Transcript of Barack Obama’s introduction of Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary and Tom Vilsack as Agriculture Secretary, followed by Q&A.
OBAMA: Earlier this week I announced key members of the team that will help us seek new forms of energy, to build a new economy, to enhance our security and to leave our children a planet that is safer and cleaner.
Today I am extraordinarily pleased to announce two other key advisers and members of this team: Governor Tom Vilsack as secretary of agriculture and my dear friend from the Senate, Senator Ken Salazar , as secretary of the interior.
Together, they will serve as guardians of the American landscape on which the health of our economy and the well being of our families so heavily depend.
One of the great blessings bestowed upon us as Americans is the bounty of our natural environment, from the mountains and parks where we go hiking, to the rivers and streams where we go fishing, to the forests and fields where the proud tradition of hunting is passed on through the generations.
But our wide-open spaces are not only a blessing to be enjoyed, they’re the foundations of a brighter future. How we harness our natural resources, from the farmlands of Iowa to the springs of Colorado, will speak not only to our quality of life, but to our economic growth and our energy future.
It is time for a new kind of leadership in Washington that’s committed to using our lands in a responsible way to benefit all of our families.
That means ensuring that even as we are promoting development where it makes sense, we are also fulfilling our obligation to protect our natural resources.
It means ensuring that we are using our farmlands not only to strengthen our agricultural economy, but to grow advanced biofuels that will help make the United States energy independent.
And it means ensuring that the policies being shaped at the Departments of Agriculture and Interior are designed to serve not big agribusiness or Washington influence peddlers, but family farmers and the American people.
OBAMA: That’s the kind of leadership embodied by Ken Salazar and Tom Vilsack.
Ken will bring to the Department of Interior an abiding commitment to this land that we love. His family has farmed and ranched the same land in Colorado for five generations. As a senator from the great state of Colorado, he has been a champion for farmers, ranchers and rural communities, from building a clean energy economy to setting aside 250,000 acres of Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness.
Before serving in the United States Senate, Ken was attorney general in Colorado, where he worked on a number of land, water and environmental issues.
As a water lawyer for a decade, Ken was also chosen to lead Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources. In that role, he promoted responsible water management, balanced use of our energy resources, and built one of the most successful land conservation efforts in our nation.
Few are better equipped to meet the energy and natural resource challenges we face in the 21st century. Among the many responsibilities Ken will bear as our next secretary of the interior is helping ensure that we finally live up to the treaty obligations that are owed to the first Americans. We need for than just a government-to-government relationship; we need a nation-to-nation relationship. And Ken and I will work together to make sure the tribal nations have a voice in this administration.
And one of Ken’s critical roles as well is going to be working with our energy team to make sure that we are using our natural resources in a sustainable way and developing the kind of energy independence that is so vital to our economy.
To lead a Department of Agriculture that helps unlock the potential of a 21st century agricultural economy, I can think of no one better than Tom Vilsack.
OBAMA: As governor of one of our most abundant farm states, he led with vision, promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers and fostering an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat but the energy that we use.
Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home. That’s the kind of leader I want in my Cabinet.
As our next secretary of agriculture, Tom will not only help ensure that rural America has a true partner in implementing the farm bill and pursuing agricultural research, but that Washington is looking out for everyone, from the small family farms that are feeding our communities to the large farms that are feeding the world.
When President Lincoln established the Department of Agriculture nearly a century and a half ago, he called it the “People’s Department,” for it meant — it was meant to serve the interests of those who lived off the land. And I know it will be the people’s department once more when Tom is at the helm.
With the appointments I announced earlier in the week and with those I’m announcing today, I am confident that we have the team that we need to make rural agenda America’s agenda; to create millions of new green jobs; to free our nation from its dependence on oil; and to help preserve this planet for our children.
In the end, that’s not only the responsibility of all Americans, it is our obligation as stewards of God’s Earth.
And with that, what I’d like to do is first introduce my great friend, Senator Ken Salazar .
America received an Earth Day gift today wrapped in national significance and organic pea tendrils. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, declared the entire six-acres grounds of the Whitten Building, the mammoth marble USDA headquarters on the Mall in Washington D.C., as “The People’s Garden.” Goodbye grass, hello edible greens.
