James Lankford: “I want to tell you a story about Tina Pierce. Tina grew up on a farm in Idaho. She was the first in her family to earn a…”

“I want to tell you a story about Tina Pierce. Tina grew up on a farm in Idaho. She was the first in her family to earn a college degree. After earning her degree in accounting, she served in the U.S. Marines. She was deployed in Kuwait as the comptroller for the contingency Operation Desert Thunder. She earned her MBA from Colorado State University. She graduated at the top of her class. She then became a CPA, a certified public accountant. She has been married 26 years. She has four children. Her husband also served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a colonel. Why do I bring her up? Well, here is why. President Trump nominated Tina Pierce to be the Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Energy. She went through the process with the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, where she was voted out in May of this year 13 to 7--pretty strong bipartisan vote. She passed out of the committee and then has sat waiting. What is interesting for this is the Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Energy has actually never had a vote in the Senate on the floor of the Senate.”