Mr. President, I am grateful for the privilege and the honor of joining your administration, and for this great event. Mr. Vice President, your Wyoming roots gave you a love of the outdoors, and I'm very honored to have your presence here today. And to the First Lady, Laura Bush, Patricia and I thank you for being here, and for what you mean to all of the country. Justice Scalia, with the time that you spent in Idaho, there could be no better person to administer the oath to me. And on a historic note, when you mentioned this oath was signed some two months after Antietam, my great-grandfather, whose Bible I took the oath upon, was wounded at Antietam.

Fellow Cabinet Secretaries, Senators and Representatives, tribal leaders and distinguished guests and friends, thank you all for being here.

Mr. President, after you asked me to be the Secretary of Interior, several White House staff members said that I needed to understand that you, Mr. President, want your administration to be good stewards of our lands and our waters; that you want energy developed responsibly; that you respect those who hunt and fish; and that you want to foster good relations with Indian country; and that the First Lady also loves and cares for national parks. I said, yes, that's what the President said to me in the Oval Office. What your staff was saying, of course, was that the big man would be looking over my shoulder. (Laughter.)

Well, Mr. President, I welcome your interest and your support. And can I assume, therefore, that the budget for the Department of Interior will soon be as big as the Department of Defense? (Laughter and applause.)

Seriously -- (laughter) -- another President, Ronald Reagan, who was fortunate to have your father at his side, once said, "Only in Washington would the department in charge of the great outdoors be called the Department of Interior." Now, why is my new Department called Interior? Our nation, born in revolution against overseas tyranny, first needed Departments of State, War, Treasury and Justice to focus on issues exterior to the new United States. Later, a department was needed to handle all of the issues that affected the interior of the United States. And, thus, the Department of the Interior was born.

As the nation grew, so did Interior's responsibilities. Today, in addition to overseeing 390 national parks and 565 wildlife refuges, Interior produces one-third of our domestic energy; it provides water to 31 million Americans; manages relations with 561 Indian tribes; has the third largest law enforcement force in the federal government; and conducts science for a changing world.

These awesome responsibilities that you have entrusted to me, Mr. President, will be easier to fulfill with the help of those who are here today. I'm here with Patricia, my wonderful wife; our daughter, Heather; our son, Jeff, who give me the titles that I'm most proud to have, and that is husband and father. Also here is Heather's husband, Drew, who is enlisted in the Idaho Army National Guard and is proud to have you, Mr. President, as his Commander-in-Chief. (Applause.) Also here is my father, Jim, who turns 90 on the 4th of July. And so is my older brother, James. My other brother, Mark, could not be here. And all of us carry the wonderful memory of my mom, Maxine.

I'm also here with the mentors and partners and staff who have guided and aided my career in public service. With your support, Mr. President, with my family at my side, the counsel of partners and the help of Interior's outstanding 70,000 employees, I'm ready to hit the ground running -- even if I did break my foot. (Laughter.)

Since my nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate -- and I thank my former colleagues in the Senate -- I've reached out to governors, to senators, to representatives, to tribal leaders, mayors, energy producers, environmentalists. Together we can make positive history. Together we can, and must, wisely manage energy development. This is an issue of both economic and national security. Together we can, and must, implement the traditional and renewable responsibilities you and a bipartisan Congress told Interior to achieve in the Energy Policy Act.

Together we can, and must, improve the education provided to 48,000 children who attend Indian schools. I commend Congress, and you, Mr. President, for investing $1.6 billion in Indian school construction over the past five years. We will work even harder with parents and teachers so that these children get the education that they need to fulfill their greatest dreams.

Together we can, and must, care for our wildlife refuges, and our national parks, not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of our children's grandchildren, and those to come.

Behind us is the Washington Monument, part of our national parks, now reopened with greater protection from those who choose to hurt us. Mr. President, this is just one of 6,000 national park improvement projects completed or underway during your watch as President. Projects like this help make our parks worthy of the title "America's Greatest Gift."

I come from Idaho, home to spectacular scenery. There is no more beautiful cathedral than the outdoors. America the beautiful is blessed with countless natural cathedrals that deserve our preservation.

One of those who understood America's great beauty was Theodore Roosevelt. A century ago, President Roosevelt came to Boise, Idaho. And on the grounds of the state Capitol, he planted a sugar maple tree. It grew to be a mature and a majestic tree. Beneath its canopy, 29 years ago, I asked my wife Patricia to marry me.

In my last days as governor, a mighty storm toppled that tree. One of the my last official acts as the governor of Idaho was to help a group of schoolchildren, with soil on their hands, plant another sugar maple tree in the very same place. That tree will mean something to them. They will watch it grow, knowing that they were there the day that it was planted.

The simple joy of planting a tree, like so many things that we take for granted, is made possible because we are free, able to enjoy God's creation. As Secretary, it is my goal, Mr. President, to continue the course that you have set so that the flowers of freedom will bloom, the fruits of conservation will ripen, and the trees of learning that you have so carefully planted will reach to the heavens. If we nurture in our children, and in all of us, a passion for stewardship, Americans will benefit for generations to come.

As I stand here in the city that honors his name, near the house that he helped design, near the monument that bears his name, I'm mindful that it was George Washington who, upon taking the oath as President of these United States, added extemporaneously the words, "So help me God." The best way to end my remarks and to begin my service as the Secretary of Interior is to repeat those words, "So help me God."

Remarks by the President at Swearing-In Ceremony for Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne