Nomination of Michael Lee Connor
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I thank the senior Senator from Minnesota for her hard work in getting Michael Connor to the floor. I have been very pleased to join with her, and, obviously, we are hopeful that, tomorrow, we will have that vote.
The position of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works is critical to every Member of this body. Every State has interactions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Assistant Secretary is the top civilian who oversees the Corps of Engineers. The Assistant Secretary plays a vital role in formulating the Corps' budget, in setting policy and priorities for the Corps, and in ensuring that an incredible array of projects is managed and executed across the Nation.
For example, in my State of North Dakota, we have Corps projects in communities like Minot on flood protection. A number of years ago, we had 11,000 people and 4,000 homes and buildings inundated. Obviously, flood protection is incredibly vital for them, and we need the Corps working to get that done.
In the Red River Valley of the North, as Senator Klobuchar said so accurately, we are working together for comprehensive flood protection in that region. It is a multibillion-dollar, multi-State project that uses the latest approach of a public-private partnership with a WIFIA loan guarantee. We are doing things in a way that hasn't been done before that can really help us cut into the backlog that the Corps has on these flood projects.
But it takes a lot of work and a lot of creativity to keep that moving forward, and so we need the Assistant Secretary in place to help us do that, and that is why we need to move forward with this confirmation vote.
And as Senator Klobuchar said correctly, Mr. Connor is well qualified for this position. He held the No. 2 position at Interior from 2014 to 2017. He also served as Commissioner of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation from 2009 to 2014. He worked on Capitol Hill from 2001 to 2009 as counsel to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
So he has got the background to do this. He is ready to go. Let's have this vote on confirmation and let's put him to work for the great people of this great country.
And with that, I would defer again to the Senator from Minnesota for any concluding remarks she has, but, again, I want to thank her for working on this in a bipartisan way.
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