[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4896-4901]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

       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 the 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.
  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

[[Page 4897]]

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

[[Page 4898]]

message, but the people had not been heard.
  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 the 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 the 
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 the 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 the 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.

[[Page 4899]]

  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 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,

[[Page 4900]]

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 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.

[[Page 4901]]


  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.
  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.

                          ____________________