Udall Statement on Trump's Expected Nomination of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to be Secretary of the Interior

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Tom Udall, the lead Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, and incoming vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on President-elect Donald Trump's expected nomination of Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to head the U.S. Department of the Interior:

"I have known Representative McMorris Rodgers for a number of years after serving with her in the House, and I congratulate her on this news. If she is officially nominated and confirmed, she will have a big job. We made important progress in the last eight years to protect our treasured public lands in New Mexico and across the country and to improve stewardship of our natural resources. But we still have big issues to address at the Interior Department, such as the long maintenance backlog at our National Parks, and the enduring need to improve the government-to-government relationship with Indian Country.

"President-elect Trump said this week that his administration will honor the legacy of our great conservation President Theodore Roosevelt. He said he will 'conserve and protect our beautiful natural resources for the next generation including protecting lands [for] anglers and hunters and all of those who enjoy the outdoors' like his sons Don and Eric. I am troubled that Representative McMorris Rodgers is among the Republicans in Congress who has backed misguided efforts to sell off millions of acres of public land to the highest bidder. With some Republicans in Congress threatening to erase the bedrock environmental laws and policies that protect the water we drink, the air we breathe and the fabric of our ecosystems, I hope President-elect Trump means his words. In my positions on the Appropriations and Senate Indian Affairs committees, I will hold him to it."