Congress
Senate confirms Burgum as Interior secretary
The Senate easily confirmed Doug Burgum as secretary of the Interior Department Thursday, a job that positions him to act on President Donald Trump’s energy strategy.
The 79-18 vote makes the wealthy former North Dakota governor the official in charge of Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” plans as Interior oversees energy production on public land and in federal waters. Burgum promised in his nomination hearing to open more areas up for production of oil, natural gas and coal and warned that too much emphasis had been placed on renewable energy projects during the Biden administration, a stance that worried some Democrats.
One of Burgum’s first policy goals will be to dismantle Interior’s support for offshore wind power development. Trump ordered Interior to halt any new lease sales that would allow wind companies to develop projects on public land and to stop any new permitting for wind power development.
Burgum will also get a seat on the National Security Council per an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office. Trump had earlier tapped Burgum to lead a National Energy Council, but plans for that body remain murky as bureaucratic infighting took over its organization and even its possible name.
“DOI desperately needs a leader who will act. Gov. Burgum is that leader,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) said on the Senate floor Wednesday before Burgum’s cloture vote.
Democrats on the Senate energy committee had generally supported Burgum when they cleared his nomination. The strong bipartisan support for full confirmation came even after Democratic governors urged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to have his caucus take a harder stance against Trump’s nominees.
Influential environmental group League of Conservation Voters also pushed Democrats to vote against Burgum and other Trump nominees, particularly after Trump’s attempt to broadly freeze federal grants and other spending.
“Gov. Burgum sees our public lands and waters as merely America’s ‘balance sheet,’ which should be available to be drilled, logged, mined, and sold off to the highest bidder,” LCV said in a statement that quoted Burgum’s testimony during his nomination hearing and urged senators to vote against his confirmation.
Some Democrats pointed to Burgum’s experience running a state as reason they might come around to him — even if they ultimately voted no.
“Unlike a lot of other nominees, he’s got true governing experience,” California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla said before voting against Burgum Thursday night. “We disagree on some issues, but there’s actually an agreement on a lot of issues that impact California.”
Burgum gained a reputation as a moderate during his two terms as governor of North Dakota, where he pledged to reduce the state’s carbon emissions to net zero. He started several software companies that made him a millionaire after he sold them to Microsoft. His financial disclosures list millions of dollars in North Dakota real estate developments, some of which earned criticism for his use of tax incentives he oversaw as governor.
Burgum also has investments in film production companies. He pledged to sell off his shares in energy companies, which included First Solar, utilities Duke Energy and Xcel Energy, pipeline companies Kinder Morgan, ONEOK and Enterprise Products Partners, and oil company Targa Resources.
He has been a large proponent of the carbon capture industry, in which Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum and other companies seek to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and bury it underground.
Environmental groups have been wary of carbon capture, saying the technology hasn’t been proven at scale and government support for it unduly favors the fossil fuel industry.
Josh Siegel contributed to this report.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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