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This Week, at Interior...

Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum was sworn in this week as the 55th Secretary of the Interior following his confirmation by the Senate. The Secretary was welcomed aboard at the Steward Lee Udall Building by an enthusiastic gathering of Interior employees. With a career rooted in leadership and service, Secretary Burgum expressed his gratitude and outlined his vision for an Interior future driven forward by innovation versus being held back by regulation.

It’s such an honor to have been confirmed as the 55th Secretary of the Interior and I’m certainly deeply grateful to President Trump for nominating me and placing his trust in me to lead this great Department.

Success is always rooted in great teamwork, and I’m going to look forward to working with all of you to unlock the full potential of the Department of the Interior. I believe that the work that you’re doing, you chose to do it, because you believed it had purpose.  

But I also know that there’s a chunk of your job that you’re doing today that’s probably mind-numbing, and soul-suckingly boring (laughter) and our job is to find those pieces of your job and make them go away. We’re cutting red tape, not just for Americans, we want to cut it for all of you, so you can work on the stuff, the reason why you chose the field that you did.

So I want to thank each of you, all the many careers that are here and those who might be listening in, for your dedication, your passion, and your commitment to service. Together I know that we can move our important missions forward, and we’ll make a lasting impact on the future.

After his welcome ceremony the new Secretary got right to work, signing Secretarial Orders to address the national energy emergency, unleash American energy, and deliver emergency price relief for American families. He also announced the President's revocation of former Outer Continental Shelf withdrawals, along with new steps to achieve prosperity through deregulation, and directed the Department to take all necessary steps to unleash the State of Alaska’s abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources.

You can follow Secretary Burgum on social media @SecretaryBurgum.

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That’s This Week at Interior.

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Interior. It's more than just the department of everything else, it's about energy. Powering the nation's future through oil, gas, and coal; and harnessing the sun and wind.  It's about parks and preservation; Telling the American story for new generations and protecting the special places that make our country unique. It's about trust; upholding our sacred responsibilities to Native Americans and Alaska Natives. It's about conservation; protecting the wondrous wildlife of America and the habitat it lives in. It's about the land; sustaining the health diversity and productivity of public lands for multiple uses. It's about water; managing the dams, power plants and canals in 17 western states; bringing precious water to 31 million people. It's about restoration; restoring the land and habitat on the sites of abandoned mines. It's about science; understanding natural hazards and resources, developing new tools, supplying useful information. It's about safety; enforcing the regulations for responsible recovery and use of natural resources at sea. People, history, energy, land, water, science, responsible stewardship; that's what Interior is all about. This is our charge, our work is important and America depends on us.