[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3203-3205]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following 
nomination, which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Ryan 
Zinke, of Montana, to be Secretary of the Interior.
  Under the previous order, there will now be 20 minutes of debate, 
equally divided.
  The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, what a historic day for Montana. As a 
fellow Montanan, as a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, 
Environment, and Related Agencies, I look forward to working with Ryan 
Zinke in his new role as the Secretary of the Interior.
  Serving at the helm of the Department of the Interior, I know he will 
be a strong advocate for our public lands. He will uphold the Federal 
trust responsibility to Indian tribes, and he will help unleash 
American energy and will strengthen our water infrastructure.
  I have heard all week some friends on the other side of the aisle 
speak against my good friend from Montana, Ryan Zinke. I can tell you, 
I am perplexed. They are concerned that Ryan Zinke may not uphold the 
important roles of the Department of Interior--and that is to protect 
the public interests in land and mineral management--that he will take 
shortcuts to extract minerals. Let me tell you what Ryan Zinke will do, 
and I have known Ryan Zinke for 38 years. He will finally restore 
balance to the use and management of Federal land.
  Do you know that in Montana we have more recoverable coal than any 
State in the United States? Yet the Obama administration had planned to 
block our ability, Montana's ability, to develop these resources. A 
moratorium is not a responsible policy. It is reckless. It is 
misguided, leaving the States and the tribes to be reliant on mineral 
royalties, to lose out on these revenues, and lose out on the good-
paying jobs that coal supports. Ryan Zinke will take a fresh look at 
our coal programs and see how we can access these untapped resources in 
an environmentally responsible way.
  Let me remind my colleagues that Ryan Zinke was born and raised in 
Montana. It is a State where we like to say we get to work where we 
also like to play. He will restore that balance to the Department so 
Montanans can gain better access to our public lands.
  He will also ensure our public lands work for those who live closest 
to them, and that means our States and our tribes. Ryan is a Montanan. 
He grew up in America's public lands. He grew up in the shadows of 
Glacier National Park. I grew up in the shadows of Yellowstone National 
Park. He knows we must strike this balance between conservation and 
responsible energy development, and he understands better than anybody 
I know that one-size-fits-all policies of Washington, DC, never work 
for real America.
  I look forward to voting for my friend, my colleague, a Navy SEAL for 
23 years, and our next Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I will vote against confirming 
Representative Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior, and I would 
like to take this opportunity to explain why. To put the matter 
succinctly, Representative Zinke--if he is confirmed--will be charged 
with implementing the Trump administration's ``energy independence 
plan,'' which includes maximizing energy production on Federal lands, 
including the outer continental shelf, OCS. I oppose oil and gas 
drilling off the coast of Maryland and the entrance to the Chesapeake 
Bay. There is too little to gain and too much to lose.
  Last November, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, BOEM, wisely 
did not include any parcels in the Atlantic in the 2017 to 2022 plan to 
lease offshore land the Federal Government controls. In December, then-
President Obama used his authority under section 12(a) of the 1953 
Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 to withdraw unleased OCS 
lands from future lease sales, too.
  This makes sense. According to BOEM, the entire Atlantic OCS, from 
Maine all the way to Florida, has 1.15 billion barrels of 
``undiscovered technically recoverable'' oil and 12.80 trillion cubic 
feet of ``undiscovered technically recoverable'' natural gas. These 
sums sound large, but let's put them in context. The Gulf of Mexico OCS 
has more than 40 times as much oil and 10 times as much natural gas.
  Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, recently determined that 
the midland basin of the Wolfcamp Shale area in the Permian Basin has 
20 billion barrels of oil and the natural gas equivalent of another 1.6 
billion

[[Page 3204]]

barrels. The oilfield stretches over 118 miles from Lubbock to Midland. 
It is the largest ``continuous oil'' discovery in the United States, 
according to the USGS, three times larger than the assessment of the 
oil in the mammoth Bakken formation in North Dakota.
  It doesn't make any sense to jeopardize the marine life and the 
fishing and tourism industries along the Maryland coast and Chesapeake 
Bay when there is so much more oil and gas in other parts of the 
country.
  Deepwater Horizon was a state-of-the-art rig, but it failed, causing 
the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. Eleven crewman were killed. An 
oil spill entering the Chesapeake Bay would be a disaster.
  An even bigger threat to Maryland and other coastal States is climate 
change and rising sea levels. We need to accelerate our transition from 
fossil fuels, not our dependence on them. Two years ago, Oceana 
concluded that modest levels of offshore wind development over the next 
20 years could produce about twice the amount of energy along coastal 
Atlantic States as offshore drillings and create more than 1.5 times 
the number of jobs.
  There is no provision in the 1953 law that permits President Trump to 
reverse the Obama administration's section 12(a) OCS withdrawals, but 
he is determined to try. When Representative Zinke was first asked 
about lifting the moratoria, he responded, ``If I am confirmed, I will 
work to implement President-elect Trump's policy.''
  That is the problem right there.
  I appreciate Representative Zinke's honorable service to our country, 
both in uniform as a Navy SEAL and as an elected official in the 
Montana State Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. He has 
called himself a ``Theodore Roosevelt conservationist'' and supports a 
permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
  It is possible Representative Zinke will try to resist the 
Republicans' zeal for transferring ownership of precious public lands 
from the Federal Government, although he supported a House rule change 
at the beginning of this Congress to make it easier. Representative 
Zinke is an avid sportsman who appears to appreciate the unique role 
the Federal Government has in managing these resources for multiple 
uses--not just energy production--and preserving them for future 
generations.
  While these are all positive factors, I am troubled that 
Representative Zinke has received a 3 percent rating from the League of 
Conservation Voters. He has vacillated on the issue of climate change: 
in 2010, he was one of nearly 1,200 State legislators who signed a 
letter to President Obama and Congress calling for ``comprehensive 
clean energy jobs and climate change legislation.'' Since then, 
however, he has repeatedly expressed doubt about anthropogenic climate 
change. In an October 2014 debate, Representative Zinke stated: ``it's 
not a hoax, but it's not proven science either.'' During his 
confirmation hearing, Representative Zinke said that humans 
``influence'' climate change, but did not acknowledge the scientific 
consensus that human activity is a dominant cause of climate change. He 
also supports using the Congressional Review Act to overturn rules 
agencies have spent months and even years to develop.
  For all of these reasons, but particularly out of concern for the 
Chesapeake Bay and Maryland's beautiful shoreline and coastal 
communities, I will vote against confirming Representative Zinke as 
Secretary of the Interior.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I oppose the nomination of 
Representative Ryan Zinke to be Secretary of the Interior.
  The Department of the Interior is charged with judicious management 
of our Nation's public lands. It is responsible for balancing 
conservation, recreation, and development to ensure that Americans get 
the best use and best value from our collective natural resources.
  President Teddy Roosevelt, one of the greatest stewards of our public 
lands, once said: ``I recognize the right and duty of this generation 
to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not 
recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the 
generations that come after us.''
  The Obama administration took important steps to protect our 
resources and provide best value to taxpayers. Taking Atlantic Ocean 
drilling off the table protects our coastal areas and the vital tourism 
industry up and down the Eastern Shore, including Ocean City. 
Modernizing the coal leasing process ensures that taxpayers get proper 
payment for use of common resources. Preventing methane leakage on 
public lands stops waste of resources and pollution from a potent 
greenhouse gas.
  Representative Zinke's history in Congress casts doubt on his 
commitment to these important initiatives. He has a mere 3 percent 
lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters and an F grade 
from the National Parks Action Fund. I appreciate that he has spoken in 
opposition to the sale or transfer of public lands to States, but I am 
deeply concerned about his vote in January in the House of 
Representatives for a rule change that would make sales and transfers 
much easier.
  As the Sierra Club has said: ``Rather than dedicating himself to the 
preservation of our public lands, Representative Zinke has repeatedly 
sided with those who would dismantle, degrade, or dispose of them. 
Mining, drilling, logging, and dirty energy interests have been placed 
time and again before the public interest''
  In an op-ed opposing a Department of the Interior rule to update coal 
leasing to get better value for American taxpayers, Representative 
Zinke said that the Obama administration was ``fighting a more 
aggressive war against American coal than they are against ISIS.'' This 
kind of hyperbole does not bode well for Representative Zinke's ability 
to represent American taxpayers or promote conservation as Secretary of 
the Interior, should he be confirmed.
  In his nomination hearing, Representative Zinke pledged to support 
Federal public lands, permanently reauthorize the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund, and address the National Parks maintenance backlog. 
These are important promises from any nominee for the Department of the 
Interior. Unfortunately, Representative Zinke's voting record does not 
give me confidence in his commitment to fulfill them, and therefore I 
must vote against his nomination today. I am proud to be a member of 
the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related 
Agencies, and if he is confirmed, I look forward to working with him to 
protect our public lands and ensure that American taxpayers get a fair 
deal for our common resources.
  Mr. DAINES. I yield back the time on both sides.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Zinke 
nomination?
  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: The Senator 
from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 68, nays 31, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 75 Ex.]

                                YEAS--68

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Brown
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McCain
     McCaskill

[[Page 3205]]


     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott
     Shelby
     Strange
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Warner
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--31

     Baldwin
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Hirono
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Van Hollen
     Warren
     Whitehouse

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Isakson
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote on the 
nomination, and I move to table the motion to reconsider.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to 
table.
  The motion was agreed to.

                          ____________________