President Bush Picks New Interior Secretary

Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, right, has been nominated by President Bush to be the next Secretary of the Department of Interior. Governor Dirk Kempthorne, 54, was first elected as Idaho's 30th governor in 1998 following a successful six-year term in the U.S. Senate. He was reelected as Idaho's Governor in 2002. As a Senator, he authored and won passage of two major pieces of legislation: a bill to end unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments and a substantial revision of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act

He was elected as Chairman of the National Governor’s Association in 2003. Governor Kempthorne and his wife Patricia are both University of Idaho graduates and have two grown children, Heather and Jeff.