Office of the Secretary |
CONTACT: Dan
DuBray
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July 22, 2005 |
202-208-6416
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Secretary
Norton Praises Senate Confirmation
of Mark A. Limbaugh as Assistant Secretary of the Interior |
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary Gale A. Norton today praised the Senate's confirmation of Mark A. Limbaugh as the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. President Bush proposed Limbaugh for the position on May 10th of this year. "Mark Limbaugh has shown
a strong commitment to the principles of cooperative conservation and
has been a key member of Interior's team addressing critical western water
issues," Secretary Norton said today. "He now will be able to
carry his ethic of collaboration and stewardship to the wider arena of
the Department's water and science issues." Limbaugh's experience includes
work as executive director of the Payette River Water Users Association
and as watermaster of Water District 65, both in Payette, Idaho. He has
served as a board member of the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage,
which fosters sustainable, socially acceptable and environmentally responsible
irrigation, drainage, and flood control systems and practices for providing
food, clothing, and shelter to the people of the United States and the
World. Additionally, he served as
president and director of the Family Farm Alliance, a national, grass-roots
water resources association representing water users in the West on national
water issues. Limbaugh also spent 13 years operating an 800-acre irrigated
commercial family farm in Fruitland, Idaho. He has also worked as a certified
public accountant at Deloitte and Touche in Boise, Idaho. Limbaugh received his bachelor's
degree in accounting from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, graduating
cum laude. Limbaugh and his wife, Cindy, have four children and four grandchildren.
The position of assistant secretary
for water and science is currently vacant, created by the resignation
of Bennett Raley, who left the Department on December 3rd of last year.
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