{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "is_view": false, "human_description_en": "where state = \"AK\" and year = 2021 sorted by date descending", "rows": [["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/-murkowski-wishes-alaskans-a-merry-christmas-and-happy-holidays", "Murkowski Wishes Alaskans a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays", "2021-12-25", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) shared the following message with Alaskans:\n\nClick here for video of Senator Murkowski.\n\n\u201cThe holidays are a special opportunity to share traditions and enjoy time with those we hold close. As I take pause to think about the many blessings I have in my own life \u2013 my family, friends, and the opportunity to represent the great state of Alaska \u2013 I am reminded of all we have collectively to be thankful for. As Alaskans, we get live in a beautiful state, with incredible outdoor opportunities in our back yard. We have a unique home, rich with history and culture. We are surrounded by Alaska\u2019s natural bounty. And we have each other \u2013 Alaskan neighbors, showing up for one another during the best and worst of times. That is the true spirit of our great state.\n\n\u201cRegardless of how you choose to celebrate the season, I encourage us all to take time to reflect on the good things in our lives. And, as we transition into to the New Year, I hope each of us will commit to being the best neighbors to one another that we possibly can. 2022 will be better and brighter for us all if we do.\n\n\u201cFrom my family to yours \u2013 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/king-cove-murkowski-mark-eight-years-and-157-medevacs_since-rejection-of-life-saving-road", "King Cove, Murkowski Mark Eight Years and 157 Medevacs  Since Rejection of Life-Saving Road", "2021-12-23", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today issued the following statement on the eight-year anniversary of the Department of the Interior\u2019s rejection of a short, one-lane, gravel, life-saving road needed to connect King Cove, Alaska to the all-weather airport in nearby Cold Bay. The single-lane road is crucial to providing reliable emergency medical access for all who live in King Cove.\n\nTwo days before Christmas in 2013, former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced she would not allow the simple road \u2013 approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis, but conditioned on a public interest determination \u2013 to be built to connect two existing roads on either side of the 315,000-acre Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Since then, King Cove has been forced to endure an additional 157 medevacs. Most occurred in dangerous weather conditions and many had to be carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard, risking the lives of crews and patients alike.\n\n\u201cSally Jewell made a horrible decision eight years ago, and it is the good people of King Cove who have paid the price ever since. A single medevac is too many, let alone 157. It is simply unconscionable that the federal government has failed to protect these Alaskans\u2019 health and safety, especially in the midst of a global pandemic that has made emergency medical access all the more critical,\u201d Murkowski said.\n\nMurkowski reiterated her request to current Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland \u2013 who has prioritized tribal consultation \u2013 to visit King Cove and finally address this decades-long environmental injustice.\n\n\u201cI am calling on Secretary Haaland to visit King Cove to see the need to protect local residents\u2019 health and safety as soon as possible. The federal government has a trust responsibility to the Tribes of King Cove, but it has been broken for decades. I also urge her to consider alternatives that could help us construct this road in an environmentally sound manner sooner than litigation will allow. As governments, Tribes must deliver a wide range of critical services, including healthcare, to their citizens. The Secretary must recognize this and act now, because King Cove needs this life-saving road more than ever,\u201d Murkowski said.\n\nNumerous King Cove officials today expressed hope that Secretary Haaland would uphold the federal government\u2019s trust responsibility and help them. The officials held a teleconference with Haaland in August and have asked her to visit their community to better understand the need for a life-saving road.\n\n\u201cSecretary Haaland understands our deep-rooted connection to our ancestral land where we and our Aleut families have lived for thousands of years,\u201d said King Cove (Native) Corporation Spokeswoman Della Trumble. \u201cShe recognizes the trust responsibility the federal government has to Native people.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit King Cove soon to talk with residents and see first-hand the daily challenges we face,\u201d said King Cove Mayor Warren Wilson. \u201cMany people in King Cove have either been medevaced themselves or have family members who experienced dangerous medevacs during harsh weather.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe know that Secretary Haaland understands we love our families, and we want them to be out of harm\u2019s way,\u201d said Agdaagux Tribal President Etta Kuzakin Kuzakin. \u201cWe also love King Cove, which is our home.\u201d\n\nKuzakin was medevaced from King Cove by the Coast Guard in 2013 in stormy weather while in premature labor with her youngest daughter, Sunnie Rae. The mother and daughter would not have survived without the Coast Guard rescue, which only occurred because the Guard was nearby on another mission.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful the Secretary will support us,\u201d said Aleutians East Borough Mayor Alvin Osterback. \u201cThis issue is an injustice the federal government needs to correct so King Cove residents can feel safe when they require access to a higher level of care.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nKing Cove is located between two volcanic mountains near the end of the Alaska Peninsula, about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage. The small gravel airstrip in King Cove is typically closed by bad weather for more than 100 days each year. Nearly 40 percent of the flights not canceled are impacted or delayed by wind, turbulence, fog, rain, or snow squalls. By comparison, the all-weather airport in Cold Bay, which is less than 30 miles away from King Cove, is home to the fifth-longest runway in the state and closed an average of 10 days per year.\n\nNotable:\n\nIn 2018, former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a land exchange agreement to facilitate the construction of the life-saving road. It continues to be held up by litigation from environmental groups.\n\nIn 2016, Murkowski chaired a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to press for the life-saving road, receiving compelling testimony from local residents and a retired Coast Guard commander who located a plane crash near King Cove that had resulted in multiple fatalities.\n\nIn 2015, National Review published a longform article about King Cove entitled \u201cDeadly Environmentalism,\u201d which provides a comprehensive history of the issue and is well worth reading.\n\nIn 2009, Murkowski secured passage of legislation facilitating a land exchange to provide for the life-saving road, but former Secretary Jewell stunningly determined that it was not in the public interest. Eight years later, 157 medevacs continue to show just how awful that decision was.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-announces-disbursement-of-cares-act-funding-to-alaskas-fisheries", "Murkowski Announces Disbursement of CARES Act Funding to Alaska\u2019s Fisheries", "2021-12-23", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "Alaska set to receive the highest possible allocation in fishery relief\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today announced that $50 million in fishery assistance, secured through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and. Economic Security (CARES) Act, will be disbursed this week to Alaska\u2019s commercial harvesters, sport fishing charters, and seafood processors. This funding comes as a result of the efforts of Senator Murkowski to make direct assistance available to subsistence, commercial, and charter fishery participants, processors, fishery-related businesses and fishery-dependent communities that have been negatively affected by the economic and other impacts of COVID-19.\n\n\u201cAlaska\u2019s fisheries and seafood sector are a critical driver of our State\u2019s economy, employing more than 58,000 people and producing billions of dollars in economic output in our state each year. Unfortunately, I continue to hear from Alaska\u2019s seafood industry about the numerous ongoing challenges they are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As I worked to help craft the CARES Act, I was adamant that robust funding was included for those who bring Alaskan halibut, salmon, and countless other seafood products to market. I recognize that the time between allocation and distribution has been frustrating and long, but I\u2019m encouraged to know that those checks are officially hitting the mailboxes of hardworking Alaskans. The positive impacts this funding will have will be felt not only here at home, but across the nation as it boosts our economy and allows Alaska\u2019s world class seafood to continue to be enjoyed around the globe,\u201d said Senator Murkowski.\n\n\u201cThis CARES Act funding is serving as a vital source of support for fishermen. We appreciate that Congress recognized the need to support those in our seafood supply chain that are experiencing losses, through this and other support programs,\u201d said Chris Barrows, President of Pacific Seafood Processors Association.\n\n\u201cAlaskans from all fishing sectors owe a debt of gratitude to Lisa and Dan for directing so much relief to businesses based in our state. Many charter operators and guides were devastated by the loss of business due to COVID, and these funds are a welcome relief,\u201d said Ben Mohr, executive director of the Kenai River Sportfishing Association.\n\n\u201cUFA is glad to hear that the initial $50 million of AK CARES Act Fisheries Relief funding is finally being distributed to Alaskans. We thank the Alaska Congressional Delegation for all the work that they did to secure this funding and applaud the delegation\u2019s quick response to the economic harm caused by the pandemic, beginning back in 2020. The lengthy wait for the distribution of these funds, at a time when fishermen needed assistance the most, highlights the need for improvement of the distribution process for disaster relief funds for the fishing industry,\u201d said Tracy Welch, Executive Director of United Fishermen of Alaska.\n\nBackground:\n\nIn May of 2020, as the pandemic was shutting down the U.S. economy, Senator Murkowski was able to help secure $300 million for fisheries assistance in the CARES Act, of which Alaska received $50 million. Congress approved a new authority through the CARES Act for the Secretary of Commerce to provide direct assistance to fishermen to address losses related to COVID. The State of Alaska worked with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PAC States) and National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create a spend plan for the first and second rounds of funding.\n\nThe Commission is currently drafting applications for round two, which are anticipated to be available in mid to late January of 2022. In order to apply for Round 2 funds, applicants will need to know their Round 1 relief amounts. Additional guidance will become available once applications have been finalized and approved by ADF&G staff.\n\nFor more information, please contact the ADF&G. or monitor the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission\u2019s website.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska's Fisheries", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-wins-stand-off-with-white-house-over-ninth-circuit-nominees", "Sullivan Wins Stand-off with White House Over Ninth Circuit Nominees", "2021-12-23", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Biden White House had been preventing Senator\u2019s meetings with circuit court nominees\n\nANCHORAGE, ALASKA\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) announced on Sunday that he had met via phone with several nominees to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with jurisdiction over Alaska, ending a blockade by the Biden White House, which had been denying the senator the opportunity to meet with the judges prior to voting on their confirmation in the Senate. In his remarks on the Senate floor on December 13th, Sen. Sullivan argued that by withholding these meetings, the White House was subverting the \u201cadvice and consent\u201d duties senators have under the Constitution. He also noted that this policy was a marked shift from the previous administration, which had facilitated meetings between senators and judicial nominees upon request.\n\nSen. Sullivan delivered the news on Sunday Night in America on Fox News Channel, hosted by former Congressman Trey Gowdy.\n\nTranscript of the senator\u2019s interview:\n\nGOWDY: Senator Sullivan joins us now. Thank you for joining us, Senator. I actually watched your conversation with Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island on the Senate floor. It was cordial, as most Senate conversations are, but I do not understand the explanation for why you cannot meet with judicial nominees whose decisions impact your very state.\n\nSULLIVAN: Well, Trey, listen. I'm really glad you're raising this topic and, by the way, Merry Christmas. It\u2019s great to be on the show. But here's the thing. This administration with some Democratic allies in the House and the Senate has been smashing key constitutional norms. As you know, they're trying to pack the Supreme Court. Look at what Elizabeth Warren just announced. They're trying to kill the filibuster. And then this one comes up\u2014trying to undermine the advice and consent role that the U.S. Senate has with regard to nominees, especially, as you mentioned, judges who have life tenure. I've been fighting this and I'm actually glad to report right now that we finally have a victory on this one. We have stopped in its tracks this latest attack on the Constitution and constitutional norms. But I'll tell you, this was a breathtaking overreach\u2014another one by the Biden White House.\n\nGOWDY: Well, good for you, Senator. How in the world\u2014because I watched you and Senator Whitehouse. I think you had put a hold on something until they just simply let you meet. So how did you pull this off?\n\nSULLIVAN: I called the Biden White House and said, \u201cWhat the heck is going on?\u201d I meet with every Ninth Circuit judge, no matter what. As you mentioned in your piece already, the Ninth Circuit has enormous power over my constituents. They often get legal cases wrong. So I said, \u201cAre you the one White House counsel that\u2019s not letting me do my advice and consent role as a U.S. Senator?\u201d It's hard to tell who's in charge over there in the White House. She actually said, \u201cWell, we want to protect our judges.\u201d I said, \u201cProtect our judges? What the heck are you talking about? Protect them from what? Us doing our constitutional duty?\u201d So I put holds on these judges and I got all of my [Republican] Senate colleagues to commit to voting against every Biden judicial nominee. And then I started talking to Democratic senators too. And, to be honest, I think I convinced some of them to say we're not going to do this. We're not going to undermine the Senate's advice and consent power. So we played hardball and finally I started getting some meetings with these judges who are up for life tenure appointments and will have enormous power over my state and the whole Ninth Circuit. Trey, you know, that's one out of five Americans. But this again is just another power grab and undermining of constitutional norms. We have to keep fighting. We had a victory on this one. But there's a lot more of the Constitution we have to protect.\n\nGOWDY: You know, senator, they do serve for life. They make incredibly challenging, difficult decisions. I've been lucky. Every federal judge I've appeared in front of you would have been proud of, whether you voted for them or nominated them, or not. They were wonderful. But the issue of temperament\u2014will that road get heavy, will you change? How do you make that call if you've never met or talked to the person.\n\nSULLIVAN: You're exactly right, and here's what I did in these meetings when I finally was able to have them.Again, I've met with every Ninth Circuit judge, by the way, every D.C. Circuit judge, and every Supreme Court justice. Of course, it's a huge part of our job. It's Article 2, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The notion that the White House would say you can't do that under the Constitution because we want to \u201cprotect\u201d judges is just crazy. But when it comes to the issues of temperament or their knowledge, what I do in the cases of Ninth Circuit judges, Trey, is I send them several U.S. Supreme Court cases that have an impact on Alaska. I ask them to read them so that they're up-to-speed on big issues in my state. And then I talk about issues, like the Second Amendment. Let me give an example. Nearly 70% of the households in Alaska are gun owners. The Second Amendment is hugely important to my constituents. So I raised the issues that matter to Alaska and, to be honest, these judges usually don't know anything about these issues, and it's a way to educate them. So when they're on the bench for life, they are doing things that represent everybody in the entire circuit, not just where they're from. And, unfortunately, in my case, California produces the vast majority of the Ninth Circuit judges. Alaska gets one judge out of 29. So you better believe I'm going to interview every single one of them. We finally fought back and won against this latest Biden attack on the Constitution.\n\nGOWDY: Well, senator, just to show you how much of a nerd I am, I was actually watching C-SPAN. So I listened to it and that's what piqued my interest. Congratulations to you for getting this resolved. You know, life is a long time. You have a job for six years minus sort of day to day or night-to-night, but life is a long time. So kudos to you for staying on it and getting it resolved. Merry Christmas to the entire Sullivan family and thank you for being with us tonight.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/alaska-delegation-welcomes-additional-h-2b-visas", "Alaska Delegation Welcomes Additional H-2B Visas", "2021-12-21", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "DHS, DOL Announcement Paves Way for Robust Seasonal Workforce\n\nU.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, welcomed an announcement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) that a joint temporary final rule will soon be implemented to ensure an additional 20,000 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas will be made available nationwide for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.\n\n\u201cThis announcement recognizes the significance of H-2B visas for Alaska and is vitally important for our state\u2019s seafood industry. Despite their dogged efforts to find local seasonal workers \u2013 which must always be the preference \u2013 Alaska employers, particularly in seafood processing, often struggle to find enough workers to keep their operations running. These additional visas, which will be issued in the first half of the Fiscal Year for the first time ever, will help our seafood industry ensure a robust labor pool as we head into the 2022 season,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cI made it a priority early on with this administration to elevate this issue\u2014not only for a need to raise the cap, but for a long-term solution. I thank the administration for making this a priority and will push the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security to issue needed visas in a timely manner.\u201d\n\n\"A perpetually challenging issue for our seafood industry is ensuring sufficient seafood workers so that when our great Alaska fishermen harvest their world-class product they can get it to market. I appreciate the focus on this issue, and the commitment to solutions for Alaskan fishermen who are going out to sea early in the new year and rely on this program,\u201d said Senator Sullivan.\n\n\u201cIt is vital that our state\u2019s ongoing economic recovery is not further threatened by labor shortages. Access to sufficient nonimmigrant seasonal H-2B visas is essential for Alaska\u2019s seafood processing industry. Filling these jobs with Alaskans continues to be my goal, but a lack of workers would have catastrophic impacts for fishermen, processors, and the fishing communities that rely on this sector being strong. The Alaskan seafood industry is a critical piece of our nation\u2019s food supply and security. Over the last few months, I have been working on a solution to the seafood processing labor shortage, including working closely with Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to find a fix for this critical sector,\u201d said Congressman Young. \u201cToday, I am very pleased to share that DHS is making thousands more H-2B visas available, which will greatly benefit Alaska\u2019s economy and employers in the coming year. This is a tremendous victory for our state, and our Delegation\u2019s united front has once again produced an important win for Alaska. Our work will continue as we look to find a long-term solution for labor needs in the seafood processing sector. I want to sincerely thank Secretary Mayorkas for working with me and our Senators on behalf of our state\u2019s businesses. As always, I will continue working with anyone, regardless of party, on policies that put Alaska first.\u201d\n\nH-2B visas allow domestic employers to temporarily hire nonimmigrants to perform nonagricultural labor or services if American workers are not available, after completing a rigorous application and certification process. These visas are critical to the survival of seafood businesses, many of which are family-owned operations that go back multiple generations. The Alaska Delegation has been active on the H-2B issue, working hard each year to ensure that an adequate number of H-2B visas are made available, and that they are issued to Alaskan employers with sufficient advance for them to prepare for the season ahead. Senator Murkowski and Congressman Young have maintained direct contact with DHS Secretary Mayorkas, working collaboratively to find a solution.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-commits-to-vawa-reauthorization-", "Murkowski Commits to VAWA Reauthorization", "2021-12-17", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) yesterday spoke on the Senate floor about the need for a bipartisan reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. This speech dovetails an announcement made by Senator Murkowski and her colleagues, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL), that they have developed a bipartisan framework to modernize and reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.\n\nThe framework agreement includes provisions that strengthen rape prevention and education efforts and services and protections for young survivors, closes the dating partner loophole, and includes an Alaska pilot program which will empower a limited number of Tribes to exercise special criminal jurisdiction over certain crimes that occur in Alaska Native villages.\n\nClick here for video of Senator Murkowski\n\nSpeech Excerpts:\n\nMurkowski speaks on a path forward to a bipartisan reauthorization of VAWA:\n\n\u201cIt has been years in the making. The last time we had a VAWA reauthorization was VAWA 2013, and so we are high past time to be addressing this very significant matter.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo compromise is perfect, but what has been developed through this framework is a proposal that will really help to prevent violence, to support our survivors, to hold perpetrators accountable.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe all want to get to that next step which is filing the legislation so that we can get it moving through this process. I look forward to doing that in the new year.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is an ongoing public safety crisis in rural Alaska and across Indian Country, but we have an opportunity in this Congress to work together, across the aisle, to find solutions and restore justice.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe must let our women, children, and families who have been affected by devastating violence know \u2013 you are heard and we stand with you.\u201d\n\nMurkowski speaks to the disproportionate victimization of Native people:\n\n\u201cAs a Senator for Alaska, this is an extraordinarily pressing issue in my home state. As the Vice Chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, I can affirm that this is a very real issue in Native lands.\u201d\n\n\u201cBy now, I would hope that every Senator understands the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, we refer to this as MMIW. That\u2019s why we passed Savanna\u2019s Act and the Not Invisible Act, and I want to acknowledge my colleague who has been working this issue with us for so long\u2014Senator Cortez Masto. I think we recognize we\u2019ve made progress there, but to fully address the root causes of this crisis \u2013 the high rates of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, the violent crime in many Native communities we have\u2013 we have an awful lot more to do.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe rates of violence experienced by Alaska Natives are particularly horrific and statistics should shock us all. I repeat them a lot and they still shock me. According to a report prepared by the Indian Law and Order Commission, Alaska Native women are overrepresented \u2013 by nearly 250 percent \u2013 among female domestic violence victims.\u201d\n\n\u201cJust to put it into context here, a couple of years ago, an investigation that was conducted by the Anchorage Daily News determined that one in three Native communities in rural Alaska have no local law enforcement physically present, leaving Native women and children at greater risk of violence. Think about that for just a minute, to live in a community where there\u2019s no one to turn to, no law enforcement presence to turn to. Maybe you\u2019re able to share your story with a local health aide there, but that\u2019s as far as you can go. Beyond that, hardly any Alaska Tribes, have the tools they need to address violence in their communities.\u201d\n\nMurkowski speaks to provisions included in the framework agreement:\n\n\u201cI am proud to have authored text that will address the ongoing epidemic Alaska faces with violence, which has left long-lasting trauma for too many of our women, children, and families. We will not allow survivors and the needs of the most vulnerable to go unmet.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur tribal title closes loopholes, builds upon the success of the 2013 reauthorization, and includes specific solutions to protect Alaska Native people. The tribal title will further restore, and improve, the implementation of the special tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit violent crimes in Native communities. And it would do so by allowing Tribes who exercise this special jurisdiction to charge defendants with crimes that co-occur with domestic violence, such as violence against children or assault on law enforcement.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe tribal title includes an Alaska pilot program which builds on previous legislation I have introduced and will empower a limited number of Alaska Tribes to exercise special criminal jurisdiction over certain crimes that occur in villages in Alaska.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis legislation will include a provision named in memory of an Alaskan, Breanna Moore. Bree\u2019s Law drives education initiatives to enable youth, parents, and advocates, to recognize, prevent, and mitigate teen dating violence.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnother provision addresses support services for victims. We know that it is difficult for victims to access the necessary medical forensic services in Alaska, so this provision will allow for evidence-collection and aid in a survivor\u2019s journey to seeking justice. Although we have deeply, troubling, statistics on sexual assault and domestic violence \u2013 Alaskans have also been at the frontlines of innovation, offering solutions.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/sullivan-and-murkowski-introduce-alaska-salmon-research-task-force-act", "SULLIVAN AND MURKOWSKI INTRODUCE ALASKA SALMON RESEARCH TASK FORCE ACT", "2021-12-17", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski (both R-Alaska) introduced the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act, legislation that would form a panel of Alaska\u2019s salmon stakeholders and research experts to study Pacific salmon trends and create a coordinated research strategy for Pacific salmon in Alaska to support salmon management. The Research Task Force would be directed to conduct a comprehensive review of Pacific salmon science relevant to understanding and managing salmon returns in Alaska, and publish a report, within one year of convening, to provide recommendations identifying knowledge and research gaps and further research priorities for salmon in Alaska.\n\n\u201cIt is difficult to overstate the importance of salmon to Alaska, our communities, our economy and our traditional way of life. Over the past several years, Alaskans in some parts of the state have witnessed strong, historic runs of salmon, while Alaskans in other regions have seen shocking and unprecedented declines,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cOur existing management system, with the state\u2019s authority to manage Alaska\u2019s salmon harvest and the federal government managing federal fishery salmon harvest and much of the at-sea research, has created a clear gap in research and research prioritization that urgently needs to be addressed. This crisis warrants the combined attention of our state and federal governments, and the expertise of our greatest scientific minds, as well as the indigenous communities that have harvested salmon for millennia. With this legislation, we would establish a body to expand our understanding, identify knowledge gaps, and ultimately drive us toward concrete policies and management decisions that we hope will bring increased abundance and stability to our salmon stocks for the benefit of all Alaskans.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt has been said that the summer season doesn\u2019t arrive in Alaskan coastal and in-river communities until the salmon do. In some regions we are seeing not just a decline in salmon runs, but a crash that is damaging to not only the local economies but to the culture and spirit of the people in the region. It is clear we must further our understanding of salmon and their ecosystems in these times of rapid change. I am proud to join Senator Sullivan on the Alaska Salmon Research Taskforce Act as we seek to identify and bolster the necessary science to chart a path forward to ensure these critical species thrive,\u201d said Sen. Murkowski. \u201cI also continue to welcome feedback from affected community members and groups on how best to target research funding and craft policy to identify and mitigate the drivers of these declines and ensure the vitality of Alaska\u2019s salmon fisheries for future generations.\u201d\n\nThe Research Task Force would be composed of between 13 and 19 members, with the secretary of commerce appointing a representative from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the U.S. section of the Pacific Salmon Commission. The secretary would also appoint between two and five representatives from Alaska covering the wide array of state fisheries stakeholders, including subsistence, and commercial or recreational users. Lastly, the secretary would appoint five academic experts in salmon biology, management, and ecology, or marine research. The governor of Alaska would appoint one representative of the state.\n\nThe bill also directs the Research Task Force to establish a working group specifically focused on salmon returns in the AYK region of Western and Interior Alaska, where salmon return failures have had devastating impacts, and provides flexibility for the Research Task Force to establish other geographically-focused working groups.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-and-murkowski-introduce-alaska-salmon-research-task-force-act", "Sullivan and Murkowski Introduce Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act", "2021-12-17", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski (both R-Alaska) introduced the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act, legislation that would form a panel of Alaska\u2019s salmon stakeholders and research experts to study Pacific salmon trends and create a coordinated research strategy for Pacific salmon in Alaska to support salmon management. The Research Task Force would be directed to conduct a comprehensive review of Pacific salmon science relevant to understanding and managing salmon returns in Alaska, and publish a report, within one year of convening, to provide recommendations identifying knowledge and research gaps and further research priorities for salmon in Alaska.\n\n\u201cIt is difficult to overstate the importance of salmon to Alaska, our communities, our economy and our traditional way of life. Over the past several years, Alaskans in some parts of the state have witnessed strong, historic runs of salmon, while Alaskans in other regions have seen shocking and unprecedented declines,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cOur existing management system, with the state\u2019s authority to manage Alaska\u2019s salmon harvest and the federal government managing federal fishery salmon harvest and much of the at-sea research, has created a clear gap in research and research prioritization that urgently needs to be addressed. This crisis warrants the combined attention of our state and federal governments, and the expertise of our greatest scientific minds, as well as the indigenous communities that have harvested salmon for millennia. With this legislation, we would establish a body to expand our understanding, identify knowledge gaps, and ultimately drive us toward concrete policies and management decisions that we hope will bring increased abundance and stability to our salmon stocks for the benefit of all Alaskans.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt has been said that the summer season doesn\u2019t arrive in Alaskan coastal and in-river communities until the salmon do. In some regions we are seeing not just a decline in salmon runs, but a crash that is damaging to not only the local economies but to the culture and spirit of the people in the region. It is clear we must further our understanding of salmon and their ecosystems in these times of rapid change. I am proud to join Senator Sullivan on the Alaska Salmon Research Taskforce Act as we seek to identify and bolster the necessary science to chart a path forward to ensure these critical species thrive,\u201d said Sen. Murkowski. \u201cI also continue to welcome feedback from affected community members and groups on how best to target research funding and craft policy to identify and mitigate the drivers of these declines and ensure the vitality of Alaska\u2019s salmon fisheries for future generations.\u201d\n\nThe Research Task Force would be composed of between 13 and 19 members, with the secretary of commerce appointing a representative from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the U.S. section of the Pacific Salmon Commission. The secretary would also appoint between two and five representatives from Alaska covering the wide array of state fisheries stakeholders, including subsistence, and commercial or recreational users. Lastly, the secretary would appoint five academic experts in salmon biology, management, and ecology, or marine research. The governor of Alaska would appoint one representative of the state.\n\nThe bill also directs the Research Task Force to establish a working group specifically focused on salmon returns in the AYK region of Western and Interior Alaska, where salmon return failures have had devastating impacts, and provides flexibility for the Research Task Force to establish other geographically-focused working groups.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-honors-shari-daugherty-as-alaskan-of-the-week", "Sullivan Honors Shari Daugherty as \u201cAlaskan of the Week\u201d", "2021-12-17", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014On the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) recognized Shari Daugherty, of Homer, who founded \u201cShare the Spirit\u201d back in 1992, a community-driven nonprofit that provides all of the ingredients of a proper Christmas celebration\u2014including a full meal and presents\u2014for less-fortunate families and children. Daugherty is retiring from the program and from her job as a medical biller at South Peninsula Hospital this year, but will be handing on the reins for \u201cShare the Spirit\u201d to a new generation of leaders. Daugherty was recognized as part of Sen. Sullivan\u2019s series, \u201cAlaskan of the Week.\u201d\n\nTribute to Shari Daugherty\n\nMr. President, it is Thursday. The Senate is still very busy here. We have a lot of work to do, as we are all trying to get home for the holidays. And I thought it was still the appropriate time to come down and talk about somebody who is making our State such a great State, somebody who is contributing to the community, somebody who I refer to as our Alaskan of the Week.\n\nNow, we have been doing this for, gosh, going on almost 6 years, maybe 5 years. But it is always one of my favorite times of week, even when the speech is late. So I appreciate the majority leader and the Presiding Officer letting us stay open here for one more speech. And I know the pages--I mean, they love the Alaskan of the Week. So this is a little bit of a treat.\n\nBut I always start this speech with a little bit of an update on what is going on in Alaska. So right now, Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow--that is Point Barrow. That is the northern most community in North America. They haven't seen the sun in nearly a month. The sun went down, and it is not rising again until January 23. So they get a lot of darkness. There are 66 days of darkness. Great people up there. Wonderful people up there. I love it up there.\n\nWe have had some pretty significant cold spells already. That, for now, doesn't seem to be lifting. It was 40 below 0 in Fairbanks yesterday. In Anchorage, the high was 4 degrees above 0. Forty below is chilly. Tough people throughout the State. Four degrees above is pretty cold for Anchorage.\n\nBut everybody is excited because Christmas is right around the corner, and it is, of course, a great time to be in Alaska. We do have a place--I was just talking with the Presiding Officer and the majority leader. We have a great community in Interior Alaska called North Pole, AK. Santa actually lives there. We have a city council member in North Pole named Santa Claus, and a reindeer there.\n\nAnd, of course, I am like everybody else here, looking forward to getting home, going to Midnight Mass, eating my special Alaska seafood Newburg, having friends over, and family, of course. And I think we all know we are very fortunate. I, certainly, believe I am a very blessed man.\n\nAnd we are blessed in Alaska because of people like Shari Daugherty, who is our Alaskan of the Week. And so I want to talk a little bit about Shari because what she has done is literally the definition of the Christmas spirit.\n\nFor the last month, as she has done for the last 30 years, she has been working pretty much around the clock, volunteering her time for the nonprofit Share the Spirit. Share the Spirit--that is the nonprofit that Shari helped found in 1992--30 years.\n\nShare the Spirit's mission is to make sure that hundreds of less fortunate families in Homer, AK, her hometown, get all of the ingredients for a proper Christmas dinner and presents for the kids.\n\nShare the Spirit--it sounds pretty simple, but, as you can imagine, this is no easy task. And Shari would tell you that it involves so many others in Homer to make sure that the children in the community, who might not otherwise have anything under the tree, can experience the magic of Christmas that every child deserves.\n\nSo who is Shari, this great volunteer who has been doing incredible work in Homer? Originally from Chico, CA, Shari and her parents moved to Homer when she was in the 10th grade. Her father was a fisherman.\n\nAnd for those of you who have been to Homer or want to come to Homer, I will tell you, it is one of the most stunningly beautiful places in all of America--really, in all of the world. It is known as the ``Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.'' But anyone who goes there falls in love with Homer. It is surrounded by the glistening waters of Kachemak Bay, jagged mountains, glaciers, snowcapped volcanoes, and a great tight-knit community.\n\nAfter college at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Shari moved around a little. But in 1991, she came back home with her daughter. She did so because she had family there in Homer. And even if she didn't, as she put it, she had a whole town full of family in Homer.\n\nNow, volunteering was in her blood. She said her mom stressed the importance of giving back to the community since she was a young girl. So she almost immediately joined the Emblem Club. That is the unofficial auxiliary of the Elks. And during one of their first meetings, it was announced that a Christian minister's group that every year provided food and presents for people in the community was actually going to disband.\n\nA meeting was called. The talking lasted for a very long time--at such volunteer meetings, that can happen, of course--until Shari finally cut in and said: Hey, guys, we are really burning daylight here. Here is what needs to happen: We need to form a committee, form a plan, form a nonprofit, and get busy--get busy.\n\nAnd as such things go, she and another woman, Norma Foust, were put in charge. And boy, did they make a difference. That year, with Christmas only weeks away, a nonprofit was formed and a fundraiser to organize with the help of a strong community. They put together 57 baskets of food: turkey, stuffing, potato, sugar, salt, eggs, celery, pie crusts, cards with recipes on them--all the fixings for a nice Christmas dinner. And then there were the presents for more than 100 children. There were 220 gifts that first year, 30 years ago.\n\nAnd the program has grown ever since. Hundreds of families each year are referred to Shari's program by social agencies, including food banks and anywhere people go for help. The information is passed on to Shari and the whole Share the Spirit team. Each family is identified by their needs: a family of three, say, with a 4-year-old girl who needs boots and would like a princess costume. They are then assigned a number that goes onto a Christmas decoration and put on one of the numerous trees posted by local businesses in Homer. Homer residents pick up a decoration and buy the presents. It is pretty well organized.\n\nAnd Shari and the volunteers then get busy organizing a huge spaghetti feed to raise the funds, and then they go shopping for the food.\n\nA few days before Christmas, the group stages the location, normally at the high school. The presents and the food baskets are then disbursed.\n\nAs I mentioned, Shari has done this for 30 years--30 years--and throughout the years, many stories and people stand out.\n\nThis is Alaska. So, of course, this was the year of the huge blizzard. Nobody could drive. So they enlisted a club of snow machine riders to deliver the presents and the food throughout the area.\n\nThere is the woman who now lives in Pennsylvania, who lived in Homer for a while, with a young child. That child, because of the group, was able to experience Christmas. And now, like clockwork, this woman sends a quarterly donation to Share the Spirit.\n\nYou see how the spirit is literally being shared all over the country: Alaska, Homer, Pennsylvania.\n\nThere are many people now adults, some with children of their own, who got help, who got presents because of Share the Spirit and are now regular volunteers. Shari knows of many people who got presents as children because of her group's efforts and decided to stay in Homer, have families of their own, and now help out at Share the Spirit. She said: They decided that this is where they were going to live. This is the town they are going to live in and to contribute to, because this is the place that took care of them when they were young and needed it.\n\nShari is retiring this year from both the program and from her job as a medical biller at South Peninsula Hospital. She will be leaving Share the Spirit in good hands, though: Kelly Glidden, who began volunteering as a sixth grader in 1993; John Adams, who started when he was 8 years old volunteering; and Emmy Olsem Drye, who has been involved in Share the Spirit since she was 3, and who is also Shari's daughter. They will take on the mantle of this great volunteer effort, focused on the Christmas spirit, that Shari started.\n\nAnd there are those who have been there since the beginning: DeeDee Shoultz and Fran Van Sandt.\n\nAnd then there is the great community of Homer--a community that takes care of its own.\n\nSo thank you, Shari, for all you have done throughout the years--three decades to keep the Christmas spirit alive. Thank you for making our State a much better place, a more generous place, a caring place for all, and touching the lives of so many, and especially for making sure that children in Homer and across Alaska--and really across America--experience the joy and the magic of Christmas. Congratulations, Shari, on being our Alaskan of the Week, and Merry Christmas.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-recognizes-50th-anniversary-of-alaska-native-claims-settlement-act", "Sullivan Recognizes 50th Anniversary of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act", "2021-12-17", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski (both R-Alaska) yesterday introduced S. Res. 482, a resolution recognizing the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and the lasting impact of this landmark law on Alaska and Alaska Native people. ANCSA, the largest land claims settlement in U.S. history, transferred 44 million acres of federal land to 12 newly formed Regional Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) and more than 200 Village and Urban ANCs, fostering economic development through managing and developing the land for the benefit of their Alaska Native shareholders.\n\n\u201cIt is a story of self-determination and, in many ways, heroism, and it is a story for the ages,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cI am honored to represent these wonderful people\u2014many of the leaders who are still alive who made this happen fifty years ago\u2014and their children and grandchildren. We have more work to do, but fifty years ago, on December 18, 1971, it was the start of a new, positive, innovative chapter in the history of Alaska.\u201d\n\nTranscript of remarks\n\nMr. President, today I introduced a resolution with Senator Murkowski celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act--ANCSA, as we call it back home in Alaska--which was an enormously consequential piece of legislation that, after years and years of debate right in this body, passed the House, then passed the U.S. Senate, and then was signed into law by President Nixon on December 18, 1971, almost exactly 50 years ago to this day. It was a great day for Alaska.\n\nI know Senator Murkowski was on the floor earlier talking about ANCSA and why it is so important and why in Alaska, right now, we have been celebrating 50 years of this important piece of legislation.\n\nI want to go back in time a little bit to help explain, because part of what Senator Murkowski and I do here is we are constantly talking about and educating our colleagues about this very unique legislation, which happened right here in the U.S. Senate.\n\nIf you go back in time to 1867, that is when the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. Within the agreement, there was acknowledgement of the Alaska Native people and their lands, but, still, almost 100 years after the purchase from Russia, even following statehood for Alaska, the claims settlement that the Native people had to their own lands was still in limbo.\n\nIt got a kick and a turbo charge when oil was discovered on Alaska's North Slope during a worldwide shortage, which created new urgency to develop Alaska for our resources but to do so by settling these land claims.\n\nThere were allies in the Federal Government who were helpful, but it was truly the Alaska Native people and their determination to themselves and to future generations and their resiliency and brilliance which led to the passage of ANCSA 50 years ago, which became the largest and, certainly, most innovative indigenous land settlement, certainly, in U.S. history, and it is no exaggeration to say probably in the world--44 million acres of land going to the Native people of my State.\n\nIt brought tremendous educational, social, political, economic, and cultural achievements for the Alaska Native people. It certainly wasn't perfect, but this body played a very important role.\n\nNow, there were obstacles, challenges. In fact, when you look back on the history over 50 years ago, it was kind of a classic David-and-Goliath story.\n\nLet me spend a few minutes going back in time to set the stage for what was happening in Alaska.\n\nIn 1954, the U.S. Department of the Interior did a health survey on the Native people of Alaska. Here is a quote from that survey: ``The indigenous people of Native Alaska are the victims of sickness, crippling conditions and premature death to a degree exceeded in very few parts of the world. . . . health problems are nearly out of hand. If . . . Americans could see for themselves the large numbers of the tuberculosis, the cripple, the blind . . . the malnourished, the desperately ill among [this] relatively small [Native] population,'' it would have a profound impact on them. And it did.\n\nEven in the face of these crippling conditions, the Alaska Native people joined hands, joined hearts and said: This is our land. We need rights to it.\n\nThey did this by coming together. In the mid-1960s, they formed the Alaska Federation of Natives--AFN, as we call it back home--an entity that is very important to our communities.\n\nOf course, the Native people in our State looked for potential allies. In the lower 48, they gave speeches. They wrote columns. They formed their own newspaper, The Tundra Times, edited by legendary Howard Rock, which was highly read throughout the State, celebrated throughout the globe, and had an enormous impact on bringing people together.\n\nA few years ago, my team and I combed through some of the hearings that led to ANCSA. It was many years in development. There were field hearings that took place in Alaska in 1968, 1969--3 years before the passage of ANCSA.\n\nIncredibly proud and determined first peoples from all over the State--Tlingit, Haida, Athabascan, Inupiat, Yupik, Aleut--travel to Anchorage, to Fairbanks to give their testimony in field hearings to U.S. Senators. Some of them had never even left their villages. Some of them didn't even speak English.\n\nMany were veterans--and I am going to talk briefly about that. Dozens and dozens of young men and women, old men and women, all of them testifying before U.S. Senators and Congressmen, telling their stories of how they lived off the land and the rights that they needed for thousands of years on the land.\n\nThey told stories of strong and resilient people who had been able to thrive in some of the harshest conditions in the planet. But as I mentioned earlier, they also told stories of health challenges.\n\nThe first AFN president, Emil Notti, who is still a great leader in Alaska, then only 36 years old, spoke with passion at these hearings and heartbreak about the conditions in rural Alaska.\n\nHe said to a group of Senators in a hearing:\n\nThe indigenous people of Native Alaska are the victims of sickness, crippling conditions and premature death to a degree exceeded in very few parts of the world.\n\nHe told the committee then that life expectancy for the average Native Alaskan was 34 years old. This is in the late 1960s. The average life expectancy in the United States at that time was 69--34 years old to 69.\n\nMany spoke of how much they had sacrificed for their country. And this is an issue I never tire of talking about. Alaska Natives serve at higher rates in the U.S. military than any other ethnic group in the country. So they are fighting for their country in World War II and Korea and Vietnam, and they are coming home and they are being denied fundamental rights themselves.\n\nHere is what Jerome Trigg, a leader and a marine from Nome, had to tell U.S. Senators who were in Alaska. His testimony was said to have brought tears to the eyes of many. He looked at the U.S. Senators and said this: We have showed our patriotism as proudly as any Americans on Earth. We have answered the call of duty with pride in serving in our military. In World War II, we answered the call 100 percent. Every man--old and young--in every village volunteered with the Alaska National Guard.\n\nOn Vietnam, which was raging at the time, he said: I have never heard of an Alaska Native burning their draft card or our Nation's flag. We love our land, and we will sacrifice and fight to protect it.\n\nHe concluded with this thought, which I love: ``Sometimes I think the wrong people are running this hearing and taking our testimony,'' he said to the Senators. ``It seems that [maybe] we should be on the bench and you people should be . . . giving [us] the testimony.''\n\nI love that--strong words from Marine Jerome Trigg, who had a very important point to make.\n\nSo many in our communities testified in front of Congress. One happened to be a beautiful, young Alaska Native woman in her thirties from the village of Rampart named Mary Jane Fate, who not only worked on this but came to Washington, DC, to lobby U.S. Senators to pass ANCSA. I had the very great privilege of being the son-in-law of that great Native woman who, unfortunately, passed away recently. That was my mother-in-law, Mary Jane Fate, who came to this body and made sure Senators understood what was happening in Alaska and got them to vote for ANCSA 50 years ago.\n\nSo here is what it did in a nutshell. As I mentioned, it was the largest indigenous land settlement in the history of the country: 44 million acres of land, almost a billion dollars from the State and Federal Government to transfer land in fee simple--not the reservation system like you have in the lower 48, which was a huge innovation at the time. They own this land. It is theirs. It is not held in trust by the United States like it is in the lower 48 on Indian reservations.\n\nCongress mandated the creation of for-profit Alaska Native corporations solely owned by Alaska Native shareholders. Twelve of these regional corporations and 200 village ANCs were created by the Congress. Sometimes people talk about ANCs as if they were some foreign entity. They were actually created right here 50 years ago.\n\nWhat did all of this do? It provided economic opportunity. These were not typical entities, but they were more than just corporations. They were kind of a combination: social, cultural, economic. They passed on the values to the different shareholders.\n\nOne of the great things about ANCSA was that it required, actually, the sharing of revenues. Some of these regional corporations did very well; others didn't. There were provisions early on that said, if these corporations are doing great and these aren't, there is going to be some sharing. It was called the 7(i) provision. These provisions have been critical to the survival of ANCs, which regional ANCs at times, as I mentioned, were receiving more revenue than others.\n\nSo that day 50 years ago--December 18, 1971--was really an important day for our State. How has it worked out? It has worked out well, but, of course, we always have more work to do.\n\nOver the last 50 years, the Alaska Native people have managed their lands to foster sustainable businesses, created employment opportunities for all people--Native and non-Native--in Alaska, across the country, and across the globe. They have become the heart and soul of our economy in Alaska, employing thousands of both Alaska Native and non-Native people.\n\nAnd they have prospered with their own initiative and with innovative approaches to fostering economic development through self-determination. And beyond the economic benefits, these ANCs, these groupings, these shareholders in these Alaska Native entities created right here on this floor, provided benefits in terms of culture, language revitalization, scholarships, burials, funeral assistance, and an enormous focus on education. Over 54,000 individual scholarships were given to younger Alaska Native people.\n\nAnd, importantly, this law, passed by this body, gave the Native people the opportunity to thrive; to continue to live on their land, practice their culture, create leaders throughout the State. In what was once one of the most impoverished places in the country are now, in many areas, strong, dynamic--health, education, housing, food security, and sanitation have all improved immensely.\n\nWe have a long way to go. There is still a lot of misunderstanding. In Alaska, you have Tribes, Tribal members, you have ANCs, and shareholders. These are the Native people. You have crossover. And sometimes there is a misunderstanding.\n\nFor example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act specifically excluded tens of thousands of Alaska Natives because they were members of an organization that Congress created. My own view was that was outrageous.\n\nSo that is why we need to keep educating our colleagues here. But overall, this was a story of success, of resilience, of what can happen when you allow people to take charge of their own destiny. It is a story of self-determination and, in many ways, heroism, and it is a story for the ages.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/act-for-als-act-unanimously-passes-senate-heads-to-president-biden-for-his-signature", "ACT for ALS Act Unanimously Passes Senate, Heads to President Biden for His Signature", "2021-12-16", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "Following passage in the House, the Senate unanimously passes landmark investigational therapy bill for ALS patients\n\nToday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies (ACT) for ALS Act, legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and U.S. Representatives Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.). The bipartisan, bicameral bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week. The ACT for ALS Act would fund essential research into fast-progressing rare neurodegenerative and terminal diseases, like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and early access to promising investigational therapies for patients suffering from them and would authorize $100 million annually to implement these priorities.\n\nALS affects 1 in 300 people, often leaving patients with no more than three years to live following their diagnosis, and disproportionately impacts U.S. military service members. ACT for ALS authorizes new grants to support expanded access and research programs. This expansion will bring investigational treatments for rapidly progressing diseases beyond their ongoing clinical trials to patients with diseases for which effective therapies don\u2019t already exist and allow for additional research into the effectiveness of those interventions. It also creates a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Rare Neurodegenerative Disease Grant Program to support other research and development on ALS and other life-threatening or severely debilitating neurodegenerative diseases.\n\n\u201cTonight, because of the tireless work of so many ALS advocates, the Senate unanimously passed the ACT for ALS Act and sent it to President Biden\u2019s desk,\u201d said Senator Coons. \u201cThanks to this legislation and the crucial research into ALS it will fund, countless Americans and their families who face down this cruel disease every day can go to sleep tonight with a renewed sense of hope. I am grateful to Senator Murkowski and Representatives Quigley and Fortenberry for their partnership on this landmark bill.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is all about hope. The ACT for ALS Act will make a meaningful difference for individuals and families across the country. Passage of this bill today is a hard-earned win for the ALS community and provides much-deserved hope to all who are affected by this disease,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cAs someone whose family has been impacted by ALS, I know how terrible this disease is and how tirelessly the ALS community continues to fight for legislation to improve treatments and quality of life and search for a cure. This bill now heading to the President\u2019s desk is huge step forward. It will offer new hope for those who are most in need, those who today\u2014tragically\u2014have very few options for treatment.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am thrilled that the Senate has passed ACT for ALS and officially cleared the way for this life-saving, transformative legislation to be signed into law. For too long, the diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease like ALS has been a death sentence that included the devastating hopelessness of no effective treatment options. ACT for ALS will finally help people living with this cruel disease access promising treatments and create the research infrastructure that could put a cure within reach,\u201d said Representative Quigley. \u201cI am deeply grateful for the hard work and dedication of the Senate co-leads Senators Chris Coons and Lisa Murkowski and of my House co-lead Congressman Fortenberry. But, above all, I am grateful for the tireless advocacy of an entire community who has made the dream of this accomplishment a reality.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn a true Christmas miracle, tonight the U.S. Senate gave real hope to those suffering from the cruel, merciless disease of ALS. For over 50 years and over 50 clinical trials, ALS patients have submitted themselves to tests and trials, therapies and placebos, in accordance with the rules of the current health care policy framework. But progress has been uneven, even debatable, with serious impediments to promising new treatments. Many ALS patients have sacrificed their lives to science, as they gradually weakened and died. Tonight, this Congress advanced a new way,\u201d said Representative Fortenberry. \u201cACT for ALS represents a monumental shift for those suffering from ALS and other neurodegenerative conditions. The bill does two main things: it transforms the paradigm of disease research and regulation and creates a new pathway to promising new treatments. It drives the hope. With this transformative piece of public policy, we can break through faster for those who have suffered so much. I am deeply grateful to Representative Quigley and Senators Coons and Murkowski for their partnership on this groundbreaking legislation.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor one hundred and sixty years, there has been no hope for those diagnosed with ALS. That changed tonight. Tonight, as a result of tens of thousands of ALS advocates working nonstop to make their voices heard and demanding the chance to live, hope has finally come to people living with ALS,\u201d said Brian Wallach, co-founder of I AM ALS. \u201cThanks to the relentless work of Senators Coons and Murkowski as well as Representatives Quigley and Fortenberry, ACT for ALS has now passed both the House and the Senate and is on its way to President Biden. This moment was supposed to be impossible. The ALS community, however, refused to give up. So today, we celebrate the impossible becoming real and a new chapter for the fight against ALS.\u201d\n\n\u201cACT for ALS will directly impact the lives of people with ALS by providing expanded access to investigational drugs and funding new research at FDA to find treatments and cures that are urgently needed. Thank you to people with ALS and their families, ALS advocates, and to Congress for passing this historic bill,\u201d said Calaneet Balas, President and CEO, The ALS Association.\n\n\u201cThe Muscular Dystrophy Association is incredibly grateful for our champions, Senators Coons and Murkowski as well as Congressmen Quigley and Fortenberry, for every Senator who prioritized the ALS and rare neurodegenerative disease communities by passing the ACT for ALS tonight, and for all patient advocates who spent countless hours pushing for this bill,\u201d said Paul Melmeyer, Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy at MDA. \u201cWith tonight\u2019s vote, this legislation, which could substantially increase access to promising therapies and advance drug development in rare neurodegenerative diseases, needs only President Biden\u2019s signature to make this a reality.\u201d\n\nRelated Issues: Health", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/feinstein-ernst-durbin-murkowski-agree-on-bipartisan-framework-to-modernize-reauthorize-violence-against-women-act", "Feinstein, Ernst, Durbin, Murkowski Agree on Bipartisan Framework to Modernize, Reauthorize Violence Against Women Act", "2021-12-16", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today released the following joint statement after reaching an agreement on a bipartisan framework to modernize and reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act:\n\n\u201cAfter nearly three years of negotiations, we have reached an agreement on a bipartisan framework to strengthen, modernize and reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. This important legislation will help prevent violence, support survivors and hold perpetrators accountable for their violent actions.\n\n\u201cWe are committed to introducing a bipartisan, modernized VAWA reauthorization next month. Every day that goes by without action puts lives at risk, and we will work tirelessly to ensure that this framework becomes law as soon as possible.\u201d\n\nThe framework includes the following provisions:\n\nStrengthens rape prevention and education efforts and services and protections for young survivors;\n\nExpands access to emergency housing support for survivors;\n\nExpands and authorizes programs to ensure that VAWA provides access to survivors in rural areas, survivors requiring culturally specific services, LGBT survivors and survivors who seek voluntary, community-based restorative practice services;\n\nProvides support for legal services funding and trauma-informed law enforcement responses;\n\nAligns the current law with VAWA\u2019s original intent by ensuring that individuals who are convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence against a dating partner are prohibited from possessing or purchasing firearms or ammunition (the provision would apply only to protective orders and convictions issued after the VAWA reauthorization\u2019s date of enactment);\n\nImproves the response to sexual violence, including through grants to promote the training of sexual assault forensic examiners; and\n\nBuilds on the 2013 reauthorization to expand special criminal jurisdiction by tribal courts to cover non-Native perpetrators of sexual assault, child abuse co-occurring with domestic violence, stalking, sex trafficking and assaults on tribal law enforcement officers on tribal lands. It also includes an Alaska pilot program which will empower a limited number of Tribes to exercise special criminal jurisdiction over certain crimes that occur in Alaska Native villages.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-congratulates-conocophillips-on-gmt2-production", "Murkowski Congratulates ConocoPhillips On GMT2 Production", "2021-12-16", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=39", "scraper", "Supported Permits for Now-Producing NPR-A Project\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today applauded ConocoPhillips for achieving first oil production at its Greater Mooses Tooth #2 (GMT2) drill site, located in the northeast part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The project received final approval from federal officials in late 2018.\n\n\u201cCongratulations to ConocoPhillips and their dedicated team for bringing more Alaska oil to market to help refill the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and create hundreds of well-paying jobs in our state. I greatly appreciate their continued commitment to, and investment in, Alaska,\u201d Senator Murkowski said. \u201cGMT2 again shows that Alaska has plenty of resources to responsibly develop, for the good of our nation and the world, even as we adhere to stringent environmental and labor standards. All we need is federal permission, and an administration that prefers Alaska over OPEC+.\u201d\n\nAt peak production GMT2 is estimated to yield approximately 30,000 barrels of oil per day. During the past three winter seasons, ConocoPhillips estimates the project created around 700 jobs, resulting in more than 600,000 direct construction manhours.\n\nMurkowski strongly supported approval of the GMT2 project beginning with ConocoPhillips\u2019 application for permits to drill in 2015. She worked with former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and former Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Joe Balash to move the project forward. More information about GMT2\u2019s approval in 2018 is available here and here.\n\nThe NPR-A is administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management and covers more than 23 million acres on the western North Slope of Alaska\u2014an area roughly the size of Indiana. The area is specifically designated for oil and gas development and production, which will hopefully soon include ConocoPhillips\u2019 larger Willow project.\n\nRelated Issues: Energy", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-defense-authorization-bill-will-bolster_alaska-national-security", "Murkowski: Defense Authorization Bill Will Bolster  Alaska, National Security", "2021-12-16", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted in favor of S. 1605, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22), helping it to pass the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 88-11.\n\nThis year\u2019s NDAA authorizes $768 billion for national defense, including $740 billion for the Department of Defense\u2019s (DOD) annual budget to ensure the Pentagon can compete and thrive amid strategic competition. The bill prioritizes military members and their families, training and readiness, strengthening defense technology, addressing high rates of suicide among the military community, and more. As in previous years, Senator Murkowski was able to prioritize Arctic security provisions.\n\n\u201cThe NDAA is one of the most critical pieces of legislation that Congress passes each year, ensuring our troops have the training, equipment, and resources needed to carry out their missions. This year\u2019s bill includes a well-deserved raise for our troops and prioritizes improving the lives of our servicemembers and their families. It will improve military healthcare, aid spouses\u2019 access to meaningful employment, and provide much-needed reform for military justice.\n\n\u201cWe provide resources to maintain a strong and robust global presence\u2014including for our force posture in the Indo-Pacific\u2014improve and increase readiness, and bolster the capabilities of our allies, such as Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, to counter the growing aggression of Iran, Russia, and China.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m pleased this bill supports my efforts to build out America\u2019s leadership as an Arctic nation. I thank Senator Sullivan and Congressman Young for their efforts to boost the defense budget and to help include provisions to create an Arctic Security Initiative, reduce suicides on rural, remote, and isolated installations, and authorize construction on a new National Guard Readiness Center,\u201d said Senator Murkowski.\n\nMurkowski pointed out the many provisions that she and the Alaska congressional delegation added to the FY22 NDAA.\n\n\u201cThis bill specifically helps troops in Alaska. It directly addresses Alaska\u2019s alarming suicide rate among servicemembers, authorizes funding for a new National Guard Readiness Center, and provides for upgraded cold weather clothing and equipment for our Arctic troops. In light of the recent announcement that Anchorage will be the home of the newly established Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, we are codifying important technical changes for the center \u2013 including its name, location, and establishment \u2013 into law.\u201d\n\nMurkowski also spoke to the amendments she added to the bill, including several adopted during Senate floor debate.\n\n\u201cI was able to secure amendments to help align America\u2019s combat rescue aircraft acquisition strategy with our national defense strategy, taking into account the Indo-Pacific and Arctic regions; ensure all veterans have access to their rightfully earned burial benefits in National Cemeteries; and create an emissions tracking pilot program at certain military installations.\n\n\u201cThe final NDAA also authorizes long overdue and well-deserved Congressional Gold Medals for all surviving WWII Merchant Marine veterans. And, to continue assisting our Afghan partners, we authorize DOD to transport Special Immigrant Visa holders and other threatened Afghan partners out of Afghanistan.\u201d\n\nSummary of Alaska and Arctic Provisions\n\nArctic Region Assessment: Requires the Department of Defense to conduct an independent assessment of the Arctic Region and permits the Secretary of Defense to create an Arctic Security Initiative\u2014a bill led by Senator Sullivan and cosponsored by Senator Murkowski.\n\nCombat Rescue Aircraft: Includes an amendment authored by Senator Murkowski which requires the Secretary of the Air Force to submit a strategy to Congress for the acquisition of combat rescue aircraft, which meets the requirements laid out in the national defense strategy and the Air Force\u2019s Arctic Strategy.\n\nTed Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies: Codifies the center \u2013 its name, location, and establishment \u2013 into law. Senators Murkowski and Sullivan sponsored the initiative to create the Stevens Center in the FY21 NDAA, and through Murkowski\u2019s role as an appropriator, secured $10 million for the center in the FY21 appropriations package.\n\nPermafrost Research: Authorizes funding for completion of the Army Corps of Engineers Permafrost Tunnel, a facility vital to understanding a changing Arctic environment.\n\nSuicide Prevention: Authorizes funding for continued research on suicide prevention in rural, remote, and isolated areas such as Alaska in partnership with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research.\n\nMissile Defense: Authorizes the Missile Defense Agency to develop a highly reliable missile defense interceptor for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system.\n\nArctic equipment: Authorizes full funding for unfunded Army ($4.43 billion) and Air Force ($4.2 billion) requirements, which include Army Cold Weather Gear.\n\nPolar RADAR: Authorizes an increase of $25 million for development of the polar Over-the-Horizon radar capability for Far North detection.\n\nNational Guard/Reserve Pay Parity: Requires parity in special and incentive pays for members of the reserve and active components helping the large demographic of National Guard and Reserve forces across Alaska.\n\nNational Guard Facility: Authorizes the Alaska National Guard to plan and design a new Readiness Center on JBER.\n\nSummary of National Provisions\n\nPay Raise: Ensures a 2.7 percent pay raise for both military servicemembers and the DOD civilian workforce.\n\nBasic Needs Allowance: Establishes a Basic Needs Allowance to ensure that all servicemembers can meet the basic needs of their families.\n\nParental Leave: Increases parental leave to 12 weeks for all servicemembers for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.\n\nBereavement Leave: Creates a new category of bereavement leave for military personnel that would permit servicemembers to take up to two weeks of leave in connection with the death of a spouse of child.\n\nHealthcare: Makes much-needed improvements to military healthcare such as expanding the treatment of eating disorders and improving postpartum care; expands breast cancer research; and takes major steps to address the mental and behavioral health of our troops.\n\nMilitary Spouses: Prioritizes efforts to guarantee military spouses have access to meaningful employment and establishes a pilot program for direct hire authority to hire military spouses.\n\nMilitary Housing: Ensures military families have access to high-quality, affordable housing in all locations including OCONUS locations such as Alaska.\n\nCybersecurity: Protects against persistent cyberattacks by assessing and strengthening both offensive and defensive capabilities.\n\nMilitary Construction: Provides the largest investment in military construction in a decade including for ongoing and future projects in Alaska.\n\nNuclear Security: Enhances deterrence by recapitalizing and modernizing the U.S. nuclear triad and ensuring the safety, security and reliability of our nuclear stockpile, delivery systems, and infrastructure.\n\nAllies: Provides support for our allies and partners such as Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Afghan civilians and translators who have supported U.S. counterterrorism efforts.\n\nChina: Enhances the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative, hardens our defense industrial base and supply chains against threats posed by China, and requires the President to draft a grand strategy for China.\n\nVietnam War Veterans: Includes an amendment from Senator Murkowski which retroactively authorizes the burial of any American citizen or lawfully admitted alien that served honorably with a special guerilla unit or irregular forces in Laos during the Vietnam War.\n\nVaccines for Servicemembers: Provides for servicemembers who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine to receive an Honorable Discharge or a General Discharge under honorable conditions, thereby preserving more of their veterans\u2019 benefits.\n\nRelated Issues: Defense", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-sullivan-van-hollen-foreign-service-families-act", "Senate Passes Sullivan-Van Hollen \u201cForeign Service Families Act\u201d", "2021-12-16", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), co-founders of the bipartisan Senate Foreign Service Caucus, announced the passage of their Foreign Service Families Act yesterday as part of the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The legislation will help ensure that the Foreign Service is able to attract and retain a world-class diplomatic corps by providing expanded career options and services to eligible family members. For many of these family members, the process of finding employment isn\u2019t easy\u2014frequent moves, language barriers, and limited options pose significant challenges. The legislation will address those issues in order for the Foreign Service to continue to serve the best interests of Americans at home and abroad. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) are also original cosponsors of the Foreign Service Families Act.\n\n\u201cOur country relies on Foreign Service officers to engage with governments, businesses and individuals around the world, all with the aim of promoting America\u2019s interests, strengthening our national security, and assisting U.S. citizens,\u201d said Sen.Sullivan. \u201cTwo ways we can better support our Foreign Service officers is to prioritize their access to State Department opportunities at the conclusion of their service, and also expand private sector employment opportunities for the family members of officers where they serve. I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for moving us one step closer to providing that support and for recognizing the exemplary service of this crucial diplomatic corps.\u201d\n\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s Foreign Service is vital to maintaining and advancing American diplomacy around the world. But for Foreign Service families, overseas postings often come with hardships for family members that can take a lasting toll. That's why I\u2019m proud that today \u2013 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act \u2013 the Senate passed our bipartisan Foreign Service Families Act, to help expand employment opportunities for Foreign Service spouses and ensure in-state tuition benefits for students to help these families succeed and strengthen our Foreign Service across the board. We provide these benefits to military families and this same support should be extended to Foreign Service families serving our country,\u201d said Sen. Van Hollen.\n\n\u201cInitiatives like the Foreign Service Families Act help attract and retain our nation\u2019s top talent in the Foreign Service ranks,\u201d said Ambassador Eric Rubin, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), upon introduction. \u201cAFSA strongly supports this effort to ensure that our diplomats and their families are afforded all possible consideration, much like our military counterparts.\u201d\n\n\u201cAAFSW (Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide) whole-heartedly supports this bill,\u201d said AAFSW President Lara Center upon introduction. \u201cAs an organization which has advocated for spouses since our creation in 1960, we believe this bill will contribute greatly to Foreign Service morale and effectiveness.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe American Academy of Diplomacy supports the bill, noting that the legislation will help the State Department attract and retain the best personnel overseas where family well-being is critically important to the employees,\u201d said the American Academy of Diplomacy upon introduction.\n\nThe Foreign Service Families Act would provide authority to the State Department to offer the same services to Foreign Service family members that the Defense Department is permitted to provide to military families. This includes:\n\nExpanded hiring authority for qualified family members;\n\nEnsuring that Foreign Services family members receive notice of State Department vacancies and that those who apply receive consideration; and\n\nMaking space available in State Department facilities for outside entities to provide career services.\n\nAdditionally, the legislation:\n\nProvides in-state tuition rates to members of the Foreign Service, their spouses, and dependent children;\n\nExtends provisions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to the Foreign Service, allowing members of the Foreign Service who are posted overseas to terminate residential and motor leases and telephone service contracts;\n\nSupports the expansion of telecommuting opportunities for Foreign Service family members, so that family members can continue to work federal civilian jobs while overseas;\n\nEnsures that family members in the Expanded Professional Associates Program, which offers career opportunities for family members with advanced education and professional experience, are not held to unfair hiring standards; and\n\nEnsures that the State Department has fully implemented the Foreign Service Family Reserve Corps, a program intended to speed hiring and improve clearance portability for Foreign Service family members.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-whitehouse-provision-in-defense-bill-aimed-at-cracking-down-on-pirate-fishing", "Sullivan-Whitehouse Provision in Defense Bill Aimed at Cracking Down on Pirate Fishing", "2021-12-16", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today announced passage of their maritime security proposal as part of the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which has now cleared Congress and is expected to be signed into law by the President. The senators\u2019 amendment requires the Secretary of the Navy to produce a report on maritime security measures related to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.\n\n\u201cAs the largest producer of seafood in the nation\u2014roughly sixty percent of American seafood comes from our waters\u2014Alaska is undoubtedly the super power of seafood for our country,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan, honorary co-chair of the Senate Oceans Caucus. \u201cI intend to do all I can to keep it that way, including ensuring that we have an all-of-government effort to crack down on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. This provision will help protect America\u2019s fishing fleet, as well as the seafood industry across the globe, against bad actors, particularly as China continues to use its fishing fleet to project power in the Indo-Pacific and, increasingly, around the world. I look forward to continue working with Senator Whitehouse on pirate fishing and on cleaning up our oceans. Our work together is a model for how two senators, from different sides of the aisle, can work together to get big things done for our nation.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe need to protect Rhode Island\u2019s hardworking fishing industry by rooting out unfair competition from illegal pirate fishing,\u201d said Sen. Whitehouse, a co-founder of the Senate Oceans Caucus. \u201cI look forward to continuing to work with Senator Sullivan and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.\u201d\n\nThe amendment will require the U.S. Navy to share information about steps taken to support the dissemination of unclassified information and data to regional partners, best practices learned from public-private partnerships, and any new authorities or capabilities needed to support counter-IUU efforts in order to guide future legislative efforts.\n\nThe legislation builds on maritime security provisions Whitehouse secured in last year\u2019s NDAA. Whitehouse championed measures in the previous defense bill that required the Department of Defense to update Congress on previously enacted measured to combat illegal fishing, directed the Navy to work with the Coast Guard to assess solutions for tracking vessels engaged in unlawful activity at sea, and requested that the Office of Naval Intelligence provide an update on foreign governments using distant-water fishing fleets to undermine American interests.\n\nEach year, IUU fishing produces between 11 and 26 million tons of seafood, resulting in global economic losses valued between $10 billion and $23 billion.\n\nThe bipartisan Senate Oceans Caucus works to find common ground in protecting oceans and coasts. Thanks to the caucus\u2019s leadership, Congress has taken steps to guard against IUU fishing, including ratifying a series of key IUU treaties with partner nations and passing implementing legislation to bring those treaties into effect.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/commerce-committee-advances-sullivans-visit-america-act-in-tourism-omnibus", "Commerce Committee Advances Sullivan\u2019s \u201cVisit America Act\u201d in Tourism Omnibus", "2021-12-15", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Bill would initiate a federal strategy for the struggling U.S. tourism & travel industry\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, today thanked his committee colleagues for advancing his Visit America Act as part of the larger Omnibus Travel and Tourism Act of 2021. The bill would set a visitation goal of 116 million annual international travelers to the United States by 2028, formally authorize the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, and create a high-ranking position within the Department of Commerce focused on bolstering America\u2019s travel and tourism industry and coordinating a strategy across multiple federal agencies. The Visit America Act would also require the development and implementation of a strategy to assist the travel and tourism industry to quickly recover from the COVID\u201319 pandemic. Original cosponsors of the Visit America Act include Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Angus King (I-Maine), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).\n\n\u201cTravel and tourism are critical engines of our national economy, supporting millions of jobs and generating billions of dollars for communities across the country, including in Alaska. Those jobs and revenues were absolutely decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and many have still not returned,\u201d said Sullivan. \u201cIn order to realize a full recovery from the pandemic, the tourism industry\u2014like other major economic sectors\u2014deserves an advocate at the highest levels of the federal government to coordinate a whole-of-government strategy. This is an idea my team and I came up with five years ago, and I appreciate Chairwoman Cantwell, Ranking Member Wicker, and my committee colleagues for incorporating the Visit America Act into the committee\u2019s bipartisan \u2018Tour Bus\u2019 package. I am hopeful we can get this legislation to the President\u2019s desk soon and support the hard-working small business owners in the travel and tourism economy.\u201d\n\nThe United States is the only member of the G20 international economic forum that does not have a high-ranking official focused on the tourism sector. Most G20 nations have a minister or secretary at the cabinet level.\n\nIn addition to the Visit America Act, the Omnibus Travel and Tourism Act includes:\n\nS.115, Protecting Tourism in the United States Act: This bill would require the Department of Commerce to lead a study of the pandemic\u2019s effects on the travel and tourism industry and identification of policy recommendations to assist the hard-hit industry.\n\nS.343, Fly Safe Canine COVID Detection Act of 2021: This legislation requires the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to conduct a feasibility study on the use of canine units to detect the presence of COVID-19.\n\nH.R.4094, One-Stop Pilot Program Act of 2021: This legislation would establish a pilot program to allow international passengers from designated foreign airports to avoid rescreening in the U.S. for connecting flights. In collaboration with Customs and Border Protection, TSA would designate the foreign airports and ensure they have comparable security standards.\n\nS.82, Ensuring Health Safety in the Skies Act of 2021: This legislation would require the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services to form a joint task force on air travel during and after the COVID-19 public health emergency.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-senate-pass-defense-bill-that-takes-care-of-our-troops-and-makes-america-more-secure", "Sullivan, Senate Pass Defense Bill That Takes Care Of Our Troops and Makes America More Secure", "2021-12-15", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Bill includes Sullivan-Authored Arctic Security Initiative, Other Alaska Provisions\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), voted today to pass the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would raise the Department of Defense\u2019s (DOD) budget by $25 billion beyond President Joe Biden\u2019s defense budget proposal, a level consistent with the recommendations of the National Defense Strategy Commission, and includes numerous Arctic and Alaska priorities championed by Sullivan. The bill now goes to the President\u2019s desk for his signature.\n\n\u201cRepublicans and Democrats in Congress today soundly rejected Joe Biden\u2019s dangerous, dead-last prioritization of the U.S. military, passing an authorization that robustly invests in our nation\u2019s defense and provides our troops with the resources they need to fulfill a wide array of critical missions,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cWe were also able to work on a bipartisan basis to remove provisions championed by far-left members of the House and the President that sought to conduct social engineering experiments in our military ranks and detract from the readiness and lethality of our fighting force. This NDAA also invests heavily in defense technologies and weapons that will help us keep pace with our adversaries, like Russia and China, as they continue to threaten democracies and upend the global rules-based order.\n\n\u201cAdditionally, this NDAA includes numerous provisions for Alaska, including approximately $155 million dollars for military construction, and a new Arctic Security Initiative I authored that will, at long last, ensure the Arctic is properly resourced and integrated into our larger defense strategy\u2014where it belongs. The independent assessment this initiative requires will ultimately mean more focus, personnel, vessels, infrastructure, aircraft and investment being directed to America\u2019s Arctic\u2014to Alaska\u2014in defense of our nation\u2019s interests in this critically-important region. With my provision in last year\u2019s NDAA to establish the Ted Stevens Center, which the DOD recently announced will be headquartered in Anchorage, and my Arctic Security Initiative in this year\u2019s NDAA, Alaska has rightfully become the critical focal point for Arctic security endeavors for America and our allies throughout the world.\u201d\n\nCongress has historically only authorized two region-specific security initiatives\u2014the European Deterrence Initiative in 2014, following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, and the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) in 2021, following China\u2019s militarization of the South China Sea and other provocative actions in Asia. Sen. Sullivan was able to include a provision authorizing the secretary of defense to establish a third such initiative in the FY 2022 NDAA\u2014the Arctic Security Initiative (ASI), which features a five-year plan to fully resource the DOD\u2019s and individual service-specific strategies for the Arctic that have been released over the past several years.\n\n\u201cFinally, after years of advocacy, this year\u2019s NDAA includes legislation I\u2019ve introduced to maximize interagency collaboration and capacity between the Defense Health and Veterans Health Agencies, authorizing the secretary of defense and the secretary of veterans affairs to enter into agreements for the planning, design, and construction of facilities to be operated as shared federal medical facilities,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cThis is critically important in states, like Alaska, where there is no full-service VA hospital and more than forty percent of residents are federal health care beneficiaries.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs the senior Republican on the Subcommittee on Readiness, Sen. Sullivan has fought to make sure our military is prepared for any threat that comes our way\u2014whether in the Indo-Pacific or the Arctic. That includes making sure the Department of Defense has the budget it needs to take care of our troops and defend the country and that those resources are going to the right places,\u201d said SASC Ranking Member Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). \u201cI\u2019m proud to have worked with him to make this National Defense Authorization Act a strong, bipartisan bill that will make our country more secure.\u201d\n\nIn addition to authorizing the ASI, the FY 2022 NDAA:\n\nIncreases funding for national defense by $25 billion beyond President Biden\u2019s request, matching the National Defense Strategy Commission\u2019s minimum recommendation of 3 percent real growth, bringing the total funding authorized for the DOD and nuclear weapons activities to a total of $777.9 billion;\n\nProvides America\u2019s service members with a 2.7 percent pay raise, makes necessary improvements to military health care, continues efforts to guarantee military spouses have access to meaningful employment, provides service members with dedicated bereavement leave, and ensures military families have access to high-quality housing;\n\nIncreases resources for the new Pacific Deterrence Initiative by $1 billion for the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) commander\u2019s highest priorities;\n\nHardens America\u2019s defense industrial base and supply chain against threats posed by China;\n\nFocuses attention on U.S.-Taiwan defense cooperation, including asymmetric military capabilities;\n\nRequires an assessment of current and emerging offensive capabilities of China and other adversaries and disclosures of any printed circuit boards sourced from China;\n\nAccelerates research and development of key modernization technologies at the heart of strategic competition with China;\n\nAdds more than $2.5 billion for shipbuilding, with funding for an additional destroyer;\n\nProvides the largest investment in military construction in a decade\u2014$12.735 billion\u2014nearly $2.9 billion more than the president requested;\n\nEmphasizes the importance of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD);\n\nProvides key support for America\u2019s allies, including Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel, and Afghan civilians and translators who supported U.S. counterterrorism efforts;\n\nContinues to limit military cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, rejects Russian aggression, and authorizes an increase of $50 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative;\n\nInvests in defense technology to put America ahead of its global competitors, including microelectronics, artificial intelligence, 5G, hypersonic weapons, and directed energy;\n\nFully funds the United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and protects against persistent cyberattacks by assessing and strengthening America\u2019s offensive and defensive capabilities;\n\nAuthorizes the DOD to transport Afghan special immigrant visa (SIV) candidates and other at-risk Afghan partners outside of Afghanistan for visa processing;\n\nRequires military contractors to disclose any training related to critical race theory.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/speeches/speech-fy-2022-national-defense-authorization-act", "SPEECH: FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act", "2021-12-15", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Mr. President, I want to come down to the Senate floor and commend a number of Senators, but I want to particularly commend the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Reed, and the ranking member, Senator Inhofe, and their staff, and all the staff on the Armed Services Committee for the exceptional work they have done over the last several months to produce the strong National Defense Authorization Act that just passed in a very strong bipartisan vote here on the floor of the U.S. Senate.\n\nThat vote was 88 to 11. I think it is a prime example of something that I mention a lot back home; and that is that there is a lot more bipartisan work that gets done here in the Senate that isn't often recognized, and there is nothing more important than having Senators from both sides of the aisle come together with regard to national defense and supporting our troops and their families.\n\nWe have been doing that over 60 years in a row, where we have passed the National Defense Authorization Act--one of the most important bills that comes to the floor of the Senate and the House and the Congress. And, once again, we have passed it. And I think Chairman Reed and Senator Inhofe--Ranking Member Inhofe--deserve a lot of the credit.\n\nSo I just want to touch on a couple of the key provisions here, a lot of what was in it, and then mention a few things. A lot of times it is important to recognize, actually, what is not in a bill because that can be just as important as what is in it.\n\nBut I would start with the No. 1 issue here, and it is the top-line budget increase for the Department of Defense.\n\nI have been outspoken on the disappointment and damage that President Biden's budget, which he proposed, with regard to the Pentagon, supported, unfortunately, by many here--the majority leader, the budget chairman--that that was unacceptable--unacceptable. Why was it unacceptable? Because our Nation is facing many threats right now. Just read the paper every day--China, Russia, Iran. Yet that budget that was actually provided by the White House was a cut--a pretty dramatic cut--if you look at it as adjusted for inflation.\n\nThe Armed Services Committees in the Senate and in the House thoroughly rejected the Biden budget to cut defense spending.\n\nWe have in this bill a 3-percent real increase. That is a little over $25 billion. This amendment, which I cosponsored with Senator Inhofe and others, to increase our defense spending, when it came to a vote in the committee, every Senator on the Armed Services Committee voted for it, with the exception of one. That is about as bipartisan as it gets.\n\nThere are many important things in this bill in terms of the significant increase to the top-line budget, but readiness, in my view, of our military is one of the most important things we do here as U.S. Senators, and now is certainly not the time to cut defense spending. I think today's vote was a strong bipartisan showing that this body does not agree with the Biden budget, and that was one really important aspect of today's NDAA.\n\nSecond, I want to talk a little bit about the great State of Alaska and its role in our military and some of the provisions in this bill that relate to Arctic security.\n\nI like to say that Alaska constitutes three pillars of America's military might. We are the cornerstone of missile defense. Almost all the radar systems and all the ground-based missile interceptors protecting the whole country are located in Alaska.\n\nWe are the hub of air combat power for the Arctic and Asia Pacific. By the end of this year, we will have over 100 fifth-generation fighters--combat-coded, fifth-gen fighters. That is F-35s, F-22s, stationed in Alaska--over 100. There is no place on the planet Earth that has over 100 fifth-generation fighters. Supersonic stealth can get anywhere--anywhere--very quickly: Russia, China, Taiwan. That is another area of Alaska's pillars of military might.\n\nAnd, finally, we are a platform for expeditionary forces, the 4-25, the only airborne brigade combat team in the entire Asia Pacific; the First Striker Brigade; and many others that can get to places all over the world, because of our strategic location, very quickly, and also because of our strategic airlift in Alaska.\n\nBut this NDAA is going to add another element of Alaska's military might to our Nation, and that is the center of gravity for America's Arctic security operations.\n\nLast year in the NDAA, we were able to get the first and only and much needed Department of Defense Center for Arctic Security. The Department of Defense named it the Ted Stevens, after the great, late Senator. The Center for Arctic Security is going to be in Anchorage, AK.\n\nAnd now, in this year's NDAA, we have what is called the Arctic Security Initiative. I was honored to cosponsor that with my good friend Senator King from Maine. And this gets the Pentagon to focus on a 5-year strengthening of our national security in the Arctic region.\n\nAs you know, that is becoming an area of great power competition, and America has very strong, strategic national security and economic security interests in the Arctic. And this NDAA will cement not just the Arctic as an important national security imperative of our country but Alaska as the focal point for Arctic security endeavors for the United States and our allies.\n\nThe other element here in the NDAA which is so important, of course, is taking care of our troops and their families. This bill authorizes a pay raise of almost 3 percent for both military members and Department of Defense civilians. It has numerous initiatives relating to military health and housing leave policies. One that I was proud to get into this bill is an important provision that allows the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration to do facility sharing.\n\nWhat does that mean? It enables both the Pentagon and the VA to work on agreements to plan, design, and construct facilities to operate as VA and DOD shared medical facilities. That is going to help with readiness. That is going to help train our young Active-Duty medical forces. It is going to help with taking care of our veterans. And it is going to save money.\n\nThese are the kinds of provisions that we need. They are win-win-win between the VA and our veterans and the Active-Duty and Reserve forces that also need healthcare. And we are looking forward to taking advantage of that in Alaska and in other places in the country.\n\nAs I said at the outset, oftentimes what is not in a bill is as important as what is in a bill, and some of our Members--some of the far-left Members of the House--tried to plug into the NDAA--and they did so over in the House--a number of bills that really didn't have a lot to do with the military, but they were trying to move forward on a far-left agenda that they tried to attach in the NDAA.\n\nIronically, many of these Members really have no intention of ever voting for a strong NDAA, but they tried to plug things in, in the House bill. They did that in the House bill, but we were able to get rid of pretty much all of those--again, things like red flag laws that would confiscate firearms without due process.\n\nThere is another provision that I am really glad was not in there. There has been this narrative on the far left that somehow the men and women of our military--that our military institutions--are filled with a bunch of extremists. There are news reports that say this. None of it is based on data. None of it is based on data. And I have been pressing officials, saying: Give me data. You make these charges, which I dislike. I happen to know many, many members of the military. They are some of the finest people in the country.\n\nSo we were able to get rid of some of the provisions in the House bill that--one was going to set up an office in the Pentagon on essentially trying to, in my view, do witch hunts on so-called extremists. It is an issue that the Pentagon needs to come up with data on and not make these false charges.\n\nSo, overall, this is a good day for our troops, for their families, for the Senate. It is a very bipartisan bill, with people coming together--Democrats and Republicans--on, in my view, one of the most important issues, if not the most important issue, we deal with here in the Congress: the national security of our Nation; keeping a strong, lethal military.\n\nAnd when we do that, like we did today, that also sends a message to our adversaries: The United States, despite some challenges, still has the best, most lethal military force in the world, the most professional military force in the world. And this bill is going to help enhance that, and our adversaries need to take notice.\n\nI yield the floor.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/klobuchar-murkowski-collins-sinema-legislation-to-honor-justices-ginsburg-and-oconnor-with-statues-in-the-capitol-passes-senate", "Klobuchar, Murkowski, Collins, Sinema Legislation to Honor Justices Ginsburg and O\u2019Connor with Statues in the Capitol Passes Senate", "2021-12-13", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Capitol currently holds 252 male sculptures and 14 female sculptures\n\nLegislation sponsored by U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, along with U.S. Senators Murkowski (R-AK), Collins (R-ME), and Sinema (D-AZ), to place statues of former Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O\u2019Connor in the U.S. Capitol or on the U.S. Capitol grounds to honor their service and dedication to our country passed the Senate unanimously.\n\n\u201cRuth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O\u2019Connor were trailblazers long before reaching the Supreme Court, opening doors for women at a time when so many insisted on keeping them shut. The Capitol is our most recognizable symbol of Democracy, a place where people from across our country have their voices represented and heard. It is only fitting that we honor their remarkable lives and service to our country by creating statues in the Capitol,\u201d Klobuchar said.\n\n\u201cThis legislation honors two women who have had a tremendous impact on our nation. Justices Sandra Day O\u2019Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in their own right each made a mark on American history. I am proud to ensure that their legacies live on by establishing monuments of these two matriarchs in our United States Capitol. From Justice O\u2019Connor\u2019s being the first female justice on the Supreme Court to Justice Ginsburg\u2019s efforts on equal citizenship rights\u2014their leadership has made a difference for women and families for generations to come. By passing this legislation, we honor the service of these two justices and give thanks to two women who transformed the legal profession,\u201d Murkowski said.\n\n\u201cSupreme Court Justices Sandra Day O\u2019Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg will always be known as dedicated public servants, fierce champions for equality, and accomplished Americans who broke countless barriers in the field of law. Statues in the nation\u2019s capital honoring the first two women to serve on the highest court in the land will serve as fitting tributes to their invaluable contributions to our country,\u201d Collins said.\n\n\u201cJustice O\u2019Connor and Justice Ginsburg paved the way for so many women in law and life. By permanently placing their statues in the U.S. Capitol, we\u2019re honoring their legacy and reminding visitors to our nation\u2019s Capitol that women can achieve their dreams with grit and determination,\u201d Sinema said.\n\nSenators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Angus King (I-ME), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Tina Smith (D-MN) cosponsored the legislation.\n\nMembers of the House of Representatives, led by Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus (DWC) Co-Chairs Congresswomen Lois Frankel (D-FL), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), and Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Vice Chairs Congresswomen Veronica Escobar (D-TX), and Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) and Bipartisan Women\u2019s Caucus Co-Chairs Congresswomen Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n (R-PR) have introduced companion legislation.\n\nIn honor of Justice Ginsburg\u2019s and O\u2019Connor\u2019s trailblazing legacies, the legislation also asks the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to consider selecting an artist from underrepresented demographic groups to create the statues.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/speeches/speech-ninth-circuit-nominees", "SPEECH: Ninth Circuit Nominees", "2021-12-13", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Madam President, this week, the Senate is going to take up three Ninth Circuit judges, three Federal judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.\n\nAnd in the process, the Biden administration is going to smash an institutional and constitutional norm between the executive and legislative branches, particularly the executive branch, the White House, and the U.S. Senate that every U.S. Senator--all 100 of us--should be concerned about.\n\nLet me explain. This is a really important issue.\n\nArticle II, section 2, of the U.S. Constitution says the following:\n\n[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States.\n\nNow, that includes Federal circuit court judges,\n\nThroughout this, article II, section 2, provision of the Constitution, it says: ``[W]ith the Advice and Consent of the Senate.'' We are ``of the Senate,'' right here. And this week, we will be voting on three U.S. court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit.\n\nNow, this provision in the Constitution, like so many which gives the U.S. Senate the exclusive right for the advice and consent power, was the result of compromise.\n\nIf you look at the history in Federalist Nos. 75 and 76, Alexander Hamilton argued that this provision afforded a necessary means of checks and balances against the executive branch, against the President.\n\nThe Constitution--according to the U.S. Senate history that I am quoting from--``also provides that the Senate shall have the power to accept or reject presidential appointees to the executive and judicial branches.''\n\nThis was born of compromise, as I mentioned:\n\nIn debating the issue, the framers addressed concerns that entrusting the appointment power exclusively to the president would encourage monarchial tendencies. Additionally, as the Senate was to represent each state equally, its role--The advice and consent role in the Constitution--offered security to the small states, whose delegates feared they would be overwhelmed by appointees sympathetic to larger states.\n\nFor these reasons, since I have been in the U.S. Senate, I have taken this advice and consent role very seriously for all nominees: during the Obama administration, when I was here for the last 2 years of that administration; all of the Trump administration; and now the Biden administration.\n\nAnd as you can imagine, whenever I have asked for a meeting of any nominee so I could meet with them under this constitutional provision for a Senate-confirmed position, every single administration I have dealt with--the three I just named--has said: Of course, Senator. That is your constitutional role. Of course you should meet with them.\n\nWhy is that? Why has every White House said yes?\n\nBecause, as I just mentioned, they know that that is literally our constitutional role, as I just mentioned.\n\nSo every time I have asked for one of these meetings for a Senate-confirmed nominee of any administration, it has always been granted, until today--until today.\n\nAs I said, the Senate's business--a lot of the business this week is actually going to be focused on the advice and consent constitutional role that we have, especially as it relates to judges.\n\nBut I have been told by this White House, specifically the White House Counsel, I guess--to be honest, it is often difficult to figure out who is in charge over there--that I can't meet with any of these Ninth Circuit judges that we are going to vote on this week before the vote.\n\nThis is a shocking breach of constitutional norms between the White House and the Senate that every Senator here--every Senator, regardless of party--should be concerned about.\n\nWhy?\n\nAs I mentioned, the advice and consent role is really important for every Senate-confirmed position, mandated by the U.S. Constitution, but it is particularly important for judges--judges who will get life tenure. By the end of this week, it is likely that these three Ninth Circuit judges will be on the bench for the rest of their lives, and right now I can't get a 1-hour meeting with them.\n\nThey have enormous power over American citizens. And I am going to talk about the Ninth Circuit and the power it has over my citizens.\n\nSo my experience as a Senator is that I meet with as many judges as possible, and whenever I have requested a meeting of any administration to meet with a judge, it has always been granted. But I always, always, always meet with the Ninth Circuit judges.\n\nAs I mentioned, until now, I had interviewed every single Ninth Circuit judge that this body has voted on for the last 7 years--every single one--during my entire time in the Senate.\n\nWhy is it so important to me?\n\nWhy is it so important to everybody?\n\nWell, specifically, as it relates to the Ninth Circuit, if you can look at this map, as many Americans know, our Federal court systems are divided into what are called circuits. The Ninth Circuit, which is this dark brown, is the biggest Federal court of appeals in the country. It is huge. Look at all the States that are under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit: California, Idaho, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii. It is enormous. Almost one in five Americans are under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit. It has enormous power, especially over my constituents in the great State of Alaska.\n\nBut here is the thing. If you look at the number of judges that each Circuit Court gets, another reason why the Ninth Circuit is so important and so powerful is that it gets an enormous number of judges. The Ninth Circuit is listed here on the far left. Out of 29 active judges, one judge comes from the great State of Alaska. One judge comes from the great State of Alaska. So, as you can imagine, discussing legal issues with any judge from the Ninth Circuit is very important to me and, more importantly, to the people I represent.\n\nHere is something else about the Ninth Circuit. On so many issues that matter to my constituents, the court gets the legal issues wrong. The court gets the legal issues wrong.\n\nNow, I have seen this firsthand. Almost 25 years ago, I had the honor of being a Ninth Circuit law clerk for the only Ninth Circuit judge we have in Alaska, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld, a phenomenal judge. I watched panel after panel in the Ninth Circuit get cases related to the great State of Alaska wrong.\n\nNow, look. In some ways it is not their fault. Yes, they had different views and a legal outlook. But if you are a judge and you grew up in LA and all you know is LA and California laws, and now you are a Ninth Circuit judge and you are supposed to rule on all these Alaska-specific Federal laws, you really don't know what you are doing. You don't really know what you are doing, and I saw that as a young lawyer.\n\nBut don't take my word for it.\n\nIn the last 4 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up three specific Alaska cases, two of which were from the Ninth Circuit and one of which was from the DC Circuit. These big, important circuits all got them wrong. They are cases that would have changed the history and future of my State.\n\nSo when I meet with nominees for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, it is usually always very cordial. I walk them through a lot of issues, legal issues of which they know very little about--again, not their fault--and to explain why these are so important to the people I represent.\n\nAgain, if you are an LA lawyer or a lawyer from Phoenix, you don't know about Native Alaskan law. You don't know about the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act, called ANILCA--a Federal law, 1,000 pages--that the U.S. Supreme Court, in the last 3 years, twice smacked down the Ninth Circuit, 9 to 0--9 to 0--because the Ninth Circuit continually gets these Alaska-focused statutes wrong.\n\nSo I walk them through these issues. That is all I do. It is not a big deal. It is actually trying to help the judges. I think every Ninth Circuit judge I have met with appreciates it.\n\nLet me give you a couple of examples of what I would do if I could meet with these judges.\n\nLike I said, ANILCA, or the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, is a hugely important Federal law that was passed in 1980. We didn't want it, by the way. It federalized almost 100 million acres of land in Alaska. Imagine that. Most States aren't even as big as 100 million acres.\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9 to 0 in favor of a moose hunter who wanted access to Federal land. His name is John Sturgeon. He is a very famous Alaskan right now.\n\nIt went back to the Ninth Circuit. They misinterpreted it. It went back up to the U.S. Supreme Court--9-zip--they smacked it down again.\n\nJustice Kagan, who wrote the second opinion, said: ``If [John] Sturgeon lived in any other State, his [law]suit would not have [had] a prayer of success. . . . Except that Sturgeon lives in Alaska. And as we [the U.S. Supreme Court] have said before, `Alaska is often the exception, not the rule,' '' when it comes to these kind of Federal laws in Federal parks.\n\nDo you think it would be good to have a Ninth Circuit judge getting ready to get on the court to understand the Sturgeon case? It would be. So that is what I do. I have the judges read Sturgeon. I have them read other cases. It is all advice and consent. It is our constitutional role. Until today, I have done it with every Ninth Circuit judge.\n\nLike I said, I was over at the White House on Friday, really kind of banging the table on the Biden administration's war on Alaska. Some of you may have seen a speech I gave last week. There are 20 Executive orders and Executive actions singularly focused on my great State--20--crushing working families.\n\nAnd I said: You know, one thing I would like to do is continue my record of meeting with every Ninth Circuit judge. I am available Sunday, Sunday night, all day Monday. Give me a call. I haven't heard anything back.\n\nSomething else I do with these judges when they come before me is I talk about Indian law. Now a lot of lawyers think, ``Hey, I really know Indian law well.'' And my advice and counsel in the advice-and-consent process, when it comes to Indian law in Alaska, is ``If you think you are an expert, throw out everything you know about lower 48 Indian law when it comes to Alaskan Indian law.\n\nThe Native Alaskan law, in Alaska--the Federal law--is 100 percent different than it is in the lower 48. This is just advice I give judges who are going on the Ninth Circuit. They don't know this. An LA lawyer doesn't know this.\n\nThis week, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Congress's passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, what we call in Alaska ANCSA, the largest settlement of indigenous land claims, certainly, in America, and probably in the world. It is a really successful act, not perfect, very innovative. But it has been litigated like crazy.\n\nWe had a case from the Ninth Circuit several years ago that essentially said: ANCSA created reservation land throughout the entire State of Alaska.\n\nThat would have changed the history of Alaska forever. Of course, the Ninth Circuit got it wrong. That case went up to the Supreme Court. Nine-zip, the Supreme Court smacked down the Ninth Circuit. They said: ANCSA doesn't do that. That is not what Congress intended.\n\nDo you think it would be good for these judges this week, if I could sit down with them, to understand that? It would be really good, really important. It would help them for their job.\n\nJust this year, the DC Circuit on another ANCSA-related case, the Chehalis case, got ANCSA wrong again. And guess what. It went up to the U.S. Supreme Court again. They just ruled on it 4 months ago. It was a huge victory for my State, again.\n\nWe wrote an amicus brief--Senator Murkowski, Congressman Young, and I. But it was enormously important. This wrong case of the DC Circuit would have changed the history of Alaska forever. The Supreme Court, 6 to 3, said: No, you are misinterpreting Alaska.\n\nDo you think these judges on the Ninth Circuit who we are debating to confirm this week would learn a little bit about that if I could meet with them? They would.\n\nFinally, the other thing I always do with circuit judges is I talk about the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is really, really important to the people I represent. We use firearms for food, for self-defense in the wild. Well over 60 percent of all the homes in my State have firearms for these reasons.\n\nIf you are an LA lawyer, you don't know this stuff. But, all of a sudden, you are going to be ruling on cases that deal with Alaska or Idaho or Montana. And here is the thing: They might not know these issues, these judges. I have looked at their background. I wanted to interview them. Remarkably, I can't get an interview with them.\n\nAnd here is the thing: As soon as they get confirmed, they are going to get these cases before them, in my State and other States, to rule on these kinds of issues.\n\nDo you think a meeting would help them?\n\n\u201cBoy, I should really think about that. I remember Senator Sullivan talked about ANILCA and the Sturgeon case. I am really glad I read the Sturgeon case.\u201d\n\nThis is why these advice-and-consent constitutional meetings are so important.\n\nAnd, as I mentioned, I have been doing this my entire time in the Senate. I have never not had a meeting with a Ninth Circuit judge. It doesn't matter where they are from--Montana, Arizona, Washington State. They are going to rule on issues that relate to my State and my constituents.\n\nAnd these judges don't mind it. They actually, I think, enjoy it. They learn. But this White House says: You can't meet with them.\n\nThis is absurd.\n\nHere is the question: What are they hiding?\n\nWhat are they worried about?\n\nAre they hiding something? Are the judges hiding something?\n\nAgain, this is a precedent that Democrats and Republicans should all be against, because we know what goes around comes around in this body. And this just doesn't make sense.\n\nAll three of these Ninth Circuit judges will have life tenure and enormous, enormous power over everybody in the Ninth Circuit. That is 20 percent of all Americans, and, certainly, enormous power over the people in Alaska, whom I am privileged to serve and represent.\n\nThese judges are likely to know very little about these issues that I just talked about. Well, I believe I have a constitutional role to help them understand these issues better, and that is the way it has always been. Nobody has complained.\n\nAbsurdly, the White House has said: Well, Senator Sullivan, you can meet with a Ninth Circuit judge if they are from Alaska.\n\nWhat? We have one judge, and she is not going to be retiring any time soon. That is it.\n\nNow, here is the thing. I just talked to the previous administration's White House counsel this morning, when I called the Biden administration's counsel this morning. I am still waiting for that phone call, by the way, because I said: Look, if the White House Counsel is saying no to a U.S. Senator to do his constitutional duty, I would like to hear it directly from her.\n\nSo she hasn't called me back yet. But I talked to the previous administration's White House Counsel, and I asked: By the way, did you guys do this? I am just double-checking. I mean, I got to meet with all the Ninth Circuit judges President Trump put forward. But did you blackball Democrats? Did you do that?\n\nAnd they said: Absolutely not.\n\nI made a few phone calls to other people in the White House Counsel's office. They said: To the contrary, when any Senator wanted to meet with any circuit judge, we always made it happen.\n\nSo this is a new precedent. And, again, it doesn't matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat. This is just a bad precedent.\n\nAnd the notion that ``Well, Senator, you get to meet with a Ninth Circuit judge from Alaska,'' when, by the way, California, I think, has close to 20 Ninth Circuit judges--but the notion that you can only meet with the one who is from your State is actually moronic. The people who need to be educated are the ones who aren't from your State, because they are all going to rule on issues from your State.\n\nSo I am still waiting for the White House Counsel to call me back--or whoever is in charge in the White House.\n\nBut I am going to conclude with this. I am going to go around them. I am going to go around them. Here is what I am going to do, and I hope someone is watching from the White House. But, more importantly, I hope someone is watching from the judge's chambers.\n\nSo, Judge Koh, we are getting ready to vote on your nomination tonight.\n\nJudge Sung of Oregon, we are getting ready to vote on your nomination tomorrow.\n\nJudge Sanchez of California, the rumor is, the majority leader is going to file cloture on your nomination.\n\nThose are three Ninth Circuit judges.\n\nJudge Holly Thomas of California, you might get voted on this week too.\n\nFour.\n\nHere is my ask: Give me a call. Give me a call. Give my office a call. I will meet with you tonight. Let's do a phone call. Do you want to learn about ANILCA? Do you want to learn about the Sturgeon case? It will make you a better Ninth Circuit judge. Here is the number: (202) 224-1026. Give my office a call. I am ready to meet anytime.\n\nHere is the thing for the judges: It is 1 hour of your time. You are going to have lifetime tenure. It is 1 hour to talk to a U.S. Senator who is doing his constitutional duty for the people he represents. It shouldn't be that hard. As a matter of fact, this is probably your first test of judicial independence. A U.S. Senator of the Senate--of the Senate; read the Constitution--wants to undertake his advice and consent, his constitutional role, with you, OK?\n\nYou guys have read the Constitution, those four judges I just mentioned, but an unelected bureaucrat in the White House--I guess the White House Counsel, but who the heck knows; it is hard to tell who is in charge over there--is blocking this.\n\nSo, again, give my office a call at (202) 224-1026. I am ready to meet and talk to you anytime before the vote. Don't worry--I don't think President Biden is going to yank your nomination if you call me. Heck, he probably doesn't even know this is going on. But you know this is the right thing to do, Judges. You have read the Constitution. Heck, if our meeting goes well, I might even vote for you.\n\nBut here is the thing: You will learn more about the issues that you are going to have to deal with very soon in your tenure that you probably don't know anything about--no offense to you. I have read your backgrounds. You don't know anything about Native Alaskan law. You don't know anything about ANILCA. You probably have very different views than I and my constituents do on the Second Amendment. But you need to hear these issues because you are going to be life-tenured on the Ninth Circuit, and you don't have time to talk to me, a U.S. Senator, who is a Senator representing a State from the Ninth Circuit? You know it is wrong.\n\nBy the way, my colleagues in the Senate know it is wrong. So I hope my Democratic and Republican colleagues realize that this is not a good precedent. This is not a good precedent. It has never happened as long as I have been here.\n\nYou know, from big things to small things, this administration has really focused in many ways on smashing political and institutional norms that have enjoyed strong bipartisan support. It is not good for this body, and it is not good for the government.\n\nThe Wall Street Journal, today, had an article about Biden's Federal regulators staging a coup against the Director of the FDIC on bank mergers. One of these regulators doesn't even have the power over bank mergers, and now he is trying to be in charge.\n\nI serve on the U.S. Naval Academy's Board of Visitors. It is a huge honor. The President comes in, President Biden, and fires everybody on the service academies who was appointed by President Trump. Nobody has ever done that before--no President. Everybody on the Board of Visitors of the Naval Academy is furious--the Democrats, the Republicans. The No. 1 thing they are saying is, this President is the first one to politicize the service academies. Then, oh, by the way, he hasn't appointed anyone yet to replace the people he fired, so we didn't have a quorum for our meeting last week.\n\nHe is just smashing institutional norms. Yet this institutional norm of advice and consent, when it comes to circuit court judges with life tenure, is something that we have all agreed upon. The previous administration certainly allowed for it. Yet, right now, I can't meet with Ninth Circuit judges who are going to have enormous power for their entire lives over my constituents.\n\nSo, to my colleagues, we shouldn't allow this. You guys know it is wrong.\n\nTo the judges--like I said, Judge Sanchez, Judge Koh, Judge Sung, Judge Thomas--give my office a call. Do the right thing. Your first test of judicial independence is before you of the Senate. The U.S. Senate--of the Senate, of which I am a part--wants to do our constitutional role. Give us a call so we can do it. Ignore the very bad advice you are getting from the White House Counsel or whoever is in charge over there.\n\nI yield the floor.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-latest-numbers-show-dangers-of-reconciliation-spending-spree", "Murkowski: Latest Numbers Show Dangers of Reconciliation Spending Spree", "2021-12-11", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today released the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released reports showing the harm being caused by the Biden administration\u2019s energy and social spending policies. BLS reported that inflation is at a 39-year high, while CBO projected that the \u2018Build Back Better\u2019 agenda would add $3 trillion to the deficit over a single decade if made permanent.\n\n\u201cThese reports make it abundantly clear that President Biden is on the wrong track,\u201d Murkowski said. \u201cInstead of completely blowing the roof off of federal spending, the Biden administration should set aside this partisan social spending agenda and focus on allowing the energy industry to produce more here at home. That would help families and businesses by reducing inflation and bringing prices back to more reasonable levels. It\u2019s time to stop pumping air into the balloon instead of seeing how much more it can take before it explodes.\u201d\n\nBLS reported that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased by 0.8 percent in November 2021. The inflation index has risen by 6.8 percent over the past year \u2013 the largest annual increase since 1982 \u2013 and by an annualized rate of 8.9 percent over the past three months. Energy commodity prices have risen by 57.5 percent over the past 12 months, contributing significantly to economy-wide inflation, as the administration has refused to approve major projects and called for punitive policies that will further reduce domestic output.\n\nCBO reported that extending provisions within the Build Back Better Act \u2013 the partisan budget reconciliation package passed by the House and now pending in the Senate \u2013 would increase the deficit by $3.0 trillion over a decade if extended for that duration. Setting aside timing gimmicks within the current bill that hide its true costs, CBO found the package would cost a staggering $4.9 trillion over a 10-year period.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/act-for-als-act-passes-house-cosponsored-by-majority-of-the-senate", "Act for ALS Act Passes House, Cosponsored by Majority of the Senate", "2021-12-10", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "House passes landmark investigational therapy bill for ALS patients as Senate companion reaches critical threshold of support\n\nThis week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies (ACT) for ALS Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and U.S. Representatives Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.). The passage of the bill in the House comes just as the companion bill reaches 55 cosponsors in the Senate, with Senators Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) having been the 50th and 51st co-sponsors.\n\nThis legislation would create the infrastructure necessary to fund early access to promising investigational therapies for patients suffering from fast-progressing rare neurodegenerative and terminal diseases, like ALS, and would authorize $100 million annually to implement these priorities.\n\nALS affects 1 in 300 people, often leaving patients with no more than three years to live following their diagnosis. ACT for ALS authorizes new grants to support expanded access and research programs. ALS also disproportionately impacts U.S. military service members. This expansion will bring investigational treatments for rapidly progressing diseases beyond their ongoing clinical trials to patients with diseases for which effective therapies don\u2019t already exist and allow for additional research into the effectiveness of those interventions. It also creates a new FDA Rare Neurodegenerative Disease Grant Program to support other research and development on ALS and other life-threatening or severely debilitating neurodegenerative diseases.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m excited to see our colleagues in the House pass this necessary legislation at the same time that we reach a critical milestone of support in the Senate,\u201d said Senator Coons. \u201cACT for ALS will create critical new programs to improve coordination and collaboration on ALS, support additional research, and help more patients access promising investigational therapies.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe bipartisan support from the majority of my colleagues in the Senate on the ACT for ALS is great news for the ALS community,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cThis legislation will address barriers to treatments for those living with ALS and will accelerate research and development of therapies for ALS and other rare neurodegenerative diseases. As someone whose family has been impacted by this disease, I\u2019m proud to see this bipartisan and bicameral legislation garner large support that will bring positive impacts for Americans living with ALS.\u201d\n\n\u201cALS is a devastating disease and unfortunately right now, far too few patients are able to access treatments to slow its progression. This bipartisan bill would help address that problem by bolstering research and development of new treatments. Let\u2019s get this passed so we can help those suffering from ALS and eventually find a cure,\u201d said Senator Fischer.\n\n\u201cWith more investments in ALS therapies and research, we can make much needed progress in the fight against this disease,\u201d said Senator Heinrich. \u201cI\u2019m proud to join Senator Coons and colleagues from both sides of the aisle to allocate the necessary funding for these services and provide adequate care for those affected by ALS.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/grant-roundup-senator-murkowski-announces-federal-grants-to-alaska-", "Grant Roundup: Senator Murkowski Announces Federal Grants to Alaska", "2021-12-10", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the senior Senator for Alaska, announced the following grants to organizations, Tribal entities, and communities in Alaska:\n\nAlaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: $184,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to create or expand programs to identify sources of lead in drinking water in tribally operated schools and childcare facilities.\n\nAlaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: $199,991 from the National Science Foundation to collaborate with tribal health organizations to better understand vaccine decision-making in rural and remote communities in Northwest Alaska.\n\nAlaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: $181,447 to the Ryan White Title III Outpatient Early Intervention Services Program from the Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nAleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government: $485,152 from the Department of Education to promote American Indian resilience in education for Native communities during the pandemic.\n\nAleutian Pribilof Islands Association: $755,743 to support the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association Head Start program.\n\nAnchorage: $1.43 million for Lake Hood Airport runway rehabilitation from the Department of Transportation.\n\nAnchorage: $700,000 to Alaska Growth Capital BIDCO, Inc. from the Native American Community Development Financial Institutional Program (NACA Program) to be used for lending, capital, loan loss reserves, capital reserves, financial services and, development services to achieve at least one of the following NACA Financial Assistance, objectives: Increase volume of products or services, provide new products or services, expand operations into new geographic areas, service new targeted populations..\n\nAnchorage: $331,000 to Cook Inlet Lending Center, Inc. from the Native American Community Development Financial Institutional Program (NACA Program) to be used for lending, capital, loan loss reserves, capital reserves, financial services and, development services to achieve at least one of the following NACA Financial Assistance, objectives: Increase volume of products or services, provide new products or services, expand operations into new geographic areas, service new targeted populations..\n\nAnchorage, Southcentral Foundation: $1.87 million to the Diabetes \u2013 Self Governance Program from the Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nAssociation of Village Council Presidents: $1.39 million to support the Association of Village Council Presidents Head Start program.\n\nDena' Nena' Henash: $1.49 million for the Birth to Five program from the Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nDena' Nena' Henash: $1,021,677 to the Diabetes \u2013 Self-Governance program from the Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nDouglas Indian Association: $499,904 from the Department of Education to promote American Indian resilience in education for Native communities during the pandemic.\n\nFairbanks: $335,580 to Warbelow\u2019s Air Carrier from the Department of Transportation to provide essential air service.\n\nFairbanks: $301,000 to Wright Air from the Department of Transportation to provide essential air service.\n\nHomer: $551,837 to Cook Inletkeeper to support and promote vibrant and sustainable farmers markets throughout Alaska.\n\nJuneau, Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium: $1.03 million to the Diabetes \u2013 Self Governance program from the Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nKake: $200,000 for Dummy Social and Economic Development Strategies from the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Administration for Children and Families/Administration for Native Americans.\n\nKenaitze Indian Tribe: $372,436 from the Department of Education to connect Native youth with cultural, academic, and community support networks to remove barriers Native families face in accessing and utilizing school services.\n\nKetchikan: $248,125 to the Ketchikan Agricultural Producers Association for a local food promotion program to create food security via a food hub.\n\nKodiak Area Native Association: $100,000 for the Kodiak Area Native Association for a hazardous waste management project for the Koniag region.\n\nKodiak Area Native Association: $1.88 million to the Kodiak Area Native Association Health Center Cluster Program from the Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nMatanuska-Susitna Borough: $91,000 to the Alaska Communities Development Corporation from the Department of Agriculture Rural Development Mutual Self-Help Housing Technical Assistance grant program.\n\nNative Village of Napakiak: $5.48 million for the restoration and protection of coastal wetlands in Napakiak from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 2021 National Coastal Resilience Fund.\n\nSitka: $209,100 to Alaska Longline Fishermen\u2019s Association to increase food security and workforce development opportunities.\n\nSoutheast: $824,973 to E.C. Phillips & Son Inc. for a local food promotion program to create a custom mariculture and seafood processing food hub in Southeast Alaska to build up local production, manufacturing, and consumption.\n\nStatewide: $506,679 to the Alaska Energy Authority to replace prime power diesel engines in rural Alaska.\n\nStatewide: $332,031 in Department of Health and Human Services American Rescue Plan Act funds to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services for the Home Visiting program to improve the health of at-risk children under the age of 5.\n\nStatewide: One hundred and fourteen Alaskan organizations will receive a total of $2.2 million from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Twenty-nine museums; 80 academic, public, school, and tribal libraries; three archives; and two related organizations will each receive funding to respond to community needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nYukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation: $1.87 million to the Diabetes \u2013 Self-Governance program from the Department of Health and Human Services.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-votes-to-overturn-vaccine-mandate-for-private-businesses", "Murkowski Votes to Overturn Vaccine Mandate for Private Businesses", "2021-12-10", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Senate Passes Measure to End Rule for Private Employers\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) this week voted to overturn President Biden\u2019s vaccine and testing mandate for private employers. After cosponsoring S.J.Res. 29, a resolution of disapproval against the vaccine mandate, she helped the Senate pass it on a bipartisan vote of 52-48.\n\n\u201cThe Senate voted to overturn the President\u2019s mandate and I hope the House will follow suit. I question the constitutionality of this mandate and believe it sets a dangerous precedent. It is within a private employer\u2019s right to require their employees to be vaccinated or regularly tested, but it is an overreach for the federal government to force them to do so,\u201d Senator Murkowski said. \u201cI strongly support vaccinations and recognize they are safe, effective, and the best available option to limit the spread of the virus and the harm it causes. I continue to urge Alaskans to get vaccinated, but a personal health decision must be a personal choice. My conversations with employers and employees across Alaska\u2014many of whom are also pro-vaccine\u2014only reinforced my concerns about the negative impacts this mandate would have on them, their workforce, and Alaska\u2019s economy.\u201d\n\nThe Congressional Review Act (CRA) establishes a process through which Congress can nullify rules from the executive branch by passing of a joint resolution of disapproval. If such a resolution is approved by a majority in both chambers of Congress and signed by the President, or if Congress successfully overrides a presidential veto, the rule in question is invalidated.\n\nS.J.Res.29 seeks to overturn the Occupational Safety and Health Administration\u2019s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), which requires private-sector workers at companies with more than 100 employees to receive a vaccine or be frequently tested. Last month, Senator Murkowski joined Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), Ranking Member of the HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, and all of her Senate Republican colleagues in introducing the measure.\n\nThis formal challenge to the Biden administration\u2019s vaccine mandate for private businesses will now be sent to the House of Representatives for further action.\n\nBackground:\n\nOn September 8, President Joe Biden announced vaccine mandates that extend to 80 million private sector workers and additional mandates on millions of federal workers and contractors.\n\nOn November 4, OSHA issued its ETS regulation, which mandates that private employers with at least 100 employees ensure those individuals are vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested weekly.\n\nOn November 17, Senator Murkowski joined her Senate Republican colleagues in introducing the resolution to formally challenge President Biden\u2019s vaccine mandate for private business.\n\nOSHA has suspended enforcement of the ETS pending review by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/vice-chairman-murkowski-takes-action-to-address-violence-occurring-in-alaska-native-communities-", "Vice Chairman Murkowski Takes Action To Address Violence Occurring in Alaska Native Communities", "2021-12-10", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "SCIA Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Tribal Title for VAWA\n\nThis week, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA) held an oversight hearing focused on \u201cRestoring Justice: Addressing Violence in Native Communities through VAWA Title IX Special Jurisdiction.\u201d Concurrent with the hearing, Vice Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Chairman Brian Schatz (D-HI) released a discussion draft of the tribal title for the upcoming Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization for public comment.\n\nDuring her opening remarks at this week\u2019s hearing, Murkowski spoke about the importance of the tribal title in the 2013 VAWA and the jurisdictional challenges that Indian Tribes continue to experience in Alaska and across Indian Country. Federal and tribal witnesses, including Michelle Demmert of the Alaska Native Women\u2019s Resource Center, testified on the need for more resources and protections to reduce the incidence of violence, particularly against Native women.\n\nPictured: Senator Lisa Murkowski at SCIA Oversight Hearing on December 8, 2021\n\n\u201cWhile issues of tribal jurisdiction are confusing and esoteric, I want to emphasize that the impacts on the ground in Native communities, particularly in places like rural Alaska, are very real and very tragic. In 2019, we had the Attorney General come to a small Native village. He looked around, he talked to the people, he left and declared a law enforcement emergency. It was based on the fact that Alaska has the highest per capita crime rate in the country and we face a unique jurisdictional landscape. Jurisdictional complexity should not deny safety or justice, and that is what we are seeing,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski on the unique tribal jurisdiction in Alaska.\n\n\u201cI believe we have a moral imperative here in Congress that we take action to further restore and improve the implementation of this special tribal criminal law jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit violent crimes in our Native communities. I firmly believe that by empowering tribal courts in this way we can help combat this major public safety issue affecting Native people and children,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski on improving and empowering tribal courts.\n\n\u201cMost Native communities in rural Alaska have no local law enforcement physically present. One out of three Native communities in Alaska have no local law enforcement that is physically there,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski on the lack of law enforcement presence in rural Alaska and how a solution has been raised. \u201cI am happy to report that we have an Alaska solution to this complex jurisdictional situation in our state. We are calling it the Alaska Public Safety Empowerment pilot project. We are rolling it out as part of the discussion draft text title for all to see. Give us your feedback on it. It builds on previous legislation that you have seen from me and the product of years of work with tribal advocates and smart lawyers. The pilot project will empower a limited number of Alaska Tribes to exercise special criminal jurisdiction over certain crimes that occur in villages in Alaska.\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Vice Chairman Murkowski\u2019s full opening statement.\n\nSenator Murkowski invited Michelle Demmert of the Alaska Native Women\u2019s Resource Center to testify at the hearing. During the question-and-answer period, Murkowski asked Ms. Demmert about the jurisdictional landscape in Alaska and how a state-specific pilot project will bring much needed support and protections for Alaska Natives.\n\nPictured: Michelle Demmert virtually testifying before SCIA on December 8, 2021\n\nClick here to watch Vice Chairman Murkowski\u2019s exchange with Michelle Demmert.\n\nClick here to watch the SCIA oversight hearing and find witness testimony.\n\nClick here to view the tribal discussion draft.\n\nPublic comments on the discussion draft of the VAWA tribal title are due by December 22, 2021. Please send comments to: draft_title_comments@indian.senate.gov. Any comments will be shared with all members of the SCIA.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-historic-inflation-increase-and-5-trillion-cbo-price-tag-for-build-back-better-should-kill-bidens-socialist-agenda-save-christmas", "Sullivan: Historic Inflation Increase & $5 Trillion CBO Price Tag for \u2018Build Back Better\u2019 Should Kill Biden\u2019s Socialist Agenda, Save Christmas", "2021-12-10", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Sullivan Says Inflation Spike is Biden\u2019s \u2018Lump of Coal\u2019 for Every American\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) issued the following statement in response to the Labor Department\u2019s announcement today that U.S. inflation hit a 39-year annualized high of 6.8% at the end of October, and the Congressional Budget Office\u2019s assessment released today that President Joe Biden\u2019s so-called \u201cBuild Back Better\u201d legislation would cost $4.9 trillion and add $3 trillion to the national debt\u2014rebutting the administration\u2019s absurd claim that the bill will cost \u201czero.\u201d Sen. Sullivan says the inflation increase is largely a result of the Biden administration\u2019s far left policies and would only be further exacerbated by the $4.9 trillion reconciliation bill recently passed in the House and currently being considered in the Senate.\n\n\u201cThe inflation numbers announced today are a lump of coal in every American\u2019s stocking this Christmas,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cThis shocking increase in inflation just makes more evident what we already know\u2014this administration\u2019s war on affordable energy, coupled with the out-of-control spending being pushed by President Biden and the radical far left in Congress, is inflicting real pain on America\u2019s working families, who are paying much more for their holiday presents, and at the gas pump, grocery store, and to heat their homes this winter. Enough is enough. These inflation numbers should be the final nail in the coffin of the Democrats\u2019 reckless tax-and-spending spree, which would pump trillions more in wasteful deficit spending to fund a liberal wish-list. Let\u2019s be clear: Despite the Democrats\u2019 incredible claim that their socialist tax-and-spending bill costs \u2018zero\u2019 dollars, the President\u2019s plan will super-charge inflation even more and do real, lasting damage to our economy. Building back to the Jimmy Carter malaise of the 1970s is not what any American wants and is definitely not what our nation needs.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-requests-ig-investigation-of-senior-biden-interior-officials-targeting-alaska", "Sullivan Requests IG Investigation of Senior Biden Interior Officials Targeting Alaska", "2021-12-09", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Senator decries Biden administration\u2019s \u201cWar on Alaska\u201d with 20 executive actions\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, yesterday sent a letter to the inspector general (IG) of the Department of the Interior (DOI) requesting an investigation of four senior political appointees in the department who are allegedly working on matters directly related to and benefitting their previous clients and work. The officials mentioned by Sen. Sullivan are Nada Culver, deputy director of policy and programs at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM); Natalie Landreth, deputy solicitor for lands at DOI; Laura Daniel Davis, deputy assistant secretary for land and mineral management at DOI; and Robert Anderson, solicitor at DOI. In his letter, Sullivan alleges that the officials have clear conflicts of interest, violating federal ethics laws, having worked to halt certain resource development projects in Alaska in their prior positions with environmental advocacy groups, and subsequently working to halt those same projects as executive branch employees.\n\nThe Alaska projects described include the Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A), the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) oil and gas leasing program, and the Ambler Road project\u2014all projects that have been slowed or stopped by the Biden administration DOI.\n\nIn addition to requesting the ethics investigation, Sen. Sullivan has requested a series of documents, within 30 days, from the DOI IG, including signed and dated ethics pledges for each official, recusals or ethics waivers issued by or to any of the officials, and any communications between the DOI officials and their former employers or clients since their appointments.\n\nSen. Sullivan announced his letter in a speech on the Senate floor last night. In his remarks, Sullivan decried an ongoing \u201canti-Alaska agenda\u201d and \u201cwar on Alaska working families\u201d by the Biden administration through its issuance of 20 executive orders and actions specifically focused on the state since coming into office in January. Sullivan also criticized Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) for leading efforts among members of Congress to block investment and projects in Alaska, while New Mexico has received nearly half of all drilling permits approved nationwide on federal lands in the past year.\n\nBelow is a full transcript of the senator\u2019s floor speech:\n\nMadam President, today, I wanted to rise on the Senate floor and talk about a topic of utmost importance to my State, the great people I have the privilege of representing, and what the Biden administration is doing to good, hard?working American families in Alaska. It is what I call the \u201canti?Alaska agenda,\u201d or the Biden administration's war on working families.\n\nI know that Americans all across the country have felt pain\u2014economic pain, health pain, unfortunately, too many deaths as a result of the pandemic. Right now, we are seeing high energy prices and empty shelves. There has been a lot of suffering in America. We are a resilient people, however.\n\nMy State, like many, has been hit very hard by the pandemic, particularly economically\u2014our energy sector, our fishing sector, our tourism sector. And as we are coming out of this pandemic and everybody is trying to work together\u2014we all want growth and opportunity in America\u2014we have now been hit with this.\n\nThis administration has issued, in its first 9 months in office, 20 Executive orders or Executive actions solely focused on Alaska. I came down to the floor 2 weeks ago to talk about this. It was 19 then. You wait a week or two with the Biden administration in Alaska, and it is up to 20. I am sure they have a lot more ready to go. Twenty. There is no State in America that is getting this kind of attention from the Biden administration, and we don't want it.\n\nWhat I am going to be continuing to ask my Senate colleagues to do\u2014and I am going to start with the President of the United States, who was a U.S. Senator for many years, decades\u2014put yourself in the shoes of the people I represent.\n\nLet's imagine that a Republican administration comes into office and issues 20 Executive orders or Executive actions focused on Delaware\u2014tiny, little Delaware. The Senators from Delaware, including the former Senator, now?President, would be down on the floor of the U.S. Senate raising Cain, raising heck\u2014I don't think I am allowed to swear here\u2014because of this, because they want to stick up for the people they represent. Imagine that.\n\nThese Executive orders and actions are not some kind of simple abstractions; they are 20 orders and actions that go to the heart of what Alaskans do in terms of our economy: work, keeping food on the table, keeping lights on in their homes, paying the mortgage, keeping their kids in college, keeping their cultures thriving, keeping our communities from crumbling, particularly in rural Alaska. Some of the poorest communities in America are where this administration is targeting the people I represent.\n\nVery few people in my State\u2014Democrat, Republican, Native, non?Native\u2014support this war against Alaska. This is not a partisan issue back home, and here is why: because real people, real families, real communities are being hurt\u2014your fellow Americans. It has got to stop.\n\nI have demanded a meeting with the President and his team to just walk him through this. Mr. President, do you know what you are doing to one of your States that you are sworn to defend?\n\nThese orders threaten the well?being of my entire State, but they particularly threaten the people who live in rural Alaska, who are dependent on the land and natural resources for so much of their economy, so much of their tax base.\n\nHere is the thing. I know what some of my colleagues or those who are watching are saying: Oh, it is just resource development issues in Alaska. Well, I will talk about that. It is some of that, but it is not just resource development issues that are happening here. Let me give you one that really burns me up.\n\nWe had a bipartisan bill last year, last Congress, to provide what you will now call racial justice, racial equity, to Alaskan Native Vietnam veterans who served their country when most Americans were avoiding service and missed out, because they were overseas fighting for their nation, on the opportunity to apply for what is called a land allotment. There was a deadline that happened, a complete injustice.\n\nNative Vietnam veterans coming home, not treated well because they are Native, not treated well because they are Vietnam veterans, and then told: \u201cOh, by the way, the land you were supposed to get, you don't qualify.\u201d\n\nSo we got a bill passed to say that is an injustice. The previous administration signed it. They were implementing it. And when this administration came into office, the number one issue I asked Secretary Haaland to commit to was to finish getting the Executive order out on these land allotments, to implement this bipartisan bill, because these Native Vietnam veterans aren't living that long.\n\nThe administration delayed it for 2 years. Why? It has nothing do to with oil and gas or mining. Why? These Vietnam vets, many aren't going to live for 2 more years. They did it anyway.\n\nThat is one of 20. Let me give you another one.\n\nWe have had, down in Southeast Alaska, the issue of the Tongass\u2014that is the largest national forest in the country. Every elected official\u2014Governor, Senator, Democrat, Republican\u2014in Alaska, the last 30 years, has pressed with the Roadless Rule, an exemption to the Roadless Rule, so we can have an economy there; roads for Southeast communities. Every elected Governor or U.S. Senator, didn\u2019t matter the party, that is how important this was. We were able to get an exemption in the last administration. I appreciate what President Trump did on that.\n\nThis administration comes in, and they reverse it. One of the 20. Guess how we, the Alaska delegation, found out about that reversal. A front?page story in the Washington Post. The Secretary of Agriculture wanted to brief the Washington Post and all of the extreme environmental groups who wanted this before they let the people of Alaska or their representatives know. These are the examples.\n\nAnd, yes, the list also includes resource development projects. But here is the thing on that\u2014I have a folder full of letters. These are letters from the elected leaders, Tribal leaders, borough leaders, Alaska Native Corp. leaders, Native leaders in my State\u2014dozens of letters. Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation, Native village of Kaktovik\u2014that is a Tribe, City of Utqiagvik, City of Atqasuk, City of Wainwright, Inupiaq Community of the Arctic Slope\u2014that is another Tribe, the Voice of the Inupiat Arctic. These are all Alaskan Native leaders who live on the North Slope, some of whom live in the Arctic National Wildlife area. Every single one of these great leaders in my State, every one, was writing, even begging, this administration not to do this\u2014not to do this. And they ignored them.\n\nThis is a letter from Edward Rexford. He is the President of the Native Village of Kaktovik. He wrote to Secretary Deb Haaland after she suspended oil and gas leases in ANWR, which we passed. What the Secretary did, in my view, was clearly illegal.\n\nEdward Rexford wrote: \u201cYou have changed our future with one stroke of a pen without any explanation or consultation with us\u2014the tribe that lives within the Coastal Plain.\u201d\n\nHis village, Kaktovik, is the only village within the coastal area of ANWR. That is it. There is no group of Americans who should have a greater voice in the development of this area than them. But they didn't even get a phone call\u2014not a phone call, not a consultation, Tribal consultation, which is required by law\u2014none of it.\n\nThat is all part of the 20 Executive orders and actions that I said are hurting people, hurting communities, hurting families, hurting Native cultures.\n\nI will tell you this: The Biden administration loves to talk about how they are committed to environmental justice and racial equity, but it is with a caveat.\n\nHere is the reality: They want to help unserved minority populations around the country. And I think this is a good goal, but it comes with a caveat: unless, of course, they are indigenous people of Alaska. Then the Biden administration targets them.\n\nLook at this folder. These are communities of color in my State, and all they do is get targeted, not helped; targeted, their economic opportunity. And then the things that most Americans take for granted that don't exist in these communities\u2014clinics, flushed toilets, gymnasiums\u2014all of that comes with economic opportunity. And when you shut it down, you are really hurting indigenous people in some of the most impoverished communities in the country. But I guess they seem OK with that.\n\nI want all of my Senate colleagues to do just a quick thought experiment. Imagine what it would be like, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican\u2014but just think about it: You are a Democrat and a Republican administration comes in or you are a Republican and a Democrat administration comes in and changes the future of your State with a stroke of a pen, as Edward Rexford said, for the people you represent. Imagine an administration coming in with 20 Executive orders in 8 months, shutting down your economy as you are trying to get out of a pandemic.\n\nEvery Senator here would be mad. And the one thing I very much enjoy about serving in this body is we are a collegial body. We have our differences, but I certainly have friends on both sides of the aisle. I try to work with everybody, try to be respectful with everybody. The Presiding Officer and I chaired committees together, worked together on a lot of things.\n\nAnd here is the thing. If a Republican administration came into power and targeted one of my colleague's States with 20 Executive orders in 8 months and whoever it was came to me and said: \"Hey, Dan, you know this is unfair. My constituents are really being attacked, really being hurt. Could you reach out to the Republican administration and say: \u2018Hey, come on. Tone it down. Geez, Louise, 20 Executive orders in one State?\u2019\" I would help, and I think almost every Senator here would help. That is what we do here.\n\nAnd I want to say that some of my Democratic colleagues here, when I have talked about this, when I have told them about this, when I have spoken about this, a number of them have come to me and said: \"Hey, Dan, give me the list. Give me the list of 20. Maybe I can't help you on every one of them, all of them. Maybe there are some I actually like. But I do want to try and help.\" That is what has happened. That is what makes this body a good place. To those Senators, I really want to thank you. And I am going to ask for your help because I would do it for you.\n\nAnd this is unacceptable. Tens of thousands of people I represent are being hurt by the federal government, by the President and his White House. So I appreciate that from my colleagues. And this is, in general, how this body works. It makes this a special place.\n\nBut I will say this. Not all Senators have been so gracious and senatorial and collegial. To the contrary, a few of my colleagues are helping lead the charge in the war on Alaska's working families. They seem to be putting a ton of effort into it themselves. I am not sure why, but they spend a lot of their time and energy focused on doing this: shutting down the Alaska economy, hurting working families, and ridiculously and absurdly, acting as if they speak for the very people I am privileged to represent, as if they don't have enough to do in terms of helping their own constituents.\n\nSo I am going to make an example and give an example of one. The leader of this small group is the senior Senator from New Mexico. Here is a sampling\u2014three letters in the last year and a half he has written, signed, or led, focusing on shutting down Alaska's economy and hurting the great people I have the privilege of representing.\n\nTwo of these letters deal with the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge\u2014controversial, no doubt. In 2017, we voted to provide the opportunity for development in that small area, what we call the 1002 Area. The President signed it. It came into law.\n\nNow, I know most of my colleagues on the Democratic side didn't agree with that. We have legislation we don't agree with. I accept that. I am still very good friends with so many.\n\nBut, afterward, the senior Senator from New Mexico led letters to all of the top banks in America and all of the top insurance and financial institutions in America and didn't just say don't invest in ANWR but said \"don't invest in any oil and gas development project in the Arctic.\"\n\nWhat is that, the Arctic of America? That is my State.\n\nSo now you have, as opposed to collegiality, a small group, led by this Senator, writing the biggest banks in America, the biggest financial institutions in America, trying to muscle them, saying: Don't invest anything in Alaska.\n\nThat is not what this body is all about. I would never do that to a colleague. I would never write all the banks of America and say: Don't invest in poor communities, Native communities in New Mexico or in the New Mexico oil and gas industry. I wouldn't do that.\n\nWho does that? Well, unfortunately, a few\u2014not many, a few\u2014Senators are doing that.\n\nAbsurdly, this Senator had the audacity, in one of his letters, to try to speak for the people I represent. He put in the letter: The people dependent on the Arctic Refuge don't want you to invest there.\n\nThat is patently absurd. Just read the letters from all of the people who actually live there, all of the people who live there, who overwhelmingly want opportunities for oil and gas development and for jobs and economic opportunity.\n\nYou would think, with all of New Mexico's problems, this Senator would focus on his own constituents.\n\nSo I reached out to him and the few others who wrote these letters. I have reached out. I wrote my own letter to them saying: \u201cHey, I was disappointed to see you do that. Why didn't you come talk to me? I wouldn't do that to you. And, by the way, what you are doing is really going to hurt my constituents.\u201d\n\nThis is a letter I wrote to this Senator and a few others: I would appreciate the courtesy of talking about this before you go do it. You clearly don't understand the indigenous communities that I represent. I even provided a Wall Street Journal op?ed from the mayor of the North Slope Borough, Harry Brower, the Inupiaq mayor, who had a lot to say to the banks who weren't going to invest in his community.\n\nBut I got no response. To the contrary, just a few months ago, this same Senator led a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, asking her to shut down a very important energy development in Alaska called the Willow Project. This is that letter\u2014just about 4 months ago.\n\nLet me talk about the Willow Project. The Willow Project is not in a controversial area; it is in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, set aside by Congress decades ago for oil and gas development. Every Native group in Alaska supports this project, all the unions do. 2,000 direct jobs, billions in revenues for some of the poorest communities in America, and the lowest emissions of any major oil and gas development project in America.\n\nThis is a huge win?win?win for everybody\u2014not even controversial. Yet the senior Senator from New Mexico wrote Deb Haaland saying: \u201cShut down the Willow Project in Alaska.\u201d\n\nWhy is he doing this, literally trying to kill thousands of Alaska jobs and impoverish Alaska Native communities?\n\nDo the people in New Mexico know that their senior Senator spends so much time trying to give Alaska oil and gas workers pink slips and impoverish Native communities? I wonder. I wonder.\n\nI thought, for just a moment, maybe I should do something against New Mexico, but then I was like: \u201cNo. You know what, that is not my style. I wouldn't want to hurt New Mexico oil and gas workers or Native communities. They are all great Americans, I am sure. We are a great country. I wouldn't want to target them the way this Senator is targeting my State, trying to hurt thousands of Alaskan working families.\u201d\n\nAnd it should be emphasized, and I want to emphasize, that is not how we work here. That is not what I have seen in my almost seven years in the U.S. Senate, Senators trying to attack other Senators' States, specifically focusing on hurting working families.\n\nThe vast majority of the Senators I know wouldn't do that at all. That is not how business is conducted here in the U.S. Senate. To the contrary, most of us generally try to help each other. We don't always agree; that is for sure. But, particularly when States have unique challenges that could hurt their citizens, when my colleagues would come to me and say, \"Hey, Dan, can you help out on this,\" I usually try to help. But I certainly don't go on offense and try to hurt like this administration is doing and the senior Senator from New Mexico.\n\nBut I thought the better course to fight back\u2014because I am going to fight back, OK. I am going to fight back. These are my constituents who are hurting. The better course to fight back against these attacks on Alaskan working families was not to try to hurt New Mexicans, but just to show this, the rank hypocrisy of what the senior Senator is actually doing and saying.\n\nOne of his main reasons, in this latest letter, to shut down Alaska, in trying to deny Federal permits for the Willow oil and gas project, is to \"achieve climate goals.\" OK? That is in his letter to Deb Haaland.\n\nBut if you do just a little digging, this Senator seems fine with trying to achieve these goals on the backs of Alaskan workers and Alaska Natives but not on his own constituents, not on the backs of his own constituents\u2014to the contrary.\n\nGuess which State in America has gotten way more Federal oil and gas drilling permits than any other State in the country. Guess which one. It is certainly not Alaska. It happens to be New Mexico. It just so happens to be New Mexico.\n\nGuess where the Secretary of the Interior is from. New Mexico. Hmm. Is that a coincidence? I wonder, in their frequent phone calls, when they talk about concerns of climate and shutting down oil and gas in Alaska, if shutting down oil and gas in New Mexico ever comes up?\n\nI am pretty sure it doesn't. How do I know that? Because close to half of all oil and gas drilling permits issued by the Department of the Interior, by New Mexican Deb Haaland, in 2021 have gone to one State. What State is that? New Mexico\u20142,286 Federal oil and gas drilling permits; almost half of all of the permits in the country to one State.\n\nSo here is the bottom line. Here is their view. Shut down Alaska, hurt working families in Alaska, supposedly, to help America's climate goals, but then quietly say \"drill, baby, drill\" in New Mexico, with more permits by far than any other State in the country\u2014almost 2,300. If that is not rank hypocrisy, I don't know what is.\n\nSo I am going to start asking questions about this and, by the way, so should the press. I sure hope our friends in the press think that, hmm, there is something a little strange going on here. Clearly, there is hypocrisy happening. But, you know, that happens here occasionally\u2014or maybe more than occasionally. But is there anything else going on?\n\nAnd I hope the press in New Mexico ask their senior Senator why he is so darn focused on hurting the good people of Alaska\u2014because I wouldn't do that to New Mexican oil and gas workers or New Mexican Native communities.\n\nAnd finally, I am going to ask questions in another area. The Biden administration is clearly trying to shut down my State. It is there for everybody to see. Everybody back home knows it. But here is the thing. They can't do it illegally, and they can't do it unethically. And right now there is strong evidence that they are doing just that. What do I mean? Today, I sent this letter, that I would like to be printed in the record, to the inspector general of the Department of the Interior.\n\nHere is what I am asking in this letter. There is very strong evidence that at least four senior political appointees at the Department of the Interior who have been involved in many of these 20 Executive orders and Executive actions shutting down my State were actually, in their previous jobs, working on the very same issues and advocating for the very same outcomes\u2014meaning they are working with a special interest group to say shut down the Willow Project.\n\nAnd then when it came to the Interior, they are working on whether or not to shut down the Willow Project. Now, most of us know, if that is true, that is clearly illegal and clearly unethical.\n\nWe have documented in this letter\u2014four senior Department of the Interior officials, all of whom who are trying to shut down my State\u2014and I think there is strong evidence that they are violating ethics laws and violating the law. So I have asked for a detailed investigation by the Department of the Interior inspector general into whether or not these individuals have violated federal ethics laws in their quest to hurt working families in my State.\n\nLet me conclude with this. I am a supporter of responsible resource development in America of all of the above: energy, wind, solar, oil, gas\u2014in every part of our great country, in Alaska, of course, in New Mexico\u2014all across our great land. And I am a supporter of the great men and women who do this in Alaska and New Mexico and Texas and North Dakota.\n\nWhat is happening in my State right now, this is just wrong, and I am going to fight it. And any other Senator who would be going through what my State is going through, with your constituents being harmed, you would be down on the floor fighting it, too.\n\nThe vast majority of the U.S. Senators here\u2014Democrats and Republicans\u2014I think deep down in their hearts know that this is just wrong. You don't come in with a new administration and say, \u201cHey, let me target one State and beat the heck out of their working families.\u201d It is just wrong.\n\nAnd I am hopeful that my colleagues here\u2014and I am asking them because we need the help. I have great people I represent\u2014proud, tough people, but you can't fight the whole damn federal government when they are focused on shutting you down. So I am hopeful that my colleagues\u2014all of my colleagues\u2014I will share the list of the 20\u2014that you can help me get the Biden administration and some misguided hypocritical U.S. Senators to enact a cease?fire in their war on working families and Native communities in the great State of Alaska.\n\nI yield the floor.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-schatz-work-to-improve-the-safety-of-native-american-women", "Murkowski, Schatz Work to Improve the Safety of Native American Women", "2021-12-08", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Today, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2019i), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Vice Chairman of the SCIA, released draft legislation of a tribal title aimed at improving the safety of Native women in Indian Country and Alaska Native Villages. This bipartisan discussion draft reflects tribal stakeholder input over years of Committee oversight and legislative activity on public safety in Indian Country and Alaska Native communities, including work of the Chairman and Vice Chairman\u2019s offices to jointly examine and find solutions to address violence against Native people and restore justice to their communities. In 2013, the SCIA was instrumental in securing inclusion and enactment of the bipartisan tribal title that authorized the special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction in the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 (VAWA).\n\n\u201cNearly a decade ago, the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 restored Tribal jurisdiction over domestic violence crimes, recognizing Tribes\u2019 right to exercise their authority and giving them resources to go after criminals,\u201d said Chairman Schatz. \u201cSince then, we\u2019ve heard from Native communities on how we can strengthen VAWA to fully empower Tribal governments and protect Native people. Our bipartisan discussion draft gives Native communities more tools to fight domestic violence crimes and keep Native women, children and families safe. I am thankful for Vice Chairman Murkowski\u2019s partnership in this important work.\u201d\n\n\u201cNative women are overrepresented by nearly 250 percent among domestic violence victims in Alaska, yet one in three communities in rural Alaska have no local law enforcement. Tribes in Alaska need to be empowered to exercise special tribal criminal jurisdiction on a pilot basis,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski. \u201cWe recognize and appreciate the jurisdictional complexities in Alaska and affirm the concurrent jurisdiction of the State of Alaska over these covered crimes. The release of the bipartisan discussion draft is an important step toward ending violence against Native women in Alaska and in Indian Country. I look forward to working with my colleagues on this critical effort as the legislative process advances.\"\n\nClick HERE to view the tribal discussion draft.\n\nChairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski asks for input from the public on this bipartisan discussion draft. All comments are due by December 22, 2021 at: draft_title_comments@indian.senate.gov. Any comments will be shared with all members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-braun-lead-bipartisan-group-of-senators-in-voting-to-overturn-biden-vaccine-mandate-for-businesses", "Sullivan, Braun Lead Bipartisan Group of Senators in Voting to Overturn Biden Vaccine Mandate for Businesses", "2021-12-08", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) today voted with all 49 of his Senate Republican colleagues, as well as two Democratic senators, to overturn President Biden\u2019s unconstitutional vaccine mandate for businesses using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), an expedited process for Congress to eliminate an executive branch rule. Sen. Sullivan led the CRA effort against the vaccine mandate with Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.). The joint resolution, S.J. Res. 29, provides congressional disapproval of the rule submitted by the Department of Labor entitled \u201cCOVID-19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency Temporary Standard,\u201d which would result in hundreds of thousands of Americans potentially losing their jobs. Companion legislation, H.J. Res. 65, in the House of Representatives currently has 212 supporters, with every Republican in the chamber cosponsoring.\n\n\u201cPresident Biden\u2019s unconstitutional vaccine mandates have been wreaking havoc on American businesses and hard-working families across the country, including in my state of Alaska. It\u2019s an issue my team and I hear about from constituents on a daily basis,\u201d Sen. Sullivan said. \u201cI am glad to see a bipartisan majority of U.S. senators standing up today for hard-working Americans by rejecting this gross federal overreach from the Biden administration. These mandates are not supported by the Constitution or statute, a fact that courts just keep reaffirming as they hand down loss after loss for the President and his administration.\n\n\u201cIn 2020, Congress and President Trump worked in a bipartisan way on an agreement that we would provide relief to American businesses on the condition they keep their employees. Now, Joe Biden is taking a sledge hammer to that employer-employee connection. Firing hard-working Americans who have made the personal choice not to get vaccinated not only undermines the significant work Congress and the Trump administration did to save millions of jobs during the pandemic, it also exacerbates the workforce shortages employers are already facing. No one should ever be forced to choose between getting vaccinated or putting food on the table for their families because of an unconstitutional mandate.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nOn September 9th, President Biden announced vaccine mandates that extend to 80 million private sector workers, and additional mandates on millions of federal workers and contractors.\n\nTo implement this mandate, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). Employers that fail to comply will be fined $13,653 for each offense, and willful violations will result in a $136,532 penalty. This rule places unrealistic compliance burdens on employers\u2014especially at a time when business and supply chains are already under duress. For example, 30 days after publication, all requirements other than testing for employees must be in place. In addition, 60 days after publication, all testing requirements must be in place.\n\nThe Congressional Review Act (CRA) can be used by Congress to overturn certain federal agency regulations and actions through a joint resolution of disapproval. If a CRA joint resolution of disapproval is approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the President, or if Congress successfully overrides a presidential veto, the rule at issue is invalidated.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-cheers-withdrawal-of-radical-omarova-nomination", "Sullivan Cheers Withdrawal of Radical Omarova Nomination", "2021-12-07", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) celebrated President Joe Biden\u2019s announcement today that Saule Omarova has withdrawn her nomination to serve as Comptroller of the Currency. Sen. Sullivan has been rallying his colleagues and speaking out forcefully for weeks against the nominee, highlighting her demonstrated hostility toward the free market system and American banking, her lack of qualifications, and her affinity for Marxist ideology.\n\n\u201cGood news for a change: President Biden withdrew Saule Omarova\u2019s nomination to be Comptroller of the Currency today,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cI\u2019ve been pushing for her nomination to be pulled for the last several weeks\u2014highlighting her hostility toward our free market system, her pledge to \u2018end banking as we know it,\u2019 her plan to \u2018bankrupt\u2019 our energy companies to enact Green New Deal policies, and her general adherence to Marxist ideology. In a statement, however, Biden didn\u2019t mention any of this, nor did he mention that she had lost the support of at least five Democratic Senators. Instead, he said that she \u2018was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.\u2019 This is not true. The concerns I raised about Omarova were always about her ideas, beliefs and policies, which is exactly what the Senate is supposed to do during the confirmation process. The fact is that this nominee was dangerous for our country and there was nothing inappropriate about drawing attention to her radical, far-left, socialist ideas and sympathies.\n\n\u201cIronically, the only inappropriate attacks in this entire confirmation process have been when this nominee publicly called anyone who criticized her a \u2018racist.\u2019 Americans are sick of this. There is no place in our political discourse for labeling people as racist simply because they don\u2019t agree with your ideas and vision for our country. The far left seems to do this on a regular basis to try to silence their critics. America and all of Alaska should breathe a sigh of relief that Omarova\u2019s nomination got pulled and that this individual will not be regulating America\u2019s banks and our currency.\u201d\n\nSen. Sullivan spoke on the Senate floor on November 4 to detail his opposition to Omarova\u2019s nomination.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-honors-beth-bragg-as-alaskan-of-the-week", "Sullivan Honors Beth Bragg as \u201cAlaskan of the Week\u201d", "2021-12-03", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014On the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) recognized Beth Bragg, of Anchorage, who retired recently after a 35-year-long career covering sports for the Anchorage Daily News. Bragg has covered Alaska\u2019s diverse sports scene and events, from the Iditarod to the World Eskimo Indian Olympics, as well as Alaska\u2019s many heroes, from Kikkan Randall, to Tommy Moe, to Lydia Jacoby, to the everyday athlete who makes Alaska so special. Bragg was recognized as part of Sen. Sullivan\u2019s series, \u201cAlaskan of the Week.\u201d\n\nTribute toBeth Bragg\n\nMadam President, it is Thursday, and it is usually the day I get to come down to the Senate floor. Usually, the Senate is kind of wrapping up things; we are still pretty busy right now. But it is the day I love to come down to the Senate floor and talk about somebody in my State, the great State of Alaska, who is making a difference either for their community, for their State, for the country; you name it. We call this person the Alaskan of the Week.\n\nWe have done it a lot. I usually like to give a little bit of an update. The pages typically really like this time of the week because we get to tell stories about Alaska, about the adventure of Alaska, but also about--typically, a little update about what is happening in the State.\n\nRight now, we are in a bit of a cold snap pretty much throughout the State. We are getting a lot of snow throughout the State. We have seen some record low temperatures all across Alaska, from Homer, King Salmon, Bethel.\n\nMonday in Fairbanks--so this is not even into December yet--it was 26 below zero. They are tough in Fairbanks, very tough. You get down to 50, 60 below in Fairbanks.\n\nMy wife is from Fairbanks. She is a wonderful volunteer for this organization called Covenant House. They did their annual ``Sleep Out.'' It is a homeless shelter for teenage youth. This was in Anchorage just a couple of weeks ago. It was 15 below for the ``Sleep Out.'' You get a cardboard box and say: Good luck. So, boy, she is tough.\n\nAlaskans across the State are rugged, tough, individualistic, and we bond all the more for it. We are in it together when it is that cold. And it frequently is. And like one big community, one of the many things that brings us together--actually, one of the many things that brings Americans together--is bonding over sports: local sports, State sports, national sports, and your local newspaper as it relates to sports reporting. It is actually a universal instinct.\n\nOne of our most famous Supreme Court Justices, Earl Warren, said it best:\n\nI always turn to the sports section first [in the morning]. The sports page records people's accomplishments. The front page [usually] has nothing but [people's] failures.\n\nI am not sure that is always true, but it is a good anecdote in terms of what binds us with regard to sports.\n\nYou know, over the holidays, in particular, everybody in America watches great football, other sports activities. I had a good chat over lunch today with Coach Tuberville about the really incredible Alabama Auburn game that just happened last week.\n\nBut sports is also the place in our local papers where we see the names of our children, our loved ones, our neighbors, our friends. In fact, it might just be the only time their names appear in the paper at all, when you think about it.\n\nSo our Alaskan of the Week this week is somebody who knows sports and sportswriting in Alaska better than anybody. We are talking about Beth Bragg, who recently retired after 35 years as a sportswriter for the Anchorage Daily News. She understood all of these attributes about sportswriting better than anybody.\n\nDuring her 35 years at the paper, Beth always told cub reporters there was one rule they must always follow, no matter what. She said: Even if the person's name is something like Cindy Jones, ask that person for the spelling. It might be the only time their name appears in the paper, and it is very important that name is spelled correctly.\n\nNow, let me talk about Beth, about her reporting and about her work and how it has added to our communities across the great State of Alaska.\n\nBeth grew up in Billings, MT. Her father worked for the Billings Gazette. And she, too, while still in high school, joined the paper as a sports clerk so this is in her blood.\n\nNow, it wasn't so much that she was crazy about sports back then, but it was a job, a good job. And then she said she began, bit by bit, to fall in love with newspapers and sports reporting. She liked the irreverence, the strict deadlines, the energy.\n\nImportantly--and it is almost counterintuitive--covering sports allows more fun in the writing, the opportunity as a writer to take a little bit more in terms of chances and to be more creative than maybe on other beats. And throughout the years, Beth has brought so much of this kind of creativity, so much heart to her stories.\n\nWithout looking at a byline in Alaska, you always knew when you were reading a Beth Bragg story. So, in 1986, when she was 27 years old, she came to Alaska to write for the Anchorage Daily News. That is our State's biggest paper. She thought she would stay for a few years, then move on. Her dream was to cover professional sports, maybe even Major League Baseball in a city that has got a Major League Baseball team, but as the years progressed, she stayed in Alaska. She fell in love with Alaska, and her ambitions as a sportswriter changed. But, in some ways, they got even bigger.\n\nShe discovered that, in her words, ``the real reward, and the real challenge, is to find stories that resonate with everyone. And you don't have to be at the Super Bowl to do that.''\n\nIn fact, Beth said she found more interesting, more unique stories to cover in Alaska than probably anywhere else.\n\nNow, we don't have big-time professional sports teams in the great State of Alaska, but we do have sports, loads of sports. And just like so much about Alaska, we have expanded the meaning of what it means to partake in sports.\n\nLet's take one very famous sport in Alaska, the Iditarod--the famous 800-mile sled dog race--as one big example. There is also heli-skiing, ice climbing, curling, and snowboarding. It didn't get its start in Alaska, but it reached its apex in Valdez, for those who participated in that incredible sport.\n\nBeth is likely one of the few, if only, reporters in the country who reported on this incredible sport in Alaska at 3 a.m., seal-skinning. Yes, that is a sport. It goes along with the ear pull and other sports in terms of competition at the World Eskimo Indian Olympics, which are incredible to go to and watch in Alaska--great athletes, by the way.\n\nShe covered seal skinning, the competition. At 3 a.m. she was tired, but the excitement and the smell of the seals--first frozen, then thawed for the competition--kept her wide awake.\n\nWe may not have professional sports teams, but we certainly have athletic stars galore in Alaska. For 35 years, Beth has written about these stars and some of the toughest athletes anywhere in the world. Let me give you a couple examples.\n\nShe wrote about athletes running Mount Marathon. Now, I gave an ``Alaskan of the Week'' speech several months ago about Mount Marathon. It is what Outside magazine calls ``the toughest 5K on the planet''--straight up a mountain and straight back down. We always do it on July 4 in Seward.\n\nShe wrote about the Alaska Wilderness Classic, the 150-or-so-mile ``secret race'' up mountains and across rivers in the Alaskan wilderness. Here are the rules of the Alaska Wilderness Classic: No outside support, nothing human-powered, leave no trace, and rescue is up to the racer. Pretty tough. Pretty tough.\n\nShe wrote about the Arctic Man, another incredible Alaska event that has been described as one of the world's toughest downhill ski races and an exciting snow machine race, all combined together. You want to see something amazing? Go to the Arctic Man.\n\nShe has written about swimming heats and cross-country track and field matches; skiing, lots of stories about skiing in Alaska; ice hockey; high school football; basketball games; and, as I mentioned, the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, with the ear pull and the blanket toss.\n\nShe wrote a great story about a mother and son literally tied by rope together for 2 weeks climbing Denali, North America's tallest peak, in Alaska.\n\nThere was a story about a sled dog that was cut loose and ran away from her Iditarod sled dog pack. Miraculously, this dog found her way home to her kennel through mountain ranges and hundreds of miles of tundra in the dead of an Alaskan winter. Pretty amazing.\n\nShe wrote a great story about an event I attended this past June, an inspiring USA Patriots-Amputee Softball Team event where almost every player on that team were some of our greatest American heroes. Almost all of them had lost a limb--all of them had lost a limb, mostly in combat.\n\nAlways at the center of Beth's stories are the people, even when those people are sled dogs. She has written about their victories; their struggles; their heart for the game, for their teams, for their communities, for their State, for their country, and for life itself.\n\nThinking back on her long career, a few events stay with her. She talked a lot about what it was like to watch Alaskans compete in the Olympics, four of which she attended--Olympic Games.\n\nNow, we are a huge State. I talk about that a lot. We have a pretty small population relative to other States--730,000 people. But Alaska is really good in terms of Olympic athletes. We punch way above our weight, sending some of the top American athletes to especially the Winter Olympics but also the Summer Olympics.\n\nBeth remembers, for example, the electricity in the Olympic stadium in Norway in 1994 when a little-known Alaskan named Tommy Moe shocked the world by winning the gold in the downhill and then, 4 days later, a silver, becoming the first American skier ever to win two medals at the same Olympics.\n\nShe remembers writing stories about the legendary and beloved cross-country skier from Alaska Kikkan Randall when Kikkan was just 13 years old. Then, like so many Alaskans, Beth swelled with pride and cried when Kikkan Randall won the gold in 2018.\n\nBeth said she also cried just this summer when 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby from Seward, AK, shocked the world by winning the gold medal in Tokyo this summer in the 100-meter breaststroke. Remember that? Seward, AK, doesn't even have an Olympic-size swimming pool. And I will say, Lydia Jacoby is the only person in U.S. history to be Alaskan of the Week in the U.S. Senate twice. That is unbelievable.\n\nOf course, there are heartbreaks, too--the losses, the illnesses, the injuries, and sometimes the deaths--all of which Beth has handled with the utmost sensitivity. Because she was at it for so long and has so much history with Alaskan athletes, she understood something about them that a new reporter might not. It takes a certain kind of grit to be an athlete in Alaska, to wake up at 6 a.m. and head off into the dark, subzero weather to train. It takes a certain kind of grit to travel outside of Alaska for competitions, often thousands of miles away from your home, to get noticed. As Beth said, ``You have to work hard to make it big'' in Alaska. As a result, she thinks Alaska athletes have a sense of home in a way a lot of other athletes don't.\n\nAs I said, Beth recently retired. She is going to clean her home; maybe travel some; of course, watch some sports, as a fan now, not as a reporter. She leaves behind a great legacy, thousands of stories charting some of our State's greatest moments in athletics, times when we all cheered and cried and came together to support the best of our people and competition and grit and determination--the reason Americans across the country love sports so much.\n\nBeth, thank you for your great job. Congrats on an incredibly stellar career, and, of course--I am sure one of your biggest honors ever--congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/save-our-seas-20-lead-sponsors-welcome-new-academy-of-sciences-report-on-marine-debris-crisis", "Save Our Seas 2.0 Lead Sponsors Welcome New Academy of Sciences Report on Marine Debris Crisis", "2021-12-01", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=36", "scraper", "Report estimates 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters ocean each year\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) and Don Young (R-Alaska)\u2014champions of the 2020 Save Our Seas (SOS) 2.0 Act, the most comprehensive marine debris legislation ever\u2014today welcomed a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled \u201cReckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste.\u201d The report, mandated by the SOS 2.0 Act and sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), synthesizes all existing research on marine debris and presents a stark assessment of the amount of plastic that enters the world\u2019s oceans.\n\nAccording to the report, an estimated eight million metric tons (MMT) of plastic waste enters the world\u2019s oceans each year\u2014the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute. If current practices continue, the amount of plas\u00adtic waste discharged into the ocean could reach up to 53 MMT per year by 2030, roughly half of the total weight of fish caught from the ocean annually. The study\u2019s key recommendation is that the United States create a com\u00adprehensive federal research and policy strategy that focuses on interventions across the entire plastic life cycle to reduce the U.S. contribu\u00adtion of plastic waste to the environment, including the ocean.\n\n\u201cI want to share my appreciation for the experts at the National Academies study committee and the NOAA Marine Debris Office for their critical work on this landmark analysis that deepens our understanding of the challenge of marine debris,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cThis report is a sobering reminder of the scale of this problem, which impacts Alaska more than any other state with our 6,600 miles of coastline. The research and findings compiled here by our best scientists will serve as a springboard to our future legislative efforts to tackle this entirely solvable environmental challenge and better protect our marine ecosystems, fisheries, and coastal economies.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis National Academies study, carried out at the direction of our Save Our Seas 2.0 law, illustrates the mind-boggling scale of the global ocean plastic problem and how the U.S. contributes to it,\u201d said Senator Whitehouse. \u201cThere\u2019s a bipartisan tradition of ocean stewardship in the Senate, and I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to keep making progress cleaning up this harmful mess.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe National Academies plastic waste report, which emphasizes the negative impact of plastic pollution on coastal tourism, property values, and fisheries, is especially relevant to the safety and prosperity of communities in coastal states like New Jersey,\u201d Senator Menendez said. \u201cAs the United Nation\u2019s Environment Assembly initiates negotiations on a global agreement to combat plastic pollution this February, we are committed to ensuring the advances made in SOS 2.0 continue to guide the United States\u2019 environmental and climate leadership on the world stage.\u201d\n\n\u201cMarine debris is a threat to the health of the ocean and the species that depend on it for survival,\u201d said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. \u201cI am encouraged that this report, required by the Save our Seas 2.0 Act, which I helped lead, focuses on the importance of interventions across the entire plastic lifecycle. Improving our monitoring and waste management efforts will be important but not sufficient. We must significantly reduce the creation of plastic debris. I look forward to the implementation of this report\u2019s findings and the continued development of policies to address this critical environmental issue.\u201d\n\n\u201cHealthy oceans are essential to Alaska's economy and way of life. As Co-Chair of the House Oceans Caucus, monitoring and eliminating marine debris has been one of my highest priorities,\u201d said Congressman Don Young. \u201cLast Congress, I was proud to help champion Save our Seas 2.0, which is now law, and I am pleased to see this vital effort is producing results. I am grateful to everyone at the Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine who helped make this report possible. I will keep standing up for the health of our waters, and look forward to continuing to work with friends on both sides of the aisle to ensure recommendations from this report are explored and implemented.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/11/29/2021/murkowski-slams-interior-oil-and-gas-report", "Murkowski Slams Interior Oil and Gas Report", "2021-11-29", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Administration\u2019s Proposals Will Cut Production, Raise Prices, Increase Imports\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today released the following statement criticizing the Department of the Interior\u2019s \u201cReport on the Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Program,\u201d which it issued the day after Thanksgiving after months of unexplained delay. The report, whose preparation was frequently used to justify the Biden administration\u2019s illegal ban on oil and gas leasing, calls for higher royalties and other policy actions that would restrict access and make energy production less viable in federal areas.\n\n\u201cThis report is exactly what we thought it would be: a series of preordained conclusions that are designed to end federal oil and gas production. President Biden campaigned on that, and his administration is now advancing what amounts to a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy to achieve it,\u201d Murkowski said. \u201cWhat is especially upsetting is that it took Interior 10 months to produce a document that is just 15 pages long, lacking any meaningful analysis, and that repeatedly misrepresents how development actually works. The policies it calls for won\u2019t maximize returns for taxpayers or even reduce emissions\u2014instead, they will hurt production in states like Alaska, further raise energy prices, and increase our nation\u2019s import dependence. This won\u2019t build back any barrels, but it is \u2013 yet again \u2013 music to OPEC+\u2019s ears.\u201d\n\nFederal oil and gas production has fallen as a percentage of the U.S. total in recent years, while production on state and private lands has grown dramatically. Making the federal program less attractive than it already is will not reverse that dynamic. Nor will higher royalties, higher rental rates, the elimination of royalty relief, making fewer acres available for lease, or similar policies do anything to increase domestic energy security or lower energy prices.\n\nMurkowski today reiterated her call for congressional Democrats to drop the harmful resource provisions in their partisan budget reconciliation bill, which would codify several of the counterproductive actions called for by Interior while also going beyond them to target energy-producing states like Alaska.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-introduces-arctic-focus-act-to-direct-coast-guard-operations-to-americas-arctic", "Sullivan Introduces Arctic Focus Act to Direct Coast Guard Operations to America\u2019s Arctic", "2021-11-29", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), ranking member of the Senate Commerce subcommittee with oversight of the Coast Guard, today introduced the Arctic Focus Act, legislation to ensure the historic investments being made in the Arctic achieve their intended benefits for the United States, including improving America\u2019s ability to operate in the Arctic, securing economic opportunities as sea ice recedes and traffic increases, and addressing threats posed by America\u2019s adversaries. The Coast Guard is the lead agency tasked with safeguarding U.S. interests in the Arctic.\n\n\u201cWe are making significant investments in vessels, infrastructure, research and personnel to expand America\u2019s presence in the Arctic, yet the United States continues to trail Russia, and even China,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cIf we are to keep pace with our adversaries and realize our role as an Arctic nation, these historic investments need to be directed by policy and clearly defined objectives that advance America\u2019s economic and national security interests in this important region. I look forward to discussing the goals of the Arctic Focus Act with my colleagues as we work to protect America\u2019s sovereignty in our Arctic and build upon the enormous progress we\u2019ve made these past six years.\u201d\n\nThe Arctic Focus Act provides congressional direction to the Coast Guard to:\n\nPrioritize Arctic operations over Antarctic deployments when there are insufficient assets to conduct both operations;\n\nProvide sufficient icebreaking capacity to keep the Northwest Passage open for commerce, national defense, rescue and recovery operations, and scientific exploration by 2030;\n\nHomeport one icebreaking vessel in the Arctic by 2030, where their work exists;\n\nProvide persistent presence with at least one major cutter on patrol in the Arctic to execute search-and-rescue operations, fisheries enforcement, pollution response, and support for national defense operations.\n\nThe bill also requires the Coast Guard to report to Congress on a plan to achieve these objectives, as well as the ability to conduct a transit of the Northern Sea Route and periodic transits of the Northwest Passage.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/three-murkowski-bills-pass-out-of-energy-and-natural-resources-committee", "Three Murkowski Bills Pass Out of Energy and Natural Resources Committee", "2021-11-24", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "During a recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee business meeting, three bills sponsored by U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) were reported favorably out of committee, advancing to the full Senate for consideration.\n\nS. 2524 amends the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to make clear that dividends from Settlement Trusts cannot be considered when determining eligibility for federal need-based programs for a Native or descendant of a Native who is 65 years or older, blind, or disabled.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, when many Alaska Natives receive dividends from their Settlement Trusts, those payments can make them ineligible for certain federal assistance programs. This was never Congress\u2019 intent when Settlement Trusts were established. My legislation makes a commonsense adjustment to ensure that Alaska Natives who are blind, disabled, or over age 65, are still eligible to apply for federal needs-based assistance.\u201d\n\nS.1354 designates the 16-mile long Alaska segment of the Chilkoot Trail as a National Historic Trail. The Chilkoot Trail is a 33-mile long hiking trail connecting Dyea, Alaska, to Lake Bennett, British Columbia, which served first as a Tlingit trade route and then was used during the gold rush. Senator Murkowski\u2019s legislation also requires the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a feasibility study to determine if the proposed 500-mile Alaska Long Trail, which will connect Seward to Fairbanks, should become a National Scenic Trail.\n\nS. 2648 reauthorizes the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area (KMTA NHA). The KMTA NHA is the first and only NHA in Alaska and just one of 55 in the country. The KMTA NHA was created in the Omnibus Lands Act of 2009, a bill Senator Murkowski championed, with the intent to preserve the area\u2019s history, and to promote local recreation and tourism in Southcentral Alaska. Without this legislation, the KMTA NHA will sunset in 2024. Senator Murkowski\u2019s new bill provides an extension through 2036, ensuring that Alaska\u2019s NHA remains eligible for federal support for years to come.\n\n\u201cAlaskans are fortunate to have trails like the Chilkoot National Historic Trail and the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area. The impacts they can have on our economy, public health, and well-being cannot be understated. I\u2019m proud to lead legislation in support of them both,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cI\u2019m also encouraged that the committee got behind my bill requiring a feasibility study on whether to designate the Alaska Long Trail as a National Scenic Trail\u2014something many Alaskans have supported for years. I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance these bills through the Senate.\u201d\n\nRelated Issues: Energy", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-biden-administrations-decision-to-tap-strategic-petroleum-reserve-is-misguided-and-insufficient", "Murkowski: Biden Administration\u2019s Decision to Tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve is Misguided and Insufficient", "2021-11-23", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Calls on Administration to Increase Domestic Production\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today issued the following statement after the Biden administration announced it will exchange and sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which is meant to be used to respond to severe energy supply disruptions. Murkowski knocked the administration for pursuing this false solution \u2013 debunked as recently as last week at a hearing held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee \u2013 after months of supply-side restrictions that have added to current prices and kept U.S. energy producers on the sidelines.\n\n\u201cAmericans, especially Alaskans, are being hurt by the impacts of rising energy costs. The Biden administration is responsible for providing substantive relief, but tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not going to provide it.\n\n\u201cJust last week in the Senate Energy Committee we heard from experts that releasing SPR oil will only result in temporary relief at the pump\u2014maybe a few cents per gallon at best. The prices of Brent and WTI crude have actually increased in response to this announcement. And reports suggest that if these sales ever do marginally decrease the price of oil, OPEC+ will decrease production to offset it\u2014wiping out any benefit this could have.\n\n\u201cCalls to restrict domestic exports are equally misguided and will be just as counterproductive. Credible analyses have shown that domestic exports do not increase domestic prices. Restricting our exports would ignore the last six years of real-world experience, where the United States emerged as the world's swing producer and brought prices to affordable levels.\n\n\"In Alaska, the average price of gas today is $3.71 a gallon compared to a year ago when it was $2.48. The SPR band-aid will not come close to making up that difference, and may well backfire as a half-solution to a real problem. So I call on President Biden and his team to do the one thing that will make a difference: admit that long-term supply matters. Our supply matters. Work with American energy producers to increase domestic production. Drop the hostility against them, drop the supply-side restrictions, and recognize that producing more here at home is the best solution for lower prices.\u201d\n\nRelated Issues: Energy", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-statement-on-biden-decision-to-tap-strategic-petroleum-reserve", "Sullivan Statement on Biden Decision to Tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve", "2021-11-23", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) today issued the following statement regarding President Biden\u2019s decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to tame skyrocketing gas prices.\n\n\u201cThe Biden administration\u2019s incompetent and schizophrenic energy policies continue, and America\u2019s working families are paying the price. Since Day 1, this administration has purposely sought to raise energy prices, by limiting the production of American energy, killing energy infrastructure like pipelines, and strong-arming American financial institutions to not invest in American energy projects, particularly in Alaska, all the while begging OPEC and our adversaries like Russia to produce more energy.\n\n\u201cTapping our nation\u2019s Strategic Petroleum Reserve is political window dressing that will do little to counteract the Biden administration\u2019s own destructive Green New Deal policies.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I have a better idea. Get the boot of the federal government off the neck of energy producers in Alaska and other energy states and let them do what they do best\u2014produce American energy for America with American workers and the highest environmental standards in the world! Don\u2019t tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, tap into the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPRA)\u2014where billions of barrels of oil are just waiting to be produced.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/grant-roundup-senator-murkowski-announces-grants-going-to-alaska-", "Grant Roundup: Senator Murkowski Announces Grants Going to Alaska", "2021-11-22", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a senior member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced the following grants heading to organizations, Tribal entities, and communities in Alaska:\n\nCordova: $20 million for the Cordova South Harbor Rebuild from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability & Equity (RAISE) grant program.\n\nThis project will restore South Harbor floats and docks, including sheet piling and dredging, and construction of a new drive-down floatplane and vessel service dock.\n\nHaines: $20 million RAISE grant for the Haines Lutak Dock replacement.\n\nThis project will complete development and construction to (1) relocate the existing boat launch ramp and creating a new uplands area; and (2) demolish the entire Lutak Dock and replace it with a bulkhead, fenders, and mooring dolphins.\n\nNunakauyarmiut Tribe: $12 million RAISE grant for the trail to Mertarvik.\n\nThis project will install an approximately 30-mile Geocell trail to connect the newly relocated Mertarvik Village to the existing transportation system infrastructure (trails system) on Nelson Island.\n\nStatewide: $10.2 million with a Tribal set aside of $7.19 million to Alaska from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Office of Community Services at the Administration for Children and Families\u2019 (ACF) Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.\n\nStatewide: $4.95 million Alaska Native Women\u2019s Resource Center from ACF.\n\nFort Wainwright: $31.19 million to the Watterson Construction Company to construct a large child development center.\n\nYakutat: $454,343 to the Yakutat Community Health Center to purchase devices, including laptops and tablets, and enhance its telemedicine services to provide underserved and low-income patients in the Yakutat area access to a variety of healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nBethel: $520,597 to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation for telehealth devices, including new network hardware, software, and wireless access points, to expand telehealth capabilities that are integral to successful patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nFairbanks: $6.2 million for a research project focused on building community resilience.\n\nAnchorage: $50,000 to the Anchorage Museum Association for a project entitled, \u201cFuture Forward: People, Place and Planet.\u201d\n\nThe Anchorage Museum will use these funds to hire new museum staff and train existing staff to develop community relationships, partnerships, networks, and alliances.\n\nCordova: $23,000 to the Cordova Public Library\u2019s Digital Services Librarian.\n\nThe Cordova Public Library in Cordova will significantly expand its digital services for patrons in this geographically isolated rural community.\n\nUnalaska: $38,795 to the Museum of the Aleutians for the Archaeological Catalog and Community Outreach Project.\n\nThe Museum of the Aleutians in Unalaska will catalogue and re-house archaeological materials and include them in the Alaska Digital Archives and on the museum's website.\n\nAngoon: $48,457 to Kootznoowoo, Inc. for the Angoon Artisan Library.\n\nThe village of Angoon, Alaska-home to the Deisheetan clan of the Tlingit Tribe will create an artists' workshop with a library and resource center that will help this remote community address the social isolation and lack of access to cultural activities that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nKake: $49,062 to Organized Village of Kake to modernize the Tribe\u2019s archives.\n\nThe Organized Village of Kake, a federally recognized Alaskan Tribe, will transform the Tribe's archival collection from a library-only version to an easy-to-use, publicly available online platform to help the community foster positive and lasting improvements and combat some of the social and cultural isolation it has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nWrangell: $14,040 to Wrangell Cooperative Association for additional staffing to recover lost public hours.\n\nThe Irene Ingle Public Library in Wrangell will expand its operating hours to better serve patrons on a more regular basis.\n\nGrants from the Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for economic relief funds for costs related to operations, personnel, cleaning, sanitization, janitorial services, debt service payments, and combating the spread of pathogens at these airports:\n\nKing Salmon: $1,218,064 to the King Salmon Airport\n\nQuinhagak: $32,000 to the Native Village of Kwinhagak for the Quinhagak Airport\n\nWainwright: $32,000 to the North Slope Borough for the Wainwright Airport\n\nAtqasuk: $32,000 to the North Slope Borough for the Atqasuk Edward Burnell Sr. Memorial Airport\n\nUtqiagvik: $1.2 million to the Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport\n\nAnchorage: $42.12 million to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport\n\nAniak: $1.06 million to the Aniak Airport\n\nUnalaska: $1.13 million to the Unalaska Airport\n\nBethel: $2.4 million to the Bethel Airport\n\nKodiak: $1.57 million to the Kodiak Airport\n\nCordova: $1.09 million to the Merle K (Mudhole) Smith Airport from the Federal Aviation Administration\n\nVenetie: $22,000 to the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government for the Arctic Village Airport\n\nNenana: $22,000 to the Nenana Municipal Airport\n\nAnaktuvuk: $32,000 to Anaktuvuk Pass Airport\n\nKlawock: $1,063,974 for the Klawock Airport\n\nFairbanks: $6.36 million to the Fairbanks International Airport\n\nSitka: $1.65 million to the Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport\n\nDeadhorse: $1.36 to the Deadhorse Airport\n\nNome: $1.32 million to the Nome Airport\n\nWrangell: $1.07 million to the Wrangell Airport\n\nAnchorage: $1.13 million to the Merrill Field Airport\n\nPoint Lay: $22,000 to the Point Lay LRRS Airport\n\nKenai: $1.71 million to the Kenai Municipal Airport\n\nSt. Mary\u2019s: $1.05 million to the St. Mary\u2019s Airport\n\nHaines: $1.04 million to the Haines Airport\n\nGrants from the Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration which will provide economic relief from rent and minimum annual guarantees to small airport concessions located at primary airports.\n\nJuneau: $393,387 to Juneau International Airport\n\nAnchorage: $2.34 million to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport\n\nAnchorage: $15,556 to the Lake Hood Airport", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-sullivan-introduce-landless-legislation-to-rectify-50-year-injustice", "Murkowski, Sullivan Introduce Landless Legislation to Rectify 50-Year Injustice", "2021-11-22", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Provides Lands and Rights Under ANCSA for Five Southeast Communities\n\nU.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, introduced updated legislation to allow the Alaska Native communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Tenakee to form urban corporations and receive land entitlements under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The five Southeast communities were not included in ANCSA, which divided 44 million acres of land among more than 200 regional, village, and urban corporations to resolve land claims throughout Alaska, when it became law in 1971.\n\nThe legislation, the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act, aims to rectify that injustice by amending ANCSA to provide each community with the opportunities it granted to other Native communities 50 years ago: the right to form an Alaska Native Urban Corporation and receive 23,040 acres, or one township, of federal land.\n\n\u201cThe culture and heritage of Alaska Native peoples is intricately tied to the land on which they live. The unique regions they have inhabited for centuries are directly connected to their identity,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cUnfortunately, five communities were not afforded the same benefits under ANCSA \u2013 access to land \u2013 that were granted to others throughout Southeast. It is past time the federal government make good on its promises to each of the communities that were left out of this significant agreement. I\u2019m proud to work with Senator Sullivan, Congressman Young, and local stakeholders to correct this decades-long wrongdoing and provide equity to these landless communities.\u201d\n\nListen here to Senator Murkowski\u2019s quote.\n\n\u201cFor years, Alaska Native residents in five southeast communities have been denied the land and opportunities afforded by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, a historic injustice that Congress has a duty to rectify. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the passage of ANCSA, I am hopeful my colleagues will recognize the federal laws and circumstances that uniquely impact Alaska and join Senator Murkowski and me in quickly advancing our legislation for the benefit of our constituents,\u201d said Senator Sullivan.\n\n\u201cThis legislation is a testimony to perseverance and hard work and having an Alaskan delegation who not only listened but took up the shield and said to all five communities. They not only would tell us it was a terrible wrong but along with their hard working staffs, would help to end this inequity to the five communities. The Ketchikan Indian shareholders all want to thank Lisa Murkowski for her steadfast support all these years when it would have been just as easy to feign support and never bring this bill forward. Senator Murkowski, instead, always said let\u2019s get this bill done so we can introduce it and right this wrong. That conviction is admirable and because of her and the other Alaskan delegation support, this historic bill has been introduced,\u201d said Randy Williams, Tribal Administrator of the Tribal Council of Ketchikan Indian Community.\n\nU.S. Congressman Don Young (R-AK) previously introduced similar legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.\n\nTo read the legislation, click here. To see the Forest Service\u2019s maps, click here.\n\nBackground:\n\nThe legislation is the result of extensive and ongoing outreach to stakeholders in Southeast Alaska. It identifies specific parcels of land that would be conveyed to the new urban corporations, which are depicted on official maps produced by the U.S. Forest Service. The legislation also includes provisions to protect existing rights-of-way and many existing uses of those lands and to ensure that reasonable public access can continue.\n\nIn November 2020, Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Young introduced their original landless legislation, upon which today\u2019s newly introduced bill was built.\n\nFollowing introduction, during an Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining (PLFM) legislative hearing, Senator Murkowski raised her bill, S. 4889, the ANCSA Fulfillment Act, a package which aimed to resolve a number of outstanding issues related to the landmark 1971 law, including authorizing the five landless communities in southeast Alaska to form urban corporations and receive lands. Senator Sullivan was also a cosponsor of S. 4889.\n\nEarlier this year, staff from the Alaska Congressional delegation traveled throughout southeast Alaska to hold community meetings and to discuss the legislation with impacted stakeholders. Feedback from those meetings was critical in developing this text.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murkowski-sullivan-introduce-landless-legislation-to-rectify-50-year-injustice", "Murkowski, Sullivan Introduce Landless Legislation to Rectify 50-Year Injustice", "2021-11-22", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "Provides Lands and Rights Under ANCSA for Five Southeast Communities\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, introduced updated legislation to allow the Alaska Native communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Tenakee to form urban corporations and receive land entitlements under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The five Southeast communities were not included in ANCSA, which divided 44 million acres of land among more than 200 regional, village, and urban corporations to resolve land claims throughout Alaska, when it became law in 1971.\n\nThe legislation, the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act, aims to rectify that injustice by amending ANCSA to provide each community with the opportunities it granted to other Native communities 50 years ago: the right to form an Alaska Native Urban Corporation and receive 23,040 acres, or one township, of federal land.\n\n\u201cThe culture and heritage of Alaska Native peoples is intricately tied to the land on which they live. The unique regions they have inhabited for centuries are directly connected to their identity,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cUnfortunately, five communities were not afforded the same benefits under ANCSA \u2013 access to land \u2013 that were granted to others throughout Southeast. It is past time the federal government make good on its promises to each of the communities that were left out of this significant agreement. I\u2019m proud to work with Senator Sullivan, Congressman Young, and local stakeholders to correct this decades-long wrongdoing and provide equity to these landless communities.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor years, Alaska Native residents in five southeast communities have been denied the land and opportunities afforded by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, a historic injustice that Congress has a duty to rectify. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the passage of ANCSA, I am hopeful my colleagues will recognize the federal laws and circumstances that uniquely impact Alaska and join Senator Murkowski and me in quickly advancing our legislation for the benefit of our constituents,\u201d said Senator Sullivan.\n\n\u201cThis legislation is a testimony to perseverance and hard work and having an Alaskan delegation who not only listened but took up the shield and said to all five communities. They not only would tell us it was a terrible wrong but along with their hard working staffs, would help to end this inequity to the five communities. The Ketchikan Indian shareholders all want to thank Lisa Murkowski for her steadfast support all these years when it would have been just as easy to feign support and never bring this bill forward. Senator Murkowski, instead, always said let\u2019s get this bill done so we can introduce it and right this wrong. That conviction is admirable and because of her and the other Alaskan delegation support, this historic bill has been introduced,\u201d said Randy Williams, Tribal Administrator of the Tribal Council of Ketchikan Indian Community.\n\nU.S. Congressman Don Young (R-AK) previously introduced similar legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.\n\nTo read the legislation, click here. To see the Forest Service\u2019s maps, click here.\n\nBackground:\n\nThe legislation is the result of extensive and ongoing outreach to stakeholders in Southeast Alaska. It identifies specific parcels of land that would be conveyed to the new urban corporations, which are depicted on official maps produced by the U.S. Forest Service. The legislation also includes provisions to protect existing rights-of-way and many existing uses of those lands and to ensure that reasonable public access can continue.\n\nIn November 2020, Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Young introduced their original landless legislation, upon which today\u2019s newly introduced bill was built.\n\nFollowing introduction, during an Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining (PLFM) legislative hearing, Senator Murkowski raised her bill, S. 4889, the ANCSA Fulfillment Act, a package which aimed to resolve a number of outstanding issues related to the landmark 1971 law, including authorizing the five landless communities in southeast Alaska to form urban corporations and receive lands. Senator Sullivan was also a cosponsor of S. 4889.\n\nEarlier this year, staff from the Alaska Congressional delegation traveled throughout southeast Alaska to hold community meetings and to discuss the legislation with impacted stakeholders. Feedback from those meetings was critical in developing this text.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/alaska-delegation-criticizes-biden-administration-rule-to-restrict-economic-activity-across-the-tongass-", "Alaska Delegation Criticizes Biden Administration Rule to Restrict Economic Activity Across the Tongass", "2021-11-20", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, issued the following statements after the U.S. Forest Service announced it will attempt to re-impose near-blanket restrictions on road construction and other economic activities across millions of acres of the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service will seek to do this by proposing a new rule to reinstate the 2001 Roadless Rule, despite finalizing a different rule to exempt the Tongass from the 2001 rule barely a year ago.\n\n\u201cThis is a frustrating decision that will impact not just timber, but a wide range of industries in Southeast Alaska\u2014tourism, recreation, mining, energy development, and transportation alike\u2014so we will fight it,\u201d Senator Murkowski said. \u201cIt is needless, given the level of protections that already exist for the Tongass. It misses a genuine opportunity to work together to establish a sustainable regional economy. And it is exasperating, given that we just passed a historic infrastructure bill, that the Biden administration is intent on returning the Tongass to an overly restrictive environment where projects almost always take longer and cost more, if they can proceed at all. Everything from the deployment of broadband to the development of more affordable energy stands to suffer under a return to the failed Roadless Rule.\u201d\n\n\u201cLike many Alaskans, I am deeply frustrated by the Biden administration\u2019s continued assault on our state. This latest announcement announcement by Secretary Vilsack shows a complete disregard for the interests of Alaska\u2019s hard-working families,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cInstead of serving as puppets for the extreme leftist environmental groups who have no interest in promoting economic opportunities in our state, the Biden administration should recognize that Alaskans in Southeast\u2014like any Americans\u2014have a right to connect their communities, sustain local economies, build renewable energy projects, and responsibly harvest resources, all of which is being crushed by a return to this overly-burdensome and out-of-touch regulation.\u201d\n\n\u201cUSDA Secretary Vilsack \u2014 who works in a federal agency office 3,000 miles away from our state \u2014 doubled down on this Administration's record of hostility toward Alaska. Earlier this year, I implored Secretary Vilsack to come to Southeast to visit our communities before making a decision on the Tongass. Clearly, he did not. Those in Southeast, including Alaska Natives, know how to balance environmental protection with development; they have been doing it for years. To lock up the Tongass, as Secretary Vilsack is doing, sends the message that this Administration does not trust Alaskans to take care of the very environment in which they live. All our communities are asking for are the same things many people in the Lower 48 take for granted: transportation, economic opportunity, outdoor recreation, and the ability to stay connected with one another. This is truly a sad day for Alaska,\u201d said Congressman Young. \u201cTo the countless families whose economic opportunity and chances of a better life are being snuffed out by the Biden Administration, I want you to know that I will keep fighting for you. I will not stop working until my constituents in Southeast receive the trust and respect they deserve from the people in D.C. who continue to think they know what is best for them.\u201d\n\nThe Tongass spans nearly 16.7 million acres, covering nearly all of southeast Alaska, and is home to 32 islanded communities. For decades, successive layers of federal law and regulation, including the Roadless Rule, have continually restricted access needed for timber, mining, tourism, recreation, and the development of more affordable renewable resources such as hydropower.\n\nSeparate and apart from the Roadless Rule, the Tongass is already well protected under existing law. Some 91 percent of the forest is already conserved in Wilderness, Wilderness National Monument, or Inventoried Roadless Areas\u2014meaning only nine percent of the Tongass is available for any kind of development.\n\nIn 2018, the Forest Service announced it would develop a state-specific Roadless Rule focused on the Tongass. The Alaska-specific rule, finalized in October 2020, exempted the Tongass from the one-size-fits-all Roadless Rule, which established sweeping prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvest on inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands beginning in 2001. The 2020 rule came in response to a petition from the State of Alaska requesting a full exemption for the Tongass, and helped restore balanced management and reasonable economic prospects within the Tongass.\n\nNow, the Forest Service has announced that on Tuesday, November 23, it will formally propose a rule to reinstate the 2001 Roadless Rule across the Tongass. The proposed rule will be open for public comment for 60 days. More information can be found here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/alaska-delegation-criticizes-biden-administration-rule-to-restrict-economic-activity-across-the-tongass", "Alaska Delegation Criticizes Biden Administration Rule to Restrict Economic Activity Across the Tongass", "2021-11-20", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON--U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, issued the following statements after the U.S. Forest Service announced it will attempt to re-impose near-blanket restrictions on road construction and other economic activities across millions of acres of the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service will seek to do this by proposing a new rule to reinstate the 2001 Roadless Rule, despite finalizing a different rule to exempt the Tongass from the 2001 rule barely a year ago.\n\n\u201cThis is a frustrating decision that will impact not just timber, but a wide range of industries in Southeast Alaska\u2014tourism, recreation, mining, energy development, and transportation alike\u2014so we will fight it,\u201d Senator Murkowski said. \u201cIt is needless, given the level of protections that already exist for the Tongass. It misses a genuine opportunity to work together to establish a sustainable regional economy. And it is exasperating, given that we just passed a historic infrastructure bill, that the Biden administration is intent on returning the Tongass to an overly restrictive environment where projects almost always take longer and cost more, if they can proceed at all. Everything from the deployment of broadband to the development of more affordable energy stands to suffer under a return to the failed Roadless Rule.\u201d\n\n\u201cLike many Alaskans, I am deeply frustrated by the Biden administration\u2019s continued assault on our state. This latest announcement by Secretary Vilsack shows a complete disregard for the interests of Alaska\u2019s hard-working families,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cInstead of serving as puppets for the extreme leftist environmental groups who have no interest in promoting economic opportunities in our state, the Biden administration should recognize that Alaskans in Southeast\u2014like any Americans\u2014have a right to connect their communities, sustain local economies, build renewable energy projects, and responsibly harvest resources, all of which is being crushed by a return to this overly-burdensome and out-of-touch regulation.\u201d\n\n\u201cUSDA Secretary Vilsack \u2014 who works in a federal agency office 3,000 miles away from our state \u2014 doubled down on this Administration's record of hostility toward Alaska. Earlier this year, I implored Secretary Vilsack to come to Southeast to visit our communities before making a decision on the Tongass. Clearly, he did not. Those in Southeast, including Alaska Natives, know how to balance environmental protection with development; they have been doing it for years. To lock up the Tongass, as Secretary Vilsack is doing, sends the message that this Administration does not trust Alaskans to take care of the very environment in which they live. All our communities are asking for are the same things many people in the Lower 48 take for granted: transportation, economic opportunity, outdoor recreation, and the ability to stay connected with one another. This is truly a sad day for Alaska,\u201d said Congressman Young. \u201cTo the countless families whose economic opportunity and chances of a better life are being snuffed out by the Biden Administration, I want you to know that I will keep fighting for you. I will not stop working until my constituents in Southeast receive the trust and respect they deserve from the people in D.C. who continue to think they know what is best for them.\u201d\n\nThe Tongass spans nearly 16.7 million acres, covering nearly all of southeast Alaska, and is home to 32 islanded communities. For decades, successive layers of federal law and regulation, including the Roadless Rule, have continually restricted access needed for timber, mining, tourism, recreation, and the development of more affordable renewable resources such as hydropower.\n\nSeparate and apart from the Roadless Rule, the Tongass is already well protected under existing law. Some 91 percent of the forest is already conserved in Wilderness, Wilderness National Monument, or Inventoried Roadless Areas\u2014meaning only nine percent of the Tongass is available for any kind of development.\n\nIn 2018, the Forest Service announced it would develop a state-specific Roadless Rule focused on the Tongass. The Alaska-specific rule, finalized in October 2020, exempted the Tongass from the one-size-fits-all Roadless Rule, which established sweeping prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvest on inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands beginning in 2001. The 2020 rule came in response to a petition from the State of Alaska requesting a full exemption for the Tongass, and helped restore balanced management and reasonable economic prospects within the Tongass.\n\nNow, the Forest Service has announced that on Tuesday, November 23, it will formally propose a rule to reinstate the 2001 Roadless Rule across the Tongass. The proposed rule will be open for public comment for 60 days. More information can be found here.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/delegation-condemns-harmful_resource-provisions-in-partisan-reconciliation-bill", "Delegation Condemns Harmful  Resource Provisions in Partisan Reconciliation Bill", "2021-11-19", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Congressman Don Young (all R-Alaska) today sharply criticized the House of Representatives\u2019 passage of a partisan reconciliation bill that would repeal the oil and gas program for the non-wilderness portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). That provision is among several in the bill that would harm Alaska\u2019s ability to responsibly produce energy and mineral resources needed by the rest of the country and the world.\n\n\u201cThe House reconciliation bill is entirely partisan, and nowhere more so than in its resource provisions. Those policies\u2014which are all but designed to eliminate energy and mineral production in federal areas\u2014are a gift to OPEC, Russia, and China at the worst possible time. And none are more offensive than repeal of the oil and gas program in the non-wilderness 1002 Area of ANWR that we fought so hard to win in 2017,\u201d Murkowski said. \u201cIn the midst of high energy prices and mounting inflation, responsible domestic production from Alaska, including the prospective 1002 Area is needed more than ever. Despite that, House Democrats and the Biden administration are trying to throw it all away through an illegal taking that would fundamentally alter how U.S. leases have been administered for decades. We will do everything we can to strike the ANWR provision \u2013 and others \u2013 from the reconciliation bill when it comes to the Senate, but if that proves impossible, AIDEA as a leaseholder should be ready to sue.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom day one of his administration, President Biden and congressional Democrats have engaged in an all-out war on Alaska\u2019s economy and the domestic energy sector. This provision in the Democrats\u2019 reckless tax-and-spending spree is simply the latest outrageous salvo in this war,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cThe bottom line is this: In the middle of a nationwide energy price spike, President Biden is intent on giving pink slips to hard-working Americans and Alaskans and decimating the U.S. energy sector, while begging OPEC and Russia to produce more oil. Those are facts. As winter approaches, I expect millions of Americans will be watching many of these senators closely to see if they go along with the President\u2019s radical, anti-energy agenda that is hurting hard-working Alaskan and American families.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am disappointed but not surprised that my Democratic colleagues have once again put a target on Alaska's energy sector. Democrats insist that the bill they passed this morning will help us 'Build Back Better,' but with the anti-ANWR provisions included in the bill, all they will accomplish is a betrayal of our dedicated energy workers and their families, forcing them to 'Build Back Broke.' The anti-Alaska language included in this bill is an affront to our energy workforce, including a good deal of union members. If the concern is carbon emissions, what sense does it make to shut down responsible energy production in ANWR only to force a greater reliance on foreign oil from countries with far lower environmental standards? I will continue to oppose any attempts to repeal the ANWR leasing program, whether through this misguided reconciliation bill or any other legislative measure. This is not the time to roll back the progress we made on ANWR's coastal plain. When it comes to responsible energy exploration in ANWR, the facts are clear: the Arctic I\u00f1upiat community of Kaktovik supports it, the State of Alaska supports it, and the Alaska Delegation's Members from both parties have always supported it,\u201d said Congressman Young. \u201cI was a strong NO vote on the reconciliation bill and will keep fighting against efforts from the Lower 48 to lock up our state.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nIn 2017, the resource title of H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, authorized the surface development of up to 2,000 federal acres of the non-wilderness 1002 Area, equivalent to roughly one ten-thousandth of all of ANWR. ANWR itself spans 19.3 million acres, an area of land roughly equal in size to South Carolina, in northeast Alaska.\n\nIn 1980, Congress designated more than eight million acres within ANWR as federal wilderness as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. That same legislation set aside the 1.57-million-acre Coastal Plain for petroleum exploration and potential future development, which is supported by a majority of Alaskans. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the 1002 Area contains 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil that could be sent to states like California, which has grown significantly more dependent on foreign oil as Alaska production has declined.\n\nFrom 2017 through 2020, the Trump administration conducted extensive consultation, analysis, and review to develop an environmentally protective development program for the 1002 Area in accordance with the law. The Record of Decision included significant no surface occupancy and operational timing limitations for hundreds of thousands of acres in the 1002 Area, along with nine additional lease stipulations and 44 required operating procedures. The first lease sale was held in January 2021, resulting in 13 bids and nine leases being awarded to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA).\n\nIn addition to the provision to repeal the 1002 Area program and cancel all leases awarded under it, House Democrats\u2019 partisan reconciliation bill would raise federal oil and gas royalties; hike minimum bid and annual rental rates; increase bonding requirements; reduce the length of lease terms; impose a range of new or higher fees and fines; eliminate royalty relief; and place most of the Outer Continental Shelf under a permanent leasing moratorium. The measure would also rewrite standards for federal land use and management; provide funding for new mining regulations; and grant the Bureau of Land Management unilateral authority to withdraw any of its lands from entry, appropriation, disposal, location, and patent.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senators-introduce-bill-focused-on-blue-carbon-ecosystems-", "Senators Introduce Bill Focused on Blue Carbon Ecosystems", "2021-11-19", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Ecosystems Provide Environmental Benefits, Sequester Atmospheric Carbon\n\nSenate Oceans Caucus Co-Chairs U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) reintroduced the Blue Carbon for Our Planet Act, legislation focused on conserving, restoring, and understanding coastal blue carbon ecosystems.\n\nBlue carbon ecosystems\u2014which include mangroves, tidal marshes, seagrasses, and kelp forests\u2014provide a buffer from storm- or wave-driven coastal erosion, improve water quality, and serve as habitat for juvenile fish while also removing carbon from the ocean and atmosphere. The Blue Carbon for Our Planet Act addresses the need to more fully comprehend how these ecosystems help to mitigate climate change and its impacts, and how we can better leverage that capacity in the future.\n\nClick here for bill text.\n\n\u201cBlue carbon ecosystems have great potential to help mitigate the impacts of climate change in Alaska and elsewhere. By protecting our shorelines from coastal erosion, storing incredible amounts of carbon, and helping to address ocean acidification, these ecosystems are a significant asset in our efforts to protect the planet,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cImportant research is taking place in Alaska to better understand the potential for carbon storage in kelp forests and wetlands, and this bill will strengthen our ability to better understand how to safeguard them.\u201d\n\nListen here for Senator Murkowski\u2019s quote.\n\n\u201cFrom Rhode Island to Alaska, our oceans are in trouble. The coastal wetlands that make up the first line of defense against climate change are rapidly disappearing,\u201d said Senator Whitehouse. \u201cOur bipartisan bill would help preserve the tidal marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, and kelp forests that provide a natural buffer to rising seas and absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.\u201d\n\nThe Blue Carbon for Our Planet Act would:\n\nEstablish an Interagency Working Group on Coastal Blue Carbon, under the National Science and Technology Council\u2019s Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, to guide the bill\u2019s overarching initiatives. The Interagency Working Group would be chaired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator.\n\nDirect the Interagency Working Group to coordinate the development and maintenance of a national map of coastal blue carbon ecosystems and their characteristics, including carbon sequestration potential and net greenhouse gas reductions; establish restoration priorities for these ecosystems and assess impediments to their restoration; develop a national strategy for studying the effects of climate change and human and environmental stressors on coastal blue carbon sequestration rates; and secure the continuity and use of all related data assets.\n\nRequire the Interagency Working Group to submit a report to Congress summarizing federally funded coastal blue carbon ecosystem research, monitoring, preservation, and restoration activities.\n\nRequire the Interagency Working Group to create, and revise every five years, a strategic plan for federal investments in basic research, development, demonstration long-term monitoring and stewardship, and deployment of coastal blue carbon projects.\n\nDirect the NOAA Administrator to partner with State, local, and Tribal governments and coastal stakeholders to develop pilot programs to restore degraded coastal blue carbon ecosystems in geographically, socioeconomically, and ecologically diverse locations where restoration could yield significant ecosystem, social, coastal protection, and carbon sequestration benefits.\n\nDirect the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to provide for the long-term use of\u2014and incorporation of global and national data assets into\u2014the Coastal Carbon Data Clearinghouse, an existing repository of coastal carbon data housed under the Smithsonian\u2019s Environmental Research Center.\n\nInstruct the NOAA Administrator to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to assess the effects of, and existing technologies for, carbon dioxide storage in the deep seafloor environment; methods and technologies for removal of dissolved carbon dioxide from the ocean; and the feasibility of the use of coastal macroalgae cultivation and sustainable wetland management and restoration for carbon sequestration.\n\nAuthorize $15 million to be appropriated to the NOAA Administrator for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 to support its initiatives.\n\nThe Blue Carbon for Our Planet Act does not provide new authority for the President or any member of the administration to withdraw federal lands or waters.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/delegation-condemns-harmful-resource-provisions-in-partisan-reconciliation-bill", "Delegation Condemns Harmful Resource Provisions in Partisan Reconciliation Bill", "2021-11-19", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young, (all R-Alaska) today sharply criticized the House of Representatives\u2019 passage of a partisan reconciliation bill that would repeal the oil and gas program for the non-wilderness portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). That provision is among several in the bill that would harm Alaska\u2019s ability to responsibly produce energy and mineral resources needed by the rest of the country and the world.\n\n\u201cThe House reconciliation bill is entirely partisan, and nowhere more so than in its resource provisions. Those policies\u2014which are all but designed to eliminate energy and mineral production in federal areas\u2014are a gift to OPEC, Russia, and China at the worst possible time.And none are more offensive than repeal of the oil and gas program in the non-wilderness 1002 Area of ANWR that we fought so hard to win in 2017,\u201d Sen. Murkowski said. \u201cIn the midst of high energy prices and mounting inflation, responsible domestic production from Alaska, including the prospective 1002 Area is needed more than ever. Despite that, House Democrats and the Biden administration are trying to throw it all away through an illegal taking that would fundamentally alter how U.S. leases have been administered for decades. We will do everything we can to strike the ANWR provision \u2013 and others \u2013 from the reconciliation bill when it comes to the Senate, but if that proves impossible, AIDEA as a leaseholder should be ready to sue.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom day one of his administration, President Biden and congressional Democrats have engaged in an all-out war on Alaska\u2019s economy and the domestic energy sector. This provision in the Democrats\u2019 reckless tax-and-spending spree is simply the latest outrageous salvo in this war,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cThe bottom line is this: In the middle of a nationwide energy price spike, President Biden is intent on giving pink slips to hard-working Americans and Alaskans and decimating the U.S. energy sector, while begging OPEC and Russia to produce more oil. Those are facts. As winter approaches, I expect millions of Americans will be watching many of these senators closely to see if they go along with the President\u2019s radical, anti-energy agenda that is hurting hard-working Alaskan and American families.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am disappointed but not surprised that my Democratic colleagues have once again put a target on Alaska's energy sector. Democrats insist that the bill they passed this morning will help us 'Build Back Better,' but with the anti-ANWR provisions included in the bill, all they will accomplish is a betrayal of our dedicated energy workers and their families, forcing them to 'Build Back Broke.' The anti-Alaska language included in this bill is an affront to our energy workforce, including a good deal of union members. If the concern is carbon emissions, what sense does it make to shut down responsible energy production in ANWR only to force a greater reliance on foreign oil from countries with far lower environmental standards? I will continue to oppose any attempts to repeal the ANWR leasing program, whether through this misguided reconciliation bill or any other legislative measure. This is not the time to roll back the progress we made on ANWR's coastal plain. When it comes to responsible energy exploration in ANWR, the facts are clear: the Arctic I\u00f1upiat community of Kaktovik supports it, the State of Alaska supports it, and the Alaska Delegation's Members from both parties have always supported it,\u201d said Congressman Young. \u201cI was a strong NO vote on the reconciliation bill and will keep fighting against efforts from the Lower 48 to lock up our state.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nIn 2017, the resource title of H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, authorized the surface development of up to 2,000 federal acres of the non-wilderness 1002 Area, equivalent to roughly one ten-thousandth of all of ANWR. ANWR itself spans 19.3 million acres, an area of land roughly equal in size to South Carolina, in northeast Alaska.\n\nIn 1980, Congress designated more than eight million acres within ANWR as federal wilderness as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). That same legislation set aside the 1.57-million-acre Coastal Plain for petroleum exploration and potential future development, which is supported by a majority of Alaskans. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the 1002 Area contains 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil that could be sent to states, like California, that have grown significantly more dependent on foreign oil as Alaska production has declined.\n\nFrom 2017 through 2020, the Trump administration conducted extensive consultation, analysis, and review to develop an environmentally protective development program for the 1002 Area in accordance with the law. The Record of Decision included significant no surface occupancy and operational timing limitations for hundreds of thousands of acres in the 1002 Area, along with nine additional lease stipulations and 44 required operating procedures. The first lease sale was held in January 2021, resulting in 13 bids and nine leases being awarded to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA).\n\nIn addition to the provision to repeal the 1002 Area program and cancel all leases awarded under it, House Democrats\u2019 partisan reconciliation bill would raise federal oil and gas royalties; hike minimum bid and annual rental rates; increase bonding requirements; reduce the length of lease terms; impose a range of new or higher fees and fines; eliminate royalty relief; and place most of the Outer Continental Shelf under a permanent leasing moratorium. The measure would also rewrite standards for federal land use and management; provide funding for new mining regulations; and grant the Bureau of Land Management unilateral authority to withdraw any of its lands from entry, appropriation, disposal, location, and patent.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-statement-on-house-passage-of-democrats-reckless-tax-and-spending-bill", "Sullivan Statement on House Passage of Democrats\u2019 Reckless Tax and Spending Bill", "2021-11-19", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) issued the following statement after passage of the Democrats\u2019 reckless tax and spending bill in the House of Representatives.\n\n\u201cThe out-of-control spending being driven by radical far-left Democrats is going to do real, lasting damage to our economy. It\u2019s going to have a huge cost for our country and American taxpayers are going to be the ones paying for it, both in terms of new taxes and inflation,\u201d Sen. Sullivan said. \u201cWith the skyrocketing prices we\u2019re already seeing as a result of the Biden administration\u2019s failed policies, hard-working families in Alaska are paying more at the gas pump, the grocery store, and to heat their homes this winter. The Democrats\u2019 reckless tax and spending bill is only going to make matters worse.\n\n\u201cThis socialist spending spree is nothing more than a partisan liberal wish-list loaded with radical policies, like the Green New Deal, that will effectively kill the affordable and reliable energy that comes from American oil, natural gas, and coal from federal lands and waters. This bill is going to stick hard-working families with higher costs, lower wages and less freedom. I will fight like hell in the Senate to stop it.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-announces-anchorage-alaska-chosen-as-home-for-ted-stevens-center-for-arctic-security-studies", "Murkowski Announces Anchorage, Alaska Chosen as Home for Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies", "2021-11-17", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski today announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) selected Anchorage, Alaska as the location for the new Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. Named in honor of the late U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, the Stevens Center will support and strengthen advances DoD is making in the Arctic, using security cooperation, research and academia, and diplomacy. The Center will be the sixth DoD Regional Center and the only one specifically focused on the Arctic.\n\n\u201cI have been very outspoken to both the President and his administration that the Ted Stevens Arctic Center for Security Studies must be located in Alaska. We are the state that makes America an Arctic nation and our geostrategic location creates unparalleled possibilities available nowhere else. Alaska is indeed the geostrategic crossroads of the world, and the logical place for an Arctic Studies Center. As a nexus for security cooperation, the center will soon play host to America\u2019s global partners and allies along with a variety of federal and state authorities and academic institutions, also bringing economic benefit to the area. I appreciate that the Department of Defense took our advice and made the right choice to locate the Center in Alaska,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cOur work to secure authorization and funding for the center was a huge accomplishment on its own, but now to know that the Center will officially be located in Alaska is incredibly welcomed news. I\u2019m proud to have helped ensure the Ted Stevens Center continues to move forward from a mere concept to reality. As this project comes to fruition, we will all see the tremendous value it will provide as America pursues and defends our interests in the Arctic.\u201d\n\nSenators Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-AK) sponsored the initiative to create the Stevens Center in the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, and through her role as an appropriator, Murkowski secured $10 million for the Stevens Center in the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations package.\n\nBackground: Senator Murkowski is the leading expert among her Congressional colleagues on Arctic issues and has worked continuously to raise awareness of the region. At the beginning of the 114th Congress, Senator Murkowski and Senator Angus King (I-ME) formed the Senate Arctic Caucus to advance issues important to the Arctic and to the people who live there. Murkowski is the Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region. Murkowski has also led the charge to recapitalize and expand America\u2019s fleet of Polar Security Cutters (also known as icebreakers).", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-gop-senators-officially-file-challenge-to-bidens-vaccine-mandate-for-businesses", "Sullivan, GOP Senators Officially File Challenge to Biden\u2019s Vaccine Mandate for Businesses", "2021-11-17", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014Today, the formal challenge against President Biden\u2019s vaccine mandate under the Congressional Review Act has been filed by all 50 Republican senators: Dan Sullivan, Mike Braun, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Bill Hagerty, Roger Marshall, Mike Lee, James Lankford, Rick Scott, Marsha Blackburn, Rand Paul, Cynthia Lummis, Shelley Moore Capito, Marco Rubio, John Barrasso, Cindy Hyde-Smith, John Thune, Jerry Moran, Roger Wicker, Richard Burr, Mike Rounds, John Hoeven, Pat Toomey, Tommy Tuberville, James Risch, Mike Crapo, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, Kevin Cramer, Josh Hawley, John Boozman, Jim Inhofe, Chuck Grassley, Todd Young, John Kennedy, Ron Johnson, Ben Sasse, Steve Daines, Deb Fischer, Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn, Tim Scott, Bill Cassidy, Roy Blunt, Richard Shelby, Rob Portman, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney.\n\nCongressman Fred Keller (R-Penn.) and other members in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the same bill.\n\nThe Congressional Review Act provides an expedited process for Congress to eliminate an executive branch rule. This move to overturn President Biden\u2019s vaccine or test mandate for private employers is guaranteed a vote on the Senate floor. The rule was transmitted to the Senate on November 16th, setting up a floor vote as soon as early December.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been co-leading the effort with Senator Braun to ensure appropriate congressional review of President Biden\u2019s overreach in implementing this unconstitutional mandate on private employees before it goes into effect. No employee of a private business should ever be forced to choose between getting vaccinated or putting food on the table for their families because of an unconstitutional mandate,\u201d Sen. Sullivan said. \u201cIn 2020, Congress and the President worked in a bipartisan way on an agreement that we would provide relief to American businesses on the condition they keep their employees. Now, Joe Biden is taking a sledgehammer to that employer-employee connection. Firing hard-working Americans who have made the personal choice not to get vaccinated not only undermines the significant work Congress and the Trump administration did to save millions of jobs during the pandemic, it also exacerbates the workforce shortages employers are already facing. This is just wrong. We all want to put this pandemic behind us for the benefit of our health, our families, and our economy, but we cannot lose sight of the massive, negative impacts that this unconstitutional mandate will have on hard-working Americans and their families.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nOn September 8th, President Joe Biden announced vaccine mandates that extend to 80 million private sector workers and additional mandates on millions of federal workers and contractors.\n\nTo implement this mandate, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). Employers that fail to comply will be fined $13,653 for each offense and willful violations will result in a $136,532 penalty. This rule places unrealistic compliance burdens on employers\u2014especially during a time where business and supply chains are already under duress. For example, 30 days after publication, all requirements other than testing for employees must be in place. In addition, 60 days after publication, all testing requirements must be in place.\n\nThe Congressional Review Act (CRA) can be used by Congress to overturn certain federal agency regulations and actions through a joint resolution of disapproval. If a CRA joint resolution of disapproval is approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the President, or if Congress successfully overrides a presidential veto, the rule at issue is invalidated.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senator-murkowski-joins-indian-boarding-schools-commission-legislation", "Senator Murkowski Joins Indian Boarding Schools Commission Legislation", "2021-11-16", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "Today, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, made the following statement after signing on as the lead Republican co-sponsor of S. 2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Act.\n\n\u201cFor many years, thousands of Native children were taken from their families, homes, and communities, and forced to attend boarding schools far away. These Indian boarding schools stripped Native children of their identities and forced them to assimilate and conform to an identity that was thought to be more \u201cacceptable\u201d to Western society. Many Native children were abused, both physically and emotionally. Many developed illnesses and died, and were buried far from home. In many cases, their families and Tribes were never notified of their death.\u201d\n\n\u201cS. 2907 would establish a commission to investigate and document United States Indian boarding school issues, locate the graves of Native children who died while attending these schools, and provide recommendations to Congress. This legislation is significant, but I recognize that it is a work in progress as we attempt to better understand the trauma that followed these policies. I look forward to holding hearings in the Indian Affairs Committee and favorably reporting a bill that will fully address the injustices done to Native peoples by Indian boarding schools as a result of federal assimilationist policies,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski.\n\nSenator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is the lead sponsor of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Act. Representatives Sharice Davids (D-KS) and Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced a House companion bill, H.R. 5444, of which Congressman Don Young (R-AK) is also a cosponsor.\n\nASenate Concurrent Resolution was introduced by Senator Murkowski supporting the designation of September 30, 2021, as a National Day of Remembrance for the Native American children who died while attending a United States Indian boarding school, and to recognize, honor, and support the survivors of Indian boarding schools and their families. Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) are co-sponsors to the resolution. A companion House Concurrent Resolution was also introduced by Congressman Don Young (R-AK) along with Representatives Tom Cole (R-OK), Sharice Davids (D-KS), Tom O\u2019Halleran (D-AZ), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Ed Case (D-HI), Kaiali\u2019i Kahele (D-HI), David Joyce (R-OH), and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). Additionally, Senator Murkowski provided a floor speech on the National Day of Remembrance, click here to watch.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/alaskans-voice-strong-support-for-the-infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act", "Alaskans Voice Strong Support for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act", "2021-11-15", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=40", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today attended a White House signing ceremony during which President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law. The measure provides historic investments into roads, bridges, ports, airports, broadband, ferries, water and wastewater, resilience, and energy projects\u2014modernizing and upgrading the nation\u2019s core infrastructure. As a lead author and negotiator of this bipartisan infrastructure package, Murkowski secured a range of provisions that are critical to improving, maintaining, and upgrading Alaska\u2019s infrastructure.\n\nThe bipartisan legislation will create jobs and long-term economic growth by providing an additional $550 billion towards infrastructure priorities over the next five years, all without raising taxes on the American people.\n\nClick here for Alaska bill highlights.\n\nWhat They\u2019re Saying About the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act\n\n\u201cAlaska\u2019s cities and boroughs applaud the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which will enable local governments to address a backlog of infrastructure and major maintenance needs. This infusion of federal investment will strengthen communities, assist with economic recovery, and result in a more resilient Alaska. AML thanks Sen. Murkowski for her leadership in moving this Act forward, responding directly to infrastructure needs in Alaska, and across America.\u201d\n\n-Nils Andreassen, Executive Director of the Alaska Municipal League\n\n\u201cFor decades, Alaska has been in desperate need of meaningful infrastructure investment. The Alaska Chamber applauds our entire congressional delegation for voting yes on the historic bipartisan infrastructure bill. The more than $5 billion of investment that will flow into Alaska will positively impact hundreds of thousands of Alaskans, create good-paying jobs, and catapult economic growth crucial to building Alaska\u2019s future. Alaskans rely on roads, ports, ferries, bridges, airports, railways, and broadband to keep our communities connected. We thank Senator Murkowski for her leadership in crafting a truly bipartisan bill and ensuring Alaska\u2019s unique infrastructure needs were not forgotten throughout the process.\u201d\n\n-Kati Capozzi, President & CEO of Alaska Chamber\n\n\u201cThe Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District (KPEDD) applauds the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and thanks Senator Murkowski for her work to secure provisions that will be critical to improving infrastructure on the Kenai Peninsula\u2014helping create new jobs and stimulating our local economy. The KPEDD is committed to enhancing the quality of life for Borough residents, and this infrastructure bill will provide for significant regional economic development of our communities. We are particularly interested in the possibility of additional support for local projects such as the Kenai Bluff Erosion project and the Homer Port Expansion project. I thank the Senator for prioritizing our state and communities as she wrote the infrastructure bill.\u201d\n\n-Tim Dillon, Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District Executive Director\n\n\u201cThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is an example of how Alaska\u2019s Senator Lisa Murkowski has consistently championed efforts to help Alaska\u2019s travel and tourism industry recover in the wake of the pandemic,\u201d \u201cThe infrastructure legislation includes investments in travel and tourism related projects in both urban and rural communities, which can enhance recreation, tourism and economic opportunities throughout our great state.\u201d\n\n-Sarah Leonard, President & CEO of the Alaska Travel Industry Association, the leading statewide association for travel and tourism businesses in Alaska\n\n\u201cWhat an amazing and historic funding opportunity for southeast and the State of Alaska! This legacy legislation hits the \"fast-forward\" button for investments in much needed critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, ports, energy, water systems, and broadband. But the investment in the Alaska Marine Highway System is a game changer at a time of crisis for the ferry system. There is funding now for sustainable basic operations to distressed rural communities, money for new ferries and terminals and an exciting opportunity to modernize the fleet through electrification, fueled by local renewable energy. It is now on all of us in Alaska to take full advantage of this unique, once in a lifetime opportunity.\u201d\n\n-Robert Venables, Executive Director of Southeast Conference\n\n\u201cThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a landmark commitment to improving our nation\u2019s infrastructure, creating jobs and economic growth in Alaska and across the country. The ANCSA Regional Association appreciates Senator Murkowski\u2019s support of Alaska Native people in her negotiations around the legislation. As a result of this commitment, the final bill includes provisions that will benefit Alaska Native people and our communities in a myriad of ways \u2013 from water infrastructure, to broadband, to IHS sanitation improvements. We thank Senator Murkowski for her efforts and for her tireless championing of Alaska Native people.\u201d\n\n-Kim Reitmeier, Executive Director of the ANCSA Regional Association\n\n\u201cThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides an unprecedented investment in water and wastewater infrastructure for rural Alaska communities. This Act will allow every community in Alaska to have adequate access to water, which is necessary for healthy residents. This legislation also provides a significant investment in climate resilience to protect and strengthen rural Alaska communities, which are among those most impacted by climate change. Quyana cakneq (thank you very much) to Senator Murkowski for her extraordinary efforts in attaining this historic investment for Alaska Native communities in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.\u201d\n\n-Valerie Nurr\u2019araaluk Davidson, President of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium\n\n\u201cTribal communities in rural Alaska are facing multiple disasters, compounded by the severe lack of water/sewer, technology, and transportation infrastructure. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will give our tribes resources to expand or improve water and sanitation systems; invest in broadband; and work to connect our roadless region. Thank you Senator Murkowski, for advocating on behalf of Alaska\u2019s tribal communities.\u201d\n\n-Vivian Korthuis, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Village Council Presidents\n\n\u201cThe Alaska LNG federal loan guarantees in this important legislation reflect the central role that Alaska\u2019s natural gas has in building a cleaner global energy future and strengthening our domestic economy. This provision keeps Alaska at the forefront of responsible U.S. energy development, and I\u2019d like to thank Sen. Murkowski for her leadership.\u201d\n\n-Frank Richards, President of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation\n\n\u201cThe Alaska AFL-CIO would like to thank Senator Murkowski for her leadership on this important bill. Infrastructure investment is good for everybody; workers, employers, small business and our children. We need to maintain what we have built and improve our communities to serve the needs of the future. This bill will bring critical and needed projects home to Alaska and put a generation of Alaskans to work in good jobs that support a family. Lisa has once again shown how to get things done in DC.\u201d\n\n-Joelle Hall, President of the Alaska AFL-CIO\n\n\u201cThe passing today of the historic bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act delivers the much needed and long overdue core infrastructure upgrades across the country and in Alaska with the largest ever federal investment in roads and bridges, ferries, high speed internet, water systems, airports, and energy infrastructure which will also provide millions of good paying jobs and careers for decades to come. The significant economic benefits that will be generated by this bill cannot be overstated, and it comes at a crucial time in Alaska\u2019s history. I applaud Senator Murkowski\u2019s work across the aisle to help deliver this important federal funding that will modernize America\u2019s aging infrastructure and give Alaska the economic boost needed to help sustain and improve our communities in both rural and urban areas of the state with infrastructure and jobs.\u201d\n\n-Marcie Obremski, Business Manager at IBEW Local 1547\n\n\u201cAs a relatively young state with over 365 million acres, Alaska lacks important infrastructure across an area more than twice the size of the state of Texas. In contrast to the Lower 48, Alaska is mostly roadless. Alaska\u2019s transportation and utility network is largely underdeveloped, from water lines to broadband, from docks to airports, expansion of Alaska\u2019s infrastructure is necessary and prudent. Rural Alaska communities, as well as resource development, will benefit from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Resource development is a cornerstone of the Alaska economy and is dependent upon reasonable access to tie into the existing transportation infrastructure. We are very appreciative of the delegation's support for this important legislation.\u201d\n\n-Marleanna Hall, Former Executive Director of the Resource Development Council for Alaska\n\n\u201cAlaskans have long been leaders in using broadband for education, health care, commerce, and much more. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will transform broadband infrastructure in Alaska and help us be even more creative and ground-breaking in our use of connectivity. We are excited about the opportunity to bring advanced broadband services to all Alaskans and eager to accelerate our work with the support this bill is bringing. Thank you Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan, and Congressman Young for your long-standing commitment to broadband services for Alaskans, and your leadership in advancing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.\u201d\n\n-Christine O\u2019Connor, Executive Director of the Alaska Telecom Association\n\n\u201cIt is often said that if Alaska\u2019s impressive mineral deposits were in the state of Nevada, with infrastructure like roads, ports, and energy grids, they would already be mines. We\u2019re pleased that the infrastructure package includes significant investment in building Alaska, which will make investment in resource development more attractive. It will also help to improve permitting of our industrial projects, an issue our nation has struggled with for many years. In addition to incentivizing economic development, the bill brings massive needed improvements to Alaska\u2019s communities. We thank our Congressional Delegation for ensuring Alaskans benefit from the bill.\u201d\n\n-Deantha Skibinski, Executive Director of the Alaska Miners Association\n\n\u201cWe greatly appreciate the work and vision put into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act by Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Don Young. The increase in formula funding for railroad capital expenditures is important for all railroads, but especially for the Alaska Railroad, which will in turn benefit all Alaskans in a state that is woefully lacking in infrastructure. Additionally, the funding to remove at-grade crossings helps address the number one safety issue for the railroad industry, will save countless lives, and is a great opportunity for the Alaska Railroad to increase safety and efficiency. Simply put\u2014this is a big deal for the Alaska Railroad, the State of Alaska, and the nation as a whole.\u201d\n\n-Bill O\u2019Leary, President &CEO of the Alaska Railroad\n\n\u201cThe increased funding opportunities exclusively targeted for port infrastructure has been long-awaited by the industry. While we have similar needs in general as our industry colleagues, the payback to Alaskans that increased federal funding opportunities will provide has further reaching benefits than would be experienced by larger US ports, because of the direct positive impact on food security and resiliency these greater grant opportunities will give us. We are grateful to Senator Murkowski for recognizing that and for supporting us.\u201d\n\n-Steve Ribuffo, Director of the Port of Alaska\n\n\u201cHomer Electric Association (HEA) praises the adoption of the bipartisan infrastructure bill as a successful step towards addressing issues that impact rural utilities. The infrastructure bill addresses several HEA priorities such as prioritizing clean energy, energy diversification, grid modernization including matching funds, opportunities for the expansion of cyber security, grid resilience, electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure. We commend the compromise that made this bipartisan solution possible and continue to advocate additional prospects for energy diversification and storage technologies. We commend Senator Murkowski and the Alaska delegation for taking this first step to enable cooperatives like HEA to continue its important work.\u201d\n\n-Brad Janorschke, General Manager of Homer Electric Association\n\n\u201cSenator Murkowski's leadership to repeal a tax on infrastructure expansion, including government grants, will encourage water and wastewater utilities to invest in Alaska and around the country to the benefit of new customers and new communities. These investments are critical to providing safe, reliable drinking water and wastewater services to customers at an affordable price. Senator Murkowski's efforts are particularly impactful to Fairbanks Sewer and Water. In addition, the Senator's efforts will potentially save our customers from funding millions of dollars in tax payments for grants to clean up PFAS.\u201d\n\n-Oran Paul, President of Fairbanks Sewer and Water\n\n\u201cOur lands and waters are part of Alaska\u2019s infrastructure, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill reflects that through smart investments in nature that are critical for our way of life and our future. This includes efforts to ensure the clean water, resilient communities, healthy forests, wildlife habitats, and clean air we all need. It also makes game-changing investments in clean energy and job creation that will help us address climate change. We are grateful to Sen. Murkowski for leading this effort to craft a bill that supports our critical infrastructure, and for recognizing the important role of nature and clean energy as solutions to many of the challenges we face in Alaska.\u201d\n\n-Steve Cohn, State Director of The Nature Conservancy in Alaska\n\n\u201cThe University of Alaska applauds the work of the Alaska Congressional Delegation for its efforts in passing this historic piece of legislation.\u201d said Pat Pitney, Interim President of the University of Alaska. \"This investment goes beyond supporting 'traditional infrastructure,' as it pertains to critical areas like broadband funding, university-based research that focuses on the development of rare earths, critical minerals, and transportation innovations. The University of Alaska is a leader in many of these areas, and we look forward to working with our delegation to secure funding that will benefit all of Alaska.\u201d\n\n-Pat Pitney, University of Alaska President\n\n\u201cThe Alaska Air Carriers Association supports the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that will provide new funding for airport and aviation infrastructure. In 1995, the NTSB concluded that development of Alaska\u2019s aviation infrastructure was requisite to reducing the accident rate. Yet today, roughly 100 communities, numerous tour routes and mountain passes lack basic aviation weather reporting, adequate communication infrastructure and other infrastructure for safe aviation operations. This act presents a long overdue opportunity for FAA to program funding for aviation weather, aviation RCO, RCAG, and other communication systems, instrument flight procedures at airports, resolve runway condition issues, expand ADSB and NEXRAD radar weather, involve Alaska in GPS resiliency programs and improve air transportation to all Alaskan communities.\u201d\n\n-Jane Dale, Director of Alaska Air Carriers Association\n\n\u201cEvery Alaskan will feel the positive effects of the infrastructure bill championed by Senator Lisa Murkowski. The systems that underpin our economy and keep our communities connected \u2013 state-owned airports, the Alaska Railroad, paved roads and bridges, ports, and drinking water systems\u2014all receive significant investments as a result of this landmark legislation.\n\nIn Kodiak, Cordova, and across Coastal Alaska, the boost in federal funding for the Alaska Marine Highway System means we will have the resources to build our ferries up for the next generation. Allowing federal highway aid for ferry operations and repairs is a transformative change, and the line item that provides five years of grants for rural ferries should help ensure quality service and reliable scheduling for communities that rely on the Blue Canoe.\u201d\n\n-House Speaker Louise Stutes (R-Kodiak)\n\n\u201cAlaska\u2019s capital infrastructure budget has been seriously hampered the past few years. I want to thank Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan and Congressman Young for their support of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which is an historic appropriation for broadband, roads, bridges and clean drinking water. These are investments that will benefit all Alaskans, both rural and urban, for generations to come. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Legislature to secure the necessary matching funds for these infrastructure investments which will create prevailing wage jobs for Alaskan workers.\u201d\n\n-Senator Click Bishop, Alaska State Senate Finance Committee Co-Chair\n\n\u201cThe City of Ketchikan strongly supports Senator Murkowski's work on the infrastructure and jobs act. Our community has been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through the near totally shutdown of one of our primary economic engines, the cruise passenger industry. The funding in the infrastructure act is a crucial lifeline as we struggle to rebound from increased unemployment and lost revenues at a time when our community is also facing significant infrastructure needs. As a community that is dependent in many ways on the Alaska Marine Highway System, the money that will go to stabilize its services is also an important part of the act. Ketchikan would have trouble surviving without the AMHS.\u201d\n\n-Dave Kiffer, Mayor of the City of Ketchikan\n\n\u201cAccess to public infrastructure supports a thriving private sector. Funding for improvements like harbors, roads, and ferries, and more recently broadband communications, encourages private sector investment in our Southeast Alaska economy. I look forward to working with Federal agencies to build out infrastructure locally.\u201d\n\n-Tim O\u2019Connor, Mayor of City of Craig\n\n\u201cThis Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act delivers solutions to Alaska. The 2021 Alaska Infrastructure Report Card by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Alaska a C- (between \u201cpoor\u201d and \u201cmediocre\u201d). The IIJA will provide resources needed for roads, bridges and airports, as well as broadband and renewable resource infrastructure. These major investments will stimulate the production of another vital Alaska resource\u2014Alaska-grown engineers and workforce! Huge thanks to our Congressional team of Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Young.\u201d\n\n-Cathy Giessel, former Alaska State Senate President 2019-2020, and former Chair of the Alaska Senate Resources Committee, 2013-2018\n\n\u201cThe City of Ketchikan supports Senator Murkowski\u2019s work to advance the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The City of Ketchikan has been greatly and disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the community struggles to rebound from increased unemployment, nearly two seasons without our primary economic driver of cruise passenger tourism, and lost revenues, core infrastructure continues to need attention with few local funding options available. This infrastructure bill will provide the infusion of capital to tackle languishing infrastructure projects, including stabilizing the critical Alaska Marine Highway System, while providing employment opportunities for our community that will greatly aid in getting Ketchikan, and Alaska, back on its feet.\u201d\n\n-Robert Sivertsen, former Mayor of the City of Ketchikan", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senators-statement-on-historic-infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act-being-signed-into-law-", "Senators\u2019 Statement on Historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Being Signed into Law", "2021-11-15", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Rob Portman (R-OH), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Mark Warner (D-VA) issued the following statement after the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law. The law represents the largest investment in infrastructure in our nation\u2019s history.\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s signing of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a victory for all Americans. When Congress puts America\u2019s needs over politics, we make genuine progress. We were proud to work together on this historic investment in our nation\u2019s core infrastructure to modernize roads and bridges, strengthen rail and transit systems, upgrade ports, expand broadband access, improve water systems, and increase the resiliency of the nation\u2019s energy grid. It strengthens our economy without raising taxes or increasing inflation. This legislation will positively impact every American.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-welcomes-new-federal-land-allotments_to-alaska-native-vietnam-era-veterans", "Murkowski Welcomes New Federal Land Allotments  to Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans", "2021-11-11", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) issued the following statement after the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced it has finalized the first federal land allotments under the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veteran Land Allotment Program. Murkowski worked with Senator Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young (both R-AK), as well as Alaskan champions such as Nelson Angapak, Sr., to establish the new allotments program through her omnibus public lands bill in 2019.\n\n\u201cWe worked hard to enact this program, and after a rocky start in this administration, I\u2019m pleased the Department is making these allotments to our Native Veterans,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cThis is a small sign of progress, but nowhere near enough. It remains imperative that Interior assist all eligible individuals to fairly select and access lands near where they actually live. Secretary Haaland can help make millions of additional acres of land available for allotments by reconsidering the indefinite pause it placed on the last administration\u2019s Public Land Orders. It\u2019s long past time for these veterans and their families to have the lands they deserve, and I will continue to push DOI to allow for that without delay.\u201d\n\nMurkowski has consistently urged DOI to fulfill its decades-overdue promise to eligible veterans and their families while making additional lands available to them for selection. This could be accomplished by lifting outdated Public Land Orders (PLOs), not postponing the revocation of PLOs already scheduled to be lifted, or by making a small percentage of National Wildlife Refuge System lands in Alaska available for selection.\n\nDOI has so far contacted over 1,400 eligible individuals and received nearly 130 applications under its current program. Allotments can be selected under it through December 29, 2025.\n\nBackground:\n\nThe Dingell Act, Murkowski\u2019s comprehensive lands package, became law in March 2019. It established the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans Land Allotment Program based on legislation sponsored by Sullivan, Murkowski, and Young to ensure the federal government fulfilled its decades-old promise to provide allotments to Alaska Natives who served during the Vietnam War.\n\nThe roots of the allotment issue date back to 1906, when Congress passed a law allowing Alaska Natives to acquire 160-acre parcels of land. Those rights were extinguished with the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971. At that time, however, many Alaska Natives were serving during the Vietnam War and didn\u2019t get the chance to apply for their own allotment.\n\nThe Alaska Native Veterans Act of 1998 attempted to partially fix this injustice, but due to restrictions, less than 500 Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans ultimately applied. An estimated 2,800 veterans have still not received their allotments.\n\nIn April 2021, the Alaska delegation urged DOI to fulfill its promises to Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans after the Department announced it was imposing a two-year stay on the revocation of PLOs covering nearly 10 million acres of federal land in Alaska, despite the revocation orders already being signed and the PLOs themselves expiring decades ago.\n\nIn June 2021, Murkowski, with Sullivan as a cosponsor, introduced S. 1951, legislation to amend the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans Land Allotment program to make an additional 3.7 million acres of federal land in the National Wildlife Refuge System in Alaska available for selection. (If S. 1951 became law, only a minute fraction of those lands, at most, would ever be selected.) Murkowski developed the bill based on a report and recommendations from then-Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt to help ensure that Alaska Native Vietnam veterans can select lands closer to their homes, rather than having to travel across the state at great expense and inconvenience. For perspective, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently manages nearly 77 million acres of land in Alaska.\n\nRelated Issues: Veterans", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senator-murkowski-speaks-in-honor-of-veterans-day", "Senator Murkowski Speaks in Honor of Veterans Day", "2021-11-11", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released the following statement in honor of Veterans Day:\n\nFor video of Senator Murkowski, click here.\n\n\u201cOn Veterans Day, we express how grateful we are to all who served in America\u2019s armed forces, and for the sacrifices that they willingly made on our behalf. We also know that many veterans endure the toll of their service well beyond the days of being in uniform. Their military service might be complete, but their sacrifice remains.\n\n\u201cOur country and what it stands for was significant enough for veterans to volunteer not only for military service, but for long deployments, sometimes many of them. Some came home wounded in body and spirit. Some do not come home at all. Meanwhile, at home, military families endure their own share of sacrifice.\n\n\u201cToday and every day, I join Alaskans in saying thank you to our veterans and their families for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve for the common good. Their service and sacrifice is something to be honored by all of us who breathe easier and live freely because of those who have defended us at home and abroad.\n\n\u201cThank you and God bless.\u201d\n\nRelated Issues: Veterans", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-discusses-american-energy-jobs-and-climate-plan-on-cnbc-squawk-box", "Sullivan Discusses American Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan on CNBC Squawk Box", "2021-11-10", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) spoke with Joe Kernen this morningon CNBC\u2019s Squawk Box about the American Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan, the senator\u2019s innovative clean energy and climate strategy that has the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 percent from today\u2019s levels by 2050 and create thousands of jobs for hard-working Americans.\n\nSenators Sullivan, Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) held a press conference on November 3rd to announce the American Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan.\n\nBelow is a full transcript of the interview.\n\nKERNEN: Gas prices have jumped this year. There are concerns about higher heating costs this winter. Now, several Republican senators are laying out an energy plan to counter the Democrats\u2019 climate proposals. Among other things, a GOP plan calls for expanding the use of natural gas, building out nuclear energy infrastructure, and reforming the permitting process for energy projects. The senators say they support cutting global carbon dioxide emissions by 40% by 2050.\n\nJoining us now is one of the architects of this plan, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan. Senator, you\u2019ve had a lot of experience in this arena, even prior to being a senator. I guess I'd start by\u2014one of the first things President Biden did was cancel the Keystone Pipeline. Now I'm seeing conjecture that there are environmental studies for another important pipeline in the Upper Midwest. I'm told a lot of this stuff is out of anyone's control, what's happening in the country right now. We're not quite at $4 a gallon yet, but some of it was within our control. I'll just say it.\n\nSULLIVAN: Joe, there's no doubt. And good morning. It's good to be back on the show. From day one, the Biden administration has followed these Green New Deal policies, and you described a few of them\u2014shutting down American energy production, killing American energy infrastructure like pipelines, Keystone. Now they're looking at this Line Five in Michigan\u2014literally going to Wall Street and the financial sector and saying don't invest in American energy, especially in places like Alaska, my great state. And now they're begging OPEC, if you can believe it, for more energy production.\n\nSo, as you mentioned, we thought it was important to put a competing vision out to the American people that's focused on American abundance, American leadership, energy technology, natural gas, not just at home, but abroad. And we think that's a great way to empower our economy, empower American workers, but also help the environment. You're right, I was in charge of Alaska's natural resources and energy. I can tell you this\u2014we have the highest standards on the environment in terms of production of any place in the world. And, as you know, America has been a leader in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions since 2005, almost 15% reduction, because of the revolution in natural gas. Meanwhile, China and other countries are increasing their emissions really rapidly. We think we have a much better plan that's focused on our leadership, our abundance and not this idea that there should be scarcity and high energy prices that are really hurting American working families and American workers. I think they're doing it on purpose, the high energy prices.\n\nKERNEN: Well that's the question, because I'm not sure what would be better\u2014whether that's out of their control, they didn't realize it would happen, or whether inducing higher prices is part of the goal to lessen our dependence on hydrocarbons. But it's flawed thinking either way. If we were energy independent in this country, we got to that point, and now we've tried to dampen production here and going back to OPEC with hat in hand asking them to help us out. There is no logic anywhere in the known universe, maybe the metaverse, where that makes sense, unless I wanted to do it to transition more quickly.\n\nSULLIVAN: I couldn't agree more. It makes it makes no sense. And it's really hurting working families. We\u2019re seeing prices 60% higher at the pump and we're actually importing twice as much oil from Russia right now than we were when we go back a year ago.\n\nKERNEN: Can we go back or is it well past the point of no return? We haven't capped things have we, but it's much more difficult to get permits. But, if there was another administration, the elections have consequences, can we go back to energy independence?\n\nSULLIVAN: Absolutely. We could. We did it during the Trump administration with Republican support. Back to your previous statement\u2014Gina McCarthy, the climate czar, along with John Kerry, they have made statements that they think higher energy prices are beneficial to \u201caccelerate the movement to renewables.\u201d I mean, you can't make this stuff up in terms of what they're doing on the backs of the American people and working families. But, yes, we can definitely go back to it. Right now, you're not seeing investment in the energy sector because of these policies and we could change, but it needs change from them. I think the American people, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, when the winter is coming, they're going to see these high energy prices. Home heating fuel is expected to climb 50 to 100%. This is going to be devastating for millions of Americans, and we need to have a much more rational policy that leverages American abundance, not scarcity, which they're forcing on our economy.\n\nKERNEN: Senator, 400 private jets to Scotland, but there was not a jet carrying Putin and there was not a jet carrying Xi Jinping to this thing. I mean how can you make any concrete progress without China?\n\nSULLIVAN: Joe, I will tell you this\u2014I think Putin and Xi Jinping are actually benefiting the most from these Biden Green New Deal policies. Clearly Putin is. I mean think about it. The President kills pipelines in America, but he's fine with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is going to clearly benefit the Russians going forward with regard to European energy, which we had a lot of leverage over. Same thing with Xi. You may have seen the reports in the Washington Post. John Kerry was over there again, which always makes me very nervous, trying to get some kind of deal from the dictators in Beijing. And then he comes back to the President and says, \u201cHey, the Chinese say if we're going to get a deal, we need to tone down our criticism of Hong Kong or Taiwan with regard to the Communist Party in China.\u201d That's outrageous. We should never be selling out American strategic interests for empty promises from Xi Jinping and others. That's what Kerry was pressing. And, again, I think the American people are fundamentally opposed to that approach.\n\nKERNEN: What do we call John Kerry at this point? At least he was part of the administration this time. He's not over there as a private citizen lobbying for\u00ad\u2014you can't make it up, senator.\n\nSULLIVAN: You can't make it up.\n\nKERNEN: No, you can't. You definitely can't. Thanks. I don't know what the answer is. I think we have to power the grid with something and I don't know whether\u2014I hope the wind keeps blowing and the sun keeps shining because people are going to get cold and in the lesser developed countries in the globe are the ones\u2014if it's too expensive or if they don't have power. I mean all of these well intentions are going to go where a lot of them lead. And you know where good intentions lead a lot of the time. Thanks, senator.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/icymi-historic-infrastructure-package_heading-to-presidents-desk", "ICYMI: Historic Infrastructure Package  Heading to President\u2019s Desk", "2021-11-08", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Murkowski Outlines Big Wins She Secured for Alaska\n\nLate Friday night, the House passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, legislation U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and her bipartisan group of nine other Senators worked for months to negotiate, draft, and pass through the full Senate.\n\nThe infrastructure package \u2013 which drew the support of 228 members of the House, including Congressman Don Young (also R-AK) \u2013 will now head to the President to be signed into law.\n\nIn case you missed it, Senator Murkowski recently highlighted some of the benefits the bipartisan infrastructure package will bring to Alaska\u2014everything from making critical investments in our roads, bridges, rail, ferries, ports, airports, energy, water systems, and broadband, to strengthening electric grid resiliency and minerals supply chains, reforming the permitting process, and providing for wildfire mitigation.\n\nA longer list of the benefits the bipartisan infrastructure bill will provide to Alaska is available here.\n\nADN (Opinion): Alaska Will Greatly Benefit From Historic Infrastructure Bill\n\nBy Lisa Murkowski\n\nSeptember 22, 2021\n\nSeveral years ago, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Alaska\u2019s infrastructure a C-minus grade. Their report reiterated what too many Alaskans know and face every day: our still-young state is deficient in water and wastewater, ports and harbors, marine transportation, energy and power infrastructure, and more. Even in our highest-graded areas \u2014 like roads and airports \u2014 Alaska still has plenty of room for improvement.\n\nOne of the best ways to address these deficiencies is by bringing timely federal funding and assistance back home. That\u2019s where I have placed my focus, and an historic infrastructure bill that will deliver massive benefits to our state is now within reach.\n\nFor the past several months, I worked with nine other senators to reach bipartisan consensus on traditional \u201ccore\u201d infrastructure. Our bill will provide an additional $550 billion for these priorities over the next five years without raising taxes. It will increase our standard of living, create jobs and opportunities, and limit the inflation that threatens families and businesses.\n\nI was able to add many provisions to our bipartisan bill that are targeted to help Alaska.\n\nAlaska will receive billions of dollars to build, maintain, and upgrade our roads, railways, and address the more than 140 structurally deficient bridges in our state. To help meet some of our most pressing challenges, we create a set-aside for projects in rural Alaska.\n\nOur bill recognizes that Alaskans often travel by air or water and invests in the lifelines that connect our communities \u2014 our Marine Highway System, ferries, ports, and small airports. The funding we receive will facilitate a new program for an essential ferry system and an electric or low-emitting ferry pilot program.\n\nTo make Alaska\u2019s lack of water and wastewater infrastructure a thing of the past, we support the EPA\u2019s Alaska Native Village Grant Program so that communities can build and improve their water systems. We also provide funding for Indian Health Services sanitation facilities to ensure our rural communities can finally have in-home running water and sewer service.\n\nGiven our increasingly connected world, our bill takes significant steps to bring broadband to high-cost rural areas, through both the Tribal Connectivity Grant Program and another for the construction, improvement, or acquisition of middle-mile infrastructure.\n\nTo address the twin challenges of high energy prices and climate change in Alaska, we prioritized energy infrastructure and resilience to help communities build cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable systems. In part, that means funding for my Energy Act, which Congress passed last year to drive innovation in everything from energy storage and renewable energy to carbon capture, grid modernization, and hydrogen.\n\nAnother area of emphasis is on rebuilding domestic supply chains. We included the permitting reforms I authored to help reverse our foreign mineral dependence, which we can begin to do by responsibly producing more critical minerals here in Alaska.\n\nOur bipartisan bill also includes my language to ensure the Alaska natural gas pipeline project is eligible for a multi-billion dollar loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. This will help us navigate a crucial sticking point as we seek to commercialize the North Slope\u2019s natural gas.\n\nOne more big win is with respect to wildfire preparedness. Significant funding is provided to support mechanical thinning and community wildfire defense grants. Streamlined NEPA permitting is included to build fuel breaks.\n\nThe items above are only the start of what our bipartisan bill contains for Alaska. But it\u2019s important to distinguish it from what Congress will soon undertake \u2014 a wholly partisan abuse of the budget process that will spend up to $3.5 trillion, impose sweeping tax hikes that hit countless small businesses, and deliberately take economic opportunities away from Alaska. The partisan \u201creconciliation\u201d process could not be more different from the approach we took on our bipartisan bill, where we focused on closing the distance between parties instead of amplifying it. Our bipartisan bill passed the Senate with nearly 70 votes and drew immense support from the Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, and hundreds of other groups.\n\nThe bipartisan infrastructure bill is one of the most consequential legislative efforts I have worked on. It\u2019s good for the nation and will deliver tremendous benefits to Alaska that pay forward for decades to come. This historic measure is now pending in the House of Representatives, where it should be taken up and passed without further delay. Our infrastructure demands it, and Alaskans deserve no less.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/vice-chairman-murkowski-historic-infrastructure-package-heading-to-presidents-desk", "Vice Chairman Murkowski: Historic Infrastructure Package Heading to President's Desk", "2021-11-06", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Big wins for Indian Tribes in Infrastructure bill bringing critical resources to Native communities across the country\n\nToday, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, applauded the House passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, legislation she and a bipartisan group of nine Senators worked for months to negotiate, draft, and pass through the full Senate. Included in the legislation that will now head to the President\u2019s desk is substantial funding for Federal programs and Native communities to address water and sanitation, transportation, broadband, climate and energy resilience, Indian water settlements, new energy technology, drought mitigation, mine and well cleanup, wildfire mitigation, and ecosystem restoration.\n\n\u201cThis bipartisan infrastructure bill is one of the most consequential legislative efforts I have worked on in my Senate career. I am incredibly proud and humbled to have played a leading role in the creation of this legislation,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski. \u201cI fought for and championed resources for Native Americans throughout the lengthy negotiations to ensure the Federal government upholds its trust and treaty obligations. Through this bipartisan legislation, many Native communities will be able to address the long-standing needs many other Americans take for granted, including water and sanitation and transportation access. The bill also provides resources for planning and development to adapt to climate change impacts, reduce wildfire risks, reduce the deferred maintenance of irrigation, power and water systems, and build out rural broadband. I want to thank the many Alaskans, including Tribal leaders, organizations, and stakeholders, who worked with me in writing provisions that address the needs of our urban, rural, and Native communities. And a big thank you to my friend and colleague Congressman Don Young, for using his influence and platform in the House to garner support to get this across the finish line. As this historic legislation now heads to the President for his signature, I look forward to working with our federal partners to make these visions on paper become a reality.\u201d\n\nThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes significant investments in Native communities, such as:\n\nMajor Investments in Indian Health Service\u2019s Sanitation Facilities Construction Program \u2013 Provides $3.5 billion in technical and financial assistance to American Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages through IHS for cooperative development and construction of safe water, wastewater, and solid waste systems and related support facilities. This unprecedented investment in IHS sanitation will clear all known project needs.\n\nFunds Congressionally Authorized Indian Water Settlements \u2013 Provides $2.5 billion to fund the remaining portions of the authorized discretionary funding for congressionally approved Indian water settlements. The federal government is involved in Indian water settlements pursuant to its trust responsibilities. Funding these settlements will allow tribes to pursue authorized projects to access and develop their water resources.\n\nBuilding Climate Change Resilience in Native Communities \u2013 Provides $216 million to the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Climate Resilience Program for adaptation project planning and development and community relocation for tribes contending with climate change impacts.\n\nConnecting Indian Communities by Investing in Rural Broadband \u2013 Provides an additional $2 billion for the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program and extends the expenditure deadline. Creates a $1 billion Middle Mile Program for the construction, improvement, or acquisition of middle-mile infrastructure. The Middle Mile Program includes a process for designating Tribally unserved or underserved areas in consultation with Tribes and Native entities. The bill creates a Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, which includes a 5 percent set-aside to award grants to, or enter into contracts or cooperative agreements with, Indian Tribes, Alaska Native entities, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Additional funding is provided for the FCC\u2019s Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which subsidizes broadband service for eligible households.\n\nCleaning Up Orphan and Legacy Wells \u2013 Directs funds to the Department of the Interior to clean up orphan wells on public lands and legacy wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and to fund state grants for cleanup of wells on state and private lands. This includes over $2 billion for State grants, $250 million for federal lands, and $150 million for a new grant program to help tribes cleanup orphan wells. Across the country, over 56,000 documented orphaned oil and gas wells can leak methane, contaminate groundwater and create other safety risks. Federal agencies and states responsible for plugging and reclaiming these wells have had limited funding to address this health hazard.\n\nReducing Wildfire Risk and Enhancing Native Communities \u2013 Investments through hazardous fuel reduction projects, forest restoration and community defense grants to reduce wildfire risks, provide firefighter training to Native Village crews, Native Youth Public Land Corps and other programs focused on ecosystem restoration and tribal protection.\n\nInvestments in BIA Irrigation, Power, and Sanitation \u2013 Includes $250 million for construction, repair, improvement, and maintenance of irrigation and power systems, safety of dams, water sanitation, and other facilities.\n\nTribal Transportation Investments \u2013 Includes $2.9 billion for the Tribal Transportation Program, $110 million for the Tribal Transportation Facility Bridge set-aside, allows 100 percent federal share for tribal projects in the Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Programs, reinstates and provides funding for the Tribal High Priority Projects Program at $30 million a year for a total of $150 million, increases the set-aside amount for the Tribal Transportation Program Safety Fund from 2 percent to 4 percent, and expedited environmental review for tribal transportation safety projects.\n\nFor a list of tribal provisions that were included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, click here.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/historic-infrastructure-package-heading-to-presidents-desk", "Historic Infrastructure Package Heading to President\u2019s Desk", "2021-11-05", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Big Wins for Alaska in Infrastructure Bill that will Create Jobs & Boost our Economy\n\nToday U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) applauded the House passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, legislation she and a bipartisan group of ten Senators worked for months to negotiate, draft, and pass through the full Senate.\n\nThe bipartisan bill will upgrade and modernize our core infrastructure\u2014making critical investments in roads, bridges, rail, ferries, ports, airports, energy, water systems, and broadband. The landmark legislation also strengthens electric grid resiliency and minerals supply chains (including for clean energy technologies), while reforming the permitting process and providing for wildfire mitigation. In total, it provides $550 billion in new spending over five years, without raising taxes, and will grow America\u2019s economy, create jobs, and push against inflation. The infrastructure package passed the Senate in August with a strong bipartisan vote and will now head to the President to be signed into law.\n\n\u201cThis bipartisan infrastructure bill is one of the most consequential legislative efforts I have worked on in my Senate career. I am incredibly proud and humbled to have played a leading role in the creation of this legislation. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recognizes that Alaska is decades behind in having the basic infrastructure which many states in the Lower 48 take for granted. It addresses that gap by sending billions of dollars back home to put Alaskans to work building roads and wastewater systems, fixing bridges, and pioneering innovative transportation and energy technologies, all of which will benefit generations to come,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cI want to thank the many Alaskans who worked with me in writing provisions that address the needs of both our urban and rural communities. And a big thank you to my friend and colleague Congressman Don Young, for using his influence and platform in the House to garner support to get this across the finish line. As this historic legislation now heads to the President for his signature, I look forward to working with our federal partners to make these visions on paper become a reality.\u201d\n\nBackground: Senator Murkowski recently penned an op-ed highlighting how Alaska will greatly benefit from this historic infrastructure bill.Click here for a list of Alaska highlights contained within the infrastructure bill.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/schatz-murkowski-lead-bipartisan-national-native-american-heritage-month-resolution", "Schatz, Murkowski Lead Bipartisan National Native American Heritage Month Resolution", "2021-11-03", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), vice chairman of the Committee, introduced a Senate resolution recognizing November 2021 as National Native American Heritage Month.\n\n\u201cEvery November we observe Native American Heritage Month to celebrate Native Hawaiian, American Indian, and Alaska Native peoples and their diverse cultures, achievements, and contributions,\u201d said Chairman Schatz. \u201cI am honored to lead this year\u2019s Senate resolution alongside Vice Chairman Murkowski recognizing this important month and remain committed to upholding our trust and treaty responsibilities to Native communities across our nation.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, I\u2019m proud to continue the tradition of introducing an annual Senate Resolution which recognizes November as National Native American Heritage Month with my colleagues, Chairman Brian Schatz and 25 senators. This is an opportunity to celebrate and honor the many contributions of America\u2019s First peoples. All 574 federally recognized Tribes across our nation, including the 229 Tribes in my home state of Alaska, have vibrant, living cultures that continue to contribute to the rich diversity of our country,\u201d said Vice Chairman Murkowski.\n\nSenators Baldwin, Barrasso, Booker, Cantwell, Cortez Masto, Cramer, Heinrich, Hirono, Hoeven, Inhofe, Kaine, King, Lankford, Luj\u00e1n, Lummis, Merkley, Moran, Padilla, Rosen, Shaheen, Sinema, Smith, Sullivan, Tester, and Warren joined the resolution as original cosponsors.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sens-sullivan-cramer-lummis-unveil-american-energy-jobs-and-climate-plan", "Sens. Sullivan, Cramer, Lummis Unveil \u201cAmerican Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan\u201d", "2021-11-03", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "Senators put forward an alternative vision to Biden-Kerry climate proposals\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) held a press conference today in the Capitol to announce theAmerican Energy, Jobs & Climate Plan, an innovative clean energy and climate strategy with the potential to reduce global emissions by up to 40 percent from today\u2019s levels by 2050 and create thousands of jobs for hard-working Americans. Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), John Kennedy (R-La.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) also attended the press conference.\n\nThe senators argued that the flawed climate and energy policies being implemented by the Biden administration are killing good-paying American energy jobs and driving up the costs that hard-working families are paying at the gas pump and to heat their homes. The senators see the new plan as an energy strategy that offers the American people realistic, achievable solutions to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, unlike the Democrats\u2019 unaffordable and unrealistic proposals, such as the Green New Deal.\n\nThe framework is built around five key policy priorities:\n\nExpand current power and energy production base to leverage our world-class energy resources to empower American workers, enhance U.S. economic and national security, and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.\n\nSupport infrastructure, resources, investments and incentives to build out the American renewable energy manufacturing and electricity sector.\n\nLeverage America\u2019s energy and natural resource abundance and independence to create millions of good-paying jobs in the energy and manufacturing sectors and empower the American worker.\n\nEnact permitting reform to ensure all energy, mineral, and infrastructure projects can be built in an efficient, timely, and certain manner.\n\nTake advantage of America\u2019s abundant energy and natural resources and rebuild the American supply chain to continue to gain comparative advantages against China, Russia, Iran and other foreign adversaries while lowering global greenhouse gas emissions.\n\nBelow is a full transcript of Sen. Sullivan\u2019s opening remarks at the press conference.\n\nGood afternoon. As everybody here knows, all of the eyes of the world have been on Glasgow with its 400 private jets, the elites of the world converging on this European city, with a lot of the Biden cabinet there.\n\nFor 10 months, the Biden administration has been laying out key elements of its climate plan that it was celebrating in Glasgow. Here\u2019s what it is, we've seen it. These are the facts: restricting American energy production, purposely curtailing the building of American energy infrastructure like pipelines, laying off thousands of hard-working Americans in these sectors, and pressuring American financial institutions not to invest in American energy, especially in places like the great state of Alaska. While at the same time, having the President and others beg OPEC adversaries, like Russia and Iran, produce more energy.\n\nIn a remarkably short period of time, this Biden Green New Deal plan has had dramatic, negative consequences for working families, particularly in terms of energy prices at the pump, home heating, fuel, natural gas, all of which are spiking as a direct result of these policies. Just as winter is coming.\n\nThere is a strong indication, particularly from statements by climate czar Gina McCarthy, that high energy prices for Americans are actually part of their Green New Deal policies so that, as she said, \u201cit can help accelerate the move to renewables around the world.\u201d\n\nInstead of Glasgow, those who care about energy, jobs, environment, and climate issues would have been better to focus more on things going on back home, particularly Virginia and even New Jersey last night, where it has become abundantly clear that the Biden-Kerry Green New Deal policies, embraced by the national Democratic Party, have dramatically lost touch with commonsense approaches to energy and jobs and working Americans and their families.\n\nWhat we want to do this afternoon is lay out a competing vision, the details of which you can find in this nice handout for all of you to take a look at. A number of us have been working on these issues for months. It is based on facts and data and, importantly, what is already working for our country, not some overnight dystopian reordering of our energy sector and our daily lives. So here are a few areas where our vision contrasts dramatically with the Biden-Kerry Green New Deal, and where we think the vast majority of Americans, whether in Alaska or Texas or Virginia or New Jersey, support the work that we're working on right now.\n\nOur framework is based on American abundance and leveraging America's many unique strengths, especially our world-class natural resources, whose production has actually brought down emissions and the lowest carbon intensive manufacturing in the world. The Biden-Kerry vision is one of planned scarcity, where Americans have to suffer to bring down emissions through higher energy prices. Our vision emphasizes leadership in clean energy innovation and resources, like natural gas, to both expand the use at home and export abroad as a central way to lower global emissions.\n\nThe Biden-Kerry Green New Deal vision involves telling our allies, believe it or not, not to buy American natural gas and instead relies on Russia and OPEC and empty promises from authoritarian regimes about their greenhouse gas reductions.\n\nOur vision recognizes that American natural resources can be leveraged to produce millions of jobs in related U.S. manufacturing sectors, including clean technology. The Biden-Kerry Green New Deal will import more technology from China and relies on critical minerals from that country as well.\n\nAnd finally, and importantly, our vision is focused squarely on the American worker, who has built this country and yet is now denigrated by the Far Left because these Americans continue to produce and mine things like oil, natural gas, and critical minerals, all of which we need and will continue to need for decades.\n\nWe don't need multibillion-dollar government slush funds called the Civilian Climate Corps, like the Green New Deal proposes, because America already has hundreds of thousands of heroic workers, like those in the building trades who work hard to produce energy, lower emissions, and enhance our national security.\n\nIf you look at the handout we've given you on those who are enthusiastic about the plan and the framework that we put forward, we are particularly proud of some of the comments from some of the top building trade officials in the country. This brings me to my final point.\n\nWe believe our vision and framework is mainstream. It's common sense and has the potential to be bipartisan. As I mentioned, just look at the handout of the different groups and elected officials who have previously and presently emphasized support of many of these all-of-the-above energy policy ideas in our framework.\n\nAnd the reason is clear. It is based on what's already working. Since 2005, the United States has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by almost 15 percent\u2014more than any other major economy in the world. Our plan is based on abundance, not scarcity, prosperity, not gas lines and empty shelves. And, importantly, we believe it is unifying. Unlike the Biden-Kerry Green New Deal plan, it does not pit one group of Americans against another, one region of the country\u2014blue states versus red, energy producing states\u2014against each other. We believe it's the start of an effective, holistic plan that will help move the country forward and it is needed now more than ever.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/leahy-murkowski-durbin-and-manchin-announce-bipartisan-compromise-on-the-john-lewis-voting-rights-advancement-act", "Leahy, Murkowski, Durbin And Manchin Announce Bipartisan Compromise On The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act", "2021-11-02", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Continuing Long Bipartisan History Of Restoring The Voting Rights Act\n\nU.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) Tuesday released a bipartisan compromise on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This proposal \u2013 which builds on the version introduced earlier in October \u2013 reflects months of bipartisan negotiations and seeks to garner broader support in the Senate.\n\nLeahy, Murkowski, Durbin, and Manchin are committed to continuing their work on this compromise bill that will serve as a substitute for the introduced version of the legislation. The bipartisan compromise bill was crafted to build support of senators of both parties, and it stays true to the same bipartisan blueprint followed by Congress in each of the five times it has previously enacted legislation to update and reauthorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965.\n\nLeahy said: \u201cI am proud to continue Congress\u2019s long legacy of bipartisanship that dates back to the enactment of Voting Rights Act of 1965. Protecting our foundational right to vote is bigger than party; it is about our democracy. As we have done many times before, we must put aside our differences and come together to preserve what is most precious about our country: a system of self-government of, by, and for the people. That is what this bill does. Decades from now, when history tells the story of today\u2019s current threats to democracy, let it also tell the story of senators who rose above the fray to protect the right that gives democracy its very name.\u201d\n\nMurkowski said: \u201cVoting rights are fundamental to our democracy and how we protect them defines us as a nation. I have supported this particular legislation in previous Congresses and continued to work with my colleagues on it, because it provides a framework through which legitimate voting rights issues can be tackled. This year, our bill incorporates the Native American Voting Rights Act, which addresses some of the long-standing obstacles that American Indians and Alaska Natives face. Every American deserves equal opportunity to participate in our electoral system and political process, and this bill provides a starting point as we seek broader bipartisan consensus on how best to ensure that.\u201d\n\nDurbin said: \u201cIn our nation, there is no freedom more fundamental than the right to vote. Yet over the past several years, there has been a sustained effort to chip away at this right. I am pleased we have reached a bipartisan compromise to move forward on this legislation named after our late friend and colleague John Lewis, which will protect this \u2018precious, almost sacred\u2019 right. And I am hopeful that more Republicans will follow Senator Murkowski\u2019s lead in defending every American\u2019s access to the ballot box.\u201d\n\nManchin said: \u201cEnsuring our elections are fair, accessible and secure is essential to restoring the American people\u2019s faith in our Democracy. That\u2019s why my colleagues and I have come together to introduce the bipartisan John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The Voting Rights Act has been bipartisan since 1965. I commend my friend and colleague Senator Lisa Murkowski for keeping that bipartisan tradition alive despite partisan efforts on both sides of the aisle to prevent that from happening. In the weeks and months ahead, I am committed to building support for this bipartisan compromise that addresses the threats to voting rights across our nation without infringing on states\u2019 rights so that it can move through regular order with bipartisan support, just as it has done for the last 56 years.\u201d\n\nThe full text of the compromise bill can be found here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/vice-chairman-murkowski-welcomes-november-as-national-native-american-heritage-month", "Vice Chairman Murkowski Welcomes November as National Native American Heritage Month", "2021-11-01", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Today, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), issued the following statement on November as National Native American Heritage Month.\n\n\u201cThis month brings awareness to celebrate, and recognize the many contributions made by Native people in the United States\u2014Alaska Natives, American Indians, and Native Hawaiians\u2014along with other Indigenous peoples in our country from across the globe. Alaska is home to nearly 40 percent of all federally recognized Tribes, with 229 being located in my home state. November, Native American Heritage Month, is a time to honor the culture and heritage that millions of Native people share with us daily. From the most northern Native community in the Arctic Slope region to the most southwestern Native community in the Aleut region in Alaska, I welcome what this month brings and hope all will join in the many events celebrating the unique history, culture and traditions of our First peoples,\u201d said Vice Chairman Lisa Murkowski.\n\nThis week, Senator Murkowski and Senator Schatz, Chairman of the SCIA, will co-lead introduction of a Senate Resolution designating November 2021 as National Native American Heritage Month. Senator Murkowski has supported a Senate Resolution designating November as National Native American Heritage Month since the 108th Congress.\n\nSupport of Senate Resolution Designating November as National Native American Heritage Month\n\nIn 1990, President George H. W. Bush approved a House Joint Resolution (Pub. L. 101-343) designating November 1990 as \u201cNational American Indian Heritage Month.\u201d Similar Congressional Resolutions, under variants on the name (including \u201cNative American Heritage Month\u201d and \u201cNational American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month\u201d) have been issued each year since 1994. November has become a month of recognition for the significant contributions Native people continue to make to our country.\n\nOther Notable Events and Items Taking Place in November\n\nGAO Report on MMIW\n\nToday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report, Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women, New Efforts Are Underway but Opportunities Exist to Improve the Federal Response, requested in a letter by Senator Murkowski and 17 members of Congress. The letter was sent on May 6, 2019, to GAO Comptroller General, Gene Dodaro, asking for the office to study and make recommendations surrounding the federal response to cases involving missing or murdered American Indian and Alaska Natives. This report coincides with the current implementation of Senator Murkowski led legislation, Savanna\u2019s Act and the Not Invisible Act, which became law in October of 2020. The report can be found here.\n\nVeterans Day (November 11)\n\nAmerican Indian and Alaska Native people remain the highest per capita to be represented in the United States Armed Forces. Native Americans have continued to serve since the country\u2019s beginnings to present day. In November 2013, carrying out the Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008, Congress awarded silver medals posthumously to Tlingit code talkers Robert \u201cJeff\u201d David, Sr., Richard Bean, Sr., George Lewis, Jr., and brothers Harvey Jacobs and Mark Jacobs, Jr for their dedication and service during World War II. Ozzie Sheakley attended the Congressional ceremony in Washington, D.C., along with representatives from thirty-two Tribes whose members were also code talkers, accepting the Congressional Gold Medal for their critical roles and efforts that saved many lives. We honor and thank Native American military members for their service to our country.\n\nRock Your Mocs Day (November 15)\n\nRock Your Mocs Day is a worldwide event that takes place to celebrate the beauty and individuality of all Indigenous communities. This event commemorates Native American Heritage Month by participation in wearing beaded moccasins, maklaks, or other traditional footwear.\n\nWhite House Tribal Nations Summit (November 15-16)\n\nThe Biden administration will host tribal leaders from across the country to attend the virtual White House Tribal Nations Summit. This event provides an opportunity for Tribes to engage in a dialogue with federal officials on key issues and policies affecting their communities.\n\n2021 National Native American Languages Summit (November 18-19)\n\nThis is the 8th National Native American Language Summit based on the requirements of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Department of Education\u2019s White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (WHIAIANE), Department of Health and Human Service\u2019s Administration for Native Americans (ANA), and the Department of the Interior\u2019s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The goal of the summit is to identify ways to further support communities teaching Native languages, improve accountability for educational progress, provide measurable goals to show success and encourage youth to gain the skills to speak their language.\n\nNative American Heritage Day (November 26)\n\nThe Friday following Thanksgiving is a civil holiday observing the day as Native American Heritage Day. This acknowledgment further highlights the importance of recognizing the many contributions that Native people have made to the United States.\n\nResolution to Recognize the Students of Indian Boarding Schools\n\nLast month, Vice Chairman Murkowski introduced a bipartisan Senate Concurrent Resolution, supporting the designation of September 30, as a National Day of Remembrance for the Native American children who died while attending a United States Indian boarding school, and to recognize, honor, and support the survivors of Indian boarding schools, and their families and communities. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs members, Chairman Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) are co-sponsors to the resolution. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is also a co-sponsor. A bipartisan companion House Concurrent Resolution was also introduced by Congressman Don Young (R-AK) along with Representatives Tom Cole (R-OK), Sharice Davids (D-KS), Tom O\u2019Halleran (D-AZ), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Ed Case (D-HI), Kaiali\u2019i Kahele (D-HI), David Joyce (R-OH), and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). The Senate Concurrent Resolution was introduced and awaiting passage.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/sullivan-shaheen-capito-and-murkowski-introduce-power-act-20-to-combat-domestic-violence-and-expand-pro-bono-legal-resources", "Sullivan, Shaheen, Capito and Murkowski Introduce POWER Act 2.0 to Combat Domestic Violence and Expand Pro Bono Legal Resources", "2021-10-29", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Original POWER Act, signed into law in 2018, requires reauthorization before four-year sunset date in 2022\n\nU.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have introduced legislation to permanently extend the authorization for the Pro Bono Work to Empower and Represent (POWER) Act. The POWER Act, which helps combat domestic violence and sexual assault by encouraging lawyers across the country to offer pro bono legal services to victims and survivors of these crimes, was originally signed into law in 2018, but is set to expire after 2022. In 2020, the POWER Act resulted in 75 pro bono legal summits across the nation, reaching more than 43,000 attorneys.\n\n\u201cOver the past several years, the POWER Act has worked to dramatically increase awareness about the scourge of domestic violence and sexual assault and the need for pro bono legal services for victims in crisis,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cWith the sunset of the POWER Act approaching, we have an opportunity to renew this vision and continue to grow an army of lawyers across the country lending their time and expertise to lift vulnerable women and children out of horrible situations. I want to thank the tens of thousands of attorneys who\u2019ve participated in POWER Act summits since 2018, and the judicial staff who\u2019ve organized these impactful events. In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I\u2019m glad to introduce the POWER Act 2.0 with Senators Shaheen, Capito and Murkowski to continue this important effort and support victims and survivors who too often can\u2019t afford a lawyer.\u201d\n\n\u201cOver the last few years, our nation has experienced a sea change surrounding the urgent need to combat sexual violence in our society. As a fierce advocate for survivors and Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees funding for Violence Against Women Act programs, prioritizing policies and initiatives that help survivors recover and seek justice are always my top concerns. I\u2019m glad to partner with Senator Sullivan on the POWER Act 2.0 to bolster efforts in Congress on behalf of survivors and to hold perpetrators to account,\u201d said Sen. Shaheen. \u201cBy requiring every judicial district in the country to hold a yearly summit focusing on pro bono services to survivors, we can inform our communities on how best to help those affected take one more step toward justice. It is on all of us to end sexual assault in our society and this legislation is a meaningful effort toward that goal.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s critical we support survivors of domestic violence and assault,\u201d Sen. Capito said. \u201cThis includes encouraging lawyers to offer pro bono work that can help victims gain access to critical legal services and protect them in the future. The POWER Act is commonsense legislation to combat domestic violence and sexual assault, and would make a tremendous difference in promoting safety for survivors across West Virginia.\u201d\n\n\u201cCombatting Alaska\u2019s unacceptably high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault continues to be a priority for me. I was disheartened to see recent data from the Alaska Victimization Survey estimating that 57.7 percent of Alaska women have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both in their lifetime. We need a comprehensive approach to address this crisis. That is why I\u2019m proud to join Senator Sullivan as an original cosponsor of the POWER Act, which will provide greater access to legal services for survivors who otherwise might not be able to afford them,\u201d said Sen. Murkowski.\n\nThe POWER Act mandates that each year, the chief judge of each judicial district across the country hold at least one event promoting pro bono legal services as a critical way to empower survivors of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault, to engage citizens, and to help lift victims out of the cycle of violence. The bill also requires that every two years, an event be held in areas with high numbers of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, with a focus on addressing these issues among Native populations.\n\nThe POWER Act also requires the administrative office of the federal judiciary to submit a compilation and summary of reports received from the chief district judges, detailing each public event conducted in the previous fiscal year.\n\nBackground on the POWER Act:\n\nThe National Network to End Domestic Violence estimated that over the course of one day in September 2014, up to 10,000 requests for services by abused women, including legal representation, weren\u2019t met due to a lack of resources.\n\nResearch has shown that when abuse victims are represented by an attorney, their ability to break out of the cycle of violence increases dramatically. For example, one study found that 83 percent of victims represented by an attorney were able to obtain a protective order compared to just 32 percent of victims without an attorney.\n\nThe POWER Act is modeled after the pro bono summits Senator Sullivan organized throughout Alaska while he was attorney general of the state working on the \u201cChoose Respect\u201d initiative.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/vice-chairman-examines-barriers-to-voting-for-native-people", "Vice Chairman Examines Barriers to Voting for Native People", "2021-10-29", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Committee also passes bill that modernizes programs protecting Native children\n\nThis week, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), welcomed the opportunity to hear from Native witnesses about the issues that continue to pose barriers to voting access during an oversight hearing she requested entitled: Voting Matters in Native Communities.\n\n\u201cThe right to vote has evolved tremendously over time, including with respect to the voting rights of our First peoples. American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians\u2014all Americans\u2014deserve an equal opportunity to participate in our American electoral system and political process,\u201d said Senator Murkowski during her opening remarks at the SCIA oversight hearing. \u201cI have been inspired by the long and storied history of how Native Americans have fought to participate in and improve our nation through the democratic process. In Alaska, we are proud to share the legacy and contributions of early Alaska Native civil and voting rights leaders, including Elizabeth Peratrovich.\u201d\n\nSenator Murkowski noted the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: \u201cNative civil rights leaders have worked to overcome obstacles to participation, including deliberate efforts by state legislatures to deny Native Americans the right to vote through policies such as literacy tests, or sometimes even forcing Native people to abandon their cultures. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally made the promise to Native Americans that they would have full legal access to voting. The Voting Rights Act was pivotal in moving our country out of the dark Jim Crow era of American history.\u201d\n\nClick here to watch the Vice Chairman\u2019s opening statement at the oversight hearing.\n\nPictured: Senator Murkowski at SCIA hearing on October 27\n\nDuring the hearing, Vice Chairman Murkowski asked Julie Kitka, President of the Alaska Federation of Natives, about what helps protect Native voting rights and specifically how Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act had deterred discriminatory practices in Alaska.\n\n\u201cYour testimony is thorough and shares well the concern that voting rights violations unfortunately are not a thing of the past.,\u201d said Senator Murkowski during her questioning to Julie Kitka at the SCIA oversight hearing.\n\nClick here to watch the Vice Chairman\u2019s questioning at the oversight hearing.\n\nSCIA Passes Bill to Protect Native Children\n\nPrior to the oversight hearing, the SCIA held a business meeting to consider H.R. 1688, the Native American Child Protection Act. The Vice Chairman voted to advance H.R. 1688 through committee by voice vote. The bill now proceeds to the Senate floor for further consideration.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m pleased that we, as a committee, are focusing on significant priorities of Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children, and ensuring that those most vulnerable have the protections needed. This bill focuses on grant programs for treatment and recovery of child abuse and neglect victims, helps modernize existing grant programs for better implementation by centralizing training and technical assistance through a national resource center. These are all important matters when dealing with issues of family violence,\u201d said Senator Murkowski at the SCIA business meeting.\n\nClick here to watch the Vice Chairman\u2019s opening statement at the business meeting.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-applauds-alaska-railroad-urges-other-businesses-to-retain-employees-pending-outcome-of-litigation-over-bidens-unconstitutional-vaccine-mandates", "Sullivan Applauds Alaska Railroad, Urges Other Businesses to Retain Employees Pending Outcome of Litigation Over Biden\u2019s Unconstitutional Vaccine Mandates", "2021-10-29", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "Sullivan also demands clarification from White House on December 8th compliance deadline\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), in an interview today with Stu Varney on Fox Business Network, urged employers across the country not to fire their employees who are out of compliance with the Biden administration\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which Sullivan contends are unconstitutional. Sen. Sullivan applauded the Alaska Railroad Corporation for rescinding its initial vaccine mandate pending the outcome of legal challenges to President Biden\u2019s order.\n\n\u201cWe all want to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, and I\u2019ve encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, in consultation with their doctor. But the President of the United States does not have the constitutional or statutory authority to mandate vaccinations,\u201dsaid Sen. Sullivan. \u201cIn 2020, a key principle that congressional Democrats and Republicans and the Trump administration committed to was ensuring businesses that receive pandemic relief retain their workers. Joe Biden is now taking a sledgehammer to that connection, telling American businesses to fire employees who do not comply. Forcing employers to fire thousands of Americans right before the holidays is wrong and unthinkable. I\u2019m glad to see a movement of employers, like the Alaska Railroad Corporation, standing up and rejecting these mandates, and I\u2019ll continue to encourage others to stand by their hard-working employees.\u201d\n\nSenators Sullivan and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) sent a letter last night to White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients demanding that the White House clarify its COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy after Zients, on Wednesday, indicated federal agencies and contractors will not be required to immediately fire employees who are unvaccinated by the December 8thdeadline.\n\nIntheir letter to Coordinator Zients, Sens. Sullivan and Braun wrote:\n\n\u201cWe write to request immediate clarification regarding your recent comments on Executive Order 14042, which requires employees of federal contractors and subcontractors to be fully vaccinated no later than December 8, 2021.1 While we believe the Executive Branch does not have the constitutional authority to take these invasive actions and the President\u2019s mandates will threaten the livelihoods, earned benefits, and financial health of untold numbers of hardworking Americans and their families, we are seeking clarification regarding potential flexibility on the December 8, 2021 deadline and if unvaccinated employees will be terminated.\n\n[...]\n\n\u201cWithout concrete flexibility, employers will be forced to fire hardworking Americans who choose not to get vaccinated. This not only undermines the significant work Congress and the Trump Administration did to save millions of jobs, it also exacerbates the workforce shortages employers are already facing. While you stated at the White House press conference \u201cwe do not expect any disruptions\u201d, we are already facing significant nation-wide disruptions to the workforce. For example, ports are weeks behind in their processing and there is a shortage of truck drivers to deliver goods. The Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, a federal advisory committee, already recommended to the Biden Administration that they should allow military, veterans, and National Guardsmen to voluntarily take paid truck driving jobs to clear overwhelmed and backed-up ports.\n\n[...]\n\n\u201cWe urge you to publish clarifying guidance on employer flexibility before November 1, 2021 so that employers are able to develop a process to protect their hard-working employees.\u201d\n\nClickhere to read the full letter.\n\nOn Monday, October 18, Sen. Sullivanspoke on the Senate floor, criticizing the vaccine mandates and imploring employers to not fire their workers until inevitable litigation is heard.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-honors-veteran-jim-schmidt-as-alaskan-of-the-week", "Sullivan Honors Veteran Jim Schmidt as \u201cAlaskan of the Week\u201d", "2021-10-29", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014On the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) recognized Jim Schmidt, of Anchorage, who began a remarkable career of military service at just 14 years old when, in 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in World War II. After Schmidt was wounded in the Battle of Sicily, his mother sent a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt requesting her underage son be returned home. But shortly after returning home, Schmidt reenlisted at 16 years old, this time in the U.S. Navy. Before they discovered his age and sent him back home, he was deployed on a Navy destroyer. Schmidt eventually served out the remainder of the war with the U.S. Merchant Marine, before enlisting in the Army again at age 18. He went on to serve at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War, and then during the Vietnam War, earning two Silver Stars for heroism, three Bronze Stars for heroism, and two Purple Hearts, along with numerous other awards during his long career.\n\nSchmidt was recognized as part of Sen. Sullivan\u2019s series, \u201cAlaskan of the Week.\u201d\n\nTribute to Jim Schmidt\n\nMr. President, it is Thursday afternoon, and it is one of my favorite times in the Senate because it is the time I have the opportunity to come down on the Senate floor to talk about an Alaskan who is making a difference in their community or the State or maybe the country, you know, sometimes maybe the world. And I think we have one today. This is an individual we call our Alaskan of the Week.\n\nI really enjoy doing this. It is just really a good opportunity to recognize people who often don't get a lot of recognition.\n\nYou know, Alaska is known throughout the world for many things: our physical beauty, the size of our State, giant mountains, great fishing, great place to take a vacation. By the way, if you are watching at home, come on up to Alaska. We would love to have you--summer, winter, it doesn't matter.\n\nAll of these things, of course, about the State are true, but there are so many other great things about our State. The No. 1 thing is our people: strong, resilient, kind, tough American citizens--great people.\n\nNowhere is this spirit of the people of Alaska and their patriotism more apparent than in our veterans across the State.\n\nIn Alaska, we have the highest number of veterans per capita of any State in America, veterans and their families everywhere. Everyday heroes, I like to call them.\n\nIt is amazing. In every city, village, community--it doesn't matter how big, how small--you will find proud American veterans, many of them working tirelessly together to make sure they help other veterans get the support that they have earned, the care that they have earned, and to support their families.\n\nToday, as our Veterans Day approaches, I want to highlight one of these heroes, one of these Alaska veterans whose service is so inspiring that for those who are watching, I think you are going to have a hard time actually believing it is true. This person, our Alaskan of the Week, is 94-year-old Jim Schmidt--husband, grandfather, great-grandfather, combat veteran, Alaskan, American hero.\n\nLet me tell you about this incredible, remarkable story, for which somebody should buy the movie rights right now.\n\nWhile you are watching, you better go buy the movie rights of Mr. Schmidt.\n\nJim was 14 years old in 1942. Of course, the United States had already entered and was fighting in World War II. It wasn't going well in 1942, by the way. He was living with his parents in the San Francisco Bay area. Jim slipped out one day to see a movie. It was called the ``Parachute Battalion.'' That was the name of the movie, starring the beautiful Nancy Kelly. It was then, watching this movie, right then and there, he said: I am going to enlist. I am going to enlist in the Airborne.\n\nNow, he was a big guy, a big young man--actually, he was a young kid--200 pounds, 6 feet tall. A big kid, as I mentioned, but just think, he was 14 years old. He went to the recruiter and said he was 18. He looked it.\n\nThe Army didn't ask for IDs back then, so off he went, assigned to the 504th Infantry Regiment of the world-famous 82nd Airborne at the tender age of 14.\n\nHis father was also in the Army, stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. And when there was a little confusion about where Jim was, when he didn't come home for days and weeks, his mother assumed he had gone to stay with his dad. His dad assumed he was still with his mother. Wires got crossed, and later his mom got a letter from Corporal Schmidt, CPL Jim Schmidt, who was now 15. He wrote:\n\nFrom somewhere in North Africa.\n\nActually, it was near Tunis, which had just fallen to the British and General Patton, the American general, in the battle against the Germans in North Africa.\n\nHe wrote his mom:\n\nHow are you [mom] and the girls?\n\nHe was referring to his sisters. He talked about the hot weather. He sent her $30.\n\nFast forward a few months later. It is now July 9, 1943. Jim is jumping out of an airplane onto the island of Sicily, a combat jump. In Sicily, it was the largest airborne offensive in U.S. history--a military airborne operation providing support for what was called Operation Husky, more than 170,000 Allied troops that would descend onto the island, drive the Axis powers--mostly the Germans--from the island and open up the Mediterranean front of the European theater. Combat operations, airborne operations, and Jim is 15.\n\nNow, mistakes were made in this very big operation. Communications were sporadic. Friendly fire happened, no doubt killing American servicemembers--ferocious combat.\n\nSome of these brave paratroopers--many were killed, many missed the landing spot--were scattered all over the island.\n\nWhen Corporal Schmidt, 15 years old, landed, he came under attack by the Germans. He lost one of his best friends and mentors, fighting together in a foxhole, hand-to-hand fighting. He engaged in combat, killing the enemy. He remembers one young German, a messenger about his age. He actually found the boy's wallet because he wanted to get in touch with his family after the war to tell them how brave the young German soldier was--tough stuff.\n\nDuring the battle, he was wounded, but he continued to fight. But because he was wounded, a telegraph was sent home by the Army to his mom. And at that point, he and his battalion, which was part of the 504th Infantry Regiment, Airborne Regiment in Salerno, Italy, were fighting to hold off a major German counterattack.\n\nYou can imagine Jim's mother was beside herself. Her 15-year-old son was wounded in combat in Italy. So guess what she did. You can tell what kind of stock Jim comes from. His mom wrote the President of the United States directly, President Roosevelt.\n\nShe said to the President she was glad to have her husband serve in the Army, but it was a bit much that her 15-year-old son was fighting in Europe and ``lying wounded and unattended in a Sicily field.''\n\nThat is Jim's mom to President Roosevelt.\n\nRemarkably, she received a response. The letter has since been lost, but those who saw it said that President Roosevelt himself wrote Jim's mom and said: I am sorry the military didn't know that Jim was only 15--14 when he joined--and that he would make sure he was located as soon as possible and sent back to the United States. Sounds a little bit like \u201cSaving Private Ryan,\u201d the movie.\n\nSo that happened. Shortly before he turned 16, Corporal Schmidt was put on a ship, pretty much at the direction of the President of the United States, and sent back to the United States.\n\nJim later recalled that when his mom saw him, of course, she was happy, but she \u201cchewed me out. What would any other mother say to their son\u201d for enlisting at the age of 14 and not telling the mom?\n\nA local newspaper heard about Jim and wrote a story. Here is what it said:\n\nFifteen year old [then] Pfc James O. Schmidt . . . left his desk in the Eighth Grade at Ross Grammar School . . . to enter the Army, [he] has retired from active duty [at the age of 15] after seeing action with the [Airborne unit and] Paratroopers in [North] Africa and being wounded in the Battle of Sicily.\n\nHe was 15.\n\nThe newspaper wrote about how Jim had received an invitation to his own grammar school graduation when he was in Sicily.\n\nHe wrote back to his grammar school and said.\n\nIt will be impossible [for me to attend eighth grade graduation] as I am rather busy with the job of hunting Germans and Italians.\n\nThis alone makes a great story. Grade school graduation was missed because he was fighting in Europe and North Africa and Italy. But there is more to this story.\n\nShortly after being home, you guessed it, Jim walked into a Navy recruiting office. Again, nobody in the Navy asked how old he was.\n\nThe recruiter said:\n\nCongratulations. You're now in the U.S. Navy.\n\nSo off to boot camp he went at the age of 16, already a veteran, a serious combat veteran--16 years old, unstoppable, American patriot, wanting to fight for his country in World War II.\n\nSix months later, Jim is on a Navy destroyer deployed. But his age finally caught up with him. The Navy found out, figured out he was 16, and sent him back home. Here is an Airborne combat veteran of World War II, he is 16, and he has already been kicked out of the Army and the Navy because he is too young.\n\nObviously, this young man was hell-bent on serving his country so he found another organization where age didn't matter. He joined the Merchant Marines, where he remained for the remainder of World War II, serving on an ammo resupply ship in the Atlantic, participating in the war until the war was won and wound down.\n\nSo the war is over. He is a little older. What do you think he does? Eight months after he turned 18, he reenlisted in the U.S. Army.\n\nNow, the Army was gracious and recognized: Hey, we got a combat vet. Yeah, he was only 14. So they brought him in as a sergeant, a D5. And guess what. By luck, he was assigned to occupation duty in Germany with the 508th Infantry Airborne Regiment that he had fought with in North Africa and Sicily.\n\nSo he did that duty; then he went to Japan for occupation duty. And then what happened in 1950? The Korean war breaks out. So he is sent to Korea.\n\nAs if his service in World War II wasn't enough, this remarkable story of James Schmidt continues.\n\nHe went alongside the U.S. Marines to fight in one of the most brutal, ferocious battles of the 20th century--the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. It was 30 below zero, 120 communists, People's Liberation Chinese soldiers, surrounding 20,000 marines and the Army, soldiers and marines.\n\nIt was incredible, horrible odds. And yet the Marines and the Army persevered, despite brutal combat situations, relentless Chinese communist troops attacking, attacking, attacking.\n\nHe was wounded, broke his shoulder again, led his men in many counterattacks, and got the rest of his men out of the Chosin Reservoir.\n\nSo, Mr. President, you are seeing that this is remarkable, but we are not done.\n\nHe survived Chosin Reservoir. He survived the rest of the Korean war. He survived World War II.\n\nFast-forward another decade, another American conflict in Southeast Asia, and now Jim Schmidt is a master sergeant, Special Forces, in Laos, charged with raising local forces to fight the communist Lao guerillas.\n\nNow he has been in combat in three wars, presented his third award, a Combat Infantry Badge, for his actions in Laos. And, then, it was on to Vietnam, where Jim was the sergeant major in charge of the 7th Special Forces A-Teams and then the 5th Special Forces Group, one of the most famous units of all of the Vietnam war--5th Special Forces, an airborne unit--until he returned to Fort Bragg in 1965.\n\nSo here is what he has done so far for his country: two Silver Stars for heroism, three Bronze Stars for heroism, two Purple Hearts.\n\nHe wanted back in the action, but the Army said: Nope. You are going to go into recruiting.\n\nAccording to one of his daughters, he was never much of a handshaker and did not like the idea of riding a desk. So, despite the heroism, despite the service, he opted to retire from the military, and then he joined Air America, which was doing covert operations in Vietnam, until 1967, when he finally decided to settle down with his wife Peggy and focus on another critically important task for our country: raising three strong, wonderful, beautiful daughters.\n\nMr. President, that is something I can certainly relate to.\n\nNow, I want to say that this is an amazing story. Unfortunately, Jim was not always treated like the hero he was. During his Vietnam service, his father died--the World War II veteran I mentioned earlier--and so he rushed home through the San Francisco airport to attend his father's funeral. And, unfortunately, he was in uniform and, unfortunately, was jeered and booed by many in the airport.\n\nCan you imagine that, America? Think about that. What a shameful period for our nation that so many failed to honor obvious American heroes like Jim. But, fortunately, that didn't last long for our country. But we should never forget that.\n\nBut I am digressing because he wasn't just an American hero in uniform but, according to his daughters, a great father. He was engaged in their activities--his three daughters--taught them to be determined, independent, hard-working young women where the sky was the limit. He didn't let them sleep in. That was the military dad, I am sure.\n\nHe and his wife Peggy, a registered nurse, came to Alaska in 1993 to be close to one of their daughters, who is now a renowned chef--actually, one of the best chefs in all of Alaska, and a lodge owner in Alaska, Kirsten Dixon. His other daughter Katherine is now a successful real estate broker, and his other daughter Jami lives in the DC area, who is also working in the intelligence field, kind of like her old man did. What a great legacy for Jim and Peggy and the whole family.\n\nSo Jim loves Alaska, the freedom in Alaska, the frontier spirit, the fact that he is in a State with more veterans per capita than any State. And he is certainly one of the great ones that we have in our State.\n\nAt 94 years old, he is surrounded by his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren. According to his family, like most heroes in our country, he doesn't talk much about the war--still really doesn't--and his full story was only fully revealed when one of his grandchildren, Henry, began to get interested and did a podcast about his grandfather and shared it on social media--his amazing grandfather. Since then, the letters have flooded in, people wanting to know about this incredible American hero who missed his grade school graduation because he was doing airborne operations in Sicily.\n\nJust the other night he was on a Zoom with a 15-year-old because he always has time for veterans, and he gives advice to young people who are interested in serving in the military and hearing his story and getting advice. Jim says that he doesn't believe the military is for everybody, but if you have the calling, then you should follow the calling, even if you are young--but, I would caution, not 14. But Jim should know.\n\nMr. President, this is a remarkable American story, one for the history books, and it is one of the reasons, many reasons, that so many people in my State have served and sacrificed for their country--everyday heroes we call them--in Alaska. There are heroes all around us, and certainly Jim is one of the most important, one of the most prominent, one of the most humble. We are proud to have him in our State.\n\nWe thank him and his wife Peggy and his wonderful three daughters and their whole family for sharing Jim with us, and we want to thank Jim for his incredible tenacity, patriotism, remarkable service, and example.\n\nAnd, Jim, we want to thank you once again for being our Alaskan of the Week. Happy Veterans Day to you and all of the veterans back home in Alaska.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-shaheen-capito-and-murkowski-introduce-power-act-20-to-combat-domestic-violence-and-expand-pro-bono-legal-resources", "Sullivan, Shaheen, Capito and Murkowski Introduce POWER Act 2.0 to Combat Domestic Violence and Expand Pro Bono Legal Resources", "2021-10-29", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "Original POWER Act, signed into law in 2018, requires reauthorization before four-year sunset date in 2022\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have introduced legislation to permanently extend the authorization for the Pro Bono Work to Empower and Represent (POWER) Act. The POWER Act, which helps combat domestic violence and sexual assault by encouraging lawyers across the country to offer pro bono legal services to victims and survivors of these crimes, was originally signed into law in 2018, but is set to expire after 2022. In 2020, the POWER Act resulted in 75 pro bono legal summits across the nation, reaching more than 43,000 attorneys.\n\n\u201cOver the past several years, the POWER Act has worked to dramatically increase awareness about the scourge of domestic violence and sexual assault and the need for pro bono legal services for victims in crisis,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cWith the sunset of the POWER Act approaching, we have an opportunity to renew this vision and continue to grow an army of lawyers across the country lending their time and expertise to lift vulnerable women and children out of horrible situations. I want to thank the tens of thousands of attorneys who\u2019ve participated in POWER Act summits since 2018, and the judicial staff who\u2019ve organized these impactful events. In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I\u2019m glad to introduce the POWER Act 2.0 with Senators Shaheen, Capito and Murkowski to continue this important effort and support victims and survivors who too often can\u2019t afford a lawyer.\u201d\n\n\u201cOver the last few years, our nation has experienced a sea change surrounding the urgent need to combat sexual violence in our society. As a fierce advocate for survivors and Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees funding for Violence Against Women Act programs, prioritizing policies and initiatives that help survivors recover and seek justice are always my top concerns. I\u2019m glad to partner with Senator Sullivan on the POWER Act 2.0 to bolster efforts in Congress on behalf of survivors and to hold perpetrators to account,\u201d said Sen. Shaheen. \u201cBy requiring every judicial district in the country to hold a yearly summit focusing on pro bono services to survivors, we can inform our communities on how best to help those affected take one more step toward justice. It is on all of us to end sexual assault in our society and this legislation is a meaningful effort toward that goal.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s critical we support survivors of domestic violence and assault,\u201d Sen. Capito said. \u201cThis includes encouraging lawyers to offer pro bono work that can help victims gain access to critical legal services and protect them in the future. The POWER Act is commonsense legislation to combat domestic violence and sexual assault, and would make a tremendous difference in promoting safety for survivors across West Virginia.\u201d\n\n\u201cCombatting Alaska\u2019s unacceptably high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault continues to be a priority for me. I was disheartened to see recent data from the Alaska Victimization Survey estimating that 57.7 percent of Alaska women have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both in their lifetime. We need a comprehensive approach to address this crisis. That is why I\u2019m proud to join Senator Sullivan as an original cosponsor of the POWER Act, which will provide greater access to legal services for survivors who otherwise might not be able to afford them,\u201d said Sen. Murkowski.\n\nThe POWER Act mandates that each year, the chief judge of each judicial district across the country hold at least one event promoting pro bono legal services as a critical way to empower survivors of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault, to engage citizens, and to help lift victims out of the cycle of violence. The bill also requires that every two years, an event be held in areas with high numbers of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, with a focus on addressing these issues among Native populations.\n\nThe POWER Act also requires the administrative office of the federal judiciary to submit a compilation and summary of reports received from the chief district judges, detailing each public event conducted in the previous fiscal year.\n\nBackground on the POWER Act:\n\nThe National Network to End Domestic Violence estimated that over the course of one day in September 2014, up to 10,000 requests for services by abused women, including legal representation, weren\u2019t met due to a lack of resources.\n\nResearch has shown that when abuse victims are represented by an attorney, their ability to break out of the cycle of violence increases dramatically. For example, one study found that 83 percent of victims represented by an attorney were able to obtain a protective order compared to just 32 percent of victims without an attorney.\n\nThe POWER Act is modeled after the pro bono summits Senator Sullivan organized throughout Alaska while he was attorney general of the state working on the \u201cChoose Respect\u201d initiative.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murkowski-sullivan-introduce-bill-to-establish-offshore-revenue-sharing-for-alaska", "Murkowski, Sullivan Introduce Bill to Establish Offshore Revenue Sharing for Alaska", "2021-10-27", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-AK, today introduced legislation to provide for equitable revenue sharing from energy production and development in Alaska\u2019s Outer Continental Shelf.\n\nThe bill, Alaska Offshore Parity Act, will facilitate the establishment of a revenue sharing program for Alaska to provide parity with onshore and offshore development in the outer Continental Shelf. This program will provide support for onshore infrastructure for coastal communities, mitigation of damage to natural resources, resiliency, and programs at Alaskan higher education institutions.\n\n\u201cAlaskans hold ourselves to the highest standards when it comes to responsibly developing our natural resources with minimal impact on coastal communities,\u201d said Senator Lisa Murkowski. \u201cOffshore revenue sharing is a matter of simple fairness. This legislation ensures that Alaskans receive a fair portion of the benefits that our resource-rich state provides. This legislation creates a framework to mitigate environmental impact, protect coastal communities, and support projects for various entities in Alaska while providing fairness and parity. Providing revenue sharing from the development of Arctic resources to surrounding coastal communities makes sense and is the right thing to do.\u201d\n\n\u201cProduction of the vast energy reserves found in Alaska\u2019s Outer Continental Shelf offers us the opportunity to grow our economy, bolster our national security, create new jobs, and fill the Trans Alaska Pipeline,\u201d said Senator Dan Sullivan. \u201cIt is critical that we continue making strides toward responsibly developing these resources for the maximum benefit of Alaskans and all Americans, while protecting our marine ecosystem and coastal communities. Because these resources are off of our coasts, Alaskans deserve to benefit from their production in terms of revenues for our state and local governments. Our legislation makes sure Alaskans receive their fair share of these revenues, which are critical to supporting our communities.\u201d\n\nThe Alaska Outer Continental Shelf contains an estimated 27.3 billion barrels of oil and 131.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Under current law, however, Alaska does not receive any revenue from the development of those resources, outside of the nearshore areas designated under Section 8(g) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-sullivan-introduce-bill-to-establish-offshore-revenue-sharing-for-alaska-", "Murkowski, Sullivan Introduce Bill to Establish Offshore Revenue Sharing for Alaska", "2021-10-26", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-AK, today introduced legislation to provide for equitable revenue sharing from energy production and development in Alaska\u2019s Outer Continental Shelf.\n\nThe bill, Alaska Offshore Parity Act, will facilitate the establishment of a revenue sharing program for Alaska to provide parity with onshore and offshore development in the outer Continental Shelf. This program will provide support for onshore infrastructure for coastal communities, mitigation of damage to natural resources, resiliency, and programs at Alaskan higher education institutions.\n\n\u201cAlaskans hold ourselves to the highest standards when it comes to responsibly developing our natural resources with minimal impact on coastal communities,\u201d said Senator Lisa Murkowski. \u201cOffshore revenue sharing is a matter of simple fairness. This legislation ensures that Alaskans receive a fair portion of the benefits that our resource-rich state provides. This legislation creates a framework to mitigate environmental impact, protect coastal communities, and support projects for various entities in Alaska while providing fairness and parity. Providing revenue sharing from the development of Arctic resources to surrounding coastal communities makes sense and is the right thing to do.\u201d\n\n\u201cProduction of the vast energy reserves found in Alaska\u2019s Outer Continental Shelf offers us the opportunity to grow our economy, bolster our national security, create new jobs, and fill the Trans Alaska Pipeline,\u201d said Senator Dan Sullivan. \u201cIt is critical that we continue making strides toward responsibly developing these resources for the maximum benefit of Alaskans and all Americans, while protecting our marine ecosystem and coastal communities. Because these resources are off of our coasts, Alaskans deserve to benefit from their production in terms of revenues for our state and local governments. Our legislation makes sure Alaskans receive their fair share of these revenues, which are critical to supporting our communities.\u201d\n\nThe Alaska Outer Continental Shelf contains an estimated 27.3 billion barrels of oil and 131.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Under current law, however, Alaska does not receive any revenue from the development of those resources, outside of the nearshore areas designated under Section 8(g) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.\n\nRelated Issues: Energy", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murkowski-sullivan-thank-judge-burgess-for-service-to-alaska", "Murkowski, Sullivan Thank Judge Burgess For Service to Alaska", "2021-10-26", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON.\u2014 U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-Alaska) issued the following statements after Judge Timothy Burgess announced his upcoming retirement from active service as a United States Judge for the District of Alaska, effective December 31, 2021. Judge Burgess has been chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska since 2015 and joined the court in 2006 after being nominated by then President George W. Bush.\n\n\u201cAlaska has been fortunate to have Judge Timothy Burgess sitting on the bench for the last fifteen years. He is an honorable man and jurist who has served Alaska well\u2014hearing nearly all categories of federal cases. I thank Judge Burgess for his service to Alaska and the nation and wish him well in his upcoming transition to senior status,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cThese will be big shoes to fill\u2014but this now begins the process for filling this important vacancy.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor the past fifteen years, Judge Timothy Burgess has served Alaska as a federal judge honorably,\u201dsaid Senator Sullivan. \u201cHe has been fair and served with distinction. He\u2019s also shown the utmost respect for all people in his courtroom. We thank him for his service and wish him, his wife Joanne Grace and their children, all the best. He will be missed.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/air-force-selects-eielson-air-force-base-as-preferred-location-for-dod-nuclear-micro-reactor-", "Air Force Selects Eielson Air Force Base as Preferred Location for DoD Nuclear Micro-Reactor", "2021-10-25", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Announcement Follows Murkowski\u2019s Staunch Support for Advanced Nuclear\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) applauded the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for selecting Eielson Air Force Base as the preferred pilot location to host the first Air Force nuclear micro-reactor. As a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murkowski has helped secure significant funding for nuclear micro-reactor development and helped spearhead the creation of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. During her tenure as Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Murkowski shepherded into law her bill, the Energy Act of 2020, which includes provisions to support advanced nuclear reactors.\n\n\u201cStrong energy capabilities are critical to our national security and geopolitical interests. Given Alaska\u2019s strategic location, Alaska\u2019s Eielson Air Force Base being selected as the preferred pilot location to host the first Department of the Air Force nuclear micro-reactor is significant news. This is an exciting development for Alaska and helps to broaden our state\u2019s energy infrastructure. I commend the DoD for investing in smart, safe, and clean next-generation energy efforts,\u201d said Senator Lisa Murkowski. \u201cThe implementation of micro-reactor technology will bring clean, and resilient energy opportunities that boost our economy and strengthen our national security infrastructure without the concerns of a large nuclear reactor. Eielson Air Force Base, home to an expanding fleet of F35 aircraft, is an excellent choice for a micro-reactor thanks to the already-existing energy infrastructure, climate conditions, and willingness of Alaskan servicemembers and their communities to pursue these important energy and defense opportunities.\u201d\n\nClick here for more information.\n\nClick here for Micro-Reactor Pilot FAQs.\n\nBackground: The Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) required the DoD to identify potential locations to site, construct, and operate a micro-reactor pilot by the end of 2027. The micro-reactor will be commercially owned and licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Air Force is working to release a Request-for-Proposal and select a vendor in FY 2022. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2025 provided all necessary environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the NRC are complete.\n\nRelated Issues: Energy", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-sullivan-thank-judge-burgess-for-service-to-alaska", "Murkowski, Sullivan Thank Judge Burgess For Service to Alaska", "2021-10-25", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-Alaska) issued the following statements after Judge Timothy Burgess announced his upcoming retirement from active service as a United States Judge for the District of Alaska, effective December 31, 2021. Judge Burgess has been chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska since 2015 and joined the court in 2006 after being nominated by then President George W. Bush.\n\n\u201cAlaska has been fortunate to have Judge Timothy Burgess sitting on the bench for the last fifteen years. He is an honorable man and jurist who has served Alaska well\u2014hearing nearly all categories of federal cases. I thank Judge Burgess for his service to Alaska and the nation and wish him well in his upcoming transition to senior status,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cThese will be big shoes to fill\u2014but this now begins the process for filling this important vacancy.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor the past fifteen years, Judge Timothy Burgess has served Alaska as a federal judge honorably,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cHe has been fair and served with distinction. He\u2019s also shown the utmost respect for all people in his courtroom. We thank him for his service and wish him, his wife Joanne Grace and their children, all the best. He will be missed.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-sullivan-secure-extension-on-covid-relief-dollars-for-alaska-natives", "Murkowski, Sullivan Secure Extension on COVID Relief Dollars for Alaska Natives", "2021-10-21", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-Alaska) welcomed the Senate\u2019s passage last night of S.3011, the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act, legislation that includes a provision the senators authored granting an extension until December 31, 2022 for tribes\u2014including Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs)\u2014to spend Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) resources from the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.\n\nThe eligibility of ANCs for this COVID-19 relief has undergone months of litigation, culminating in a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding their access to the tribal set-aside within Title V of the CARES Act. ANCs, having only recently received disbursements from the Treasury Department, have been requesting more time to spend the roughly $443.8 million allocated to them, which was set to expire at the end of 2021.\n\nThe legislation also makes several categories of infrastructure investments and disaster relief eligible for unspent COVID-19 relief dollars and extends the deadline to utilize relief funding if budgeted for eligible infrastructure projects.\n\n\u201cThis CARES Act extension is critically important for Tribal governments who received their CARES Act allocations late due to litigation over eligibility, more than a year after disbursements to other Tribal governments began. This bill allows more flexibility to state and local governments to determine how to best utilize COVID relief federal funding,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cAlaska has been leading the nation in positive cases per capita, and sadly our state also recently logged the nation\u2019s highest rates for COVID-19 fatalities on a per capita basis. Our entire state, including Alaska Native communities, continue to experience hardships from the pandemic due to COVID-19 variants and still need to make use of these relief funds. I urge the House to swiftly pass this legislation to provide certainty to Tribal governments affected by late disbursements as well as empower local leaders to make decisions on what\u2019s best for their communities.\u201d\n\n\u201cANCs have been left in limbo since the spring of 2020, hopeful but uncertain that they would have fair access to CARES Act tribal resources,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cWith the Supreme Court\u2019s just decision upholding Alaska\u2019s unique tribal system for delivery of services and ANCs\u2019 access to these federal resources, ANCs are facing a time crunch to get COVID-19 relief dollars out the door. This unnecessary rush is not in the interest of good governance or the people we serve. I thank my colleagues for joining us in this effort, which isn\u2019t about spending new federal dollars, but rather granting reasonable flexibility to deploy CARES Act relief in the best interests of our constituents, whose lives, businesses and communities have been upended by the pandemic.\u201d\n\nThe larger bill, led by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), grants greater flexibility for states, tribes, and units of local government to spend their allocations under the CARES Act. The bill sets a cap\u2014the greater of either $10 million or 30 percent of the funds\u2014on how much of the relief money can be spent on new purposes, like infrastructure investments.\n\nTimeline:\n\nOn March 27, 2020, the CARES Act was signed into law, including an $8 billion set-aside for tribal governments.\n\nOn April 14, 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt detailing the unique legal framework and circumstances for tribal entities in Alaska. The letter provided a historical background on Alaska regional corporations, which are made eligible for CARES Act assistance because of the definition of \u201cIndian tribe\u201d used in the bill.\n\nIn April of 2020 several tribes filed lawsuits to prevent CARES Act funds from being distributed to ANCs.\n\nOn April 23, 2020, the delegation penned an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News to correct the mischaracterizations about ANCs and explain why the entities are eligible for CARES Act funds.\n\nOn June 26, 2020, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled ANCs are eligible for the aid. Judge Mehta based his decision on the definition of \u201cIndian tribe\u201d provided by the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and used in the CARES Act, which included ANCs.\n\nOn September 25, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the June 26 ruling and determined ANCs are ineligible for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act.\n\nIn November of 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari in support of ANC eligibility for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act.\n\nOn February 26, 2021, the Alaska delegation filed an amicus brief in support of the ANCs on the merits of the case. The amicus brief warns that the indigenous peoples of Alaska will suffer significant negative consequences as a result of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals\u2019 September 25, 2020 decision, which held that ANCs are ineligible for the CARES Act CRF tribal set-aside. The D.C. Circuit Court\u2019s decision, the delegation argued, destabilizes agency and legislative practice in place for over 40 years as well as systems in place that deliver programs and services to Alaska Natives across the state.\n\nOn June 25, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, upholding the decades-long inclusion of ANCs as \u201cIndian tribes\u201d under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA), also known as ISDEAA, confirming ANC eligibility for the CRF tribal set-aside within Title V of the CARES Act.\n\nOn September 14, 2021, Sen. Sullivan introduced and Sen. Murkowski cosponsored S.2728, a bill to extend the deadline for tribal governments to utilize CARES Act resources. The bill language was incorporated into Senators Cornyn and Padilla\u2019s State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act, passed by the Senate on October 19.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-colleagues-to-president-biden-stop-the-unconstitutional-vaccine-mandates", "Sullivan, Colleagues to President Biden: Stop the Unconstitutional Vaccine Mandates", "2021-10-21", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) todaysent a letter to President Joe Biden criticizing the Biden administration\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which the senators argue threaten the jobs and livelihoods of millions of hard-working Americans and lack precedent, legal and constitutional authority, and reasonable public input.\n\nSen. Sullivanspoke on the Senate floor on Monday, detailing his opposition to the administration\u2019s vaccine mandates and imploring employers to not fire their workers until inevitable litigation is heard.\n\nBelow is the full text of the senators\u2019letter.\n\nPresident Joseph R. Biden\n\nThe White House\n\n1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW\n\nWashington, DC 20500\n\nDear Mr. President,\n\nWe write to express our significant concerns regarding your expansive vaccine mandates on hardworking Americans. As you know, Executive Order 14042 requires employees of federal contractors and subcontractors to be vaccinated or face termination, and the forthcoming Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule forces private employers of over 100 employees to require their workers be vaccinated or tested weekly. The Executive Branch does not have the constitutional authority to take these invasive actions and your mandates will threaten the livelihoods, earned benefits, and financial health of untold numbers of hardworking Americans and their families. We strongly urge you to change course.\n\nWhile the Supreme Court has upheld the ability of states to mandate vaccines during a pandemic, there is no precedent for the federal government to mandate vaccines for contractors, private employers, or individual Americans. Vaccines are important in slowing the spread of the coronavirus, however, the decision on whether or not to get vaccinated is a personal choice and should not be unilaterally decided by the President. These unconstitutional actions are not only unprecedented, but they are also a vast federal overreach into individual liberties, personal health decisions, and private enterprise.\n\nThe COVID-19 pandemic has been extremely challenging for individuals, families, and businesses. The resulting economic uncertainty from various restrictive public health orders in 2020 could have destroyed the American economy, but Congress stepped in on a broad, bipartisan basis, providing trillions to support maintaining the employees of American businesses through actions like the Paycheck Protection Program, Employee Retention Tax Credits, and the Payroll Support Program for airline workers, among many others. This support saved the jobs of millions of hardworking Americans. Now, many of the direct beneficiaries of that federal aid may lose their jobs over your unlawful federal vaccine mandates at the same time we are trying to get workers off the sidelines and back into the workforce.\n\nFiring hardworking Americans who choose not to get vaccinated not only undermines the significant work Congress and the Trump Administration did to save millions of jobs, it also exacerbates the workforce shortages employers are already facing. The disappointing economic data released by your own Administration outlines the serious nature of this issue. The demand for workers is strong, but there are simply not enough workers to fill positions. Forcing employers to terminate loyal employees who are willing to work when businesses are facing significant challenges in hiring\u2014and after Congress has invested trillions to save their jobs\u2014is nonsensical.\n\nYour actions have put businesses and hardworking Americans in an unnecessary bind. Both your Executive Order and the OSHA rule disregard public input and instead use coercion to force implementation of the vaccine mandate. In particular, Executive Order 14402 side steps the public rulemaking process required under the Administrative Procedures Act in favor of using agency guidance. Similarly, OSHA is releasing an Emergency Temporary Standard, which bypasses the public process. Both mandates are an extreme abuse of power, and those who are most negatively impacted have not even been afforded an opportunity to provide comment.\n\nBeyond sidestepping public input, the mandate on contractors does not include an option for testing in lieu of a vaccine, making it particularly onerous and discriminatory. Instead, businesses who receive federal contracts will be required to submit to an even higher standard than OSHA is expected to require for other private sector employers. In addition, neither mandate considers natural immunity.\n\nWe all want to put this pandemic behind us for the benefit of our health, our families, and our economy, but we cannot lose sight of the massive, negative impacts that your mandates will have on hardworking Americans and their families. We urge you to change course for the sake of hardworking Americans and their families.\n\nSincerely,\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-on-voting-rights-reform", "Murkowski on Voting Rights Reform", "2021-10-20", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) issued the following statement after voting against a procedural vote on the Freedom to Vote Act, highlighting her targeted efforts on voting reform:\n\n\u201cAmericans need confidence in the integrity of our elections, and we can\u2019t instill that trust with a wholly partisan effort. We also aren\u2019t going to achieve that by micromanaging or federalizing state elections systems\u2014which is the direction the Freedom to Vote Act takes.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m committed to ensuring access to voting is equal, fair, and free from discrimination, which is why I\u2019ve been working with Senators Leahy and Manchin in the context of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. There is nothing more fundamental than the right to vote.\u201d\n\nBackground: The Native American Voting Rights Act is included in the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Senator Murkowski is Vice Chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, which has oversight of American Indian and Alaska Native issues. An Indian Affairs Committee oversight hearing titled \u201cVoting Matters in Native Communities\u201d is scheduled for next week, October 27. For the past three sessions of Congress, Senator Murkowski has been the sole Republican cosponsor of the Voting Rights Advancement Act with Senator Leahy (D-VT), now known as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-secures-alaska-funding-priorities-in-appropriations-bills", "Murkowski Secures Alaska Funding Priorities in Appropriations Bills", "2021-10-20", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) issued the following statement after the Appropriations Committee posted the remaining nine Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations bills, including the Interior-Environment appropriations bill of which Senator Murkowski serves as the Ranking Member:\n\n\u201cThe Appropriations bills posted earlier this week are a mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly. On the good side, I am pleased that we were successful in including so many priorities from Alaskans for local projects that have the potential to make very significant impacts on entire communities. I\u2019m particularly proud of the breadth of projects for Alaska contained in the Interior-Environment appropriations bill\u2014from support for water and sewer facilities to PFAS remediation to support for domestic violence survivors and so much more.\n\n\u201cOn the bad side, the level of spending increases proposed by the majority is almost breathtaking. Non-defense domestic spending increased by nearly 14 percent over last year while defense spending is disadvantaged. The bills contain certain poison pills that a more collaborative process could have avoided.\n\n\u201cThe ugly side has been the process\u2014or lack of process for consideration of these nine appropriations bills. The Committees are still operating without a topline budget number, no agreement has been reached regarding longstanding policy riders, and none of these nine bills have gone through the Committee process. I realize that this is just one step in the process, but it does not bode well for bipartisan collaboration that could produce bills that reflect both Democratic and Republican funding priorities.\u201d\n\nClick here for a list of Congressionally Directed Spending allocations for Alaska which Senator Murkowski secured in the Fiscal Year 2022 bills currently before the Senate.\n\nRelated Issues: Budget & Spending", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senate-passes-one-year-extension-for-tribal-governments-to-utilize-covid-relief", "Senate Passes One Year Extension for Tribal Governments to Utilize COVID Relief", "2021-10-20", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "Last night, the United States Senate passed the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (S. 3011), which includes a one-year extension of the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) deadline to allow Tribal governments additional time to use CARES CRF allocations. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), is a cosponsor to S. 3011 and was able to secure inclusion of the tribal extension in the legislation.\n\n\u201cI worked hard to include this important language and am relieved the Senate passed this critical extension for Tribes to be able to expend CARES Act funds. This extension will create parity for many Tribes that received distributions more than a year after initial tribal disbursements began due to lengthy litigation. Tribes that did not receive timely access to funds deserve more time to responsibly spend their distributions and this bill will allow for that. This is important legislation that I urge the House to quickly pass so Tribes across the country will have certainty and be better able to assist their communities who experienced extreme hardship due to COVID-19,\u201d said Senator Lisa Murkowski.\n\nBackground\n\nOn August 5, 2021, along with the leadership of the Finance Committee and Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Murkowski offered amendments to the bipartisan infrastructure bill, H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to extend the CARES Act CRF deadline to December 31, 2022 for Tribal governments and to clarify funding for counties under the American Rescue Plan. Senators Sullivan and Murkowski also offered an amendment to extend the CARES Act deadline for Tribes.\n\nOn September 14, 2021, Senators Sullivan, Murkowski, Hirono, and Schatz introduced S.2728, a bill to amend title VI of the Social Security Act to extend the coverage of Coronavirus Relief Fund payments to Tribal governments.\n\nOn October 19, 2021, S. 3011, the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act passed the Senate. This bill was introduced as an updated standalone version of the amendments offered to H.R. 3684.\n\nOn October 20, 2021, Vice Chairman Murkowski mentioned the recent Senate passage of S. 3011 during a SCIA roundtable, Investing in Economic Sovereignty: Leveraging Federal Financing for New and Sustained Development in Native Communities, and how this bill will greatly help tribal communities across the country.\n\nThe bill, S. 3011, now heads to the House of Representatives for further consideration.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senate-passes-resolution-designating-october-as-national-domestic-violence-awareness-month", "Senate Passes Resolution Designating October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month", "2021-10-20", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "The Senate last night unanimously passed a resolution introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) designating October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.\n\n\u201cMillions of Americans, men and women alike, are victims of domestic violence every year,\u201d said Senator Feinstein. \u201cAddressing this problem requires a holistic approach to help survivors recover and hold perpetrators accountable. I\u2019m proud to have led my colleagues in passing this resolution to raise awareness about domestic violence and remind survivors that they\u2019re not alone.\u201d\n\n\u201cDomestic violence continues to be deeply pervasive across America\u2014particularly in Alaska. This issue has been affecting individuals, families, and entire communities in damaging and tragic ways for far too long. I want survivors of domestic violence to know that they are not alone. It is not an easy topic to talk about, but together, through advocacy, education, and reforming policy, we will continue to support survivors in their paths to healing,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cNational Domestic Violence Awareness Month provides an important platform for victims to share their stories. We have a responsibility to not only support those who have been impacted, but to ensure future generations are free from the trauma of domestic violence.\u201d\n\n\u201cTragically, too many Iowans and Americans fall victim to domestic violence. As a survivor who worked at a victims\u2019 shelter in college, I\u2019m committed to doing everything I can to address this issue. I\u2019m proud to join with Democrats and Republicans in recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and will continue working across the aisle on comprehensive ways to support fellow survivors and end domestic violence,\u201d said Senator Ernst.\n\n\u201cFor many Americans, home is not always a safe place. Especially as the reported cases of domestic violence and abuse have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic, we must increase access to resources and support for survivors while holding abusers accountable,\u201d said Senator Durbin. \u201cI\u2019m pleased this bipartisan resolution passed the Senate on a unanimous basis to remind survivors that they are not alone and to raise awareness for the recovery support available to those in need.\u201d\n\nFull text of the resolution is available here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murkowski-sullivan-secure-extension-on-covid-relief-dollars-for-alaska-natives", "Murkowski, Sullivan Secure Extension on COVID Relief Dollars for Alaska Natives", "2021-10-20", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "Senate Passes Bill to Allow Unspent COVID Relief Dollars for Infrastructure, Disaster Relief\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-Alaska) welcomed the Senate\u2019s passage last night of S.3011, the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act, legislation that includes a provision the senators authored granting an extension until December 31, 2022 for tribes\u2014including Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs)\u2014to spend Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) resources from the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.\n\nThe eligibility of ANCs for this COVID-19 relief has undergone months of litigation, culminating in a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding their access to the tribal set-aside within Title V of the CARES Act. ANCs, having only recently received disbursements from the Treasury Department, have been requesting more time to spend the roughly $443.8 million allocated to them, which was set to expire at the end of 2021.\n\nThe legislation also makes several categories of infrastructure investments and disaster relief eligible for unspent COVID-19 relief dollars and extends the deadline to utilize relief funding if budgeted for eligible infrastructure projects.\n\n\u201cThis CARES Act extension is critically important for Tribal governments who received their CARES Act allocations late due to litigation over eligibility, more than a year after disbursements to other Tribal governments began. This bill allows more flexibility to state and local governments to determine how to best utilize COVID relief federal funding,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cAlaska has been leading the nation in positive cases per capita, and sadly our state also recently logged the nation\u2019s highest rates for COVID-19 fatalities on a per capita basis. Our entire state, including Alaska Native communities, continue to experience hardships from the pandemic due to COVID-19 variants and still need to make use of these relief funds. I urge the House to swiftly pass this legislation to provide certainty to Tribal governments affected by late disbursements as well as empower local leaders to make decisions on what\u2019s best for their communities.\u201d\n\n\u201cANCs have been left in limbo since the spring of 2020, hopeful but uncertain that they would have fair access to CARES Act tribal resources,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cWith the Supreme Court\u2019s just decision upholding Alaska\u2019s unique tribal system for delivery of services and ANCs\u2019 access to these federal resources, ANCs are facing a time crunch to get COVID-19 relief dollars out the door. This unnecessary rush is not in the interest of good governance or the people we serve. I thank my colleagues for joining us in this effort, which isn\u2019t about spending new federal dollars, but rather granting reasonable flexibility to deploy CARES Act relief in the best interests of our constituents, whose lives, businesses and communities have been upended by the pandemic.\u201d\n\nThe larger bill, led by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), grants greater flexibility for states, tribes, and units of local government to spend their allocations under the CARES Act. The bill sets a cap\u2014the greater of either $10 million or 30 percent of the funds\u2014on how much of the relief money can be spent on new purposes, like infrastructure investments.\n\nTimeline:\n\nOn March 27, 2020, the CARES Act was signed into law, including an $8 billion set-aside for tribal governments.\n\nOn April 14, 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt detailing the unique legal framework and circumstances for tribal entities in Alaska. The letter provided a historical background on Alaska regional corporations, which are made eligible for CARES Act assistance because of the definition of \u201cIndian tribe\u201d used in the bill.\n\nIn April of 2020 several tribes filed lawsuits to prevent CARES Act funds from being distributed to ANCs.\n\nOn April 23, 2020, the delegation penned an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News to correct the mischaracterizations about ANCs and explain why the entities are eligible for CARES Act funds.\n\nOn June 26, 2020, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled ANCs are eligible for the aid. Judge Mehta based his decision on the definition of \u201cIndian tribe\u201d provided by the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and used in the CARES Act, which included ANCs.\n\nOn September 25, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the June 26 ruling and determined ANCs are ineligible for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act.\n\nIn November of 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari in support of ANC eligibility for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act.\n\nOn February 26, 2021, the Alaska delegation filed an amicus brief in support of the ANCs on the merits of the case. The amicus brief warns that the indigenous peoples of Alaska will suffer significant negative consequences as a result of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals\u2019 September 25, 2020 decision, which held that ANCs are ineligible for the CARES Act CRF tribal set-aside. The D.C. Circuit Court\u2019s decision, the delegation argued, destabilizes agency and legislative practice in place for over 40 years as well as systems in place that deliver programs and services to Alaska Natives across the state.\n\nOn June 25, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, upholding the decades-long inclusion of ANCs as \u201cIndian tribes\u201d under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA),also known as ISDEAA, confirming ANC eligibility for the CRF tribal set-aside within Title V of the CARES Act.\n\nOn September 14, 2021, Sen. Sullivan introduced and Sen. Murkowski cosponsored S.2728, a bill to extend the deadline for tribal governments to utilize CARES Act resources. The bill language was incorporated into Senators Cornyn and Padilla\u2019sState, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act, passed by the Senate on October 19.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/speeches/speech-iris-2021-freedom-award-celebration", "SPEECH: IRI's 2021 Freedom Award Celebration", "2021-10-19", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "It is a great honor to be here with you tonight as the Chairman of IRI. I want to thank President Dan Twining for his exceptional leadership, the IRI Board, and so many of my Senate colleagues for being here tonight. And of course, the many supporters of IRI who have made this such a successful evening.\n\nTonight we are here to celebrate democracy and its heroes, and to thank all those who work across the globe to counter one of the 21st century\u2019s most significant challenges\u2014the rise of powerful authoritarian governments.\n\nThe heroes we honor come from different continents, hold different religious beliefs, and celebrate different customs from different cultures.\n\nBut they have one thing in common: they believe that every individual should control his or her own destiny, and all people have the right to self-governance.\n\nTonight, we honor the people of Cuba who courageously took to the streets in defiance of a brutal dictatorship that has ruled by fear for over 60 years.\n\nWe honor the Burmese people who stood up and demonstrated to the world that a military junta cannot just be allowed to attack and replace a democratically elected government.\n\nWe honor the people of Lithuania\u2014a nation that came to the aid of its neighbors, the Belarusians, who had been protesting the criminal and corrupt Lukashenka regime.\n\nAnd we honor those who have directly confronted the global pandemic, threatening their personal and political freedom.\n\nOver the past year, these and others have rallied to break the chains of oppression in their countries, and to provide a model\u2014a light\u2014in some of the darkest places in the world.\n\nI would like to say a few words about another one of these lights\u2014Taiwan\u2014whose democracy is being threatened with extinction by an authoritarian government of immense power, ambition, and appetite.\n\nSome see the defense of democratic values in places like Taiwan as a luxury we cannot afford in an age of sharpened geopolitical competition. I reject that view. Importantly, so does American law, particularly the Taiwan Relations Act which, among other things, states, \u201cThe Unites States will consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means\u2026 a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern.\u201d\n\nThe free world cannot be neutral in the contest between freedom and authoritarianism that is underway in the world, especially in the Indo-Pacific region. American alliances, power, and ingenuity helped build a world that provided more freedom and prosperity to more people than ever before. In fact, United States democracy, bolstered by a strong military, has done more to liberate human kind from oppression and tyranny\u2014literally hundreds of millions of people\u2014than any other force in human history.\n\nThe Chinese Communist Party knows exactly what it wants to accomplish\u2014to make the world safe for its authoritarian government, to export its dictatorship model to other countries, to separate America from our democratic allies, and to erode U.S. leadership. A world governed by Xi Jinping\u2019s totalitarian vision would be a world unsafe for America and our friends, and unsafe for democracy.\n\nThat\u2019s why Taiwan is so central to the future of the free world. It is a thriving, prosperous Chinese democracy that holds free elections and in which power is bounded by law. For that reason, it threatens the CCP\u2019s central premise that one man ruling in perpetuity by crushing all dissent knows what is best for 1.4 billion people.\n\nThe Chinese Communist Party has already crushed Hong Kong, once a bastion of liberty, and the free world barely raised a finger in protest. Should America and the world stand by as China does something similar to Taiwan\u2014a peaceful democracy of 25 million people who have voted for an entirely different future\u2014that would not simply undermine the security of the Western Pacific, as the Taiwan Relations Act says. A violent, military takeover of Taiwan by the CCP would be a sea change in how the world is ordered. It would change the history of the 21st Century in ways that the guns of August of 1914 changed the 20th Century.\n\nTaiwan is not some peripheral sideshow in terms of global great-power competition. It is the front line, between freedom and tyranny, like West Berlin during the height of the Cold War.\n\nIt is also an issue that has been weaved in and out of the careers and professions of countless Americans, including my own.\n\nOver 25 years ago, in 1995 and 96, I was a Marine infantry officer deployed to the Taiwan Strait as part of a Marine Amphibious task force and two U.S. carrier strike groups, all in response to the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s aggressive military provocations on the eve of Presidential elections in Taiwan. The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, this period is now called.\n\nThis was an important and decisive demonstration of American commitment and resolve to an emerging democracy and partner that is still remembered to this day.\n\nTwenty years later, on a CODEL to Taiwan, led by the Senator we celebrate tonight\u2014John McCain\u2014I was asked by the newly elected president whether I had ever been to Taiwan. I took a few seconds to answer and finally said, \u201cWell yes, Madam President. I have been to Taiwan before. But not on land!\u201d\n\nMore recently, I was part of another demonstration of American commitment and resolve when I traveled to Taiwan with Democratic Senators Tammy Duckworth and Chris Coons to provide vaccines\u2014close to a million\u2014for the Taiwanese people in the face of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s aggressive attempts to prevent the citizens of Taiwan from receiving this life-saving medicine.\n\nAmerican commitment and resolve for Taiwan has been part of our law, heritage, trade, economics, and military deployments for decades, and should be for decades to come.\n\nNow is the time for all democracies to get off the fence, and for the free world to stand together to make sure that authoritarian aggression will fail in the 21st century\u2014just as it ultimately failed in the 20th century.\n\nIt is our values\u2014of freedom, innovation, individual rights, and openness\u2014that the Chinese Communist Party is most afraid of. We must be ready\u2014as democracies\u2014to defend these values or risk a world increasingly governed by autocracy, surveillance, aggression, and permanent conflict.\n\nLet me conclude with a quote. In 1967, former President Ronald Reagan\u2014the father of the National Endowment of Democracy and IRI\u2014said this about freedom:\n\n\u201cFreedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction\u2026it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.\u201d\n\nWe have so many allies in IRI\u2019s just cause. And not just the citizens of fellow democracies, but literally billions of additional allies around the world: citizens on every continent and in every country, including China, chafing for greater freedom, dignity, and individual liberty. Thank you all for your great support for IRI.\n\nNow we have a video presentation on our Democracy heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-reed-braun-introduce-bills-to-address-student-loans", "Murkowski, Reed, Braun Introduce Bills to Address Student Loans", "2021-10-18", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Mike Braun (R-IN) have introduced two bills to address the rising cost of post-secondary education: the State-Based Education Loan Awareness Act and the Student Loan Repayment Freedom Act.\n\nThe State-Based Education Loan Awareness Act would eliminate deterrents and penalties that prevent universities from informing students about student loans offered by non-profit, state agency lenders whose mission is to make college affordable and accessible. Click here for more information on the State-Based Education Loan Awareness Act.\n\n\u201cI am well aware of the ever-rising cost of college and the barriers that young people face in affording post-secondary education, which is why I\u2019ve made it a priority to help make pursuing these opportunities a more attainable reality for all Alaskans. The opportunity to learn and pursue a degree or job skills should never be hampered by the fear of not being able to afford school,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cIt is important that we enable colleges to help students seek out affordable loans offered by the non-profit state agencies created to serve them once they have exhausted their federal student aid options. I\u2019m proud to lead this bill alongside Senator Reed that will open up greater opportunities for the next generation of learners.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe reality of paying for college is tough and it\u2019s important for students and families to understand the costs and have accurate and complete information about their financial options,\u201d said Senator Reed. \u201cFar too many students are unaware about additional resources state agencies can provide. This bill will help to shine a light on additional low-cost options to help pay for college.\u201d\n\n\u201cColleges should be able to inform students of all the resources available that can make higher education more economical and accessible, such as student loans offered by non-profit state agencies,\u201d said Senator Braun. \u201cI am proud to join Senator Murkowski and Senator Reed in introducing legislation that will help expand opportunities for Hoosiers in higher education.\u201d\n\nThe Student Loan Repayment Freedom Act will help federal student loan borrowers to ensure their repayment plans fit their needs by allowing borrowers to switch from one income-based repayment plan to another, without first having to make a payment under Standard Repayment or go into forbearance. Click here for more information on the Student Loan Repayment Freedom Act.\n\n\u201cMany federal student loan borrowers sign up for one of the income-based repayment plans, only to realize that as their circumstances change, another plan would better meet their needs. Unfortunately, the Department of Education requires borrowers to first move to Standard Repayment, fill out reams of paperwork, and wait for their loan servicer to process that paperwork. The Student Loan Repayment Act aims to simplify that process, giving borrowers the ability to move from one plan to another that best suits their needs, with the least amount of hassle,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cWe need to make the process of repaying federal student loans as easy and stress-free as possible. This legislation gives us the opportunity to do just that.\u201d\n\n\u201cRepaying federal student loans can be a confusing, stressful, and expensive challenge for many students. It\u2019s important that student borrowers are able to switch to a repayment plan that fits their needs without endless delay or red tape,\u201d said Senator Reed. \u201cThe Student Loan Repayment Freedom Act puts borrowers in the driver\u2019s seat and makes it easier for them to select the plan that fits their specific needs.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe must put an end to the unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles that hinder federal student loan borrowers from switching to an income based-repayment plan that best suits their needs,\u201d said Senator Braun. \u201cThe Student Loan Repayment Freedom Act streamlines the federal student loan repayment system and reduces the burden on students.\u201d\n\nWhat stakeholders are saying:\n\n\u201cResearch conducted by the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE) consistently reflects the startling reality that Alaska\u2019s student loan borrowers pay more than is necessary to fund their postsecondary education endeavors. When our students are not appropriately and accurately informed of State and non-profit education loan programs, research indicates they are at risk of taking loans with interest rates that could be up to double those available through their state lender\u2019s programs. ACPE supports the efforts of Senator Murkowski to ensure Alaskan students are better informed and prepared to make sound financial decisions in pursuing postsecondary education programs,\u201d Sana Efird, Executive Director of the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education.\n\n\u201cRequiring borrowers who are paying according to an income-driven repayment plan make a payment in standard repayment or put loans into forbearance to enroll in a different income-driven repayment plan is an administrative hurdle that should be eliminated. Your bill changes this and will reduce confusion for borrowers, avoid unnecessary processing delays, and help update the archaic federal student loan repayment system,\u201d said Gail daMata, President, Education Finance Council.\n\n\"Borrowers, whether student or parents, face a daunting task of navigating the student financial loan landscape. Likewise, institutions of higher education face a strict and cumbersome process of identifying lenders to borrowers. Dedicated financial aid officers at institutions work to find the right solutions and options for students. This legislation enables state-based lenders to be eligible for listing by institutions without the burdensome regulatory process used currently,\" said Dr. Paul Layer, Vice President for Academic Affairs of University of Alaska.\n\nThe Education Finance Council (EFC) has endorsed both pieces of legislation. To read their letter of endorsement regarding the State-Based Education Loan Awareness Act, click here. To read their letter of endorsement regarding the Student Loan Repayment Freedom Act, click here.\n\nRelated Issues: Education", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/speeches/speech-bidens-vaccine-mandates", "SPEECH: Biden's Vaccine Mandates", "2021-10-18", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "Mr. President, I want to address a topic this afternoon here in the U.S. Senate that I believe not enough people are talking about. It is something that I certainly heard a lot about when I was back home in Alaska, and I think it is something that millions of Americans are talking about.\n\nBut nobody here on the Senate floor is talking about, but we should be because this goes to constitutional authority, and it goes to what I believe means to be an American--freedom, liberty, and it is this: the Executive order that the President--President Biden issued mandating vaccinations for both Federal contractors and private employers.\n\nIn essence, what he has said in this Executive order--we are still waiting on the rule--is that employers need to have people who are vaccinated--all their employees by a certain date or they are going to be fired.\n\nThat is the President of the United States saying he has that power to force employers to make their employees decide between a vaccination or putting food on the table for their families. Vaccination or you are fired.\n\nWe are not talking about that, and this is unprecedented--unprecedented. Never before has a President claimed the authority to actually do this. The military is a different exception. Private employers who have some connection to the Federal Government or otherwise, tell your employees: Get vaccinated or you are fired.\n\nAnd the President of the United States is claiming the constitutional authority to do that.\n\nI don't even think it is a close call. I don't even think it is a close call. Never been done before, and I don't even think it is a close call whether the President has the constitutional authority to do this.\n\nThink about, if he did, what this could mean for power in other realms that the executive branch or President would have.\n\nNow, I will stipulate right here, I am vaccinated. I have encouraged others to get a vaccine in consultation with their doctors. We all want to put this pandemic behind us, no doubt about it. The vaccinations help with that. But that doesn't mean there should be an excuse to look the other way when the President is acting in an unconstitutional manner.\n\nAnd there are many reasons, certainly with regard to my constituents, that people might be hesitating with regard to a vaccine. Some of them have health conditions that preclude them from taking a vaccine. Some of them may have serious religious objections to the vaccine. Some of them have histories of abuse and don't trust the Federal Government or the medical establishment. Some of them have dug in their heels and believe the government simply doesn't have the right to tell them what substance to put in their bodies.\n\nThe President of the United States is taking this unprecedented--and\n\nit is unprecedented--action: Get a vaccine or the Federal Government will mandate you get fired.\n\nIt is not just in my view unconstitutional, but it shows contempt for hard-working Americans; contempt that I see percolating again and again among some in the far left.\n\nThink about it. You don't say what you think we should say, you are fired. You work for an industry that used to power America but now is out of favor with some on the left--oil, gas, coal, especially in Alaska, as the Presiding Officer knows--we will shut down your business and we will make sure your employees are fired. You speak your mind about an issue, you are fired. You don't take a vaccine, you are fired.\n\nOh, by the way, I think the Federal deadline on the vaccination put out by the President is December 8. So you are going to be fired right before the holidays.\n\nNow, as you know, this is a 180-degree turn--180 about-face--with regard to what this body did last year.\n\nWhat do I mean?\n\nSo we worked in a bipartisan way during 2020, when the pandemic hit, particularly the CARES Act. I think every U.S. Senator voted for that. But the other relief that we worked hard on, Democrats and Republicans--when the historians look back at 2020, there are going to be a lot of things, but I think one good thing is they are going to say the Congress of the United States came together, no playbook--we certainly had never seen this before--came together to help the American people; Democrats, Republicans, the President--that was President Trump--on relief.\n\nAnd here is the thing. This is why I mean it is a 180-degree turn. One of the core principles of all the relief packages that we passed last year--the aviation relief packages that helped our airlines, the PPP--throughout all the relief bills that passed this body in a bipartisan way, one critical component was we need to make sure employers and employees stay connected.\n\nAlmost all the relief said: All right. Airline industry, we can't let you go under. You have got to stay safe in terms of the ability to fly for the American people. You are going to get billions and billions and billions in relief, but you can't fire your employees. You have to keep them connected.\n\nThe PPP, the estimates are tens of millions of Americans kept their jobs because of that program. You got relief, small business in America, but you can't fire your employees. That was the agreement. That is what we worked on. That was the core principle that helped us get through the pandemic economically.\n\nJoe Biden is taking a sledge hammer to that connection. It is actually the exact opposite. We are still challenged by the pandemic. Our economy is still challenged.\n\nBut what is he doing?\n\nIf you don't listen to Joe Biden, private employers in America, you have to fire your employees.\n\nThat is exactly the opposite of how this body worked across the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, and the previous President. The approach was this: We are going to help you, but you have to keep your employees. That is the right approach. That is the right approach, and yet no one is talking about this new approach from the new President: Do what I say, even though I don't have the constitutional authority. You have to get a mandate, even though I don't have the constitutional authority. And if you don't, I am going to make sure private employers fire their employees--oh, right before Christmas.\n\nDoesn't anyone have a problem with this?\n\nWell, I have a problem with this. And, again, I think people should get vaccinated. I just don't think the President of the United States has the constitutional authority to tell Americans: Do it or you are going to get fired.\n\nSo here is what I hope. I have been reaching out to some of our business leaders to make a respectful request, and it is this: You don't want to fire your employees. Heck, this country doesn't have enough people who are working right now.\n\nYou have the Biden economy, which is long lines, superhigh energy prices, people who aren't working, and empty shelves. We need more workers. We certainly don't need the President of the United States telling employers: Fire your people prior to Christmas, but that is what he is doing.\n\nSo here is what I think, respectfully, our business leaders should be doing. They should be looking and remembering what we did last year. For example, if you are an airline executive, we all worked really hard to make sure we continued to have air service for America and it was safe and that you kept your employees.\n\nSo what our business leaders should be doing is saying respectfully: Mr. President, it is highly unlikely you have this authority, and I don't want to fire my employees.\n\nThe best business leaders I know are very loyal to their employees.\n\nSo hold off. Don't fire them because Joe Biden says you have to. In the litigation that is going to play out in this country, he almost certainly is going to lose--almost certainly. I don't think there is a court in America that says that the President of the United States, without Congress's permission or passing a law--that the President of the United States on his own--has the power to go to private sector employees and say: Your employees have to get vaccinated or you, Mr. Employer, have to fire them.\n\nI think the President is going to lose that case in every court in America. So if you are a business leader, here is my respectful request: Hold off. Wait for the litigation to play out, and don't fire\n\nyour employees because the President has told you to because they haven't gotten vaccinated before Christmas.\n\nYou know, we are already starting to see this. Some business leaders are taking a different approach, not this ``Do what I said or you are fired.'' They are offering financial incentives, hiring medical advisers to talk to their employees. They are allowing medical and religious exemptions. They are offering testing as an alternative to forcing the vaccine on their workers. And I read about one today. I have had discussions with others who are saying: Look, it is not our intention to fire employees right before Christmas.\n\nThese are the leaders who are saying they value and trust their employees, like what we did last year. Here is significant relief, businesses in America, but don't fire your employees. As a matter of fact, you can't if you accept this aid--which they didn't.\n\nSo these are the leaders who value their employees. And, at the end of the day, this is the approach that is going to work. It is going to work better for all of us--for these businesses, their workers, their communities, and our country.\n\nI wish the President would take note of this, but right now he seems hell-bent on doing a 180 from what we did last year, and that was encouraging businesses to work through the pandemic while keeping their employees, not ordering in an unconstitutional manner the firing of employees because Joe Biden said so.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/-senators-introduce-bill-to-improve-access-to-justice-in-the-west-create-new-twelfth-circuit", "Senators Introduce Bill to Improve Access to Justice in the West, Create New Twelfth Circuit", "2021-10-14", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "Legislation Implements Judicial Conference Recommendations, Splits the Ninth Circuit\n\nU.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) have introduced the Judicial Efficiency Improvement Act of 2021, a bill that would codify the Judicial Conference\u2019s most recent recommendations as well as other important measures to enhance the effectiveness of the federal judiciary. The legislation would authorize 77 permanent district court judgeships, convert nine temporary district court judgeships into permanent posts, authorize two appellate court judgeships for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and create a new Twelfth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.\n\nThe Judicial Conference of the United States is the national policy-making body for the federal courts. It is comprised of the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the chief judge from each judicial circuit, the chief judge of the Court of International Trade, and a district judge from each regional circuit. Every two years, the Judicial Conference makes recommendations for needed federal judgeships.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been four decades since a non-partisan judicial commission determined the Ninth Circuit suffers from \u2018serious difficulties with backlog and delay\u2019 due to its size and scope. Those difficulties have only gotten worse with time and inaction, leaving citizens under its jurisdiction\u2014including all Alaskans\u2014with less-than equal access to justice,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cWe know the problem. The solution\u2014splitting the Ninth Circuit, establishing a new Twelfth Circuit Court of Appeals, and adding new judgeships\u2014shouldn\u2019t be controversial. We\u2019ve split circuits and created new ones in the past to address the changes in our country\u2019s population. What is controversial is a circuit court using short-cuts to manage its workload and litigants waiting 40 percent longer to get their cases resolved, something I saw firsthand as a judicial law clerk for the Ninth Circuit. Our legislation would rectify this injustice and finally ensure the federal judicial system fairly serves the rapidly-growing West.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs a result of massive population growth across several western states, the Ninth Circuit has seen an overwhelming increase in caseloads, creating a lengthy process for those seeking justice,\u201d said Sen. Crapo. \u201cSplitting the Ninth Circuit would provide for a more expedient route to justice for many individuals in the West.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen the Ninth Circuit Court serves nearly twice the number of people as the next-largest judicial circuit and carries five times the case backlog of the average circuit, then it should be clear to anyone with a calculator that the Ninth is overdue to be split,\u201d said Sen. Risch. \u201cRestructuring the Ninth Circuit will result in more manageable caseloads and allow the courts to more closely mirror the populations they serve.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor years, the Ninth Circuit Court\u2014the largest of the regional courts\u2014has faced an unsustainably high number of cases per judge, resulting in serious administrative difficulties and significant backlogs. The efficiency of the Ninth Circuit must be improved to ensure that justice is not unduly delayed for any individual,\u201d said Sen. Murkowski. \u201cThis legislation would split the Ninth Circuit Court and create a Twelfth Circuit Court, allowing Alaska and other Western states to be served fairly and efficiently.\u201d\n\n\u201cSplitting the Ninth Circuit will improve Montanans\u2019 access to justice and end the unacceptable backlogs and delays they are currently experiencing. This is a much-needed reform to ensure Montanans are being well-served by our judicial system,\u201d said Sen. Daines.\n\nThis bill would codify the 2021 recommended judgeships by:\n\nAuthorizing two appellate court judgeships for the Ninth Circuit.\n\nAuthorizing 77 permanent district court judgeships around the country.\n\nConverting nine temporary district court judgeships to permanent.\n\nCurrently, western states are subjected to an overburdened, inconsistent, and slow judiciary. This stems from having the largest circuit court in the nation in terms of geography, population, and workload. The Ninth Circuit has jurisdiction over 40 percent of the landmass of the United States and one-in-five Americans. The court also has more than double the average number of authorized judgeships among the circuits. Appeals take 30 percent longer to dispose of than in the next largest circuit, and one-third of all pending federal appeals are within the Ninth Circuit.\n\nCreating a new circuit would solve the inefficiencies associated with the size of the Ninth Circuit and restore many Americans\u2019 access to justice.\n\nUnder the proposed legislation:\n\nAlaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington would be moved under a new Twelfth Circuit. The new circuit would be headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and be served by 13 appellate court judges.\n\nCalifornia, Hawaii, Guam, and the Mariana Islands would remain under the Ninth Circuit, served by 18 appellate court judges.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senators-markey-murkowski-and-representative-kuster-reintroduce-bipartisan-bicameral-legislation-to-expand-access-to-opioid-treatment-in-correctional-facilities", "Senators Markey, Murkowski and Representative Kuster Reintroduce Bipartisan, Bicameral Legislation to Expand Access to Opioid Treatment in Correctional Facilities", "2021-10-14", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced the reintroduction of the Community Re-Entry through Addiction Treatment to Enhance (CREATE) Opportunities Act, bipartisan legislation to create a new federal grant program to support opioid-use disorder (OUD) treatment at state and local correctional facilities. Representative Ann Kuster (NH-2) will introduce identical legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\nThe CREATE Opportunities Act establishes the Medication-Assisted Treatment Corrections and Community Reentry Program at the Department of Justice. This program would allow state and local governments to apply directly to the federal government for additional funding to support life-saving treatment for individuals dealing with OUD in correctional facilities. Grant recipients would have to offer at least two federally-approved drugs for the treatment of opioid-use disorder and employ a certified recovery coach to help support individuals in recovery. The legislation has also been included in the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) 3.0, bipartisan and bicameral legislation introduced earlier this year by Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Representatives Kuster, David Trone (MD-06), and David McKinley (WV-01).\n\n\u201cEnsuring individuals in jails and prisons can access effective treatment for opioid-use disorder is critical to bringing an end to suffering from the opioid epidemic. Our bill provides federal funding to help expand evidence-based treatment that will save lives, keep people with opioid-use disorder in treatment, and reduce recidivism,\u201d said Senator Markey. \u201cBy taking a public health approach to opioid-use disorder in prisons and jails, we can begin to break the cycle of addiction that upends so many lives. I am pleased to partner with Senator Murkowski and Rep. Kuster on this important bipartisan legislation.\u201d\n\n\u201cOver the past few years, the opioid epidemic has hit states across the nation incredibly hard\u2014including Alaska. We\u2019ve worked aggressively to provide resources and support to help those struggling with opioid abuse to fully recover, but there is always more work that can be done,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cFor many individuals who are in the criminal justice system and also struggling with opioid abuse or a mental health condition, the transition from incarceration back into their community can be challenging. By ensuring access to medically assisted treatments not only within prisons, but throughout an inmate\u2019s reentry process, we are far more likely to see fewer relapses, overdoses, and recidivism. I\u2019m glad to be working to build out greater access to these resources to give individuals in the criminal justice system an opportunity for a future free from substance abuse.\u201d\n\n\u201cFar too many justice-involved individuals in our jails suffer from untreated mental health and substance use disorder, and most lack access to the treatment they need,\u201d said Representative Kuster, founder and co-chair of the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force. \u201cMedication-assisted treatment (MAT) has an important role to play in helping incarcerated individuals suffering from substance use disorder recover and reclaim their lives to become productive, contributing members of our society. The CREATE Opportunities Act is commonsense legislation to provide an evidence-based solution to put an end to the cycle between addiction and the criminal justice system, and I am proud to help reintroduce it.\u201d\n\nA copy of the CREATE Opportunities Act can be found HERE.\n\nOver 69,000 Americans died from a drug overdose involving opioids in 2020, an all-time record. As the opioid crisis continues to ravage the United States, connecting individuals in correctional facilities with medication-assisted treatment (MAT) can help save lives and ensure more individuals with substance-use disorder sustain recovery. According to one study, recently released individuals are 129 times more likely to die from an opioid overdose in the first two weeks of release. Data shows that providing MAT in prisons and jails dramatically reduces the risk of death from drug overdose upon re-entry.\n\nThe CREATE Opportunities Act is endorsed by the Major County Sheriffs Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, AIDS United, the American Psychological Association, and the National Sheriffs Association.\n\n\u201cThe Major County Sheriffs of America applauds Senators Markey and Murkowski for their continued commitment to ensuring that individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder have access to treatment in correctional facilities. The CREATE Opportunities Act will provide critical resources to expand opioid treatment, support our efforts to confront the opioid crisis and improve outcomes for those suffering with substance use disorders,\u201d said Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, President, MCSA.\n\n\u201cASAM commends Senators Markey and Murkowski for their efforts to provide evidence-based addiction treatment to people with addiction who have been incarcerated,\u201d said William F. Haning, III, MD, DLFAPA, DFASAM, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). \u201cThe CREATE Opportunities Act would create a new grant program within the Department of Justice for state and local governments to cover and provide evidence-based opioid use disorder treatments, including medications, in their correctional facilities and connect these individuals with continued treatment upon release into the community. This legislation will save lives.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-responds-to-reports-suggesting-crude-oil-ban", "Murkowski Responds to Reports Suggesting Crude Oil Ban", "2021-10-09", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today responded to reports that the U.S. Department of Energy is considering a ban on U.S. crude exports.\n\n\u201cThere was a reason I led the effort to lift the decades old, failed policy of a ban on the export of oil. Domestic crude oil production allows the U.S. to participate in global markets, creating jobs and opportunities for Americans, and helping our friends and allies. It was after the ban was lifted that the U.S. shifted to a position of true energy strength, allowing us to help balance the world oil markets. In fact, according to a 2015 analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the export of crude oil actually reduces domestic gas prices. Returning to a ban on oil exports is short-sighted and should not even be entertained as a response to the higher gas prices we are seeing right now. This is a knee jerk notion that will undercut our economic competitiveness, cause job loss across a valuable sector of our economy, weaken our national security and our ability to support our allies. The administration needs to walk back this idea as quickly as it was floated.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/-senators-introduce-bill-to-improve-access-to-justice-in-the-west-create-new-twelfth-circuit-2021", "Senators Introduce Bill to Improve Access to Justice in the West, Create New Twelfth Circuit", "2021-10-08", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "Legislation Implements Judicial Conference Recommendations, Splits the Ninth Circuit\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) have introduced the Judicial Efficiency Improvement Act of 2021, a bill that would codify the Judicial Conference\u2019s most recent recommendations as well as other important measures to enhance the effectiveness of the federal judiciary. The legislation would authorize 77 permanent district court judgeships, convert nine temporary district court judgeships into permanent posts, authorize two appellate court judgeships for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and create a new Twelfth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.\n\nThe Judicial Conference of the United States is the national policy-making body for the federal courts. It is comprised of the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the chief judge from each judicial circuit, the chief judge of the Court of International Trade, and a district judge from each regional circuit. Every two years, the Judicial Conference makes recommendations for needed federal judgeships.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been four decades since a non-partisan judicial commission determined the Ninth Circuit suffers from \u2018serious difficulties with backlog and delay\u2019 due to its size and scope. Those difficulties have only gotten worse with time and inaction, leaving citizens under its jurisdiction\u2014including all Alaskans\u2014with less-than equal access to justice,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cWe know the problem. The solution\u2014splitting the Ninth Circuit, establishing a new Twelfth Circuit Court of Appeals, and adding new judgeships\u2014shouldn\u2019t be controversial. We\u2019ve split circuits and created new ones in the past to address the changes in our country\u2019s population. What is controversial is a circuit court using short-cuts to manage its workload and litigants waiting 40 percent longer to get their cases resolved, something I saw firsthand as a judicial law clerk for the Ninth Circuit. Our legislation would rectify this injustice and finally ensure the federal judicial system fairly serves the rapidly-growing West.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs a result of massive population growth across several western states, the Ninth Circuit has seen an overwhelming increase in caseloads, creating a lengthy process for those seeking justice,\u201d said Sen. Crapo. \u201cSplitting the Ninth Circuit would provide for a more expedient route to justice for many individuals in the West.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen the Ninth Circuit Court serves nearly twice the number of people as the next-largest judicial circuit and carries five times the case backlog of the average circuit, then it should be clear to anyone with a calculator that the Ninth is overdue to be split,\u201d said Sen. Risch. \u201cRestructuring the Ninth Circuit will result in more manageable caseloads and allow the courts to more closely mirror the populations they serve.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor years, the Ninth Circuit Court\u2014the largest of the regional courts\u2014has faced an unsustainably high number of cases per judge, resulting in serious administrative difficulties and significant backlogs. The efficiency of the Ninth Circuit must be improved to ensure that justice is not unduly delayed for any individual,\u201d said Sen. Murkowski. \u201cThis legislation would split the Ninth Circuit Court and create a Twelfth Circuit Court, allowing Alaska and other Western states to be served fairly and efficiently.\u201d\n\n\u201cSplitting the Ninth Circuit will improve Montanans\u2019 access to justice and end the unacceptable backlogs and delays they are currently experiencing. This is a much-needed reform to ensure Montanans are being well-served by our judicial system,\u201d said Sen. Daines.\n\nThis bill would codify the 2021 recommended judgeships by:\n\nAuthorizing two appellate court judgeships for the Ninth Circuit.\n\nAuthorizing 77 permanent district court judgeships around the country.\n\nConverting nine temporary district court judgeships to permanent.\n\nCurrently, western states are subjected to an overburdened, inconsistent, and slow judiciary. This stems from having the largest circuit court in the nation in terms of geography, population, and workload. The Ninth Circuit has jurisdiction over 40 percent of the landmass of the United States and one-in-five Americans. The court also has more than double the average number of authorized judgeships among the circuits. Appeals take 30 percent longer to dispose of than in the next largest circuit, and one-third of all pending federal appeals are within the Ninth Circuit.\n\nCreating a new circuit would solve the inefficiencies associated with the size of the Ninth Circuit and restore many Americans\u2019 access to justice.\n\nUnder the proposed legislation:\n\nAlaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington would be moved under a new Twelfth Circuit. The new circuit would be headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and be served by 13 appellate court judges.\n\nCalifornia, Hawaii, Guam, and the Mariana Islands would remain under the Ninth Circuit, served by 18 appellate court judges.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-king-introduce-bill-to-strengthen-diplomacy-in-the-arctic", "Murkowski, King Introduce Bill to Strengthen Diplomacy in the Arctic", "2021-10-07", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "Legislation Establishes Assistant Secretary of State for Arctic Affairs\n\nU.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Angus King (I-ME)\u2014co-chairs of the Senate Arctic Caucus\u2014today introduced the Arctic Diplomacy Act of 2021, legislation which will elevate Arctic issues in U.S. foreign policy by establishing an Assistant Secretary of State for Arctic Affairs who will lead and conduct U.S. foreign policy in the Arctic region and on Arctic issues. The Senate confirmed position will be responsible for influencing decisions and behavior of Arctic nations, Arctic issues, and activities in the Arctic region which includes establishing an Arctic diplomacy strategy; strengthening cooperation among Arctic countries; promoting responsible natural resource management and economic development; scientific monitoring and research; protecting the Arctic environment and conserving its biological resources; and Arctic indigenous knowledge and input. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are original cosponsors.\n\nClick here for bill text.\n\n\u201cAs it stands, the United States is the only Arctic nation that does not have diplomatic representation in the Arctic at the ambassador level or higher. In fact, even non-Arctic countries, including China, have this designation. As an Arctic nation, this is unacceptable. Having represented the United States at hundreds of Arctic events around the world, I know first-hand the value this position will bring to our country. It is important that the U.S. play an active and influential diplomatic role in the region,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cAs the Arctic continues to see change, and activity in the region increases, the Arctic is an emerging geopolitical \u2018grey zone\u2019 that requires vigilance and diligent diplomacy. It is pivotal that the U.S. establish this position in order to conduct the type of diplomacy necessary to preserve a peaceful, prosperous Arctic. America and our Arctic allies desire the region to remain exceptional\u2014but that requires a concerted effort from us all.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Arctic is known to be a region of peace, but as maritime traffic and economic activity increase to the north, this stability must be maintained through careful, steady leadership and engagement with the rest of the Arctic community,\u201d said Senator King. \u201cThe old saying goes \u2018where you sit is where you stand,\u2019 and not having a formal seat at the diplomatic table with a Senate-confirmed official means we have less standing in the region. As the security environment changes so must our leadership, and we need an official to advance and protect America\u2019s Arctic interests; as we continue to look \u2018North to the Future\u2019, I urge my Congressional colleagues to pass this forward-looking legislation with clear, tangible diplomatic and economic benefits.\u201d\n\nBackground: Senator Murkowski is the leading expert among her Congressional colleagues on Arctic issues and has worked continuously to raise awareness of the region. At the beginning of the 114th Congress, Senator Murkowski and Senator King formed the Senate Arctic Caucus to advance issues important to the Arctic and to the people who live there. Murkowski is the Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region. Murkowski has also led the charge to recapitalize and expand America\u2019s fleet of Polar Security Cutters.\n\nThrough her legislative efforts, Senator Murkowski paved the way for the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies to be established and in her role as an appropriator, she secured $10 million in the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations package to fund the center. The Center\u2019s aim is to support defense strategy objectives and policy priorities through a unique academic forum and to foster strong international networks of security leaders to support multilateralism and diplomacy in the region.\n\nMost recently, Murkowski welcomed the news that Major General (Ret.) Randy \u201cChurch\u201d Kee was selected by the Department of Defense (DoD) to serve as the Senior Advisor for Arctic Security Affairs. And, at the urging of Senator Murkowski, the Arctic Executive Steering Committee was reactivated within the Executive Office of the President.\n\nRelated Issues: Arctic", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/senator-murkowski-supports-taiwan-amid-chinas-unprecedented-incursion", "Senator Murkowski Supports Taiwan Amid China\u2019s Unprecedented Incursion", "2021-10-07", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) issued the following statement after Taiwan was threatened by China during the largest ever incursion by China\u2019s air force into Taiwan\u2019s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) with 56 aircraft:\n\n\u201cThis latest action by China, threatening the island of Taiwan, makes clear that China intends an adversarial, provocative relationship with Taiwan, those that support it, and those that value personal freedoms. It should not be this way. While the Chinese Communist Party continues to use ideologically driven nationalism backed by antagonizing displays of military force in the hopes of intimidating Taiwan\u2019s Government, the Taiwanese people, and its supporters will not waver in the face of senseless aggression. If the U.S. stands for democracy, free trade, and personal and civil liberties then we, along with our allies, must remain steadfastly behind Taiwan. I will continue to find ways to support Taiwan, and encourage my colleagues and this administration to do the same.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/rosen-murkowski-introduce-bipartisan-bill-expanding-palliative-care-training-for-national-health-service-corps-providers-", "Rosen, Murkowski Introduce Bipartisan Bill Expanding Palliative Care Training for National Health Service Corps Providers", "2021-10-04", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), both members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, announced the introduction of their Provider Training in Palliative Care Act. This bipartisan legislation would allow members of the National Health Service Corps to defer their service for up to a year to do additional training in palliative care.\n\nThe Provider Training in Palliative Care Act is endorsed by key stakeholders, including AARP, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, C-TAC, National Association for Home Care and Hospice, National Partnership for Hospice Innovation, National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care, National Rural Health Association, and American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.\n\n\u201cAs someone who stepped back from my career to take care of my parents and in-laws as they got older and started to have serious health problems, I understand just how important it is for patients and families to have access to care that is compassionate and comprehensive,\u201d said Senator Rosen. \u201cPalliative care helps provide comfort, manage pain and improve overall quality of life, yet providers are in short supply in Nevada and across the country. This important legislation will help fill health care gaps in Nevada caused by our doctor shortage by offering primary care providers a chance to receive training in palliative care so that they can better meet patient needs in underserved communities.\u201d\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, projected shortages in providers trained in palliative care will likely have an outsized impact for Alaskans, as we already face such substantial challenges with access to providers. For patients with severe illness, the goal of palliative care is to minimize pain and discomfort while maximizing quality of life \u2013 a reality that will only exist if we have an adequate number of quality, professional caretakers,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cThis legislation opens the door to primary care providers who want to train in palliative care, increasing the number of people trained in underserved areas all while ensuring the definition of primary care doesn\u2019t change. We\u2019re putting Alaskans with serious illnesses first.\u201d\n\nBill Dombi, President of the National Association for Homecare and Hospice: \u201cNAHC applauds Senators Rosen and Murkowski for reintroducing the Provider Training in Palliative Care Act. Home-based providers of every kind, including those that deliver high-quality palliative care to people with serious illness, are facing unprecedented workforce challenges. We need creative solutions to expand training opportunities in the kind of holistic, person-and-family centered services that palliative care can provide. By making it easier for National Health Service Corp providers to pursue palliative care education, the bill would increase access to this much-needed care in some of the country\u2019s most underserved communities.\u201d\n\nJon Broyles, Executive Director of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC): \u201cThe Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) is pleased to endorse the Provider Training in Palliative Care Act introduced by Senators Rosen and Murkowski. For many years, C-TAC has supported this legislation and its goal of expanding the number of health care professionals with palliative care training. This modified bill reflects a thoughtful bipartisan effort to reach the goal and the continued leadership of Senator Rosen in the serious illness field. We believe that enabling National Health Service Corps (NHSC) participants to defer their service for up to one year for a palliative fellowship or other palliative training opportunity will be a tipping point incentive for those who want to pursue palliative care in their careers,\u201d\n\nTom Koutsoumpas, CEO of National Partnership for Hospice Innovation: \u201cNPHI is proud to support Senators Rosen and Murkowski in their introduction of the Provider Training in Palliative Care Act. Given the ongoing implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and the exacerbated workforce shortages impacting the not-for-profit hospice and palliative care provider community, this legislation is imperative. NPHI strongly believes that palliative care and its documented benefits should be available to every individual regardless of cost or location and this legislation would help to accomplish that. We look forward to working with Senator Rosen, Senator Murkowski, the bipartisan Comprehensive Care Caucus, the HELP Committee, and others who support this critically important issue toward enactment into law.\u201d\n\nAmy Melnick, Executive Director, National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care: \u201cExpanding the pool of trained palliative care physicians, PA\u2019s, Nurse Practitioners and social workers is essential to increasing the equitable access to palliative care. Thank you Senator Rosen for spearheading the Provider Training in Palliative Care Act which would allow these essential palliative care team members to serve in the National Health Service Corps and provide care to people in the United States with limited access to healthcare.\u201d\n\nNathan E. Goldstein, MD FAAHPM, President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine: \u201cGiven the critical shortage of health professionals with knowledge and skills in palliative care, AAHPM offers its strong support for the Provider Training in Palliative Care Act, which would provide an important update to the National Health Service Corps program. Allowing eligible individuals to postpone their service obligation to seek postgraduate training in palliative care will not only help ensure that we build a healthcare workforce more closely aligned with America\u2019s evolving healthcare needs but build on a program which is vital to increasing access to care in rural and underserved areas. AAHPM applauds Sens. Rosen and Murkowski for their leadership in advancing this legislation, which stands to complement other current efforts to expand palliative care education and training through program and faculty development.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND: The bipartisan Provider Training in Palliative Care Act would allow participants in the National Health Service Corps program to defer their services for up to a year to do additional training in palliative care, so long as they provide primary care during their service with the Corps. Currently, participants are prohibited from deferring for training in palliative care, regardless of whether or not they continue to care for patients as a primary care provider.\n\nIn July, the Senate Comprehensive Care Caucus introduced two pieces of legislation:\n\nThe Expanding Access to Palliative Care Act, would create a demonstration project in Medicare to allow palliative care to be covered concurrently with curative treatments for patients with serious illness or injury. Currently, patients on Medicare can only access palliative care through hospice. This legislation would provide comprehensive palliative care services much earlier in the course of illness, improving quality of life for the patient and their family and often also improving outcomes.\n\nThe Improving Access to Transfusion Care for Hospice Patients Act of 2021 would carve out payment for transfusion services within the hospice Medicare benefit, billing Medicare for transfusion separately. Patients needing this care would be able to continue to receive it outside of the hospice bundle, while still receiving full hospice benefits. Currently, many patients needing transfusions to maintain quality of life (due to conditions such as leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma) often wait much longer to opt into hospice because they can lose access to transfusion care when they do so, given that such care currently is paid for out of a capped hospice benefit amount. Hospices are allowed to cover transfusions, but it is very costly, so few patients can afford to do so on a regular basis when in hospice care.\n\nRelated Issues: Health", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowskis-plea-for-americans-to-show-kindness-and-appreciation-to-healthcare-workers_", "Murkowski\u2019s Plea for Americans to Show Kindness and Appreciation to Healthcare Workers", "2021-10-02", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "Alaska Leading Nation in COVID Rates, Hospital Systems Overwhelmed\n\nAs Alaska leads the nation in positive COVID-19 cases, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) spoke on the Senate floor to discuss Alaska\u2019s record breaking COVID cases. In her remarks, she encouraged Americans to show kindness, respect, and appreciation to our nation\u2019s healthcare workers on the frontlines of this pandemic.\n\nClick here for video.\n\nSenator Murkowski\u2019s full remarks:\n\n\u201cMr. President, I have come to the floor this afternoon unexpectedly. I had anticipated that I was going to be taking the long trek home for even a short weekend, going back to Alaska. That is not the case this weekend, unfortunately.\n\n\u201cOur COVID numbers are at all-time highs, and most of the events and meetings that I would have had back home are canceled or they're on zoom. And so life is just a little bit different. You roll with it, and it means that I\u2019m here in Washington, D.C., on this Friday afternoon.\n\n\u201cBut I opened up the paper this morning\u2014the Anchorage Daily News, our largest statewide newspaper\u2014again to headlines that have just kind of unfolded over these past weeks with more grim and difficult news. The headline today is: Alaska infection rates remain high with over 1,200 new COVID cases.\n\n\u201cWe are leading \u2013 we're leading the nation right now in our COVID rates.\n\n\u201cAnd it's interesting. In Alaska we are separated enough geographically, but through the advantages of air travel and road travel, we mix, we mingle, we get around, and the virus knows no bounds, as we all know. But as we're seeing, thankfully, the case counts beginning to decline here in the Lower 48, but Alaska is doing just the opposite.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m quoting here from our paper. \u2018The U. S. saw a 26 percent decrease in cases over the last two weeks while Alaska recorded an 84 percent increase. If Alaska were a country, it would be the nation with the world\u2019s highest per capita case rates,\u2019 according to data from the Center for Systems, Science, and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.\n\n\u201cThe article proceeds to state that: \u2018Alaska's 171 average daily cases per 100,000 over the last seven days is nearly double the rate seen in West Virginia, which is currently second in the nation. Bermuda and Serbia at the top of the global list, have a case rate of 99.\u2019 So we're at 171 average daily cases per 100,000.\n\n\u201cIt has been challenging. We are a state that has limited capacity. We've got a smaller population, obviously, but that also means that we have fewer hospitals. We have less and more limited means in terms of our ability to care for those who have become very, very sick. And it is straining. It is really maxing out our hospitals to levels that we really just could not have even anticipated could happen.\n\n\u201cAnd as our hospitals are maxed out. It\u2019s not just the capacity\u2014the number of people that you can put into your ICU\u2014it is those that are daily doing the work caring for those who are coming into our hospitals\u2014coming in sicker and staying longer. We have maxed out our hospitals. And when I say maxing out, in the Alaska vernacular, basically that means there is no room at the hospital.\n\n\u201cOur largest hospitals are Providence, Alaska Regional, Mat-Su, Alaska Native Medical Center, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, and Bartlett. They're at capacity in their ICU\u2019s. Let me share what that means. I was in a hospital just two weekends ago. I was told their ICU, a 16-bed ICU had been expanded to 20. 100 percent of the [ICU] beds when I was there on Saturday were occupied with COVID patients with no room for anyone else to come to that particular medical facility.\n\n\u201cI had been at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital actually there on an emergency\u2014not myself but with another individual. We go to the emergency room and, as we were waiting for the doctors to come and address this non-COVID-related medical emergency, I was advised by the evening supervisor that Fairbanks Memorial Hospital was at capacity within their ICU, and what that meant was that because Fairbanks Memorial was at capacity and as of that evening all of the other hospitals in Alaska that could care in an ICU capacity were filled. And so I was told that my loved one may be in a situation if he needed to be in the ICU, that I needed to prepare myself and others that he may be sent to Seattle or Portland that night. For those of you that don't know your geography there, that is a three, three-and-a-half-hour flight by the jet. It would have been a medevac. It's thousands of miles away.\n\n\u201cThat's what's happening in Alaska right now. When your hospitals are full, you just can't put them in an ambulance and take them to another town. We're taking these folks to another state. And, again, keep in mind, the reason that I was there that evening with this individual was not COVID-related. But that's the squeeze. That's the pressure that it puts on the rest of your system.\n\n\u201cJust this week the state is dealing with crisis standards of care guidelines as it relates to how individuals may receive monoclonal antibody treatments because the supplies are scarce out there. So it's tough right now. It's tough. Beds are hard to find, and the extraordinary men and women who every day are going in and doing as best they can to provide for the level of care that is needed are doing so.\n\n\u201cBut they're tired. They can't get enough help. You have those who are exposed, who have to quarantine. It puts pressure on everybody else. People are running themselves into the ground. But we have good news that is happening. Our governor has been working to bring additional health workers in, and we're starting to see just this week as many as\u2014we were hoping 500\u2014but maybe a little bit less than that.\n\n\u201cNurses and respiratory therapists are starting to come to the state as part of a federal contract. So you've got state-contracted healthcare workers, the Alaska Native Medical Center is going to be receiving additional support from a disaster medical assistance team. Again, we are at a point where you just can't take it on anymore and our numbers have not yet peaked.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I don't share these statistics, I don't share the front page of the daily news just to bring people up to speed as to what is happening in Alaska. That wasn't necessarily my purpose here. My purpose this afternoon is, in the midst of this, in the midst of this real crisis in my state when it comes to the availability of healthcare and responding to this virus that is killing Alaskans, killing Americans, killing people around the world\u2014that we show a little kindness, because right now that seems to be in as little capacity as some of the hospitals that we have in Alaska.\n\n\u201cKindness and respect for where people are. Your healthcare workers are giving every ounce of what they have to be there, to leave their families. They're worried about everybody, but they are there for us. And they're doing the best job possible. And some of what we see in return is not the best of America. It's not the best that Alaskans have to offer.\n\n\u201cWe have had some just horrible, horrible confrontations in our public meetings in Anchorage. The top of the fold in the Anchorage paper is about an assembly meeting where individuals wore yellow Stars of David to protest the mask ordinance that the Anchorage Assembly was taking up, comparing a mask mandate to the Holocaust. It's shocking.\n\n\u201cAnd at some of the assembly meetings, and it's not just in Anchorage\u2014we're seeing it in other communities as well, it is neighbor against neighbor. We have had providers go to provide testimony before in these public meetings, and not only have they been ridiculed and mocked, but we hear the stories, we read the stories that they've been spit upon.\n\n\u201cThis is not how we show appreciation for those who are trying their absolute best to be there for us. And they will literally turn the other cheek and make sure that the care that they are providing in that ICU, in that ER, is without discrimination as to whether or not you have been vaccinated or not. They are going to be there to take care of you.\n\n\u201cSo, please, can we please show some kindness to one another at these times of stress and of anxiety to families?\n\n\u201cWe in Alaska are pretty hardy. We're independent. We can handle things on our own. But we're better because we're also good neighbors to one another more often than not. When somebody's car breaks down by the side of the road and it\u2019s cold and it's dark, we stop. We help them. We're there for them. When somebody's sick, we deliver the food. We're good neighbors. And so we in Alaska need to remember to be that good neighbor to one another. We can have disagreements, we can have differing points of view, we can express them without degrading one another, without denigrating one another, without humiliating and mocking one another.\n\n\u201cSo, I know that we will be beyond COVID. It\u2019s not coming soon enough for any of us, but I just ask that as we go through this in this state and around this country and around this world, that we remember that we are all better when we care for one another and we show a little kindness.\u201d\n\nRelated Issues: COVID-19 Resource Page", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-criticizes-senate-democrats-for-confirming-eco-terrorist-stone-manning-as-blm-director", "Sullivan Criticizes Senate Democrats for Confirming Eco-Terrorist Stone-Manning as BLM Director", "2021-10-01", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=37", "scraper", "\u201cI don't want an ecoterrorist as my state's landlord, and neither do my constituents.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) yesterday voted against confirming Tracy Stone-Manning as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Her nomination was ultimately confirmed by a vote of 50 to 45. For months, Sen. Sullivan has strongly opposed Stone-Manning\u2019s nomination due to her disturbing involvement with eco-terrorists during her time working for EarthFirst!, a violent environmental group, and her misrepresentations about her involvement during her confirmation hearings.\n\nSullivan also spoke against the nomination of Saule Omarova, President Joe Biden\u2019s controversial nominee to be comptroller of the currency, who studied at Moscow State University in the former Soviet Union and has demonstrated a history of hostility toward the free-market system.\n\nTranscript\n\nMr. President, you see some of my colleagues are down here. We are a little bit fired up. Right? And this is not some kind of partisan game. We are fired up for a reason--that the U.S. Senate is getting ready to confirm a nominee who has no business being even considered on the Senate floor. No business being considered on the Senate floor.\n\nAnd with all due respect to my colleague from Montana, this isn't--what did he say--attacks against somebody. These are facts that we are going to talk about. These are facts--someone who is still continuing to not even tell the truth about her past as a violent ecoterrorist.\n\nNow, look, we know this administration has put forth far-left individuals. I am going to talk about a few. But to put forward a far-left, violent nominee--I think we all should recognize--is kind of a bridge too far for the U.S. Senate.\n\nBut that is happening right now, and I am really hopeful that at least some of my Democratic colleagues, at the last minute, will go: Maybe we shouldn't do this. Maybe we shouldn't set this standard.\n\nSo I have been on the floor a number of times talking about Tracy Stone-Manning's nomination. It is actually the first time in my Senate career that I asked the President to withdraw a nominee, and for good reasons--because of all the things you have heard from my colleagues from Wyoming, Idaho; colleagues from mostly Western States.\n\nAnd I am going to ask my Democratic colleagues from Western States: Do you really want to set this precedent? How are you going to go home and tell people who harvest timber legally for a living that you were good to go with this; good to go with someone who put hundreds of these kinds of tree spikes in trees for people--our fellow Americans--to get hurt?\n\nBut that is what we are seeing right here.\n\nYou know, I think that maybe the Biden administration, after I and many others requested that they withdraw this nominee, that maybe they thought: Well, look. With all the noise going on around here--a reckless $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend extravaganza, the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, the crisis on the southern border, inflation going through the roof, the price at the pump hurting working families in my State and those across America, the shutdown of the energy sector unilaterally and then going begging Russia and Iran for more oil that they can import to the United States--I mean, you can't make this stuff up.\n\nBut I think the Biden administration thought, with all this chaos that they are creating, maybe nobody will notice Tracy Stone-Manning's confirmation process and vote.\n\nWell, they are wrong. As you see here, there are some really strong feelings about this nominee--a past ecoterrorist; a member of Earth First!, an extreme group that performed violent acts as part of their platform for getting attention in America.\n\nIn fact, she is so extreme that the Director of BLM from the Obama-Biden administration, Bob Abbey, made a statement saying that if her violent ecoterrorist past activities were true--and they were. They were. I am going to talk about them. Senator Risch has already talked about them; Senator Barrasso has; Senator Lummis has--if these were true, then President Obama's BLM Director said she does not deserve the job.\n\nSo this isn't just Republicans. This is the former Democrat Director of the Agency that we are going to vote on that she wants to lead.\n\nSo before I talk a little bit more about her--and I know we have had a number of Senators do it--I want to make another point.\n\nThe reason I have been down here so much, focused on this nominee, is that BLM to some states--heck, if you live in Connecticut, probably nobody knows what that is. But the Bureau of Land Management in my State is one of the most powerful Federal Agencies there is in the great State of Alaska.\n\nThe Alaska BLM manages more surface and subsurface acres in my State than in any other State in the country, by far.\n\nThe BLM Director in Alaska is our landlord, and I don't want an ecoterrorist as my State's landlord, and neither do my constituents.\n\nLet me give you some numbers. The BLM manager in Alaska manages over 70 million surface acres of land and 220 million subsurface acres of land in Alaska.\n\nA little context: That is the equivalent land of about one-fifth of the entire lower 48. Do you see why this is really important to me and my constituents? Most States can't even comprehend land that size. One-fifth of the lower 48 of the United States of America is about the amount of land BLM manages just in my State. This is a huge amount of land, and, of course, by definition, a huge amount of power that this Federal Agency has over the people I am privileged to represent--their work, their jobs, their hunting activities, their subsistence activities. And that is why I have been down here talking about this nominee.\n\nI know to some in East Coast States--forget it. We don't know who she is. No power. She doesn't have any power over New Jersey or some of these other small States on the East Coast.\n\nBut in my State, massive power, and it is imperative that the Director of this Agency, the Bureau of Land Management, with so much power and so much control over the future of Alaska and its economic opportunity for working families, that the manager of BLM be trustworthy, be honest, be fairminded, beyond reproach, and certainly not someone who was involved in ecoterrorism earlier in their career.\n\nIs that too much to ask, my colleagues in the Senate?\n\nWhat we know about Tracy Stone-Manning is, she is none of these things. She hasn't been trustworthy with the Senate, fairminded.\n\nWell, let's go back to a little bit of her background because people need to know this. People need to know this. My colleagues have already done a good job, but I hope the American people are watching this. She was not only a member of Earth First!, a radical far-left group that has engaged repeatedly in what is defined as ecoterrorism, she, herself, was complicit in putting metal spikes--see this--big, thick, metal spikes, by the hundreds, in trees that were meant either to hurt or gravely injure American citizens who were legally harvesting trees.\n\nWe are OK with that, Senate Democrats? We are OK with that? Americans who were cutting down trees legally as part of their job to help their economy, to help their family, who were putting trees in saw mills legally. All the while, she and her buddies--comrades, I call them--were acting illegally, putting these spikes, by the hundreds, in trees.\n\nThis was a common technique--tree spiking is what it is called--developed by ecoterrorists in the 1980s and early nineties. Now, Ms. Manning's group, Earth First!, began in the 1980s by disaffected environmentalists who thought their movement wasn't radical enough:\n\n\u201cSo how can we get more attention? Let's perpetrate violence against fellow Americans.\u201d That is how they could get more attention. Their slogan was \u201cNo compromise in the defense of Mother Earth.\u201d In their view, \u201cno compromise\u201d meant destroying property, putting steel spikes in trees that could kill someone who harvested a tree. And they celebrated and even encouraged such actions. The group even put out a manual detailing tree spiking and instructions on how to do other sabotage activities: cutting down power lines, flattening tires, burning machinery--all directed at those who were trying to legally harvest trees.\n\nDavid Foreman, the founder of Earth First!, described all these activities as \u201cfun.\u201d \u201cThis is where [you] can have fun.\u201d\n\nLet me talk a little bit about \u201cfun.\u201d I have an article from the Washington Post during that time. They were talking about a tree-spiking incident, and I am going to quote from it:\n\nGeorge Alexander, a third-generation mill worker, was just starting his shift at the Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill in Cloverdale, Calif., when the log that would alter his life rolled down his conveyor belt toward a high-speed saw.\n\nNow, we have some of these saws in these mills in Alaska--not nearly as many as we used to have. They are huge. They are giant. They are the size of people. They spin at incredibly fast speeds with huge teeth. They are dangerous to work with normally. But when you put a steel spike in a tree that is going through a fastly spinning saw, you can imagine the explosion and the violence.\n\nI will continue the article:\n\nIt was May 1987, and Alexander was 23 [years old]. His job was to split logs. He was nearly three feet away when the log [he was working on] hit his saw and the [giant] saw exploded. One half of the blade [struck] . . . the log.\n\nIt exploded when it hit one of these.\n\nThe other half hit Alexander in the [forehead, with the giant saw] tearing through his safety helmet . . . [tearing through his]face shield. His face was slashed from eye to chin. His teeth were smashed and his jaw was cut in half.\n\nGood job, Earth First!--a fellow American, trying to kill a fellow American. These were the kind of activities that Tracy Stone-Manning once conspired in.\n\nI wonder if that disturbs anybody?\n\nI was up at our fish camp on the Yukon River this summer over the Fourth of July clearing some brush, trees, working a chain saw--a smaller chain saw--and I literally was thinking, \u201cBoy, I wonder what would happen if my chain saw hit one of these?\u201d\n\nIt wouldn't have been good. So I think if you are not disturbed by this, you really should be.\n\nSo I know that some of my colleagues have already read the letter on the floor that she wrote, a profane, anonymous letter from this member of Earth First!, about the 500 pounds of tree spikes--500 pounds--hammered into trees in Idaho.\n\nShe rewrote the letter on a rented typewriter because, she later told a reporter, her fingerprints were all over it. So she didn't want to be caught. So, obviously, she knew she was engaging in criminal activity. She didn't just handwrite it; she typed it and then sent it to the FBI. Now, I know some of my colleagues have already read it. I am just going to notice a couple of highlights:\n\nThis letter is being sent to notify you that the Post Office Sale in [the great State of] Idaho has been spiked heavily. . . .\n\nThe project required that eleven of us spend nine days in God awful weather conditions spiking trees. We unloaded a total of 500 pounds of spikes measuring 8 to 10 inches in length. . . .\n\nFive hundred pounds of these. That is a lot of spikes.\n\nThe majority of trees were spiked within the first ten feet, but many, many others were spiked as high as a hundred and fifty feet.\n\nAgain, why would they go that high? That is not where you are going to cut it down. So when it goes to the mill, you injure and kill the mill workers.\n\nShe goes on further.\n\nMr. President, I don't know if I am allowed to swear, but you can call me out if I am not supposed to.\n\nP.S. You bastards go in there anyway and a lot of people could get hurt.\n\nThat is real nice.\n\nNow, she kept quiet for many years on what she did. She later received immunity for her part in this tree spiking when prosecutors went after other members of Earth First!, and she testified about it. But in her narrative, she has always tried to portray herself as a victim.\n\nShe wasn't a victim.\n\nThe investigator of this disputes that characterization dramatically. The U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Michael Merkley described her as vulgar, antagonistic, and extremely anti-government. She was uncooperative.\n\nIt was also clear that only after she knew she was going to get in trouble that she began to cooperate. \u201cLet me be clear,\u201d Special Agent Merkley said recently, \u201cMs. Stone-Manning only came forward after her attorney struck the immunity deal, and not before she was caught.\u201d\n\nIn testimony to the Senate, she claimed that tree spiking was alleged.\n\nIt wasn't alleged.\n\nAnd that it was never investigated.\n\nThat is not true. We know that is not true.\n\nSo that was recent.\n\nSo it is not just the tree spiking. She hasn't been honest, but she is still clearly a radical.\n\nLet me give you another example. Her husband wrote an article for Harper's Magazine--Senator Risch already talked about this--in 2018, claiming wildfires were a political issue and that such an issue should be solved by letting houses in forests burn.\n\nThink about that.\n\nPerhaps the solution to houses in the interface is to let them burn.\n\nThose are his exact words. Now, look, that is her husband. We can't blame her for her husband's radical views.\n\nBut here is what she did. She weighed in herself in 2020--last year--retweeting the article and basically endorsing his views. Here is what she said:\n\nNot a bad time to revisit this piece from my husband, Richard Manning, from two years ago. Clarion call . . . [on climate action].\n\nSo think about that.\n\nSo I was in charge of our lands in Alaska. We worked--including fighting wildfires--we worked really closely with the Federal Government, the State of Alaska, Federal officials, on fighting our wildfires. We have big wildfires in Alaska, always have had them, always will have them. Never ever, ever, in any time I was involved in issues relating to fighting wildfires, have I heard a State official or Federal official say, \u201cHey, if there is a fire near a bunch of homes, let them burn.\u201d\n\nBut do you see the problem? She is going to be in charge of that in Alaska.\n\n\u201cLet them burn.\u201d\n\nYou know what our Federal firefighters do? They save structures. They save houses. They are very heroic.\n\n\u201cLet them burn,\u201d she said last year.\n\nIn a nutshell, this is potentially, if we don't stop this vote tonight, the new head of the BLM. She was a member of an ecoterrorist group who had a goal to actually threaten to hurt or actually hurt American citizens, hard-working Americans doing something legal. She has clearly been dishonest recently.\n\nWith all due respect to my colleague from Montana, these are not some kind of ad hominem attacks. These are facts.\n\nLast year, she said: Hey, I agree with my husband's article. Let it burn. Let the homes burn in these wildfires.\n\nThat is not going to work in my State. She is going to head up an Agency with enormous power over my State and its future.\n\nSo, look, we have differences on issues of resource development, energy for America, certainly on issues of jobs. In my State, unfortunately, the Biden administration seems to, weekly, want to shut down resources just in Alaska. I think we are up to almost 20 Executive orders or related actions from this administration focused just on my State--to shut down jobs.\n\nI gave a speech here a while ago asking, not the President of the Senate, the President of the United States: Can you imagine if a Republican administration came in and issued almost, who knows, 10, 15--it is hard to count--Executive orders shutting down Delaware's economy? What would you do, Mr. President, if you were a Senator? You would be furious.\n\nWell, I am furious, and I am furious because we have got another radical who is going to be in charge of my State's future.\n\n\u201cLet it burn.\u201d Tree spikes.\n\nBut here we are, unfortunately, about to confirm this individual as the Director of BLM. But here's the thing I want to know. If you are a western Senator--say, Arizona, Nevada, California--good luck going home and explaining this to your constituents. Good luck with that.\n\nI am going to just mention another nominee to speak about briefly. If Tracy Stone-Manning weren't radical enough, I would like to mention another Biden nominee from the far-left socialist fringe. This is Saule Omarova, who was nominated by the President to be Comptroller of the Currency.\n\nSo what does the Comptroller of Currency do?\n\nIt charters and regulates and supervises all national banks--another very serious position. Not a lot of Americans, you know, highlight this or think about it a lot. It is like BLM, but it is important and powerful. And you would think you would have somebody in that position who would understand or value and respect free markets in our financial system, particularly our banks.\n\nMs. Omarova doesn't value our system and doesn't seem to much like banks. She has other ideas. According to the Wall Street Journal today, they said that it might even make our colleague Senator Sanders blush.\n\nSo who is Ms. Omarova?\n\nFirst, she is a 1989 graduate in Moscow State University, where she received the Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship. Yeah, you heard me right. I am not talking Moscow, ID. I am talking the real Moscow in the Soviet Union. Let me say that again. A graduate of Moscow State University, where she received the Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship. You can't make this stuff up.\n\nFrom her writings, it appears that she still significantly believes in what she learned at old Moscow U, particularly about our free market system and communism and socialism.\n\nHere is what she tweeted in 2019--2019, 3 years ago--2 years ago: Until I came to the U.S., I couldn't imagine things like gender pay gap still existed in today's world. Say what you want about the old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there. Markets don't always know best.\n\nThat is a tweet 2 years ago: Say what you want about the old USSR, about Stalin and Lenin and the roughly 100 million people killed during their reigns. Say what you want about the old USSR, the famine, human degradation, about the ill-fated violent attempts to snuff out the flame of freedom and liberty all across the world. Say what you want about the old USSR, the gulags, pogroms. At least there is no gender gap. There is no food either, by the way; and there is no freedom.\n\nSo she is like: Hum, maybe I should clarify this.\n\nSo here is her clarification: I never claimed men and women were treated absolutely equal in every facet of the old Soviet Union, but people's salaries were set by the State in a gender-blind manner, and all women got very generous benefits, but those things are still a pipe dream in our American society.\n\nWow. That was her clarification. Oh, the golden days of the USSR, a mere pipe dream now. Her nostalgia for socialist communist regimes and policies doesn't end with pay disparities. She has advocated for expanding the Federal Reserve's mandate to include draconian controls over financial institutions, wages, and consumer bank deposits.\n\nHow would she do this?\n\nThrough \u201ca people's ledger, a national investment authority, a public interest council.\u201d\n\nSounds like a modern-day version of the system set up by the Bolsheviks that I am sure she learned about at Moscow U. Plainly put, she is another radical who will have sweeping powers over the institutions of our United States Government.\n\nSo I am going to conclude with this: If you are watching America, I hope you are seeing a theme here. The Biden administration, unfortunately with the help of some of my Senate Democratic colleagues, is trying to make us comfortable with far-left fringe radical appointments who will take over very significant posts in our government and will push us towards the path of socialism. They are pushing a radical left lurch for our country that the vast majority of Americans don't want.\n\nJust look at what my colleagues are coming up with, with their $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend bill written by the chairman of the Budget Committee, an avowed socialist. It is not an insult. That is a fact.\n\nAll this is being done with no hearings, no markups; the biggest social spending bill in decades with zero transparency. Even the House had a markup. But the Senate, once known as the most deliberative body in the world, is not having one hearing or one markup on a $3.5 trillion reckless tax-and-spend bill.\n\nBut mainstream middle-class America does not want socialism, and they don't want far-left radicals to run our Federal Government. My Democratic colleagues keep thinking they can ram through this far-left agenda without anyone noticing, but the American people are noticing. The American people are wise, and they are already starting to feel the pain of the Biden administration's far-left, anti-energy, anti-capitalism agenda, especially at the pump.\n\nThey will remember which Senators are enabling this, and they will remember the Senators who have no problem voting for nominees who have a record of being part of organizations that sought to perpetrate violence against their fellow Americans.\n\nI hope my Democratic colleagues have a change of heart and vote against Tracy Stone-[Spike]-Manning because our country and my State really don't need her in charge.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-honors-alaska-state-trooper-anne-sears-as-alaskan-of-the-week", "Sullivan Honors Alaska State Trooper Anne Sears as \u201cAlaskan of the Week\u201d", "2021-10-01", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=38", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014On the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) recognized Anne Sears\u2014originally from Nome, Alaska, and now living in Wasilla\u2014an Alaska state trooper who retired yesterday after several decades of dedicated service to Alaskans. Trooper Sears, the first and only Alaska Native female state trooper, was inspired to follow a career in public safety beginning as a clerk for the Juneau Police Department. Her career as a trooper took her to all corners of Alaska, including rural communities that too often lack any public safety presence. Sears was recognized as part of Sen. Sullivan\u2019s series, \u201cAlaskan of the Week.\u201d\n\nTribute to Anne Sears\n\nMr. President, there is a lot going in the Senate, as we have been debating and voting on a number of things--important matters, no doubt--for the country. But that doesn't mean that we are going to forget other important matters that we regularly take up here in the Senate. And what I am talking about, of course, is the Alaskan of the Week.\n\nNow, our pages are back, which is such great news. But you need to know this is one of the most exciting times in the Senate. Usually every Thursday I get an opportunity to come down here on the Senate floor and talk about somebody in Alaska who is making a difference.\n\nIn fact, we talked about a Gold Medal Olympic athlete just a couple of weeks ago, making a huge difference for Alaska, her community, the world, America. So we really enjoy this. We kind of have a cult following. But the pages really enjoy it because it is stories and adventure, all for the people who are doing wonderful things in my State.\n\nThis week, on the actual day of her retirement from a long and rewarding career with the Alaska State Troopers, our Alaskan of the Week is Anne Sears.\n\nSo before I talk about Anne and her extraordinary service to Alaska, about her being the first and only Alaskan Native female trooper, let me tell you a little bit about what is going on back home.\n\nIn Wasilla, Alaska, where Anne recently moved--she was actually born in Nome; we will talk about that--the temperature has been in the midforties, twenties at night. The sun rose today at 8 a.m., sets at 7:30 p.m. You know, it moves fast in Alaska. We have already had several pretty good size snowstorms. So winter is coming. Winter is coming--definitely coming to Alaska right now.\n\nBut let's get back to Anne. After decades of hard work as an Alaska State Trooper, it is time for Anne to settle into a new home, to rest, get some sleep, and think about her next steps--all of which she is planning on doing starting tomorrow because, today, she is retiring.\n\nSo Anne Sears--well, let's start with her mother Gladyce, who is from Nome. Gladyce actually left Nome for a little bit of time, moved to the lower 48. And among other things, Gladyce, Anne's mom, worked here in DC. She worked for Alaska Congressman Ralph Rivers.\n\nMost people don't think we ever had any other Congressman but Don Young because he has been there forever, but this was Congressman Ralph Rivers. And Gladyce, Anne's mom, met her husband Cary, Anne's father, who was an electrician in the Navy. But Cary and Gladyce decided to move back to Nome because they wanted to make sure Anne was going to be born in Nome, which she was.\n\nSo Gladyce, obviously, is a woman of ambition, and so was her daughter Anne. She passed that down to Anne. So after Anne was born and Cary, her father, left the Navy, he got a job as an electrician with the Federal Aviation Administration in Alaska, which took him and his family all around the State: Bethel, Kotzebue, Unalakleet--so many great villages in our rural part of Alaska.\n\nNow, eventually, they settled in Juneau. And after high school, Anne got a job as a clerk for the Juneau Police Department. All through her younger years, she knew she wanted to do something to help people. But it wasn't until the tender age of 31 that her calling came.\n\nAs the clerk at the Juneau Police Department, she decided: Hey, I can do this.\n\nSo she took the test required to become a police officer. Of course, a woman of this intelligence passed with flying colors, and she was offered the job. On the first day of on-the-job-training, Anne was in a police car, speeding to a site where a woman was hurt. She got there. She helped that woman. And her desire, motivation, to be a police officer was cemented. She was hooked.\n\nShe met her future husband Jay at the police academy, and eventually, they became Alaska State Troopers as a couple--both of them working in rural Alaska together, where they had worked for over 15 years.\n\nIt didn't take Anne long to realize she was actually really good at her job. That is not being arrogant. She just knew.\n\n\u201cI could talk to people,\u201d she said. \u201cNot being big and being a woman, you've got to use your words [in this job].\u201d\n\nAnyone who has watched the reality show \u201cAlaska State Troopers\u201d--now, there are a lot of Alaska reality shows, but anyone at home watching right now, if you have seen \u201cAlaska State Troopers,\u201d you will have seen Anne featured prominently in that series, and you will understand what she means when she talks about using her words. She is articulate. She is tough. She is firm. She is very clear, but she is also calming, which is what you need from a good officer. She is able to bring calm and ease to the most volatile situations and situations that can be extraordinarily challenging for our law enforcement officers.\n\nNow, as some might have heard me talk about here on the floor, the hundreds of small, rural villages in the hub communities of rural Alaska are literally the spiritual and cultural soul of my State.\n\nLike many areas across America, both urban and rural, rural Alaska also has many challenges. And one of them is that there is not enough public safety officers present in rural Alaska. We have dozens of communities with nothing--no sheriff, no police officer, no trooper, no VPSO--nothing.\n\nIt is a big issue. It is something I am certainly passionate about that we are all working on, more law enforcement presence in our rural communities. So being a law enforcement officer in rural Alaska, particularly in the hundreds of villages that don't have roads to get in and out of, can pose unique challenges. Anne has seen those challenges throughout her career.\n\nWhat are some of those?\n\nWell, first, you have to get to the village, especially if it doesn't even have an officer in the village when this is a crime or a challenge. That often requires flying in a single-engine plane to a remote place in a giant State, in tough weather. Then when you get there, you have to figure out where you need to go. Sometimes, there is no facilities, no jail, no holding cell, no place to take people--maybe one city office, at the most. And then you have to figure out how to get into those offices, which can be particularly challenging, particularly in the winter. When it is cold and dark, it might be 50 below zero with the wind howling.\n\nSo these are many, many of the challenges that Anne has dealt with. As she says: This is not \u201cNCIS\u201d or \u201cLaw and Order.\u201d In rural Alaska, we have to do it all.\n\nIndeed, as a trooper, she has played many roles: a protector, an enforcer, a trooper, a friend, a confidant, a social worker. And she loved it all, and she was really good at it. Here is what she said:\n\nIt was the best job I could have ever had and the hardest job I could have ever had. But I couldn't have done it without my husband, Jay, my sons, Hunter and Zachery, and my brother, Perry.\n\nAnne also credits the health aides and public safety officers, VPSOs, VPOs in these villages who have really, really important roles.\n\nOne of the most difficult aspects of her job was handling cases of domestic violence and sexual assault.\n\nNow, I love my State. We are a great State. I come down on the floor once a week and brag about it with our Alaskan of the Week. But this is something we don't like to brag about in Alaska: the horrific problems we have with domestic violence, sexual assault, and the challenges that brings particularly with young people, too many people.\n\nBut she has been very focused on these issues. Anne teamed up with local health providers to go into high schools, to give presentations about these horrible crimes, and talk about why it is wrong--this kind of abuse--and to try to change the culture of our State, which we need to keep focused on.\n\nShe had groups and gatherings for parents too. She said mostly mothers would come and, heartbreakingly, almost inevitably tell stories of some of the victims and survivors of abuse that we have in our State. But she was undeterred.\n\nShe said: If I could just touch one child on these kinds of crimes, to help them, I know I made a difference.\n\nAnne has made a difference--I would say a huge difference--for Alaska.\n\nHere is what fellow Trooper Bryan Barlow said about Anne's service: \u201cHer legacy as a caring, compassionate, and dedicated trooper and investigator has without a doubt made our State\u201d--the great State of Alaska--\u201da much safer place.\u201d\n\nJames Cockrell, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, said that Anne's dedication to rural Alaska was an extraordinary asset to the department's mission to keep Alaskans safe.\n\nAs I have said, Anne was the first female Alaskan Native trooper, but I guarantee you, she will not be the last. She has proved a role model for so many, a true trailblazer, an example that we need in Alaska and so many people look up to.\n\nNow, she hasn't decided what the future holds, but she is still young and still has the urge to help out. I have no doubt she is going to make a big impact in other places, helping Alaskans. For now, though--you can tell this is a tough job--I think she needs a little rest and some sleep.\n\nSo, thank you, Anne, for all you have done. Congratulations on your retirement today. From the Alaska State Troopers: Thank you for being an inspiration, an example to so many in our great State. And, of course, congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/cortez-masto-murkowski-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-address-shortage-of-health-care-providers-in-native-american-communities", "Cortez Masto, Murkowski Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Address Shortage of Health Care Providers in Native American Communities", "2021-09-30", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced bipartisan legislation to help the Indian Health Services (IHS) recruit and hire more health care professionals by providing medical, nursing, and other students with fully tax-exempt scholarships and loan repayment programs. IHS has a 25 percent vacancy rate for health care providers and currently needs more than 1,300 positions filled, which this legislation could help address.\n\nIn order to attract new, talented health professionals, Congress has already made the majority of federal health scholarship and repayment programs permanently tax exempt, including those at the Department of Defense and the National Health Service Corps. Through the IHS Health Professions Tax Fairness Act, Cortez Masto and Murkowski are working to ensure IHS programs are treated fairly and receive that same tax exemption.\n\n\u201cAs Indian Country deals with dire doctor and nurse shortages, expanding the IHS\u2019s capacity to provide financial aid to medical students and new health workers is just common sense,\u201d said Senator Cortez Masto. \u201cThis legislation will allow IHS facilities in Nevada to recruit and hire more doctors, nurses, and other clinicians to help save lives and keep Native American communities healthy.\u201d\n\n\u201cHigh vacancy rates for doctors, nurses, and other health care providers in our Native communities continues to be a hindrance in providing adequate care. Unfortunately, the existing inequities Native communities face were compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. These staffing shortages emphasize just how much additional resources are needed to assist with the financial burdens that our health care workers are experiencing. I am proud to reintroduce the Indian Health Service Health Professions Tax Fairness Act with Senator Cortez Masto, to help the agency recruit and retain more healthcare providers,\u201d said Senator Lisa Murkowski.\n\nThe Government Accountability Office has reported that the Indian health Service (IHS) has a 25 percent vacancy rate for health care providers and is in need of over 1,300 clinical providers for doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff. By making IHS scholarships and loan repayment programs permanently tax exempt, the IHS can fund more scholarships and provide financial support for Native students enrolled in health profession programs in exchange for those students\u2019 agreement to work at the Service upon graduation.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-democrats-are-in-disarray-on-35-trillion-tax-and-spend-spree", "Sullivan: \u201cDemocrats Are in Disarray\u201d on $3.5 Trillion Tax-and-Spend Spree", "2021-09-30", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=38", "scraper", "\u201cThe supposed most deliberative body in the world is not doing anything in terms of transparency on this massive bill.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said yesterday that \u201cDemocrats are in disarray\u201d regarding their plan to advance a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. In his interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network, Sen. Sullivan also criticized Senate Democrats for not holding a single committee hearing or mark-up in advance of a vote, providing the American people with no transparency on this largest-in-a-generation spending package.\n\nOn Monday, Sen. Sullivan spoke on the Senate floor, calling on Senate Democrats to hold hearings and mark-ups on the \u201ctransformational, socialist\u201d reconciliation bill.\n\nTranscript of interview\n\nBARTIROMO: I have to get your take on economic issues. Even in the face of all of this, Senator, your colleagues are driving fast, trying to change this economy, change America in two weeks' time. President Biden postponed his trip in Chicago today so he can stay in D.C. and focus on his economic agenda. The House is going to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill tomorrow. Bernie Sanders is urging progressives to block it until the $3.5 trillion dollar reconciliation bill is passed. Where is this going, senator?\n\nSULLIVAN: As you know, Maria, right now the Democrats are in disarray and I think it's mainly because this $3.5 trillion dollar socialist cradle-to-grave reckless spending bill is finally getting a little bit of attention. This will have not only things like the Green New Deal and the largest tax increase in U.S. history in it, but it's also going to super charge inflation and we are seeing inflation hurting working families across the nation.\n\nThere\u2019s one issue, Maria: I was down on the Senate floor the other day making an argument. Here\u2019s something else that\u2019s going on. There's zero transparency on this giant $3.5 trillion dollar bill. The Democrats in the Senate have not held one hearing, no mark-ups. I challenged the Majority Leader, come on down to the Senate floor and tell the American people why you're not doing any hearings on it. Of course, there were crickets. Here\u2019s my view on why they aren\u2019t doing it. They are afraid. They don't want the American people to know what's in the socialist spending bill. I\u2019ll tell you this, they do not want the vision of the budget chairman, who is an avowed socialist, Bernie Sanders, marking up his socialist bill that he authored. That's what the American people would see if we held hearings in the Senate. Right now, they are holding zero hearings. The supposed most deliberative body in the world is not doing anything in terms of transparency on this massive bill.\n\nBARTIROMO: Yeah, I mean, when did you get your hands on the bill, because there's a picture of your colleague, Senator Barrasso, holding the bill. It's 2,500 pages. How irresponsible to have this enormously big bill and it's likely that people haven't even read it. When did you get your hands on it\u2014because I'm wondering if it's even realistic that anybody read this bill. It\u2019s 2,500 pages.\n\nSULLIVAN: The bill is not officially even out there. There's been no hearings. Not one hearing. There's been no mark-ups. At least in the House there was a mark-up. Yes, it was very fast. We haven't done any of that in the Senate and, again, the Democrats are afraid to do it. They don't want the American people to know that this socialist spending bill, authored by an avowed socialist, is coming their way. So, no transparency. We need to keep pounding them on this issue because it is unbelievable.\n\nBARTIROMO: Yeah. Well, it is. Senator, (it\u2019s) the largest bill we've ever seen and there's no debate. That's it. No debate. Dan Sullivan, thank you, sir. We will be watching.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowskis-legislation-extending-native-childrens-commission-signed-into-law-", "Murkowski\u2019s Legislation Extending Native Children\u2019s Commission Signed Into Law", "2021-09-29", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA) today applauded S. 325, a bill to amend the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act to extend the deadline for a report by the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children, and for other purposes, being signed into law by the President. Senator Murkowski introduced the bill in February 2021 with Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Jon Tester (D-MT) as co-sponsors to the bill.\n\n\u201cI appreciate the President for recognizing the importance of extending the reporting deadline for the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children. This is a win for Native children and communities across the country,\u201d said Senator Lisa Murkowski. \u201cThe COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the critical work by this Commission, so the extension that this legislation provides will be significant, allowing the active engagement of Tribes and giving the Commission adequate time to hold hearings and receive testimony from the public. With this law, the Commission can create a full report that will provide Congress and the Administration adequate information to implement policies that best support Native youth and their communities.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nIn 2016, the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act (S. 246), was signed into law. The bipartisan bill was co-sponsored by Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and 25 of their Senate colleagues. This bill established the Commission and charged them to conduct a comprehensive study over Federal, Tribal, state and local programs that serve Native children. Following their study, the Commission must use the results and develop recommendations in a report that will be provided to Congress and the Administration. The Commission was named in memory of the late Dr. Walter Soboleff, a treasured Alaska Native elder and culture bearer and a champion for Native youth. In August 2021, S. 325 passed the U.S. House of Representatives and was sent to the President\u2019s desk.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-sullivan-reacts-to-tense-afghanistan-hearing-with-general-milley-secretary-austin", "ICYMI: Sullivan Reacts to Tense Afghanistan Hearing with General Milley, Secretary Austin", "2021-09-29", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=38", "scraper", "\u201cThese are fundamental falsehoods, life and death deceptions\u201d coming out of the White House\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), spoke with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Primetime last night and Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network this morning regarding the senator\u2019s tense exchanges in a SASC hearing with General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the total lack of accountability within the Biden administration for the botched withdrawal of U.S. forces and citizens from Afghanistan.\n\nIn the hearing, General Milley conceded that the withdrawal was a \u201cstrategic failure.\u201d\n\nTranscript for Fox News Primetime\n\nKILMEADE: Here now is Alaska\u2019s senator, still in the military, Dan Sullivan himself, who took part in the hearings and was quite incensed and on point. Senator, what was your takeaway today?\n\nSULLIVAN: Well, look, Brian, you summed it up really well. There\u2019s two main takeaways here. First of all, this foreign policy fiasco is solely the responsibility of one person, Joe Biden. He was told by his generals, what would happen if he removed the troops that were in Afghanistan and that came to pass and you just show that.\n\nThe second one is that the president has not been leveling with the American people at all, during this fiasco. We went through a number of things where I pressed the witnesses today on things that the president had said. You mentioned a number of them. Would - did his - the president said that his generals recommended that there should be no forces in Afghanistan. That was not true. This president said that Al Qaeda was gone from Afghanistan. That was not true. The president said that, our military would stay until all Americans were out of the country. That was not true.\n\nAnd Brian, this is the big one. The president continues to say this fiasco was an extraordinary success. I asked General Milley that, General Milley in the hearing today called it a strategic failure. So, look, these lies, these are not some kinds of minor misstatements. These were huge fabrications at the heart of this foreign policy fiasco. Life and death deceptions that we finally were confirming in the hearing today.\n\nKILMEADE: Senator, you couldn\u2019t have known because you were busy. But Jen Psaki was asked who were the generals that advised the president to pull out since he said he got both reports from both sides. She could not name one. And the other story was General Milley himself. He was chronicled in a few books saying that he wanted to keep troops there. He thought it was a bad move to leave.\n\nBut he also - you asked him about his call with his counterpart in China. Listen.\n\n(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)\n\nSULLIVAN: General Milley, do you think if the Chinese Communist Party decided to invade Taiwan with their military leadership call and give you a heads up? You honestly think that?\n\nMILLEY: I know I\u2019d call him and ask him.\n\nSULLIVAN: No, I\u2019m asking\u2014\n\nMILLEY: I would call him and ask him outright.\n\nSULLIVAN: Do you think he\u2019d give you a heads up?\n\nMILLEY: I think\u2014\n\nSULLIVAN: On the invasion of Taiwan,\n\nMILLEY: I think an invasion of Taiwan would be a fairly obvious thing to pick up on.\n\n(END VIDEO CLIP)\n\nKILMEADE: Senator, he didn\u2019t answer your question. What was your question based on?\n\nSULLIVAN: Well, it gets an obvious point, right. And I made it clear in the hearing, there\u2019s no way that a Chinese PLA leader would do that. Xi Jinping would have him shot. If somehow, he gave American generals a heads up on an invasion of Taiwan. So, I was pressing this issue, because it\u2019s a very important issue that was in the book. That\u2019s been quoted in the papers that said that General Milley promise to actually do that. But as he also said in his testimony, there was absolutely no indication whatsoever that our former President Trump was going to start any war. So, I was pressing this issue because it\u2019s a really important one.\n\nRight now., the book says one thing that was in The Washington Post. General Milley says something else. But I think it\u2019s really important as we\u2019re going to continue to do oversight to get to the bottom of this. And also importantly, the bottom of the issues that were front and center in the hearing today on Afghanistan, and Joe Biden\u2019s foreign policy fiasco and how he owns it.\n\nKILMEADE: He crushed the credibility of America. Now we got to earn it back because of one man\u2019s decision. That\u2019s clear. Also, it\u2019s just incomprehensible that General Milley would admit, cooperating with peril by Bob Woodward. Frankly, we did win this election with Michael Bender and I alone can fix it by Phil Rucker and another author.\n\nWhy is he as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff worried about Bob Woodward\u2019s book sales? It makes no sense. That is unacceptable and inexcusable. But senator, I know, not only you as senator, you\u2019re also serving in the military. And I know how passionate you are about this, because a lot of great men and women fought over there, and they deserved a better verdict. Thank you, senator.\n\nTranscript for Fox Business Network\n\nBARTIROMO: Joining me right now, Alaska Senator, Armed Services Committee member, Commerce Committee member, and Veteran\u2019s Affairs Committee member, Senator Dan Sullivan. Thank you very much for being here. You were there yesterday. Tell us what your takeaways were?\n\nSULLIVAN: The two big takeaways are\u2014first is Joe Biden owns this foreign policy fiasco. As you just saw there, his generals not only said to keep a small force there but they predicted what would actually happen if you didn't. He owns this solely.\n\nThe second issue is that it's clear that he's not been leveling with the American people on some of the most critical issues involved in Afghanistan. You know, as you just showed there, he said that his commanders did not tell him to keep troops there. That was not true. He said that Al-Qaeda was gone from Afghanistan. We learned yesterday that that was not true. He said that if he was going to keep the military in Afghanistan until all Americans were out/ That turned out not to be true. Here\u2019s the big one Maria: He continues to say that the botched withdrawal was \u201can extraordinary success.\u201d Yesterday, General Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said it was \u201ca strategic failure.\u201d\n\nThese are not some kind of small or minor misstatements the President has been making to the American people. These are fundamental falsehoods, life and death deceptions, and all of that came out in the hearing yesterday.\n\nBARTIROMO: Senator, how much longer are the American people supposed to keep hearing all of these lies out of the leader of the free world, the Commander in Chief? He says nobody told him to keep troops there. He told us that there's no crisis at the border. He told us that the 18 states that have come up with new voting laws, they are Jim Crow laws. He told us the spending package is going to cost zero. Where is this going? Is there ever accountability or should we just say, \u201cOh, well, he's lying again?\u201d\n\nSULLIVAN: What I think was important about the hearing yesterday is not just Republicans in the Senate saying he's lying, it was his own generals in essence saying that what he's been saying is not true. That was a big area that I pressed the generals on yesterday and it\u2019s important for the American people to actually see that. The other issue is, we are going to continue to press on these issues in terms of oversight. The more that we can show the falsehoods coming out of this White House, the more the American people are realizing that the president, on this issue, and as you say on many others, the border in particular, is simply not telling the truth.\n\nBARTIROMO: Senator, do you want to see accountability? Your colleagues are calling on General Mark Milley and Secretary Austin to resign. Listen to this. Watch.\n\nSEN. TOM COTTON: General Milley, why haven't you resigned?\n\nMILLEY: It would be incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to resign because my advice is not taken.\n\nSEN. JOSH HAWLEY: General, I think you should resign. Secretary Austin, I think you should resign. I think this mission was a catastrophe. I think there's no other way to say it.\n\nBARTIROMO: So, senator, will they resign?\n\nSULLIVAN: Maria, I pressed the same issue yesterday in my questioning. As a matter of fact, I focused a lot on accountability. I asked Secretary Austin what it will take for someone, anyone in this administration to actually accept responsibility, accountability on this foreign policy fiasco. I asked the same question. Has anyone submitted letters of resignation to the president? My own view, as long as the president keeps calling it an \u201cextraordinary success,\u201d I don't think you are going to see any resignations, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do what we did yesterday, to continue to press on what the facts were and the falsehoods coming out of the White House, and importantly, this issue of accountability, which has made my constituents in Alaska and the American people so mad when they don't see any accountability.\n\nBARTIROMO: What a smack in the face to our military to call a success a process that killed 13 of our servicemen. How can you even attempt to call it a success when 13 servicemen are dead?\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"], ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/white-house-announces-appointment-of-new-us-arctic-research-commissioners", "White House Announces Appointment of New U.S. Arctic Research Commissioners", "2021-09-28", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=42", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) made the following statement after the Biden Administration appointed new U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC) Commissioners and a new chair. USARAC is an independent federal agency that advises the President and Congress on domestic and international Arctic research.\n\nUSARC Commissioners will include Dr. Mike Sfraga, Director of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center (who will serve as the Chair of the Commission); Deborah Vo, who previously served as Senator Murkowski\u2019s Rural Outreach Coordinator; Mark Myers, former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey; Jackie Richter Mengue, retired civil engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Region Research and Engineering Laboratory; Liz Cravalho, Vice President of Lands at NANA, an Alaska-Native Corporation; and the reappointment of David Kennedy, retired Senior Policy Advisor at NOAA.\n\n\u201cThese new commissioners are solid, capable individuals who certainly have the credentials to serve in these new roles. I\u2019ve been privileged to work with many of these Alaskans over the years. Dr. Mike Sfraga is a strong selection to chair the commission and will do a great job. I appreciate that so many of the new commissioners are Alaskans and Alaska Natives, and others have a significant experience in the Arctic, government, academia, research, or all of the above. They will play a vital role in shaping our nation\u2019s Arctic policies and priorities,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cWhile this is a good group of commissioners, I\u2019m disappointed with the manner in which the Biden administration reshaped USARC. This administration broke with precedence and terminated four, presidentially appointed USARC commissioners before their respective terms expired, and did not renew the term of a highly respected Alaska Native whaling captain despite there still being a vacancy on the commission. This kind of political intervention should not be necessary in an Arctic research-based commission. If sudden, unprecedented changes to the commission were required, then I expect big things from this new group of commissioners as it pertains to conducting Arctic research and integrating it into effective policy.\u201d\n\nSenator Murkowski continues to urge the Biden administration to advance a number of priorities in the Arctic, including reactivating the Arctic Executive Steering Committee and the establishment of the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies in Alaska, the sixth DoD Regional Center and the only one specifically focused on the Arctic.\n\nBackground: Senator Murkowski is the leading expert among her Congressional colleagues on Arctic issues and has worked continuously to raise awareness of the region. At the beginning of the 114th Congress, Senator Murkowski and Senator Angus King (I-ME) formed the Senate Arctic Caucus to advance issues important to the Arctic and to the people who live there. Murkowski is the Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region. Murkowski has also led the charge to recapitalize and expand America\u2019s fleet of Polar Security Cutters (also known as icebreakers).\n\nRelated Issues: Arctic", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-demands-answers-accountability-from-senior-biden-and-pentagon-officials-following-botched-afghanistan-withdrawal-in-tense-hearing", "Sullivan Demands Answers, Accountability from Senior Biden & Pentagon Officials Following Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal in Tense Hearing", "2021-09-28", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=38", "scraper", "Chairman of Joint Chiefs Concedes Withdrawal was a \u201cStrategic Failure\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) today, demanded accountability from the most senior military leaders and defense officials in the Biden administration for the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan that left hundreds of Americans and thousands of America\u2019s Afghan allies stranded, and has resulted in a safe haven for global terrorism in the country once again.\n\nSen. Sullivan first asked each of the witnesses about President Joe Biden\u2019s false claims about the Afghanistan withdrawal, including whether or not they recommended that the president leave a residual force in the country, whether Al Qaeda was indeed operating in Afghanistan, and whether they would characterize the withdrawal as an \u201cextraordinary success.\u201d Sen. Sullivan then asked the witnesses who within the administration has taken accountability and offered their resignation\u2014at the White House or within the Pentagon\u2014for the disastrous withdrawal.\n\nPresident Biden\u2019s false claims about Afghanistan withdrawal\n\nSULLIVAN: Gentlemen, this committee recognizes that your constitutional duty is to follow the lawful orders of the president or resign if you don't agree with his decisions and policies, like Secretary Mattis did. But I want to emphasize, you do not have a duty, constitutional or otherwise, to cover for the commander-in-chief when he's not telling the truth to the American people. With that, I have a few questions that I'd like you to keep short, concise answers to. On August 18th in a media interview to the American people, the president said that none of his military advisers told him that he should keep U.S. forces in Afghanistan. General Milley, that was a false statement by the president of the United States, was it not?\n\nMILLEY: I didn't even see the statement, to tell you the truth.\n\nSULLIVAN: I'm reading you a truthful statement. That was a false statement?\n\nMILLEY: Yeah, I'm not -- I'm...\n\nSULLIVAN: Look, I don't have a lot of time.\n\nMILLEY: OK.\n\nSULLIVAN: Was that a false statement to the American people or not?\n\nMILLEY: I'm not going to categorize a statement of the president of the United States.\n\nSULLIVAN: General McKenzie, was that a false statement? The president -- the president said none of his commanders said that he should keep troops in Afghanistan. Was that a false statement by the president of the United States? Remember, you do not have a duty to cover for the president when he's not telling the truth. Was that a false statement or not?\n\nMCKENZIE: I've given you -- I've given you my opinion on the matter. I've given you my judgment on it, and I'll let (inaudible)...\n\nSULLIVAN: I think we all know it was a false statement, OK? That's number one. President also said if there's an American citizen left behind in Afghanistan, the military's not -- is going to stay until we get them out. General Milley, was that statement -- did that statement turn out to be true or untrue by the president?\n\nMILLEY: I think that was the intent, but we gave him a recommendation on 25th of August to terminate the mission on the 31st of August.\n\nSULLIVAN: The statement was untrue. Let me make another -- then let me ask another question. General Milley, General McKenzie, the president around the same time said, quote, \"Al Qaida was gone from Afghanistan,\" told the American people that. Was that true or not true? Was Al Qaida gone from Afghanistan in mid-August? True or not true?\n\nMILLEY: Al Qaida is still in Afghanistan. They were there in mid-August. They have been severely disrupted and [inaudible] over many, many years. They are not...\n\nSULLIVAN: So it wasn't true. General McKenzie, was that true or not true?\n\nMCKENZIE: Al Qaida was present in Afghanistan.\n\nSULLIVAN: OK, so it wasn't true. Let me make one final one. The president called this entire retrograde operation an extraordinary success. General Miller, in his testimony, disagreed with that assertion. General Milley, was this Afghanistan retrograde operation an extraordinary success?\n\nMILLEY: There's two operations, Senator.\n\nSULLIVAN: Just yes or no. I have a lot of questions. Was this an extraordinary success?\n\nMILLEY: Senator, with all due respect, there's two operations. There's the retrograde, which Miller was in charge of, and there's the Neo, which CENTCOM was in charge of. The retrograde was executed and ended by mid-July with a residual force to defend the embassy. The Neo...\n\nSULLIVAN: You and I have discussed this. Do you -- would you use the term \"extraordinary success\" for the -- it -- for what took place in August in Afghanistan?\n\nMILLEY: That's the non-combatant evacuation, and I think one of the other senators said it very well. It was a logistical success, but a strategic failure, and I think those are two different (inaudible).\n\nDemands for accountability\n\nSULLIVAN: Look, here's the problem: I think the whole world knows -- this is the cover of the Economist Magazine: \"Biden's Debacle.\" That had stories in it, articles in it called \"The Fiasco in Afghanistan is a Huge and Unnecessary Blow to America's Standing.\" That was one article. \"Joe Biden Blames Everybody Else.\" That's another article. \"China Sees America Humbled.\" That's another article.\n\nAnd gentlemen, the problem here -- these are not marginal misstatements by the president to the American people; These are dramatic, obvious falsehoods that go to the very heart of the foreign policy fiasco we have all witnessed. These are life-and-death deceptions that the president of the United States told the American people.\n\nI have one final question. I might leave it, because it's a long one, for the follow-up. But here's -- here's the anger: I've never seen my constituents more angry about an issue than this, and it's the combination of everybody knowing that this is a debacle, and yet, people defending it as a, quote, \"extraordinary success\". And here's the biggest: no accountability, no accountability.\n\nYou gentlemen have spent your lives, and I've completely respected -- troops in combat. You've been in combat. You've had troops under your command killed in action. You have been part of an institution where accountability is so critical, and the American people respect that. Up and down the chain, where there are instances, commanders get relieved up and down the chain. We see it. The McCain incident, the Fitzgerald incident, the AAV incident with the Marine Corps, three-star, four-star flag officers all relieved of duty. But on this matter, on the biggest national security fiasco in a generation, there has been zero accountability, no responsibility from anybody.\n\n<Break in questioning>\n\nSULLIVAN: I will tell you again gentlemen, I've never seen so much anger, at least from my constituents, who have witnessed a fiasco, a humiliation. A President who is consistently telling falsehoods to the American people. The issue is that there is no accountability and you gentlemen have spent decades serving your country honorably in combat. I have the utmost respect for your service, your fidelity to America, and importantly, you've dedicated your lives to an institution that has a culture of strict accountability and responsibility up and down the ranks. I mentioned a few examples this morning. The collisions of the USS McCain and Fitzgerald\u2014everybody up and down the ranks, including the three-star Admiral was relieved. The recent very tragic Marine AAV incident, everybody up and down the ranks, including the commanding general of the first Marine Division was relieved. If you're a Marine or Army second lieutenant training your platoon on and in one of your soldiers loses his NVGs or his rifle, that lieutenant is going to get relieved. But on this issue, one of the biggest national security fiascos in a generation, no one is accountable and the American people are livid because they saw it. They see it. They know it's a debacle.\n\nGeneral Milley, this morning you called the Afghan retrograde a \u201clogistical success but a strategic failure.\u201d I appreciate your honest assessment. I believe the President of the United States is solely responsible for this. Mr. Secretary, do you know if anyone\u2014the National Security Adviser, the Secretary of State or undersecretary for policy at DOD\u2014has offered their resignation to take responsibility for this fiasco?\n\nAUSTIN: I do not, but I don't believe they have.\n\nSULLIVAN: Okay. Thank you. Given the military culture of accountability that all of you gentlemen come from\u2014and again, I respect that more than almost anybody\u2014have any of you offered your resignation to the President at any time since his decision to withdraw? And, General Milley, I understand your earlier answer to this question that senior military advisers and officers can't resign every time they disagree with the President. I actually agree with that. But after the President's decision when the American people see such a strategic failure, as you called it, that's undermining our national security, they expect accountability and there has been none. So have any of you accepted that accountability or responsibility?\n\nMILLEY: I'm accountable for my actions.\n\nSULLIVAN: I'm talking about a resignation.\n\nMILLEY: I have not submitted my letter of resignation.\n\nSULLIVAN: Mr. Secretary?\n\nAUSTIN: No.\n\nSULLIVAN: General?\n\nMCKENZIE: I have not submitted a letter of resignation.\n\nSULLIVAN: Mr. Secretary, I want to know what it will take for someone, anyone in the Biden administration to take responsibility or accountability for this national security fiasco. Anyone?\n\nAUSTIN: Senator, from a DOD perspective, again, you heard me say that we'll continue to review our actions and we won't hesitate to be critical of ourselves. If there's someone that should be held accountable for an action then we'll certainly do that.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sullivan-risch-and-colleagues-introduce-comprehensive-afghanistan-legislation", "Sullivan, Risch and Colleagues Introduce Comprehensive Afghanistan Legislation", "2021-09-28", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=38", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), along with 21 of their Senate colleagues, yesterday introduced the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act, legislation to address the outstanding issues related to the Biden administration\u2019s rushed and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.\n\n\u201cThe consequences of President Biden\u2019s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan are devastating: The faith of our allies has weakened, our adversaries have been emboldened, hundreds of Americans and thousands of our Afghan allies were left at the mercy of a ruthless Taliban, and Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for global terrorism,\u201d said Sen. Sullivan. \u201cWhile President Biden has stated the \u2018buck stops\u2019 with him, he has simultaneously cast blame, changed the conversation, and ducked any real accountability or responsibility. Where the president has failed to mitigate the lasting consequences of his historic foreign policy fiasco, Congress must step forward to demand accountability, restore America\u2019s credibility, rescue our citizens and friends left behind, and protect Americans and our allies from the resurgent terrorist threat in Afghanistan.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe continue to see the grave implications of the Biden Administration\u2019s haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan. An unknown number of American citizens and Afghan partners remain abandoned in Afghanistan under threat from the Taliban, we face a renewed terror threat against the United States, and the Taliban wrongly seek recognition at the UN, even as they suppress the rights of Afghan women and girls,\u201d said Sen. Risch. \u201cI\u2019m proud to introduce the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act today to address these concerns and rebuild the United States\u2019 credibility. I hope the committee will be able to mark it up soon so that we can quickly help those we left behind and protect America\u2019s national security interests before it\u2019s too late.\u201d\n\nOther original cosponsors of the legislation are Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Todd Young (R-Ind.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Hoeven (R-N.D), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).\n\nThis legislation:\n\nEstablishes a State Department task force to focus on the evacuation of American citizens, legal permanent residents, and Afghan Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) who are still stuck in Afghanistan.\n\nImposes oversight mechanisms on the processing of SIVs and refugees.\n\nRequires strategies for counterterrorism and for the disposition of Taliban-captured U.S. equipment.\n\nSanctions the Taliban and others in Afghanistan for terrorism, drug-trafficking, and human rights abuses.\n\nAuthorizes sanctions on those providing support to the Taliban, including foreign governments supporting the Taliban.\n\nStates that the United States should not recognize any member of the Taliban as the ambassador of Afghanistan to the United States or as the ambassador of Afghanistan to the United Nations.\n\nCalls for a comprehensive review of foreign assistance to entities that support the Taliban.\n\nPlaces restrictions on non-humanitarian foreign assistance to Afghanistan.\n\nText of the legislation can be found here.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"], ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/speeches/speech-democrats-tax-and-spending-spree", "SPEECH: Democrats' Tax and Spending Spree", "2021-09-27", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=38", "scraper", "Mr. President, I want to talk about transparency, and I want to talk about the need for transparency here in the U.S. Senate more than ever.\n\nThe House and the Senate are moving with breakneck speed to pass one of the biggest, most reckless spending social bills in U.S. history, over $3.5 trillion--a spending spree that will be the largest in a generation--which will include the largest tax hike that we have seen in peacetime and something that the majority leader himself has called the largest transformation in a generation.\n\nMake no mistake. This is trying to transform America--cradle to grave socialism. Don't take my word for it. Here is the way the New York Times described this $3.5 trillion reckless spending bill from the House coming to the Senate. It is legislation that would touch virtually every American's life from conception to age and infirmity, from cradle to grave. That is the New York Times. In other words, the Federal Government will be involved in all facets of every single American life, from birth to death--one of the biggest tax-and-spend programs certainly since President Johnson's Great Society or President Roosevelt's New Deal.\n\nWith that involvement of our government will come higher taxes, taxes on smaller businesses, taxes on the middle class, and, yes, we believe our Senate colleagues are planning a tax cut for those who live in the big cities, known as the \u201cBlue State Bailout.\u201d The chairman of the Budget Committee, who is crafting this bill, Senator Sanders, who has called himself \u201ca proud socialist,\u201d is going to have tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires in this legislation.\n\nSo one would think that a bill of this magnitude, this size, this transformational an impact on every single American, would be a bill that the U.S. Senate, the so-called most deliberative body in the world, would actually hold one hearing on--just one--and would actually hold a markup or two in the different committees. Right now, our Democratic colleagues, with no explanation, are not planning on one hearing or one markup in any committee--none. As, I think, anybody who knows anything about this body knows, that is unprecedented.\n\nThe House rushed, no doubt. They have already marked up this legislation, way too fast, but, at least, they allowed for amendments. At least, they debated it.\n\nWhen Republicans controlled the Congress in 2017, with regard to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which went through reconciliation, we held numerous hearings in Senate committees. We had markups. We debated amendments. But for this bill--$3.5 trillion--right now, our colleagues are not going to do any of that.\n\nOf course, the media has given them a free pass. Nothing. The most deliberative body in the world, the transformational bill of a generation, the Green New Deal and all the other socialist ideas, and we are not going to have one hearing, not going to have one markup in one committee.\n\nWhat is going on? Well, I would love it if the majority leader or any other Senate Democrat would come down to the Senate floor and explain to the American people why. Why aren't we doing that? No transparency?\n\nSo I have a theory, because we are not going to hear from the majority leader or any of my other colleagues. I would love to hear them.\n\nCome on down. Explain why we are not having one hearing on the biggest bill in a generation--$3.5 trillion.\n\nHere is my theory. There are several reasons why they don't want the public to see a hearing or a markup relating to this bill.\n\nFirst and foremost, they don't want to have to defend what is in it. They don't want the public, who is seeing skyrocketing prices at the pump, at the grocery store, seeing all the increases in prices across our country, to see the specifics of a bill that are clearly going to supercharge more inflation. They don't want to have to defend a bill that will have the largest tax increase in American history. They don't want to have to defend a bill or show the American people tax rates on small businesses that will be bigger than anything in the European Union or in communist China, or hundreds of billions to bail out health insurers or $200 million for the Speaker's pet project in the Presidio Park in San Francisco or $5 billion for an environmental justice tax credit for universities, whatever the heck that is. Or how about $100 billion for amnesty for 10 million illegal immigrants, making them eligible for Federal benefits? They don't want to have to defend that. They don't want to have to debate that. These are just a few core elements of the bill as we know it. As I mentioned, there are also the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires in big cities.\n\nAnd they don't want to have to talk about the debt ceiling that my colleagues are trying to raise so they can continue their trillion dollars of reckless spending. The majority leader just mentioned that. He doesn't mention what is in the bill, won't have hearings about what is in the bill, won't have markups for the American people to see.\n\nAnd on the debt ceiling, you know, just last month, 45 of my Senate Republican colleagues and I signed a letter, putting our colleagues on the other side of the aisle on notice that we will not vote to increase the debt limit if they continued down this reckless path. And the reason is simple: My Democratic colleagues are content to go it alone and pass their irresponsible $3.5 trillion socialist spending spree with no hearings, no markup, no nothing, with just Democratic input, which is all we have.\n\nAgain, when we were going through our budget reconciliation process, we took amendments, we debated them, and we voted on them. They are not doing that.\n\nIf they are doing this solely by themselves, with no transparency, then our Democratic friends should be solely responsible for raising the debt ceiling to accommodate it. They control all branches of the government. The majority leader clearly knows they could fix that right now. They are creating their own crisis, and they can solve it.\n\nSo, once again, this $3.5 trillion bill is being rushed. What is another reason? I think they are getting a little nervous that if youhad a markup, say, in the Budget Committee, you would see that the author of the bill, the chairman of the Budget Committee, is promoting a socialist agenda that he is proud of because he is actually an avowed socialist.\n\nNow, I am not trying to insult anyone. This is what he calls himself.\n\nSo I think my Democratic colleagues get a little nervous that a bill authored by a socialist in the Senate would have to be defended. But, again, no hearings, no markup, and I know a lot of my Democratic colleagues are uncomfortable with this. They are uncomfortable with the bill. They are uncomfortable with the lack of transparency, but they are not calling for transparency. They are saying: Let's just move this as quickly as possible so nobody in America can see it.\n\nSo far, they are being successful, but I think we need to put this into context. Here is a piece from the Wall Street Journal from last week, where it talked about putting this rush job on the reckless spending bill from the majority leader and the Speaker of the House in historic context. It said:\n\nFDR's New Deal programs were passed incrementally over two Presidential terms with overwhelming Democratic majorities. Democrats created the Great Society over two years, with supermajorities under President Johnson. ObamaCare was hashed out over nine months before Democrats enacted it into law with 56 votes in the Senate. The 2017 GOP tax reform bill--as I just mentioned--was debated for months, and its principles for years before Congress voted and marked it up.\n\nNow with merely 50 Democrats in the Senate\u2014\n\nFifty-fifty here-\n\n-and a five-Member House majority, Democrats are planning to rush through the biggest tax and spending increase in half a century--\n\nWith not one hearing in the U.S. Senate, without one markup in any committee.\n\nThere is no mandate for this, but for most of my colleagues, the quicker the better to move on. Don't look, America. Don't look that the author of this bill is actually a socialist, because it is socialism.\n\nNow, this rush job is not good for the American people. So here is a better idea, and it comes from a Senate Democrat, my colleague Senator Manchin. A couple of weeks ago, he very wisely called for a \u201cstrategic pause.\u201d\n\nIn an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal he said that there is another reason for a strategic pause.\n\nNow I am quoting Senator Manchin:\n\nWe must allow for a complete reporting and analysis of the implications a multitrillion-dollar bill will have for this generation and the next. Such a strategic pause will allow every member of Congress to use the transparent committee process to debate: What should we fund, and what can we simply not afford?\n\nThat is Senator Manchin. His op-ed also said that amid the inflation that we are seeing, debt and the inevitability of future crises, Congress needs to take a strategic pause on this $3.5 trillion reckless spending spree.\n\nSo one of my Democratic colleagues is wisely calling for what we all know we need here, which is the precedent of this body, the most deliberative body in the world--a pause, hearings, markups so the American people can see what is actually in this.\n\nIt sounds like that is not going to happen, and I would love it if any of my Democratic colleagues would come to the floor and tell the American people why.\n\nWe can and should have debates about our respective visions for our great country.\n\nNo one should be afraid of looking closely at this $3.5 trillion monstrosity. Let's have a debate about it. Let's debate the massive increases in taxes, the vast expansion of entitlements, the cradle-to-grave socialism that certain Democrats are proposing for every individual American's life.\n\nThe American people deserve this. My constituents back home in Alaska certainly would welcome such a debate, but the American people deserve this.\n\nWhy are my colleagues afraid to debate and have hearings and a markup on this massive legislation? It is the American people's money, after all, that will pay for this transformational, socialist bill, and it is their lives that will be impacted and upended if this reckless, rushed bill becomes law.\n\nSo let's do this. Let's hit a strategic pause, as Senator Manchin asked for.\n\nLet's pry this bill open, hold hearings, and lay out our visions for our country. Let's have a debate: More taxes or freedom? Socialism versus market capitalism. Do we want a fundamental transformation, as the majority leader and the budget chairman have asked for, or do we want commonsense legislation that helps working men and women in our country achieve their dreams?\n\nI am hopeful that the majority leader will agree with Senator Manchin and do what is right for the American people: Hit a pause, hold hearings, and hold markups before he makes a mockery of the phrase \u201cthe world's most deliberative body,\u201d which he is now trying to do with this rushed and reckless spending bill.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"]], "truncated": false, "filtered_table_rows_count": 440, "expanded_columns": [], "expandable_columns": [], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "units": {}, "query": {"sql": "select url, title, date, year, month, party, chamber, state, member_name, bioguide_id, domain, scraper, source, date_source, text, has_text, collected_at, updated_at from releases where \"state\" = :p0 and \"year\" = :p1 order by date desc limit 101", "params": {"p0": "AK", "p1": "2021"}}, "facet_results": {"party": {"name": "party", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021", "results": [{"value": "Republican", "label": "Republican", "count": 440, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021&party=Republican", "selected": false}], "truncated": false}, "chamber": {"name": "chamber", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021", "results": [{"value": "Senate", "label": "Senate", "count": 435, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021&chamber=Senate", "selected": false}, {"value": "House", "label": "House", "count": 5, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021&chamber=House", "selected": false}], "truncated": false}, "state": {"name": "state", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021", "results": [{"value": "AK", "label": "AK", "count": 440, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?year=2021", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "year": {"name": "year", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021", "results": [{"value": "2021", "label": "2021", "count": 440, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=AK", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}}, "suggested_facets": [], "next": "2021-09-27,https~3A~2F~2Fwww~2Esullivan~2Esenate~2Egov~2Fnewsroom~2Fspeeches~2Fspeech-democrats-tax-and-spending-spree", "next_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=AK&year=2021&_next=2021-09-27%2Chttps~3A~2F~2Fwww~2Esullivan~2Esenate~2Egov~2Fnewsroom~2Fspeeches~2Fspeech-democrats-tax-and-spending-spree&_sort_desc=date", "private": false, "allow_execute_sql": true, "query_ms": 129.81602223590016, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}