Monday, during the daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer handed over a check representing the president's pay since Jan. 20—every dime of it—to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to give to the National Park Service. The secretaries were joined by Tyrone Brandyburg, superintendent of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia.

Following the check presentation, Zinke shared a few thoughts with the media:
Those who don't know, I get my inspiration from Teddy Roosevelt. And the motto now in the Department of Interior, if you go to Yellowstone and you have the opportunity to look at the Roosevelt Arch, it says, inscribed in stone is: "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people." And that's our pledge.

So for those who aren't familiar with the Department of Interior, we span 12 time zones, from the Virgin Islands, all the way to Palau. And within our holdings are 20 percent of the nation's land. We have 417 national parks, we have 562 federally recognized Indian nations, 567 wildlife refuges and 221 wilderness areas. And I'm the steward of our nation's finest and most majestic holdings.

After riding on a horse on my first day—we were pretty busy—just on public lands alone, I signed directions, on the first day, to expand public access—important if you're in the West, especially in the far West, as Montana is. We've made sure we increased opportunities for traditional hunting, fishing, and conservation efforts. And we've invested millions across 12 states on preserving our conservation efforts there.

On energy, much of last week was spent on energy. We held one of our most successful leases—122,000 acres for wind development on federal lands, off Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. We also stopped the war on coal by continuing a coal-leasing program. And I established an oversight committee to review and analyze across the board rents, royalties on our federal lands, with the objective of, No. 1, being transparent; No. 2, being Reagan—trust, but verify; and No. 3, making sure the taxpayers that own the public lands are getting fair value.

On the management side, we have unfortunately uncovered a lot of internal controls that weren't there. There's been in the news several incidents of sexual harassment and a culture of discrimination. And you can hear it from me—I put policies forth—zero tolerance for sexual harassment or discrimination. We have 70,000 full-time employees, and each employee deserves the right to enter a workplace that's innovative, teamwork, but free from harassment.

On the brighter side, we will pilot the first-ever dog-friendly Department of Interior. Puppy Day is coming up, so we've established that. And people ask, why are you doing that? Well, in some way, we compete on millennials. So we're trying to develop ourselves as a friendly department that's going to work with people, who are going to be an advocate for collaboration. And in doing that, we're going to start with being dog friendly. And also, we've taken to Twitter. As you know, this administration is Twitter-friendly, and so am I—@SecretaryZinke. (Photo: Ryan Zinke/by Molly Riley/AP/via NY Daily News) 

And finally, as a veteran myself, I tell you, I am thrilled at the president's decision to donate the check he did today. I did talk to the president last night, and he has decided, as you know, to donate his entire quarter salary. And we're going to dedicate it and put it against the infrastructure on our nation's battlefields. We're about $100 [million] or $229 million behind in deferred maintenance on our battlefields alone, and that's on our 25 national battlefields. And we're excited about that opportunity.

So thank you very much for the opportunity to be with you, and thank you for—the American people to trust the stewardship of our nation's greatest holdings with us.

To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE

36 States Thwart Atheist Attempts to Quash Christmas

Third Injunction: Judge Blocks Biden's Vax Mandate for Federal Workers in All 50 States

Mom Says School Pressured Son to Get COVID Jab Without Parental Consent, Bribing Him with Pizza

Vitamin D Supplements Might Have Saved Thousands of Americans from Dying With COVID; Get Your Level Checked ASAP

GOP Celebrates, as Dems Finally Drop Idea of Women in Military Draft ... for Now

Police Make Arrest after Fox News Christmas Tree Set Ablaze

'Christmas with The Chosen' Hits $9 Million in Weekend Box Office: 'God Has Something to Say'

80th Anniversary of Attack on Pearl Harbor: 'When We're United As a Country, We Cannot Be Defeated' Says Vet

He Led the Attack on Pearl Harbor, but Then His Enemy Led Him to Jesus

Florida State Rep. Introduces Texas-Style Abortion Bill to Protect Babies With Detectable Heartbeats

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Vetoes Five Pro-life Bills, Including One Protecting Babies that Survive Abortion

Major School Choice Case Comes to Supreme Court as Maine Families Fight for Religious Freedom

Over 700 Mathematicians and Scientists Sign Open Letter Expressing 'Alarm over Recent Trends in Education'

'I Have Never Seen Anything Like It': Cops Assumed the Worst When They Saw Insane Crash, Then a Real-Life Miracle Unfolded

300 Christmas Carolers Met With Obnoxious Noise Machine and Hecklers; See Their Grace-Filled Response

NYC Expands COVID Jab Mandate to Private Sector Employees, Vaccine Passports for Kids over 5

Dr. Ben Carson on Suppression of Ivermectin and HCQ for Treating COVID, and a Warning on the Pfizer Vax for Children

Intercessors For America: Luciferase; A Correction

Former GOP Senator Bob Dole Passed Away at 98, on Sunday Night

San Fran Police Officers Denied Service at Restaurant Because Their Weapons Go against 'Safe Space' Ideology