Floor SpeechCeremonial2024-12-09

CABINET NOMINATION

EconomyTaxesEnvironmentTradeHousingInfrastructureAgriculture

Context

On 2024-12-09, Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) delivered a floor speech titled "CABINET NOMINATION" in the Senate. The speech addressed the economy and also covered taxes, the environment. It referenced legislation including S6888, S6889.

Full Text

CABINET NOMINATION

Congressional Record, Volume 170 Issue 182 (Monday, December 9, 2024) [Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 182 (Monday, December 9, 2024)] [Senate] [Pages S6888-S6889] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CABINET NOMINATION Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, it is a great honor for me to be able to speak tonight about my good friend and fellow North Dakotan Governor Doug Burgum. On November 15, President Trump announced his choice of Governor Doug Burgum to serve as Secretary of the Department of the Interior and to chair the National Energy Council. He is the perfect candidate for this job, and I urge this body to take up his nomination swiftly. To my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I encourage you to engage with him throughout the confirmation process. You will find the same inquisitive, engaging executive that North Dakotans know very well. Doug Burgum does do things differently than most, I will warn you. It is his nature. He is, after all, a risk-taker. He literally mortgaged his family farm to get $250,000 in seed capital that he needed to buy into his first company, a small business solutions startup in Fargo called Great Plains [[Page S6889]] Software. Great Plains grew from a dozen or so to over 2,200 employees before it was sold to Microsoft in 2001 for $1.1 billion. Now, Fargo, ND, is home to one of the largest Microsoft campuses in the country. Doug Burgum, ever the entrepreneur, became a venture capitalist and, much like President Trump, turned to real estate development. He founded the Kilbourne Group, revitalizing downtown Fargo. In 2016, he burst into the North Dakota political scene during his first run for Governor without any prior political experience, catching the party and the State by surprise and overwhelmingly-- overwhelmingly--winning. As Governor, Doug led like a CEO and guided our State to one of the highest rates of GDP per capita. Under his pro-business leadership, we also have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Nation. Agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and technology make our State a commodity powerhouse that feeds and fuels the world. Mr. President, North Dakota is also where our Nation's 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, came to live and ranch. The Badlands were where he learned and built his legacy of natural resource management and where he recognized ``the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land.'' He went on to say: I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. Governor Burgum embodies the TR spirit North Dakotans love so much. He understands the delicate balance between energy development and stewardship better than anyone I know. And, more importantly, he is committed to that delicate balance. His Teddy Roosevelt ethos will surely be a model for his service as Secretary of the Interior. Mr. President, no doubt part of the reason President Trump chose Doug Burgum is they are both successful entrepreneurs and political outsiders. But just as importantly, both are unafraid to disrupt the status quo. By definition and tradition, a Cabinet Secretary's role, of course, is limited to the confines of the Agency that they lead, the Constitution, and the laws of the United States. But when President Trump announced Governor Burgum as his choice to serve as Secretary of the Interior, he also announced the formation, the establishment of a National Energy Council with Doug serving as its very first Chair. This will include every Agency involved in every step of the development, production, and distribution of American-made energy. This coordination is a radically commonsense solution to the inane complexity of an overbearing bureaucracy. As Chair of the National Energy Council, he will also have a seat on the National Security Council, proof that President Trump understands energy security is, in fact, national security. Doug Burgum is who a global talent agency would recommend to be Chair of the National Energy Council if you paid them $1 million to hunt for the perfect candidate. Doug's leadership potential on energy and natural resource development is far greater than an individual Cabinet post. The pick of Governor Burgum and the creation of the Council are brilliant moves by a President who has made energy dominance a central pillar of his second administration. And like every other Cabinet Secretary nominee, Doug Burgum will come before the Senate, first in the committee, of course, then on the floor for a Senate-wide vote. We will fulfill our constitutional duty and obligation to provide our advice and, ultimately, consent to the President's nominee. A Senate-confirmed Cabinet Secretary also serving as Chair of the National Energy Council lends special legitimacy to the post. His confirmation by this body makes him more than a czar or a powerful bureaucrat. The Council will provide accountability that the so-called Biden climate advisers never had. Instead of White House lackeys dumping policies on the Agencies, the Agencies themselves will craft the policy in coordination with one another and Congress. The Federal Government is sprawling, contradictory, and just plain inefficient and ineffective. It needs a visionary at the helm to make plans that are coordinated and complementary, working toward a common national goal. Unfortunately, the current administration's energy policy has been anything but cohesive. Let's just take one issue, carbon capture and sequestration--CCUS--technology, as an example. The administration's climate and energy strategy has always acknowledged that carbon capture utilization and storage is critical to reducing emissions while keeping electricity reliable and affordable. They passed laws and rules offering billions of dollars of incentive from the Departments of Energy and the Treasury to develop and to get CCUS off the ground. Then another Agency within the same administration, the EPA, finalized its Clean Power Plan mandating CCUS while it is still in development. Then they set the capture requirements so high, nobody--no matter how much money you have--could meet them, completely undercutting a technology they said was necessary--even mandatory--to meet their climate objectives--multiple Agencies in the same administration working against each other, seemingly on purpose. It makes no sense and is just one example of many of the need for a coordinated energy policy. We need these dedicated outsiders like President Trump and Governor Burgum to even begin cleaning up the mess of the last 4 years and make energy policy make sense again. Undoing the mountain of Biden administration regulations is the first step to unleashing our energy potential. But it will take deliberate, thoughtful coordination between the Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, and, yes, the Department of Justice and others. Encouraging American energy development requires making producers' interactions with the Federal Government as seamless as possible. And we must have a Justice Department committed to the laws and policies they are responsible for defending. There are lots of examples where arrogant DOJ attorneys overrule Agency lawyers in litigation on behalf of the Agencies. Can you imagine having an attorney who disagrees with you so they go to court and litigate against your position? That happens all the time in our DOJ. As Chair of the National Energy Council and Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum will be at the forefront of slashing redtape and unleashing American dominance to make American energy great again. I congratulate President Trump and Governor Burgum. January 20 can't get here too soon. I yield the floor. ____________________

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CABINET NOMINATION Congressional Record, Volume 170 Issue 182 (Monday, December 9, 2024) [Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 182 (Monday, December 9, 2024)] [Senate] [Pages S6888-S6889] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CABINET NOMINATION Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, it is a great honor for me to be able to speak tonight about my good friend and fellow North Dakotan Governor Doug Burgum. On November 15, President Trump announced his choice of Governor Doug Burgum to serve as Secretary of the Department of the Interior and to chair the National Energy Council. He is the perfect candidate for this job, and I urge this body to take up his nomination swiftly. To my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I encourage you to engage with him throughout the confirmation process. You will find the same inquisitive, engaging executive that North Dakotans know very well. Doug Burgum does do things differently than most, I will warn you. It is his nature. He is, after all, a risk-taker. He literally mortgaged his family farm to get $250,000 in seed capital that he needed to buy into his first company, a small business solutions startup in Fargo called Great Plains [[Page S6889]] Software. Great Plains grew from a dozen or so to over 2,200 employees before it was sold to Microsoft in 2001 for $1.1 billion. Now, Fargo, ND, is home to one of the largest Microsoft campuses in the country. Doug Burgum, ever the entrepreneur, became a venture capitalist and, much like President Trump, turned to real estate development. He founded the Kilbourne Group, revitalizing downtown Fargo. In 2016, he burst into the North Dakota political scene during his first run for Governor without any prior political experience, catching the party and the State by surprise and overwhelmingly-- overwhelmingly--winning. As Governor, Doug led like a CEO and guided our State to one of the highest rates of GDP per capita. Under his pro-business leadership, we also have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Nation. Agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and technology make our State a commodity powerhouse that feeds and fuels the world. Mr. President, North Dakota is also where our Nation's 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, came to live and ranch. The Badlands were where he learned and built his legacy of natural resource management and where he recognized ``the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land.'' He went on to say: I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. Governor Burgum embodies the TR spirit North Dakotans love so much. He understands the delicate balance between energy development and stewardship better than anyone I know. And, more importantly, he is committed to that delicate balance. His Teddy Roosevelt ethos will surely be a model for his service as Secretary of the Interior. Mr. President, no doubt part of the reason President Trump chose Doug Burgum is they are both successful entrepreneurs and political outsiders. But just as importantly, both are unafraid to disrupt the status quo. By definition and tradition, a Cabinet Secretary's role, of course, is limited to the confines of the Agency that they lead, the Constitution, and the laws of the United States. But when President Trump announced Governor Burgum as his choice to serve as Secretary of the Interior, he also announced the formation, the establishment of a National Energy Council with Doug serving as its very first Chair. This will include every Agency involved in every step of the development, production, and distribution of American-made energy. This coordination is a radically commonsense solution to the inane complexity of an overbearing bureaucracy. As Chair of the National Energy Council, he will also have a seat on the National Security Council, proof that President Trump understands energy security is, in fact, national security. Doug Burgum is who a global talent agency would recommend to be Chair of the National Energy Council if you paid them $1 million to hunt for the perfect candidate. Doug's leadership potential on energy and natural resource development is far greater than an individual Cabinet post. The pick of Governor Burgum and the creation of the Council are brilliant moves by a President who has made energy dominance a central pillar of his second administration. And like every other Cabinet Secretary nominee, Doug Burgum will come before the Senate, first in the committee, of course, then on the floor for a Senate-wide vote. We will fulfill our constitutional duty and obligation to provide our advice and, ultimately, consent to the President's nominee. A Senate-confirmed Cabinet Secretary also serving as Chair of the National Energy Council lends special legitimacy to the post. His confirmation by this body makes him more than a czar or a powerful bureaucrat. The Council will provide accountability that the so-called Biden climate advisers never had. Instead of White House lackeys dumping policies on the Agencies, the Agencies themselves will craft the policy in coordination with one another and Congress. The Federal Government is sprawling, contradictory, and just plain inefficient and ineffective. It needs a visionary at the helm to make plans that are coordinated and complementary, working toward a common national goal. Unfortunately, the current administration's energy policy has been anything but cohesive. Let's just take one issue, carbon capture and sequestration--CCUS--technology, as an example. The administration's climate and energy strategy has always acknowledged that carbon capture utilization and storage is critical to reducing emissions while keeping electricity reliable and affordable. They passed laws and rules offering billions of dollars of incentive from the Departments of Energy and the Treasury to develop and to get CCUS off the ground. Then another Agency within the same administration, the EPA, finalized its Clean Power Plan mandating CCUS while it is still in development. Then they set the capture requirements so high, nobody--no matter how much money you have--could meet them, completely undercutting a technology they said was necessary--even mandatory--to meet their climate objectives--multiple Agencies in the same administration working against each other, seemingly on purpose. It makes no sense and is just one example of many of the need for a coordinated energy policy. We need these dedicated outsiders like President Trump and Governor Burgum to even begin cleaning up the mess of the last 4 years and make energy policy make sense again. Undoing the mountain of Biden administration regulations is the first step to unleashing our energy potential. But it will take deliberate, thoughtful coordination between the Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, and, yes, the Department of Justice and others. Encouraging American energy development requires making producers' interactions with the Federal Government as seamless as possible. And we must have a Justice Department committed to the laws and policies they are responsible for defending. There are lots of examples where arrogant DOJ attorneys overrule Agency lawyers in litigation on behalf of the Agencies. Can you imagine having an attorney who disagrees with you so they go to court and litigate against your position? That happens all the time in our DOJ. As Chair of the National Energy Council and Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum will be at the forefront of slashing redtape and unleashing American dominance to make American energy great again. I congratulate President Trump and Governor Burgum. January 20 can't get here too soon. I yield the floor. ____________________