Politics, Paul Wellstone told us, is about the improvement of peoples lives. I know that the work ive been able to do has improved peoples lives. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. For a decade now every time i would get tired or discouraged or frustrated, i would think about the people i was doing this for and it would get me back up on my feet. I know the same will be true for everyone who decides to pursue a politics that is about improving peoples lives. And i hope you know that i will be fighting alongside you every step of the way. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Sullivan madam president . The presiding officer the senator from alaska. Mr. Sullivan madam president , i ask that following disposition of the balash nomination the senate proceed to consideration of executive calendar 167 as under the previous order. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sullivan madam president , i have five requests for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. They have the l approval of the majority and minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Sullivan madam president , today im gratified that we are finally debating and going to be voting on the nomination of joe balash to be the u. S. Assistant secretary of interior for lands and minerals. Ive been coming down on the floor, like a lot of my colleagues, making the case about how its taken too long to get good people into the federal government. Im sure ill have to give that speech maybe a few more times. I hope not. But to finally get people who want to serve, been nominated by this president , who have been confirmed by the senate, to move them. It doesnt help the American People that we just delay wellqualified americans who want to serve their country just for the heck of delaying. But its happening. But im not going to focus on that today. I actually want to thank the democratic whip, senator durbin, who was actually very helpful in trying to move this nomination, which has been stalled on the senate floor for many weeks now. Joseph balash was nominated by the president in july, so i appreciate that cooperative spirit from my colleague from illinois, and i want to thank him again for that. But, madam president , this is a really, really important position in the u. S. Government. The assistant secretary of lands and Minerals Management entails supervision and seeing the bureau of Land Management, the bureau of ocean management, Environmental Enforcement and the office of Surface Mining reclamation and enforcement. Very, very important for the entire country. Its particularly important for states like mine, the great state of alaska, but so many others where the federal lands make up an enormous part of our state. My colleague and friend, senator lee, from utah yesterday was talking to a number of us about how much federal lands constitute different states in terms of the overall percentage, and a lot of americans dont know this. Usually if you live on the east coast, you dont have big federal lands as part of your state, but in states like alaska, 61 , idaho 61 , utah 6 3r , nef 63 , nevada almost 80 . This is enormously important. So this is a very important job. Im glad to see were finally getting a vote on it because its important to help manage resources that we have in abundance but also protect the environment. We all love our environment. Alaska has the most pristine, beautiful environment in the world and we know how to protect it. We also have enormous opportunities for jobs in energy on public land, and whats in all the federal statutes that joe is going to be in charge of implementing is that you can do both. You can do both. You can protect the environment of this great nation and you can also utilize these incredible resources that we have on public lands. So thats, in essence, what his job is going to be all about. And i would say, and i would encourage my colleagues to look at joe balashs confirmation hearing and look at his background because he is probably one of the most qualified people to hold this job in the entire country in the entire country. Joe balash comes from a long, distinguished career of Public Service in alaska. He was the commissioner of natural rear sources in alaska. Resources in alaska, he was the Deputy Commissioner of Natural Resources in alaska. That job in alaska manages one of the largest portfolios of land, water, minerals, oil, gas, timber of any place in the world in the world. Not just in the country. Very few countries have more resources than we do in alaska. For years joe balash was in charge of those, managing those. That makes his super well qualified for this job. And that job as d. N. R. Commissioner, he oversaw 100 million acres of uplands state land in alaska. This is obviously bigger than most states in america. 40 million to 60 million acres of submerged lands and tide lands and resources that included managing over a half million barrel of Oil Production a day. Joe oversaw a workforce of over 1,100 people as commissioner of the department of Natural Resources and a budget of 170 million a year. Joe understands how to build consensus, how to navigate state and federal lands issues and interests, and importantly, how to work to responsibly develop our resources, grow ow economy while our economy while always understanding that our lands sustain us, instringent environmental safeguards are absolutely necessary for all americans. Let me say this, madam president , one other thing about joe balash. You can look at the bio, you can look at the experience, but you also need to know the man. Joe balash worked for me when i was the commissioner of the department of Natural Resources as my deputy, and hes worked for the past almost three years as my chief of staff here in the senate. And perhaps more than any other issue, experience, super hard worker, hes a man of integrity, a man of character, a man who cares deeply about his country and wants the best for americans and wants the best for alaskans. I cant think of anyone whose more qualified experience, character, integrity, knows the issues, cares about the environment. So i am strongly encouraging my colleagues to vote for joe. Now, he was voted out of the e. N. R. Committee in september, the environment and Natural Resources committee, with the support of every senator in that committee with the exception of one. So when the Committee Looked at him and they looked at his experience and they looked at his background and they heard about his integrity and character, there was an enormous bipartisan bipartisan support for joe. So im hoping well see that here in a few minutes when we come to vote. I understand one of my colleagues, unfortunately, is going to come down to the floor soon and encourage a vote against joe. Im still not sure why. Maybe its something related to a recusal issue between state and federal lands in alaska. Again, ill be interested to hear about the recusal issue. Most recusal issues, by the way, that we heard about as we look at confirmations in the senate relate to people who have interest in the private sector, and perhaps those private sector interests impacting policy decisions. But when you have someone who has worked on land issues in a state, the idea of making yourself be recused because you have expertise and policy from your state job when you go into a federal job, to me, seems, well, outrageous. But well see what that argument is, but i do know that joe balash will follow the rules and regulations as it relates to ethics and conflicts in a steadfast way because i know who he is. So, madam president , again, i encourage all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this extremely wellqualified nominee who has the character, knowledge, expertise, experience for a very important job for the country and someone who is going to do a great job for secretary zinke and President Trump. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from washington. Ms. Cantwell is the senate in a quorum call . The presiding officer it is not. Ms. Cantwell thank you, madam president. The department our wildlife refuge and wilderness areas, as the Supreme Court said more than a century ago, it is the secretary of interiors responsibility to see that none of the Public Domain is giving it away to anyone who is not entitled to it. As the steward and guardian of stewardship of public lands, the secretary must represent the government and the people of the nation as a whole, not special interests or even the interests of a single state. But the secretary does not do his job alone. He has delegated his responsibly responsibility for lands and Minerals Management to the sis atant secretary and he has supervision over the bureau of Land Management. The assistant secretary needs to be someone who can discharge this important duty fairly and impartially. Equally important, though, he must be seen as, for the American People, someone who is capable of being a good steward of their public lands and not as someone who comes to the job with a predisposition of the public lands or special interests. An unbias Decision Maker is a core process, a principle that no one can be the judge in his own case has been the hallmark of Anglo American law for over 400 years. To me, confirming mr. Balash as assistant secretary to the land minerals. In 2014 there was a claim filed for 20,000 acres of the Arctic National wildlife refuge with the bureau of Land Management. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources sought to move the long recognized boundary of the refuge. It asked the bureau of Land Management to convey over 20,000 acres of the refuge that would then be outside the refuge boundary to the state of alaska so that those lands could be leased for oil and gas development. Mr. Balash was the head of alaskas department of Natural Resource at the time it made its claim to the bureau of Land Management. The bureau of Land Management properly rejected alaskas claim. Alaska appealed the Bureau Decision to the interior board of land appeals where the appeal is now pending. If the Senate Confirms mr. Balash to be assistant secretary of land and mineral management, he will exercise the secretarys discretion and supervision over the bureau of Land Management. He will be in a position of reversing the bureau of Land Managements decision which originally denied alaskas claim. Moreover, secretary zinke has the shorty to take authority to take the jurisdiction away from the board of the land of appeals and delegate that authority to mr. Balash. Mr. Balash may become the interior departments judge that he initiated at the commission of Natural Resources so this is my main concern. I asked mr. Balash his plans to recuse himself from participating in the departments consideration of alaskas claim. I believe that mr. Balash thinks that he will comply with whatever the Inspector General says the rules are, which is basically one year of recusal of being involved in that situation. That said, mr. Balash, even under these current rules, could be in the position of being the final arbiter on a case he previously brought on expanding alaskas claim to the arctic wildlife refuge. He alone could make the decision. He alone could series the decision that he came and made claim to the bureau of Land Management, a claim that was turned down, he could reverse that. So for that reason i am not supporting mr. Balashs nomination to this position today. There are so many things that we have right now that are an unrelenting assault on our public lands and of by by this administration. We have have seen and you precedented use of extra ordery procedures to protect the public lands an environment. Weve seen the secretary of interior unlawfully postpone implementation of lawful rules and we have witnessed and seen legislation on the arctic wildlife refuge running through here without the proper processes and procedures and we saw them use extra order ordinary procedure not to balance the budget it was a intended but to circumvent regular order. Only this week we witnessed President Trump launching an unprecedented, unlawful assault on our national monuments. Mr. Balash, i fear, may become an unwilling but still a participant of these salts of salts on our public lands. That is why i cannot at this point give my support to this nomination. I know my colleague from alaska has worked with him. I respect his opinion in this position. I hope hell respect mine. I do not think that at this point in time, without a better recusal, i can support mr. Balashs nominationism thank the president. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from alaska. Ms. Murkowski madam president , im here with my colleague from the state of alaska, senator sullivan. Weve heard his comments, very strong support of the nomination of joe balash to be the assistant secretary of the interior for land and Minerals Management. As he has indicated, he speaks as one who has great insight and knowledge having worked with mr. Balash for a period of years. As we think about those who are willing to step up and serve in this new administration, i think it is particularly telling that when we have personal knowledge, when we have had these relationships, when we know intimately of a persons work ethic, of their dedication to issues as their willingness to serve, that we pay particular attention to that. I, too, stand in strong support of joe balash for this position, and i thank the secretary of the interior for placing his trust, placing his confidence in mr. Balash to serve on his team there at the department of the interior. You not only have an individual that knows intimately the subject area to which he has been appointed, joe is from a community by the name of north pole. Were all thinking about the north pole as we get closer to christmas here. I would suggest that just being from alaska is enough to convince me that hes qualified for this position. But honestly, the breadth and depth of his experiences and again his commitment, his care, his passion, his dedication for serving not only the people but the lands that we hold so dear is, i think, a great tribute to joe balash. Ive known and worked closely with him for years now, from the time that he was at the department of Natural Resources with thensenators thencommissioner sullivan to the time that he has served as the chief of staff for senator sullivan. But both of those jobs have allowed mr. Balash to demonstrate time and time and time again his competence, his expertise on a wide range of issues, but particularly the stewardship of our public lands. And we had an opportunity while in the energy and Natural Resources committee to listen to a little bit of his background, his upbringing, and how he became so personally involved and intertwined with our public lands. Then you think about the role that he played when he was at the state as commissioner of Natural Resources. He had direct responsibility and management and protection of 101 million acres of the state of lay alaska. This state of alaska. This is larger than the state of california. 101 million acres. He also had control of a state park system containing 3. 3 million acres of land, more than twice the size of delaware. So hes used to dealing with lots of area of land. And the complicated and complex issues that are associated within. He generally understands how we can develop our resources while protecting the environment and sustaining the health of wildlife and ecosystems. He is able to balance, he is able to understand people, he is able as he has demonstrated as a manager managing land, managing energy, minerals, timber, water, and Renewable Energies in a state as diverse as alaska. And in our state im sure that senator sullivan has noted this we have a constitutional mandate. Its written into our states constitution that we manage lands for the maximum benefit of our people. And that means working with folks from all different sorts of backgrounds. You dont get to pick and choose. But weve all got our opinion, many competing points of view. And joe is able to do that and do that well. Its not easy to navigate but i think joe balash has proven time and time again that hes capable and hes willing to work with everyone, whether they are hunters, whether they are tribes, whether theyre in the environmental community, the conservation community, his ability to work with folks from all sides has been proven. And now hes ready to take this next step, to take it up a notch to the broader federal level. And i believe that he will make an exemplary assistant secretary, not just for those of us from alaska but for our entire country. Hell oversee the bureau of Land Management, the bureau of ocean, energy management. The bureau of safety and Environmental Enforcement and the office of Surface Mining, reclamation and enforcement. He will largely be the departments point person for the management of our nations working lands, those lands that are not reserved for conservation purposes. And it will be his responsibility to strengthen our energy and mineral security for generations to come. And theres no doubt, theres no doubt in my mind but that hes t