Zinke. Good afternoon, everyone. To get started this afternoon, i just will give lay of the land herer i i will proceed with my Opening Statement and then senator cantwell with hers. After senator cantwells remarks we will hear from our colleague, the montana senators, senator dains and senator tester. Senator danes is on the complete here and senator tester, good to have you here as well. They will introduce our distinguished witness and other member of the montana delegation, representsive ryan zi zingk zinke. I will swear in the witness and ask him three questions we address to all nominees at confirmation hearings. So thats how we will proceed this afternoon. I think its important for us all to recognize we also have a vote that is scheduled about 4 15. So that will cause a little bit of an interruption but we do want to try to move as expeditiously through this hearing as we can. Before i proceed, id like to recognize an individual who is wellknown to this committee room. Thats the former chairman of the energy committee, former senator frank murkowski, who i happen to know well. Good to have him back. A little bit of favoritism there. Good to have you here as well. Id also like to welcome the new members to our committee. We have three new members, and were pleased to have the new senator from nevada, miss cortez masto, welcome, as well as the new senator, junior senator from illinois, senator duckworth, good to have you as part of the committee and senator sessions has joined the committee as we know hes a little bit busy right now on other issues. We do have three other members and we welcome them. Our first hearing of the new year, a new congress, new administration and i hope it will also be a new era for the department of the interior. Id like to thank you, congressman zinke for being here. Yours has really been a life of service to our country from your more than two decades as a navy seal to your time as a member of the house of representatives. Of course, most recently, you have answered the call to continue your public work as a cabinet secretary for our next president. We have just begun to get to know one another here since the president elect announced his intention to nominate you. Ive appreciated the conversations that we have had and i look forward to continuing them in this more formal setting here today. And as you learn more about each of the states that are touched by the department of interior, i particularly appreciate your efforts to understand how and why alaska is unique among them. To state that alaska has had a difficult or a tenuous relationship with the Outgoing Administration is more than an understatement. Instead of seeing us as a state, they seem to see us as alaska, National Wildlife refuge, with little else of value. We lost access to lands and waters even president carter had promised us would be open to us. Weve had our long standing right to manage wildlife within our borders ripped away. Weve seen projects halted through the delay or denial of vital permits. For eight years it seemed as if this administration has taken the approach alaska has to be protected from alaskans and theyve acted accordingly. The restrictions we face in Resource Development are almost unbelievable at times. Through the interior administration the Obama Administration has attempted to ban almost all the development in some areas and withdrawn tens of thousands of square miles of water outside those two areas and attempted to convert the nonwilderness 1002 area in noncoastal anwar set aside by congress into de facto wilderness. It canceled lease sales and closed half of our Petroleum Reserve and imposed extra legal mitigation requirements and it goes on and on. We had an opportunity to talk about that. The Obama Administration has repeatedly violated or sought to evade our no more cause, rewritten Management Plans to cut off Economic Activities and other reasonable uses of public lands. Its deprived us of an opportunity but offered nothing in return not even to alaska native villages threatened because of Climate Change. This reaches all the way out to king cove where our current secretary rejected a short one lane gravel noncommercial use road needed to protect the health and safety of nearly 1,000 alaskans. Without that road weve seen 55 medevacs over the past three years alone, including recently an elderly woman who had a hip fracture. She was forced to wait for more than 40 hours for help to arrive. While alaska may be the poster child, the reality is that our state is not alone in having suffered at the hands of the interior department. With little regard for local concern and opposition, the president has designated more land and water as National Monuments than the previous 18 president s come bind. Landscape level planning, a term that sounds pretty reasonable is another example of a strategy that has been used to reduce the influence of local areas so someone sitting here in washington, d. C. Can tell someone living in 40 mile alaska or blanding, utah, what their life is going to look like. Congressman, zinke, this is the interior department you are walking into. Im counting on you as many alaskans are and i think Many Americans are, to come in and help fix it. I know youre a navy man so excuse the expression but we hope the cavalry is on the way. Ive got a list of some things i think can be done to improve the situation. We need an interior department that fully understands the commitments made to alaska and that abides by them, particularly our no more clause. We need the department to recognize individuals such as john sturgeon, what they go through when agencies like the park service overreach into our lives. We need the department to restore Public Access to public lands, to allow us to produce our resources and to help us restore through put in the transalaska pipeline. We need a department that will lift decades old public lands orders that no longer serve any purpose other than to allow the federal government to control more of alaska and that will prioritize the cleanup of contaminated lands and legacy wells. Alaska has 223 million federal acres but just one quarter of 1 of its land in private ownership. Again, 223 million federal acre, one quarter of 1 of land in private ownership. So interior must recognize the importance of Land Transfers and land exchanges. Weve got promises that have been made to our state at statehood that replay in unfulfilled, promises made pursuant to angsa, promises made to native veterans. To make sure our federal government honors those commitments to alaskans remains one of my highest priorities. We need a department that will help our needs from volcanic monitoring to mineral mapping in its biggest. Thats a lot on its own. If you are confirmed, you will also inherit an array of challenges much broader in scope. The park service says it has an 11 11. 3 billion maintenance backlog, even while some remain intent on acquiring more federal land were not properly taking care of what we already have. The u. S. Affiliated islands, territories, like the Northern Areas and others have issues like worker visas to compact agreements that cannot be forgotten either. Then, theres the bureau of Indian Affairs, whether discussing triable courts, Infrastructure Development we must Work Together to improve and empower our native communities. That begins with meaningful consultation with tribes, a legal requirement the Outgoing Administration has often failed to meet. Finally, congressman zinke, if you are confirmed i expect we will Work Together in a manner thoughtful and reflective of a True Partnership and i hope you will be able to show the interior department is capable of working with rather than against local stake hold others to achieve good results. I think in the conversation we have had you shared a vision what the department will look like under your direction. We both know that will take hard work and close cooperation with this committee to fulfill your vision. That work is well worth it to all of us who truly care about our public lands and want to see them managed well and want the public to have access to them whether for rockclimbing or gold mining or energy development. Again, i thank you for being here, your willingness to serve and id now like to turn to r k Ranking Member cantwell for your comme comments. Thank you, chair woman murkowski and welcome to the former chair, frank murkowski. Welcome to the new members of the committee, particularly on our side of the aisle, senator duckworth and senator cortez masto. Thank you for being willingling to serve on this committee and maybe look forward to seeing senator sessions on the committee, i dont know. Well leave that to another days discussion. Our two colleagues thank you for coming to support the nomination of your colleague, who has been nominated by the president elect to be the secretary of interior. Ill give you my congratulations on that nomination when we get to the q a. But today, were here to discuss the office of secretary of interior as one of the most important offices of the federal government because it overseas our National Parks, wildlife refuge, public lands, and it is responsible for protecting our Nations Trust responsibility to Indian Country and as the chair mentioned, to insular areas that frankly get very little attention here and deserve more attention. The secretarys also responsible for much of the nations onshore and offshore Mineral Resources and also manages the Water Resources in western states responsible for our nations hydro system, something senator wyden and i are very keen on as well as our colleague from nevada. It is a far reaching portfolio and it is growing and very much impacts our economy. One of the Main Responsibilities of the secretary of interior is overseeing our National Parks. The park system includes 417 areas covering more than 84 million acres in every state with an annual operating budget of almost 3 billion and has more than 20,000 employees. But it is also americas treasure, our National Parks. They drive an Outdoor Economy that provides over 6. 1 million jobs and 6 646 billion in annua revenue. So never underestimate the value of public land when it comes to recreation. Last year was the 100th anniversary of our National Parks. While we passed a very modest improvement to our National Parks i believe our 100 years celebration deserves more and i look forward to asking the nominee if he agrees with me on that. Americans want us to do more to invest in these crown jewels by providing jobs and recreational opportunities and something i know we all can agree on, fixing the maintenance backlog. One of the successes the senate had last congress was passing a Bipartisan Legislation through a bipartisan Conversation Fund for land and Water Conservation. Im sure you will have a chance to discuss this testimony. Im sure as an avid sportsman he knows the value of our public lands and enthusiastic to come wake up the Bipartisan Legislation to fix the water and Conservation Fund. My constituents want to know with this new administration are these public lands going to face an unbelievable attack by those who would like to take these public lands away from us and turn them over back to states or are we going to upcontinue to manage these resources for the investment they are and get more economic return. A second responsibility of the department of interior is the management of resource exhibitions distraction, over 260 million surface acre, 700 million subsuffers acre es and 1. 7 billion ocs, outer continental shelf. Todays hearing is about determining whether the nominee is concerned about making sure we minimize environmental harm and we pay for cleanup and we have one fundamental principle that continues to be, that is that polluters pay. There is and continues to be an opportunity for us to insure that these Public Policies according to the Government Accountability office are getting a fair return for the american taxpayer. We have seen over time problems with the fossil fuel and interior costing 2 200 million year in lost revenue. The Obama Administration took important steps to try to fix these problems. The deep Horizon Oil Spill in 2010 exposed the consequences of failing to have these kinds of regulations. The disaster caused us to put in major reforms at the department of interior to make sure important oversight regulations were not pushed aside and we monitor these programs. I would have to say the cold program is one that neither continued attention and focus and we will have a chance to talk about this today. The Obama Administration has adopted rules to make sure there is a fair return to taxpayers for Natural Resources requiring everyone to pay for mitigation for the damage this is a caused. Just today the Government Accountability office announced a new conclusion after reviewing multiple types of Natural Energy resources. And they found it gets a special treatment in the ability to have bonding for recreational requireme requirements. Everything else, oil and gas produc producers, wind and solar and hard rock miners have to post in cash a third party bond to make sure they can clean up the financial surety of the politician that wou plugs that would be caused. Pollution that would be caused. This also affords congressman zinke to discuss how he would handle the treaties of 567 federally recognized tribes overseeing this bureau of indian affair, Indian Education and 5 2. 5 billion budget in Indian Country. The reason i will take a moment on this particular point many of our colleagues who serve on this committee and also serve on Indian Affairs will not have the same chance to point these important issues out to the nominee. Clearly these issues of stewardship as relates to triable lands, support for triable education, tribal education, somebody services and education, regardless of the side you sit on how important these issues are to the constituents that we represent. It is also critical we understand the nominees commitment to carrying out our obligations to insular affairs. As the chair mentioned, there are many issues we will get to in the q a. I would like to bring up a few issues, as it relates to the Pacific Northwest. There are issues where climate has caused greater impacts on both drought and fire damage. This committee has taken bipartisan efforts to move forward on both of those issues, collaborative efforts to make sure in both washington and oregon, we are doing all that we can to plan for better Resource Management of our water supply and build capacity for the future and we have reached consensus here in the senate as well to stop fire borrowing and move forward on fuel reduction policies that would better serve our public lands. I would also mention of particular importance to all of us in the Pacific Northwest the important pending reauthorization or recommitment of the Columbia River treaty, the management of our federal hydro system between the United States and canada. Needs a lot of attention and direction and we hope we will have a chance to ask you questions about that as well. Thank you, madam chair. I again congratulate the nominee and look forward to hearing from him and his wife, meeting his family as he makes his introduction. Thank you, senator cantwell. We will now turn to the montana senators for introduction of a nominee and recognizing your seat on the committee here, senator daines, we will hear from you and senator hesser to introduce the nominee to be secretary of the interior. Senator daines. Thank you. It is truly my great honor to introduce a fellow mon tan ntan fellow American Hero and good friend of mine, ryan zinke and support his confirmation to the position of interior secretary of our new president , donald j. Trump. Notice you have the entire montana delegation before you today. We have both the montana senator, one who is a republican and one who is a democrat. I first met ryan in 1979 when we were both High School Students growing up in montana. In fact, we were in dillon montana for boys state. Ryan from white fish high school and i was representing bozeman high school. He was captain of the soon to be undefeated state champion white fish bulldogs Football Team and also president of his class. After high school, ryan went on to the university of oregon where he was a full scholarship starting athlete for the oregon ducks, their Football Team, w