
enormous amount of energy, enormous amount of intelligence, and someone
who, in a very persistent way, is interested in solving problems. Ken
Salazar has sure done that in a number of important areas.
For example, before Ken Salazar took office--I am looking at a
headline from when there was a huge scandal at the Department of the
Interior. I am looking at an article from the fall of 2008 headlined,
``Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited In The Interior Department.''
Basically, what it talks about is an investigation, a number of
reports delivered by the inspector general, that basically document, at
the Department of the Interior, a culture of lax ethics. It basically
describes something like a dozen current and former employees of the
Minerals Management Service, an agency that collected at that time
billions of dollars of royalties annually--you basically had an
``anything goes'' kind of environment, and the reports go on and on. It
feels more like a litany for a late-night television show.
The reports focused on a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity
in what was the Service's royalty and in-kind program--essentially,
officials who seemed to be exempt from expense accounts limits, one
ethical lapse after another, as documented in these reports. I remember
at the hearing, the confirmation hearing, Senator Salazar--it was
unusual because he had been my seatmate over the years at the Senate
Energy Committee--I said: Senator Salazar, you have to go in there and
drain the swamp at the Minerals Management Service.
In fact, he certainly did that. Essentially, the successor agency has
been free of scandal. I think that is representative of both the
integrity and professionalism that Secretary Salazar has brought to the
agency.
Also, I note after the gulf spill he overhauled the offshore drilling
practices, ensured that they were beefed up in terms of safety while at
the same time allowing for the drilling that is so important to the
industry.
I am also going to reflect on Secretary Salazar's accomplishments,
mention that he has done yeoman work in terms of promoting green and
renewable energy. I note in one of the comments about his departure
that Christy Goldfuss, Public Lands Director at the Center for American
Progress, stated Secretary Salazar championed ``a new model of
conservation which focused on partnerships with private land owners and
States'' and ``that approach has paid off with cooperatives in the
Everglades in Florida, the Prairie Potholes region of the Dakotas, and
other areas.''
I would like to note something else as well about Secretary Salazar.
I know Senators on both sides of the aisle would call him when they had
those kinds of resource questions. I know Senator Murkowski brought up
one of Secretary Salazar's final acts in office today. Under his
leadership the State of Idaho and the Fish and Wildlife Service entered
into an arrangement so that the State of Idaho's plan for addressing
the sage grouse could be implemented. I know this is a critical issue
for Senator Risch. He and I talked about it often. I am going to work
with him on these issues, and what Secretary Salazar did today is an
example of the new kind of partnership that we all are looking to the
Interior Department and the states for, and certainly something I want
to promote, and I know Senator Murkowski shares that view.
I think it is fair to say that Sally Jewell has very large boots to
fill. We all remember Secretary Salazar's wonderful western boots and
the anecdotes about them. She has certainly got a challenge to try to
step in after a Secretary who has accomplished so much. But as I and
Senator Murkowski and the Washington Senators have outlined today, we
believe strongly that Sally Jewell is up to this challenge. I hope she
will receive a resounding vote in the Senate. I believe we are close to
the point where we will be able to vote on Ms. Jewell.
For all the reasons that I and my colleagues have outlined this
afternoon, I hope there will be very strong bipartisan support for Ms.
Jewell when we vote.
With that I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for a
quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent all remaining time
on the Jewell nomination be yielded back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. All time
is yielded back.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
There is a sufficient second.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination
of Sarah Jewell, of Washington, to be Secretary of the Interior?
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr.
Lautenberg) and the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Rockefeller) are
necessarily absent.
[[Page S2547]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 87, nays 11, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 94 Ex.]
YEAS--87
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Boozman
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Cowan
Crapo
Cruz
Donnelly
Durbin
Feinstein
Flake
Franken
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hagan
Harkin
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson (SD)
Johnson (WI)
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Portman
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Toomey
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
NAYS--11
Barrasso
Chambliss
Coburn
Enzi
Fischer
Johanns
Lee
McConnell
Rubio
Scott
Vitter
NOT VOTING--2
Lautenberg
Rockefeller
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
____________________