Nomination of Tommy P. Beaudreau

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, the Senate will be voting tomorrow on the nomination of Tommy Beaudreau to serve as the Deputy Secretary of the Interior. If confirmed, he will play a critical role in managing our Nation's public lands, our natural resources, our national parks, our wildlife areas, and the Outer Continental Shelf. He will oversee the management of the largest water supply in the West, and he will also oversee our Nation's trust responsibilities to American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives. He will be responsible for the multiple uses of our public lands.

One of the most important roles that he will fulfill is overseeing the development of traditional and renewable energy supplies on public lands and waters.

Energy production on public lands is the engine of Wyoming's economy. It creates good-paying jobs. It provides tremendous revenue for the State, and we use the essential services of the State funded by this, like public education.

Mr. Beaudreau has extensive experience at the Department of the Interior. He served in a leadership position during the Obama administration. As an attorney in the private sector, he regularly handled matters relating to the Department. He is an expert in his field. His qualifications are clear. It is also clear from his nomination hearing that he understands America's needs for an ``all of the above'' energy strategy. That strategy must include coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and renewables.

I appreciated his commitment to working with members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Department needs to listen and collaborate with the people of Wyoming and the West. These are the States that rely heavily on energy production on our public lands. We are the States that power America. We are the ones that will be hit the hardest by President Biden's punishing Executive orders. This administration has unleashed a barrage of Executive actions that threaten to destroy the livelihoods of oil, natural gas, and coal workers in the West. It is critical that Mr. Beaudreau keep those Americans at the forefront of his mind as he works at the Department. He can serve as a voice of reason in an administration that is waging a war on American energy workers.

My goal is to hold Mr. Beaudreau and the Biden administration accountable to the commitments that Mr. Beaudreau has made to our committee, and I will support his nomination

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