President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to run the Interior Department is Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colorado). Salazar is expected to win easy approval in the Senate and was recently questioned by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the economic recovery plan and the role he will play when he takes the helm at Interior.

The economic plan currently in play includes funding to fight forest fires and clear wildfire hazards, as well as $1.8 billion for National Parks infrastructure projects and $200 million for the National Mall. Senators at a hearing in Washington last week cited a $9.5 billion backlog in maintenance projects at the Park Service, a $5 billion backlog at the Forest Service, and $3 billion for aging water infrastructure.

Salazar told his fellow Senators at his confirmation hearing that there are $2.5 billion or more of projects ready to go in the national park system that he hopes he will be able to address through the economic recovery package.

Salazar declined to say if he would support a reinstatement of the ban on oil and gas drilling off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, which Congress allowed to expire last year. In the Senate, Salazar signed on to a bipartisan compromise that would have allowed drilling off the coast of certain Southeastern states. He promised to look at offshore drilling “in the context of a comprehensive energy plan” and in consultation with Congress.

Salazar did not say whether he would overturn a Bush administration rule to allow loaded guns in national parks, but he is staunch advocate for the rights of gun owners.