Remarks prepared for delivery
The Honorable Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior
2002 Budget Rollout, Sidney Yates Auditorium, Washington, D.C.
April 9, 2001, 1 p.m.

Welcome to our FY 2002 Budget rollout at the Interior Department.

For several months, I've been discussing what it is to be a compassionate conservative and a passionate conservationist - and how those ideas fit together perfectly.

Today, we're putting numbers and programs together for a budget that is passionate about conserving America's wild places and threatened species.

It's a budget that's compassionate in the way it protects our environment and conservative in how it spends taxpayers' money and gives local people more control over the lands they know and the lands they love.

Today, we're making history. With our $900 million investment in the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the federal government for the first time ever, meets its commitment to the states.

Half of the fund will go directly to the states, the tribes and the territories - allowing local officials who live close to the land to make choices without Washington mandates or red tape.

We're making good on President Bush's pledge to eliminate the maintenance backlog on our National Parks, so American families can better enjoy our nation's greatest natural and historic resources.

And we're making sure we protect and conserve the creatures and habitats in our parks by increasing our investment in the Natural Resource Challenge.

The Santa Fe Indian School was built in 1889. It currently serves more than 550 students in grades 7-12 from reservations around Arizona and New Mexico.

The buildings have deteriorated to a point where critical components like electricity, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, and fire and safety systems don't meet the minium requirements.

In our budget, we'll rebuild the Sante Fe school, and five others like it across America.

We'll ensure that more Native American students have access to safe schools and better computers and textbooks. We're making good on President Bush's promise that no child will be left behind.

We have another opportunity to make history.

Last Thursday, I had the enormous pleasure of fulfilling a 15-year personal quest, as I helped release five endangered California condors back into the wild.

As the door on the condor's pen near Big Sur, swung open, and the birds majestically found freedom, I was reminded how good success feels when we form partnerships across ideological and political boundaries, when we lay down our verbal swords and join hands to accomplish what was once thought to be impossible.

We have that same opportunity today with this budget. We can work together to fix our nation's parks, save our endangered species, fix Indian schools that have left too many of our children behind, and, together, we can protect our environment for our children and for future generations of Americans.

Thank you for attending this briefing.

Next I'll turn to our acting Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, Bob Lamb, to go over specifics in our budget.

After that, I'd be happy to answer your questions. Bob?

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