Senate Confirms Doug Burgum as Interior Secretary, 79 to 18: Set to Become 55th Secretary and Chair National Energy Council
The U.S. Senate in Washington voted 79 to 18 on January 30, 2025, to confirm former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as secretary of the interior. Burgum is set to become the 55th secretary of the interior. All Republican senators voted in favor, joined by more than half of the Democratic senators, making his one of the most bipartisan Cabinet confirmations of the new administration.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced the nomination on January 23 by a vote of 18 to 2, after a confirmation hearing on January 16. When President Donald Trump announced Burgum's nomination on November 14, 2024, he also named him to chair the newly created National Energy Council.
The Department of the Interior manages the nation's natural and cultural resources through agencies including the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with jurisdiction over federal public lands and offshore energy development. North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong said in a statement that Burgum is the second North Dakotan to hold the Interior post.
Burgum, a businessman, was elected governor of North Dakota in 2016 and served until December 2024, and briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 cycle.
(Source: U.S. Senate)
Source: U.S. Senate
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：内政部长 Doug Burgum 2025年官方肖像。（美国内政部，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: Official 2025 portrait of Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. (U.S. Department of the Interior, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
