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 has served as Deputy Commissioner at the Bureau of Reclamation since 2002, helping to shape and promote Secretary Norton's Water 2025 initiative, as well as working to implement agency policies to reflect the principles of cooperation, consultation and communication.

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.