Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of confirming David Hayes to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Hayes is supremely qualified--he has in fact held this exact position before, in the Clinton administration. He has an impressive track record of handling controversial issues and doing so by building consensus among diverse constituencies.

He has successfully used this approach with some of the most pressing issues facing our western states. He worked closely with Senator Jon Kyl and a range of water and environmental interests to negotiate the framework for the Arizona Water Settlements Act--a historic settlement of water rights disputes involving municipal, agricultural and tribal water users in the State of Arizona. There are pressing water rights issues in the West and across the Nation that need resolution today.

In addition, he worked with Senator Dianne Feinstein to negotiate the acquisition and protection of the old-growth redwood Headwaters Forest in northern California, along with an accompanying habitat conservation agreement that continues to protect endangered salmon and bird populations on 200,000 acres of adjacent, privately held forest lands in northern California. There are pressing needs to resolve forest management issues today--to protect old-growth habitat while restoring forest health and creating jobs in our forests.

We need Mr. Hayes on the job.

Over the last 4 months, Secretary Salazar has faced a difficult task of cleaning up the mess the previous administration left at the Department of the Interior.

The American people remember the Department of the Interior under the Bush administration as a Department where ``anything goes.'' It is the Department the American people associate with Jack Abramoff. It is the Department where agency employees were serving the oil companies instead of the public. And it is the Department where the former assistant secretary in charge of fish and wildlife tampered with the science behind Endangered Species Act decisions.

Again and again, the courts have thrown out the decisions of the Bush administration Interior Deparment because they didn't pass the smell test.

Last month, for example, a Federal court vacated the entire 5-year plan for oil and gas leasing because the Bush administration didn't do the environmental review properly. So Secretary Salazar and the Obama Interior Department have had to go back to the court and ask for permission to fix it, so that current oil and gas activities aren't disrupted by the bad judgment of the previous administration.

Before that, a court in Utah froze last-minute leases that the Bush administration had granted near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks because the Park Service hadn't been consulted. So Secretary Salazar and the Obama Interior Department have had to go back and review the leases, one by one, to see if any of them are appropriate for development.

It is not a matter of politics in the decisions the Interior Department is making, it is a matter of fixing broken processes and restoring the trust of the American people in the Department that manages one-fifth of the Nation's landmass and 1.7 billion acres off the coasts.

And Secretary Salazar is taking the decisions one by one.

Where Interior is finding good decisions from the Bush administration, they are keeping them in place. Where they are broken, they are fixing them. And when they can't be fixed, they are going back to the drawing board.

Not everyone in this--chamber will agree with every decision that the Interior Department will make. But wouldn't it be a breath of fresh air to see Interior following the rules; fixing problems; making decisions based on the public interest, the best scientific data available, and the rule of law.

David Hayes has served his country under the Clinton administration as Deputy Sacretary of the Interior, and served well. He earned a reputation as a problem solver--as someone who will listen and find common ground.

He will help our Nation tackle the complex natural resource challenges we face. There is much work to be done--on water rights, on forest health, on a number of critical issues.

I urge my colleagues to vote in support of Mr. Hayes.

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of confirming David Hayes to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Hayes is supremely qualified. He has, in fact, held this exact position before in the Clinton administration. He has an impressive track record of handling controversial issues and doing so by building consensus among diverse constituencies. He has successfully used this approach a number of times working in our Western States. He worked closely with the Senator from Arizona on a range of water and environmental interests and negotiated the framework for the Arizona Water Settlements Act, a historic settlement of water rights disputes involving municipal, agricultural, and tribal water users in the State of Arizona. And that is no small matter. You know, they say in the West that whiskey is for talking, but water, that is for fighting. That is how important it is, that is how difficult it is, and it took a good man like this to bring diverse interests together to solve those problems and move forward.

In addition, Mr. Hayes worked with Senator Feinstein to negotiate the acquisition and protection of old-growth redwood Headwaters Forest.

Mr. President, I ask that we have a strong, affirmative vote to fill out the Department of the Interior and put it to work on the issues facing our Nation.

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