[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2006)]
[Pages 1098-1099]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Swearing-In Ceremony for Dirk Kempthorne as Secretary of 
the Interior

June 7, 2006

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Welcome to the White House. Laura 
and I are thrilled you are here to witness the swearing-in of Dirk 
Kempthorne as our Nation's 49th Secretary of the Interior.
    We welcome Dirk's family, particularly his wife, Patricia, and his 
children, Heather and Jeff. Thank you all for being here. I'm really 
happy Dirk's dad, Jim, is with us. I sure appreciate you being here, Mr. 
Kempthorne. I want to thank all the other friends of the Kempthorne 
family and members of the family who have joined us here today.
    I found it interesting that when Dirk and Patricia were married, 
they chose a wedding ceremony at sunrise high atop Idaho's Moscow 
Mountain. It's an interesting commitment to make, isn't it? [Laughter] 
And an interesting place to make the commitment. It shows a love of--
Dirk's love for his wife and their mutual love for nature. And one of 
the reasons I picked Dirk Kempthorne is because of his love of the 
beautiful country that we are fortunate to call America. That's why I 
picked him.
    I want to appreciate the Vice President joining us today. Mr. Vice 
President, welcome. Thank you for being here, sir. I want to thank 
Justice Scalia for joining us, to administer the oath of office.
    Dirk, you must be given a lot of these, kind of, swearing-in 
ceremonies, and we generally don't have a man of such esteem join us in 
a situation like this. [Laughter]
    I appreciate Lynn Scarlett, the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, 
joining us, as well as all those who work for the Secretary of the 
Interior. I want to thank members of my Cabinet for being here. Thank 
you all for coming. Appreciate you taking time out of your day to be 
here, and I know Dirk does as well. I appreciate Members of the United 
States Senate who join us, starting with the Senate President pro tem, 
Ted Stevens. Thank you, Senator, proud you're here; as well as the two 
Senators from Idaho, Larry Craig and Mike Crapo. Thank you both for 
joining us. We have the House majority whip with us, Roy Blunt. I see 
former colleagues of Dirk Kempthorne have joined us as well. Thank you 
all for coming.
    We have the privilege of living in a land of unparalleled beauty. 
We've got vast mountain ranges and mighty rivers and open plains and 
spectacular coastlines. These open spaces are shared--are the shared 
heritage of everybody. They just don't belong to a few people; they 
belong to all of us. It's the job of the Secretary of the Interior to 
manage these natural resources in such a way that we can pass them on to 
future generations, in good shape. That's Dirk's job. There's no doubt 
in my mind he'll be able to do it well.
    Dirk Kempthorne is uniquely qualified for this important position. 
He is the first Secretary of the Interior to serve as a Governor, a 
Senator, and a mayor. And each of these positions prepared Dirk well for 
his new responsibilities.
    As Governor of Idaho, Dirk was responsible for managing Idaho's 30 
State parks and recreational trails. He proved himself to be an 
outstanding steward of his State's open spaces. He launched a statewide 
initiative to fund improvements in the State's parks and public spaces. 
He created the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. He established 
the Governor's Office of Species Conservation. He's a true 
conservationist, with a track record to prove it.
    As a United States Senator, Dirk chaired the Subcommittee on 
Drinking Water, Fisheries, and Wildlife, and built bipartisan support to 
enact comprehensive reforms to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
    As a former mayor of Boise, Dirk understands that those who live 
closest to the land

[[Page 1099]]

know how to manage it best. He understands that while people here in 
Washington may care deeply about the land, it's the people that's 
closest to the land that we're going to rely upon to manage those 
resources. We're going to work closely with local and State leaders to 
ensure our natural resources are managed wisely.
    Dirk takes up his new responsibilities at an important time in our 
Nation's history, and he follows an outstanding Secretary of the 
Interior in Gale Norton. Gale was instrumental in establishing the 
Healthy Forests Initiative to safeguard our forests and woodlands 
against fire damage. And thanks to her leadership, our administration 
has reduced the danger of fires by treating or removing hazardous fields 
from 11 million acres of Federal land so far. Gale also led the effort 
in Washington to improve our national parks and reduce the park 
maintenance backlog that we found when we came into office. Dirk is 
going to continue focusing on our national parks.
    After Hurricane Katrina devastated our Nation's gulf coast, Gale 
helped lead the effort to restore offshore energy production. She worked 
tirelessly to prevent a massive energy disruption that could have 
crippled our economy. America is a better place because of Gale Norton's 
leadership.
    Dirk Kempthorne is going to build upon the strong foundation left by 
Gale Norton. He's going to continue my administration's effort to 
conserve our land and water and air resources. He's going to work to 
improve our national parks. He's going to preserve our Nation's historic 
and cultural sites. He'll carry forward our approach of cooperative 
conservation by encouraging conservation on both public and private 
lands in close collaboration with local communities. As we work to 
reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy, he will make sure 
that any exploration on Federal lands and in Federal waters is done in 
an environmentally sensitive way. As the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk 
Kempthorne will make certain that our Nation's natural spaces are 
cleaner and safer and more productive.
    I want to thank Dirk for agreeing to serve our country again. I want 
to thank his family for supporting him. And now it's my honor to witness 
the swearing-in of Dirk Kempthorne.

Note: The President spoke at 3 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also 
included the remarks of Justice Antonin Scalia and Secretary Kempthorne.