[inaudible conversations] we are back for round number two. Everyone has had a little bit of a stretch. Palmer spent, we your endurance here. You are probably thinking, nothing like what you are used to, but we appreciate the fact that you have been generous with your time and your questions here, so we will allow for members to ask another round of questions. We actually have another confirmation hearing that just started up at 5 00 p. M. That i will head off to when this is concluded, so we are working fulltime here today. It may be more popular than mine. No, this is very important. Congressman, went to ask you about an issue that alaskans care a great deal about and given the makeup of our land and the fact that so much of our land are held in the federal estate under the Alaskan National interest Lands Conservation act that specifically provides for a no more clause and makes very clear that within the state of alaska when it comes to those areas that have been withdrawn from public land that we have done more than any state should be asked to to do and so it is abiding by a very very strong and Firm Commitment that alaskans want to see. You have stated clearly on the record here and i think the words you used when you said you are absolutely against transfer sale of public land. We have a conversation in my office and you have met with the full delegation and had discussion about where youre coming from on this issue and understanding the alaska lands on this. As you know and as i made it clear in my Opening Statement there were promises made to the state of alaska as statehood promising our inherent in the alaska native claims settlement act with promises made to our natives and native people, promises made to the native veterans serving in vietnam who were not able to receive their native allotment. These are commitments that have been made to the state that have not yet been fulfilled and part of my real mission here in the senate since i came was to make sure that these promises have been kept. Can you get some assurance to the people of alaska that when we are talking about these issues, these promises and commitments made to our state, to our native people, to our Vietnam Veterans that you will work with us to fulfill those promises . Absolutely and transfer or sale of public land is different from treaty allegations. I am very familiar with thanks to your staff, about the vietnam issue. They were serving their country and therefore did not have the opportunity and thats a treaty obligation and a commitment and a promise, so i will work with you and i look forward to working with you on this particular issue. And you understand that the effort, if you will, to address the potential for a state forest is because of the frustration that we have had as a state in gaining access to any viable opportunity for timber harvest within our nations Largest National forest . And that has been the frustration a lot is that the people are so frustrated that they just lost hope that the federal entity whether its blm or another entity is capable of managing the land or even capable of properly managing the land, remove even the dead dying timber, so my number one job is restoring what we can. Within the department of agriculture, their stewardship programs that allow management and who is better to manage . These are collaborative efforts that we should look at about who is in the best position to manage the property. Theres a difference between switching title and having the ability to manage. I think we can carefully go through that and i will work with you on it. From his legislative. Well, when we talk about frustration and we talk about who is best to manage, another area of extreme frustration right now is with the decision from this administration to basically sees the authority for fish and Wildlife Management in our parks and refugees, even those those authorities are specifically and clearly reserved to alaska, so this is something that again i will ask you im assuming you think that states are better positioned to manage fish and game decisions and that its not the federal government. I understand that while you may have not worked about much on assistance issues, but given that imports of this issue to alaska i need to have your commitment to a formal review with the park service and with fish and wildlife on their rigs and really work with the state of alaska to get it to a better place when it comes to an approach to the fish and Game Management decisions within the state. I looked very much forward to reviewing formal review the process. As well as i look forward to reviewing our management. Again, from a perspective in management, centralized direction, decentralized execution and that means giving local people, local communities a set, so there is and not this divide that occurs. As you know we talk about different parts of alaska especially in the lower part with the opportunity to harvest timber in a reasonable, sustainable traditional method has been taken off the table. That is hurting real communities in some areas in washington, the catastrophic fires, why do we have fires at the extent and magnitude that we do this year . Senator franken talked about Global Warming the statistics i have from a single summer of the forest fires in Rosebud County, which very few people know where Rosebud County is other than senator deans, made it more particular during that season and running 3000 years of , so lets manage our force, manager fires, manage our man land away it was intended. That means having the voice of alaska and the voice of the people that live there. And if i may when we say how it was intended, it is laid out very very clearly, again the preservation to the state of alaska with regards to the fish and Wildlife Management authority, so look forward to discussing this more acute. Senator, you are recognized. Thank you and if i could go back to some of the things that have been brought up in your testimony and clarify more on some issues of great importance for the state of washington. If we could on this chart, if i could, someone has mentioned there has been a war on coal and in reality, i think this chart will show you that there has been a 23 first when their, 23 decline in coal an increase in natural gas, so you can see try to get away so people can see it. Thank you. According to the Energy Information agency, between 2000 and 2008 coal was less expensive is supplied by 50 of our generation, but since the beginning of 2009 the gap between coal in natural gas has narrowed. I dont know if you want to blame fracking, but guess what it has led to more natural gas and more lower natural gas pricing and a lot more consumption of natural gas than coal, so i dont know if you want to say that natural gas is having a war on coal. Im not going there. Im simply saying this is the fact and this has been driven by the market and according to the Energy Information agency as well this is a market function. Okay. The reason why this is important question is as we have discussed this issue about getting a fair deal for taxpayers, the gal and the interior Inspector General have both found blm recently undervalued federal call at a cost of the tax payer up something 60 million over 10 years, so i went to make sure that when i asked you earlier you said you were committed to reviewing this issue. I think one of our colleagues tried to get you to say you are ready to end the more tory mp what i want to know is are you going to make sure taxpayers in the fairness of taxpayers will get your attention in the attention of this administration . Absolutely. You know, i think using objectives is important and making sure our taxpayers get the value and im very sensitive to that and im also sensitive to the great state of washington right, but let me ask you about this because you also said and i believe you, i think anyone who is representing Indian Country i kept everyone, but most people who have represented Indian Country have had to do with tribal sovereignty. You seem to have articulated a strong view in tribal sovereignty and travel rights particularly for treaty tribes that the treaties outlined our obligation as a nation to nation status. Is that right . Correct to. You believe the nation has a right to object to a coal terminal and Washington State based on their fishing rights and aggregation of their fishing rights . And i have obviously familiarity with this. Upfront, when i was a representing a montana as i still currently do i have always taken the position that i am strong on indian issues, stronger on montana indian issues. As the secretary of interior, now i have to be strong on all issues and on the gateway terminal, what i raise my eyebrows of strongly on is that i did not take a position on yes or no in the terminal. I took a position to make sure the process was followed in the eis was completed before making a judgment. I found that we were close to ending the process with eis after years and millions of dollars were spent and then it was truncated and stopped by affidavits and i did not judge whether the affidavits from the tribe or true or not true. If you dont finish the process and dont finish eis and then all of a sudden that process can be interrupted and a permit can be pulled on the basis of something outside the eis, why would you ever intend to spend millions of dollars in eis . That was my objection and i dont mean to speak so, you believe in the tribal sovereignty for them to object in this case. Base early had every right to object as well in this case the crows who also have a tree obligation, so i also found you are picking one tribe over another and believe me, i am from a state where there are great tribes and great warrior tribes. Tribes are not monolithic, even a montana. There are traditions, cultures, but one should not be in the business of picking one treaty or another, at least arbitrarily this is where working together yeah, definitely not where we are going here. More about whether we will uphold their rights in the region on their ability to object on various developments that affect their ability to fish. We do agree, absolutely. Thank you. I have another question okay, then i will pass to my colleagues and we will come back thank you madam chair or try one more question i went to get to. I ran out of time in the first round and it was related to Indian Country and Economic Prosperity. Congressman zinke, youre been a great partner working on behalf of Indian Country and while they are fighting tonight the blackfeet water settlement and i think its important for us to realize that was approved by the Montana Legislature seven years ago and with your leadership in the house, the work we did in the senate we can together and got that past in december. Thats a monumental effort. It was a great win for the blackfeet tribe and its it example of the partnership that we have had Going Forward here to help Indian Country. You have been a champion fighting on behalf of the crow tribes, as you mentioned in the last exchange, their sovereign right to develop Coal Resources and as you said in your testimony, the Unemployment Rate in crow country will go north of 90 if they lose those jobs. You have been fighting for federal recognition for the shell tribe. Bottom line is Indian Country should be very excited to have you in the corner as the next secretary of the interior. My question is tell us what youre up there to help bring Economic Prosperity to a new country. Great question. Not enough, as you know montana is an awful big states pick the first thing i have done is visited and been around and looked at the tribes then again, they are not monolithic. Of the challenge in the tribe, a lot of drugs and to a degree the tribe is very maternal listed can rely on the mothers and grandmothers as the fabric of the tribe. Drugs have gone inside and they have created havoc or maybe one generation or two generations have been at risk of that and that has caused enormous upheavals in the culture of the tribe. As well as opportunity, economic opportunity. Not everyone lives in an area where you can develop casinos. A lot of the montana tribes are isolated and they rely on their resource centric. There are a couple of exceptions , the first i can to understand and respect and empower. Figure out what a specific tribe needs. What are the hurdles . This is a challenge and this is why bia is so important to get really good people. If you need the whole painful death warrior, will land in you know of tried to do a untoward you just being a military world member has painting. Anytime you ceremony, military members always go in first. You want to help them become leaders and go back to the different tribes and form the basis for lifting themselves and having self determinations. I think theres an opportunity for military. I think theres an opportunity in doi looking at our trail systems. My wife sat on a landing team and the landing team and the va looked at opportunities for Homeless Veterans and veterans to do cemetery pair. They have a whole program to it. A lot of its being in the right uniform and showing up on time but i think that program can be looked at in the doi of our trails. We are way behind in maintenance of our trails. A lot of the indian cultures have a strong tie to our trail system, to our land and its a metric. It starts at one point and ends in another. This is a great opportunity for many nations to participate in a program that will get them out and work. You have to Work Together with the tribe and they have to have buyin. The comment and perspective you will bring to this job, when you are confirmed, as a montana resident living in the shadows of the Glacier National park, actually you were born near yellowstone and grew up near glacier. I think what you also bring is your military background, the native americans have the highest percentage veteran population of any ethnic group in our country. Having your military service will bring an added dynamic to help out any country, and where we have these men and women, you mention the story about these men and women who come home from serving overseas with security clearances and then it takes is a year end a half to get there clearances they want to get involved in lawenforcement back on the reservation and it takes 12 or 18 months to clear them when they are ready had security clearance fighting for their country overseas, we have all the drug problems and crime problems in the reservation, they can help by having more lawenforcement and open headcount. You can do a lot and im grateful they will have a champion there as the new secretary of the interior. Senator heinrich thank you. I want to start by giving you an opportunity to correct the record on something my colleague senator franken said. I believe i was gone, i dont want to misquote him, that he said smokey the bear was not real, and i want to read to you from wikipedia, the living symbol of smokey the bear was an american black bear, three monthold cub who, in the spring of 1950 was caught in the fire in the lincoln National Forest in new mexico. Do you dispute that . [laughter] i do not. My grandchildren behind me also believe in santa claus spread i also want to establish that. I want to go back to the tribal sovereignty theme and bring up an issue that the department of interior deserves great credit for over the last few years. One of the most important duties for any secretaries to uphold their Nations Trust responsibility and tribes have been facing a tragic loss of their cultural patrimony to a growing International Market for tribal religious objects. These objects are not art, they were not created to be sold, they are sacred objects that are central to the cultural and spiritual practices. They were originally stolen from the communities to which they belong. My home town fought to repatriate a shield that was found at an auction house in paris. They were an ally working with the state department and the state department of justice to receive a warrant for the shields return. Thats an Ongoing Investigation but i just want to know you will commit to continue to work with the department of justice to ensure this remains a priority for all three of these departments. It remains repatriation is an important issue, and i first became familiar with that when they had some of their ancestors in the smithsonian. The process to repatriation, because the tribe itself had different orders, they had different within the tribe and the repatriation process is complicated and one that i dont pretend to understand, but i do understand it is complicated, and even the tribe itself had to go, a number of rituals. Repatriations, making sure that artifacts that are important to cultural identity, we need to pursue and facilitate the return on it. If someone bought, rather than being stolen, if someone bought, thats something we have to work through a legal framework. If they buy something legally with good intent, that is different than someone who has pillaged and profited. I think the pillaged and profiting side is absolutely, without question an area that we need to pursue. I look forward to working with you on that. You made the statement about water in the last and federal water projects that the bureau constructs and administers are really critical for states up and down the rocky mountains. In new mexico the navajo water supply and Pipeline Projects will bring much needed water to parts of our state that truly deserve and need it. Communities have seen wells run dry and groundwater reserve to dwindle to only a 20 year supply in addition many not a navajo families have literally never had Running Water at home. How are you going to ensure the bureau brings these kinds of Infrastructure Projects to completion, costeffective completion . First, clean water is a right if. Its not a privilege. We are a great nation. Lets prioritize what we need to do. Part of it, as ive always looked at infrastructure, not an expense but an investment, and having an investment now will prevent a lot of heartburn, heartache and unintended consequences in the future. Particularly when it comes to water and expanding recreation for americans who want to go outside, we need to give them the opportunity to do it. I go back to the jobs bill. Its very difficult, as you know , on the house side its probably more difficult than the senate side in some areas. Spending money on the house side is extraordinarily difficult on the house side, but we will have to meet in the middle on making sure we have priorities that im making sure those water issues are enough of a priority, especially especially when it comes to isolated areas. There are places in montana, areas that dont have access any other way then to pipe it from long distances. Population as a navajo tribe is not a lot, they cant do it on their own. You need a system in there to do it. Its expensive and recognizing that you dont need too over engineer everything so it so cost prohibitive. Theres new technology, new piping technology, look at an innovative way that are more costeffective we need to put pressure on the army corps of engineers to faster adapt standards especially piping when it comes to water so we can get there at a better price. Thank you. Last wednesday, the final days of the at Obama Administration, they released a report detailing review of the federal cold program. It laid out a roadmap for administrative action. The problem is this. The Environmental Impact statement on the federal cold program has not yet even been completed so the Obama Administration shows its hands, demonstrating that they believe the facts shouldnt get in the way of their predetermined outcome. I am very hopeful that the department of interior under your direction, once confirmed will operate the family under you and the new administration. A lot of the hearing concerns things that we can rollback or eliminate but as secretary of the interior, you will have an Incredible Opportunity to create a real culture of change in an agency i believe desperately needs it and while the department of interior and fish and wildlife, the for Services Part of the department of agriculture. We talked, he brought up the issue earlier about four street, about fire borrowing and we held a hearing in seattle about the issues of wildfire and the concerns, given that so many of the lands are outside of the department of interiors control, what would you do to improve health on lands in your jurisdiction and how can we coordinate efforts with the department of agriculture and the force chief . Up front, i think we need to look at the force service and have the discussion about what is the best method of managing our land. As you go out west, checkerboard system, when it was put in, there was a reason why a has service for a time. I think we need to reevaluate it and look at whats the best method to make sure we have efficiency, making sure our fire policy is consistent, making sure access is consistent. We have a lot of Canadian Border and it turns out it doesnt even give a key to the Homeland Security guys to do a security run along the border. Even between the agencies theres a cultural roadblock to working with each other even when it comes to borrowing a set of keys on the road. I think everything should be on the table. Again i talk about a roadmap for the next 100 years, lets be bold, lets not come in with agendas, lets come in with where we want to be 100 years from now on our public lands. There are certain things we are going to agree on. I think theres going to be a lot more we agree on the disagree. On those things lets look at a roadmap Going Forward and have the discussion. You may be familiar with president obamas 2015 memorandum on mitigation. Memorandum called for new mitigation policies from the department of interior and fish wildlife service. Last may a rancher came and testified before this committee and one of those policies, the one focused on compensatory mitigation, and basically he said it mounted to extortion. Will you commit to revisiting departments mitigation policies to ensure future requirements are more practical . I will have a very busy, if confirmed, and i will work with everything because you matter, wyoming matters matters in every state matters. If theres policies that are perceived as punitive, that arent working, my obligation is to work with you because you matter. Wyoming matters, alaska matters, washington, washington matters, West Virginia matters and new mexico matters. Not only a member of this committee but congress matters. My Opening Statement, i meant what i said about the arch for the benefit and the enjoyment of the people. I absolutely meant what i said it was erected by an act of congress, thats an important point that we need to go back to about making sure you represent your great state and your constituency, and that should be respected in a policy. In terms of being very busy, the three of us have been former chairmans, i think that it will require the bureau of Indian Affairs will require significant effort. I think we have all seen how a culture dysfunction within the bia has real disastrous human implications. I appreciate your implications and i see my time has expired. The senator and i will compose written questions regarding smokey the bear, yogi the bear and the teddy bear. We. We will submit those. Thank you. Thank you congressman for being here. I want to commend you for having bipartisan introduction. That doesnt happen that often. Thank you. Im not sure if you wanted to comment on that one at all. Im glad because i have support. I hopefully have support bipartisan but thats what we need for this job because its not republican or democrat, its america. This job, we had a great visit and talk about things we hold near and dear to ours. He said you would come to the state of West Virginia and i noticed everyone else asked for the same so i need to know, in what order. My first order is the great state of utah, they call the 5meter targets, up close we have a problem out north dakota, that could go bad in a number of different ways. We have a problem in the great state of utah and alaska is always important to me. I still dont know where i am in the pecking order, but West Virginia is an easy drive. I know youre coming, i know that. Coming from the state of West Virginia and montana, a lot of people think we dont care about the quaint clean water act, safe drinking act and many other laws that have been fundamental improving all of our lives. I want everyone to know theres no way we are rolling back any of those. Some of these are so farreaching and make no sense whatsoever, i can he get some people to tell me what the definition of a stream is. If you can give me a little bit, just quickly, whats your position on using the review act to rescind this regulation . It is important to me, and albion off be enough as i was reviewing the transcript from sec. Jewell as she came in before this committee, one of the questions was can you define a stream. That is a question. The stream protection rule, in my mind is about water. All of us should agree we want clean water in all of us should recognize that geology is different. A policy about protection when it looked that on the appellations, i think we can do better. This is where one size doesnt fit all. We need to make sure that if were going to mine, drill, harvest, that we want to do it right. Protection of water has to be a priority. There are ways to make sure we do it right and protect our water. I am willing to work with you. The stream should have water. Yes, in her productivity all helps. Subsurface, surface, conductivity, you can isolate different areas where they talk about runoff, what is run off if its captured in the holding pond. What is runoff in a storm drain, these are issues, you can take it too far in every case where becomes punitive in you and i can get anything done. You can imagine in our state with the policy we have how difficult it is to do anything. You can even build a house. If they want to shut you down they can shut it down. Its ridiculous. Im glad to hear, you been right where ive been. I have one more. Since 1977 there has been ten and a half billion dollars from coal production. 8 billion of that has been distributed as grants to tribes for land and water projects. There is still a large amount of high Priority Sites that remain in the inventory that must be claimed. I want to ask your opinion on aml and the way its been distributed. Should that be used for the purpose it was designed to be used for or should be able to be used by states for other things that are basically not coal related since all the money comes from coal. This is the same argument that we both support. I think when the Revenue Source is narrowed outside of that theres a legitimate argument about that. From a montana perspective, we have hundreds of mines that were mined during the turn of the 18th or 19th century that our reclamation lists and cleaning up the site is long. That fund has been used to clean up sites in nevada and new mexico. There is absolutely a requirement to clean it up. The discussion should be how do we appropriate the funds correctly so one industry doesnt bear the full burden as in the land Water Conservation fund, offshore bears almost the entire burden of revenue yet the funds dont go along the coast. Should hard rock mining also contribute to that . This is where we need to have the discussion and i should work with you because this is a change in the law. The law should be fair, it should be appropriate but we all have to recognize that these sites is incredibly important because often times, the inventory nationwide, but im sure in every state there is something that we need to tend too. I want to thank you for your testimony and being so frank and direct with us. Thats all ive ever said, treatise all the same. Some mining pays nothing but they do receive and thats not right. Its all because of politics and that can be changed. Will be glad to work with you on it. I think it needs to be fair and our laws need to be fair. Thank you. The chairmans prerogative said we can do one more quick go round. I have two more questions and i hope it will be brief. When we deal with some of the projects that have so much potential, whether its the potential to utilize a natural gas that we have in the north slope of alaska, we have to figure out the way we move that gas to tidewater, move it to the market and that will require a process. You have to get a host of environmental permits. The longer the delay for the permit, the more expensive the project is. I would like your commitment to be working with us not only for projects like the Alaska Project but also recognizing that when it comes to our domestic mineral production, we are sitting dead last in the amount of times it takes to get to yes or no answers to get these permits for our domestic minerals production. I think we recognize and talk a lot about the vulnerability we have as a nation, looking to other nations for oil. We are heading that same direction when it comes to minerals because we need the minerals that will make things like this or the vehicles for the wind turbine that were relying on for renewable energy. This permitting process that were dealing with can often times and up being this dead zone where the cost pylon and the projects get delayed and projects are delayed. Like your muscle ensuring we have a fair process and its an expeditious process and one that works efficiently. So much of the frustration and lack of trust, even talking about what stems from what people see. When the process becomes arbitrary and we talk about tax property value, when youre bidding on a piece of property to mine or drill and that value is significant significantly reduced, the taxpayer doesnt get its full value on it. It has to be fair, it cant be arbitrary when youre bidding on a property, the value of the bid is that you can execute it. If theres no certainty of execution, as a taxpayer, we dont get the right price for it. Our permitting process is broke. It is somewhat arbitrary and i do think we need to focus on it. It needs to be fair and it needs to be a process because we all want the same thing. We want clean air, and we want to make sure that we understand consequences. Last question. The current secretary of the interior knew she could not come into this Committee Room without me asking a question about the status of her effort to assist some thousand people that live in the Little Community of king cove and how we are going to make sure that they too have access to what most americans would consider an essential part of living and that is access to a lifesaving road that could get them out in the event of a medical emergency. The people of king cove have been fighting this fight for over three decades. They have been let down repeatedly by their federal government. They do not trust their federal government because repeatedly they have been told that there is higher value to the animals and the birds than there is to their human life. That is pretty hard. Im going to ask you, recognizing the federal trust obligation that you have, recognizing that you have clear compassion for our native people, i am asking you to do everything you can to work with, to reopen and review this decision that has led to rejection of this lifesaving road. You my absolute commitment that i will restore trust and work with you on this issue because its important. Thank you. I didnt know where king cove was. I know where it is now. I would like to take you out there when we open a road and you will know it firsthand. I cant wait to meet the great people of king cove. I dont know the ground but i look forward to being there. Thank you madam chair. A couple last issues and thank you for your family for sustaining a four hour hearing. These are important issues and we thank you for your willingness to serve. They are working on the basin project which is funding fish passage and Water Conservation project and we want to get your commitment to continue the work to continue to work on the project in conservation and the same understanding that you gave to my colleague that these water issues are not earmarked, they are moving forward on serious drought issues for our nation. Thank you. I think you have a wonderful staff. Ive become familiar with the issue and i look forward to working with you on it. This is important. Montana is not that far away on issues of water, the snake river begins and im looking forward to working with you and making sure its done. Thank you i appreciate that. You mentioned the efforts of your agencies on the science side, and one of the key aspects of the northwest, after after an incredible unfortunate disaster were 43 people were killed, the notion of being able to use light detection as a key way of looking at landslide possibilities, will you continue to push our funding as part of your funding. Ill have to review it because there are some emerging technologies, particularly in the uavs that may be better suited but im committed to making sure we have the right data. The specific message on how we get there, i think theres a discussion as Technology Goes forward. There is Promising Technology on survey. I like the fact that you are committed to helping us on these issues. I think technology is emerging and it will give us a much clearer picture of both drought and its impacts in warming conditions on fire and water resource issues and i think it can help us greatly. Im glad you are willing to help us. The spokane issue is also something thats been in the interior. It passed the house and senate and then supported by previous secretaries. Will you take a look at this and look at ways to support the spokane tribe on their settlement. I look forward to looking at it. I too used to shop in spokane so im familiar with the area but im not familiar with this specific thing but i look forward to looking at it. Thank you. The final question . Congressman i know youre passionate sportsmen. Thats one of the things i like about you. I think i mentioned in our meeting that we spent four days with my two sons over the holidays on one of the department of interiors wilderness study areas. I am proud to say on that trip, my 13yearold, i think both boys will never forget that trip, but i suspect if montana is like new mexico, you also experienced losing legal access to public land, experienced what its like to drive up on a maintained road that you always knew was there and find for the first time a locked gate. I have a bill called the hunt act to help address this kind of issue and im not can ask about my bill, but i will ask you to commit to working with me on those kinds of access issues that have really moved to the forefront of concern by sportsmen up and down the west. In my opening remarks i mentioned access to resources. Im concerned that not only our generation but our next generation will continually see closed roads, fences and lack of access so traditional hunting and fishing are almost an elite sport. I think ive seen a Television Show filmed in your estate where randy newberg, in order to access, he had to rent a helicopter to get dropped in because over the years access to the private land have been cut off. I think its something we have to understand the scale up so we can come up with strategies, either through easements as opposed to land purchases, or other strategies to make sure we dont have public land that the public can use. I agree with you. I think americans should not be locked out by their national treasures, and we are seeing that more more that access is becoming more difficult and restrained, and i share your concern. One final question, congressman your jurisdiction is over an awful lot of timberland. National parks, wildlife refuge, and our newly sworn in, newly inaugurated governor was given a speech that was very interesting. West virginia is one of the most interesting covered forest states in the nation, we have an awful lot of environment, what they fail to recognize is that we have an lot of that is not going harvested and by not having select Timber Harvesting, you cut this tree down and you make this right here, the carbons inside are not going anywhere. You let that tree fall and decay and rot, co2 is omitted. I know its a big thing we cant cut here we cant go there but was so much co2 being admitted into the air, theyre concerned if we burn one lump of coal, shut it down but they will let the timber rot and go to waste without trying to use it for production and theres also environmental consequences. Do we have Timber Harvesting and things like that in the government property. Management policy has been fire. Management for a catastrophic fire, thats the group that believes we should naturally managed by a natural regulation. Im an advocate for healthy resilient forest. You think if we got the really good environmentalists concerned environmentalist that they could see scientifically whats happening . They might be able to work with you or are you willing to try to go down that path. I think for most americans, we want good policy. There is extremes on both sides that simply wont negotiate. There is extremes on both the right and left that are driven and they are not negotiable in their views. I think anyone who serves the country, within the public there are broad views but if you look at what the best policy is, i think we ought to look at my wife and i am my family we spent some time in germany. They have different management policies. Canada has different Management Management policies of the air force. We have great people who go through the forest for street programs, but they are frustrated too. Ive talked to the forest rangers. They feel like they dont have the tools and they dont have the authority to manage the force that is healthy. They are to concerned about removing dead and dying timber when they are 70 million acres behind. Just removing dead and dying timber, somethings gone wrong. In his speech yesterday, and made it so crystal clear, he had a piece of wood and he was speaking at the podium and said theres a lot of co2 here. Everything you all make us waste and let fall and that nature take its course, it emits into the air. Someone needs to make a decision pretty soon. Thank you. Thank you for being here today and thank you for your willingness to serve, we thank you and we think your family because public service, you are the face but we know that the family stand behind you and allow you to be that public servant. To all of the families, thank you. Mrs. Dinky and to the family, you get gold stars for absolute best behavior. [applause] we thank you for supporting your grandpa in such a good way. We appreciate that. I do thank the members of the committee. We had great participation this afternoon and the questions were truly broad ranging, but i think you can tell, congressman, this is a committee that likes to get into the real meat of the issues, the policies. We try to do good work, we try to do work on it cooperative collaborative bipartisan basis and should you be confirmed, as i believe you will be, we look forward to continuing a dialogue that is open and one that is designed to be collaborative and bipartisan. Id like to remind my colleagues we have agreed that members may submit additional questions for the record. We held it open for another couple hours so lets say by 830 this evening, all qr fars would have to be in. We would ask that members submit any to darla and with that, again we thank you and the committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversation] great job, you did really a good job. [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] the Senate Energy committee has not set a date to vote on ryan zinke nomination. You can watch this and all confirmation hearings on our website cspan. Org and you can listen on the free cspan radio app. The senate will be in session at three pm eastern beginning the first full legislative week for the congress. Leading the agenda is the debate on the nomination of mike pompeo of kansas to be director of cia. The confirmation vote is expected later today. Politico is reporting that marco rubio will support Rex Tillersons nomination to be secretary of state, ensuring that his pic will not face an embarrassing unfavorable verdict later today. The florida senator said he remains concerned about mr. Tillersons answers earlier earlier this month on human rights issues regarding russia, the philippines and saudi arabia given the uncertainty that exist both at home and abroad about the direction of our foreign policy, it would be against our National Interest to have this delayed or embroiled in controversy. Senator rubio said that in a facebook post. You can see more on the nomination live at 430 eastern as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on the nomination. Senator ben carson was the lead on the Committee Said he will not support tillersons nomination. He said it could compromise his ability as secretary of state. Its november 4, 2014. Tom wheeler has been chairman and that comes to an end. Chairman wheeler, what did you get right . I hth
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