Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's Remarks at Today's White House Press Briefing

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar discusses his goals with news reporters at a Media Roundtable and teleconference at Interior Headquarters. He later discussed his reform initiative at a White House Press Briefing. [Photo Credit: Tami Heilemann, DOI-NBC]

Washington, D.C. – Today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced at a White House briefing that he will be traveling to the Denver, Colorado office of the Minerals Management Service tomorrow to outline his first priorities for reform in the Department of the Interior. He is the first member of the Cabinet to participate in a White House Press Briefing in the Obama Administration.

His remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:

“President Obama has immediately set high ethical standards for service in the federal government. He has shown a commitment to reform that will change business as usual in Washington.

“He has immediately made clear that the type of ethical transgressions, blatant conflicts of interest, wastes and abuses that we have seen over the last eight years will no longer be tolerated.

“Nowhere is President Obama's commitment to reform and to cleaning up the waste, fraud and abuse of the past more important than at the Department of the Interior, which I now lead.

“Over the last eight years, the Department of the Interior has been tarnished by ethical lapses and criminal behavior that has extended to the highest levels of government.

“The former Deputy Secretary of the Department under the Bush Administration, Steven Griles, was sent to prison. It is the Department that the American people associate with Jack Abramoff.

“And it is the Department that was tarnished by a scandal involving sex, drugs, and inappropriate gifts from oil and gas companies.

“The Lakewood, Colorado, office of the Minerals Management Service is tasked with making sure that taxpayers collect their fair share from oil and gas development on our public lands. Last year, that office collected $23 billion on behalf of the American taxpayer.

“Yet during the last Administration, some of the employees of that office violated the public trust by accepting gifts and employment contracts from the oil and gas companies they are supposed to be holding accountable.

“Some employees engaged in blatant and criminal conflicts of interest and self dealing. It is one of the worst examples of corruption, abuse, and of government putting special interests before the public interest.

“Tomorrow, I will be travelling to the Lakewood MMS office to meet with employees.

“I will also be announcing our own review of what happened, what has been done to address it, and what additional steps need to be taken.

“It will be clear that we will no longer tolerate those types of lapses at any level of government, from political appointees or career employees.

“This is only the first step of our long-term effort to enact comprehensive, top-to-bottom reform of the Department of Interior.

“The American people should be proud of their government.

"Those who work for the government should be proud of their service to the American people. We will work to reform the Department of the Interior, restore the public's trust and to restore the high level of ethics and accountability that the American people deserve.”