[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 34 (Tuesday, February 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S799-S800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Thomas J. Vilsack

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I wanted to talk a little bit about the 
vote I just took here with regard to our Secretary of Agriculture, 
Secretary Vilsack, who is now the new Secretary or on his way to 
becoming the new Secretary.
  You know, what I have tried to do when looking at nominees is I 
typically kind of look at three different questions: Do they have 
experience for the job, the experience necessary for the job, do they 
have views that I believe will help the country and in particular help 
my State, and do they care about the people they will be impacting? So 
that is a bit of a three-part test.
  I have tried to work with a lot of the new nominees in the Biden 
administration. I voted for a number of them, most of them. As a matter 
of fact, I introduced Secretary Austin at his confirmation hearing. I 
got to know him many years ago when I was a marine and he was an Army 
officer, a two-star general.
  You know, I will say to my friends, colleagues, constituents back 
home who say: Hey, Senator, you know, when the Trump administration put 
forward their nominees, you usually had kind of a party-line vote.
  A lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, my Democratic 
friends, would vote no, no, no, no.
  Why don't you do that?
  Well, I don't think it is good for the country; that is why I don't 
do that. I am against some but I have been supportive of many, and I am 
not sure the way in which it worked with the previous administration 
was best for our Nation.
  So certainly Secretary Vilsack passes the first two parts of that 
test I was talking about. Clearly he has the experience. He was the 
Secretary of Ag for 8 years under President Obama and Vice President 
Biden. Certainly he has views particularly with regard to farm country. 
You saw the strong vote he had there with regard to helping the ag 
sector. I am sure he is a patriot, of course. He cares about our 
country. But it was the third question--does he care about the people 
he will be impacting?--that I have had some serious hesitation on.
  Mr. President, I will talk a little bit about, you know, a lot of our 
different economies throughout the country. Our States have been hit 
hard by this pandemic. I would say that my State's economy has been hit 
really hard. When you look at what drives a lot of the Alaska economy: 
the energy sector, oil, gas, mining, the tourism sector, the fisheries, 
commercial fishery sector--I like to call Alaska the superpower of 
seafood. Over 60 percent of all seafood harvested in America comes from 
the waters of the great State of Alaska, the most sustainable, best 
managed fishery probably in the world but a huge driver of our economy.
  Also, there is the issue of access to our lands. Sixty-six percent of 
Alaska is Federal land. We need access to help have a strong economy. 
It is an issue that the Presiding Officer probably doesn't have to 
worry about, being from Connecticut, but in Alaska, access to land is 
huge.
  In the last administration, we made a lot of progress on these issues 
for our economy, on oil and gas, ANWR, the NPRA, access to those lands, 
legislation by the Congress. Our tourism sector had been doing great. 
Our commercial fishing sector had been doing great. We even made 
progress on other access issues, like the Tongass, something that for 
25 years Democrats and Republicans, whether Senators from Alaska, 
whether Governors from Alaska, were trying to get access to those 
lands. It is really important, and we were able to do that.
  So there was progress, and then the pandemic that has hurt everybody. 
It certainly hurt the energy sector. It certainly hurt, crushed the 
tourism sector. Last year, Alaska was going to have 1.5 million people 
show up in our State with regard to tourism, a new record just on the 
cruise ships, but none of them showed up because of the pandemic. The 
commercial fishing sector also has had a really rough time with this 
pandemic--markets, international markets, markets domestically.
  So I am very concerned about my State's economy, about working 
families, and about the average Alaskan who is struggling right now. 
The new policies put forward by this administration have been 
shockingly negative as it relates to my State. One month in, 
particularly in the energy sector, every day we are waking up to a new 
edict saying: Men and women who produce energy in America, who produce 
energy in Alaska, sorry, you are not favored anymore. You are not 
viewed in a positive light anymore.
  It is a real, real, real concern. Hundreds, if not thousands of jobs 
in my State during a recession are at risk.
  So these are some of the issues that I raised in my discussions with 
Secretary Vilsack, in particular our commercial fishing sector.
  In the previous administration, under the USDA, the Secretary of 
Agriculture helped implement a new trade

[[Page S800]]

relief program for fishermen. Huge progress. Hugely important. Just the 
way the farmers were getting this kind of relief with regard to trade 
and markets that have been destroyed by the pandemic, the Secretary of 
Agriculture undertook a new program for the farmers of the sea, for the 
fishermen who are being negatively impacted the same way that our 
farmers on the land were.
  This is an issue that I raised with the Secretary on the importance 
of moving forward, continuing that, and to be honest, there didn't seem 
to be a lot of interest. I was kind of shocked, but there didn't seem 
to be a lot of interest, and I was concerned. I am concerned.
  Similarly, this progress we made with regard to the Tongass, access 
to the largest national forest in the country that is under USDA 
management--something Alaskans have been working on in a bipartisan way 
for 25 years. There didn't seem to be a lot of interest from the 
Secretary on that either.
  So these are two issues hugely important to my State, hugely 
important to my constituents, hugely important to try to get Alaska out 
of a really deep recession where a lot of families are worried. And I 
got the sense that the Secretary just wasn't that interested. I really 
hope I am wrong. I really hope I am wrong.

  So I plan on trying to work with him. You know, he had a strong, very 
strong bipartisan vote, but every now and then, if you really think the 
people you represent are not going to be given a lot of attention when 
they need it, it becomes a harder vote. It becomes a harder vote. He 
obviously has got strong bipartisan support, but I sure hope that when 
he becomes Secretary of Agriculture, he cares as much about the farmers 
of the sea, where we have made progress on, as he does about farmers on 
the land. I didn't see that in my meeting with him and I hope I am 
wrong and that is why I voted the way I did.
  I also voted the way I did as it relates to this issue of access to 
the Tongass. Again, it is a huge issue to my State, a very bipartisan 
issue for my State. And, again, I hope that the Secretary and his team 
look at it as something that can help the economy of Alaska while 
protecting our environment, which, of course, we care about.
  But these are the reasons that I voted the way I did, and I hope that 
my concerns are going to be proved to be unfounded. I am going to 
continue to advocate for my constituents in the way that I think is 
going to be very important as we try and get through these challenging 
times, particularly the Alaska Tongass.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.