{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-burgum-discuss-alaska-successes-priorities", "Murkowski, Burgum Discuss Alaska Successes, Priorities", "2026-04-22", "2026", "2026-04", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=1", "scraper", "Washington, DC \u2013 U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, today convened a hearing with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to discuss the Department\u2019s budget request for Fiscal Year 2027. The Senator reiterated her appreciation for Secretary Burgum\u2019s dedication to advancing Alaska priorities throughout his first year at Interior and her commitment to working with him and the Department to continue making progress on these issues.\n\nIn her opening comments and questions, Senator Murkowski discussed permitting, delayed grants, the probate backlog, contaminated lands, resources for Alaskans impacted by Typhoon Halong, fuel constraints in rural communities, and an interagency agreement to transfer Native education programs from the Department of Education to the Department of Interior, among other topics.\n\nWatch the Senator\u2019s opening statement here.\n\nRead Senator Murkowski\u2019s full opening statement below.\n\nFULL TRANSCRIPT\n\nSenator Murkowski: It's good to have you back before the committee, and I really appreciate your visits to Alaska. I know you've got another one coming up, so thank you very much for that.\n\nWhen we held this hearing just a year ago, the fact of the matter is, there was a lot of confusion going on. We were dealing with DOGE, we were dealing with efforts to really reorganize and consolidate at the Department. It was just really hard to kind of keep on top of all that was happening. I hope that we\u2019re past those days now. I truly appreciate the increased communication that we have seen from the agency, so thank you for that.\n\nAnd I also want to personally recognize the very substantive work that you and the administration are doing to advance Alaska's immense natural resource opportunities. You and your team have lifted part of Public Land Order 5150 to help complete the state\u2019s land entitlement. Thank you for that. You\u2019ve gotten the Ambler Access Project back on track. You\u2019re pushing very hard on AKLNG, as well as the Coastal Plain. You repealed an unlawful management rule for our petroleum reserve, and you just held the best ever lease sale there, raising $183 million. That was fabulous.\n\nAnd you also have focused, as you promised me you would, on completion of the land exchange with the very good, very patient people in King Cove for the life-saving road that they have been fighting for decades now. So, thank you for that.\n\nThe members of this panel have widely divergent views about Interior\u2019s mission and what its bureaus and agencies should be doing on a daily basis. But we did some really good work\u2014and I want to acknowledge my Ranking Member here\u2014we worked hard last year to bridge those gaps and to pass what I thought was a good, a thoughtful, and, of course, a bipartisan bill for FY26, and now we get to do it all over again.\n\nOur starting point here is the President\u2019s request, and I always say that, \u201cwhile the President proposes the budget, Congress holds the power to dispose of it.\u201d Once again, there are things that many of us like and support, and there are some things that we won\u2019t agree with, that will not make it into our bill.\n\nFrom a high-level perspective, the President is proposing a slight increase for the Department, but that relies on some significant structural shifts, including the establishment of a new Wildland Fire Service. I\u2019m eager to explore that, to learn more details as we brace for what I am fearful of, which is expected to be a bad fire season across the western U.S. Another notable proposal is for a new Marine Minerals Administration. There are valid reasons to consider that, as well\u2014although the projected cost savings raise some eyebrows as we prioritize the continued safety of offshore operations. Safety relies, in part, on adequate staffing on the regulatory side.\n\nI\u2019m also less enthused about the budget cuts for just about every bureau, including major reductions for hazards. The USGS account is cut 37%, we\u2019ve got a 26% cut for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 32% cut for the National Park Service, and a 35% cut for the Bureau of Land Management. I also note, while we\u2019re seeing reductions there, we are seeing increases in a couple different areas that again get your attention: $10 billion in mandatory funding for beautification here in the District of Columbia. Not that we don\u2019t need to beautify, but I think many of our National Parks could also use some support here. So, working through some of that. I also note the $1 billion for a new program for the Great Salt Lake. So, obviously, much more to learn there.\n\nUltimately, my goal is to make sure that our FY27 bill again puts the Department in the best possible position for the year ahead. And that includes the funding that you need to permit domestic resource production. And this is everything from oil and gas to minerals, and including renewables, which we can\u2019t arbitrarily exclude from our nation\u2019s energy portfolio.\n\nAddressing some of the things that are important within my home state, I think that we must address BIA Tribal Community Resilience grants. We continue to hear that those funds remain frozen, and your budget again proposes to eliminate this critical program which Tribal communities rely on to prepare for and respond to natural disasters and other environmental threats.\n\nWe need to build out our work on contaminated lands in Alaska, expedite allotments for Alaska Native Vietnam veterans, ensure the new offshore program focuses on the right basins. And then, as we\u2019re talking about offshore, we must ensure our obligations to our U.S. territories, something that we don\u2019t talk [about] often enough.\n\nAgain, as we discussed last week, I really appreciate the efforts that you have made, Mr. Secretary, so far\u2014but, when it comes to the probate backlog, I think you and I agree we have much more that needs to be done. This probate backlog that impacts Indian Country is just not acceptable.\n\nWe need you to focus on getting culturally competent permanent staff in place because even if all the vacant positions were suddenly filled, it\u2019s still going to take eight years just to resolve the existing cases, not including their adjudication. And you\u2019re going to hear in my questions this morning a real focus on the staffing. Because it\u2019s not just within the probate accounts; you need appropriate staffing across the board so the Department can do the work on time and in a legally defensible manner.\n\nI think this is one of the areas within the Department of the Interior\u2014people look at this massive department and think it\u2019s all about administering our lands, whether it\u2019s BLM or the Park Service. They think about it from the land perspective, but we can\u2019t manage these unless we have the people there. It just takes a lot of good people doing good things to turn it into sustained success.\n\nYou\u2019ve got a lean team and they are darn good, and I appreciate them. However, we keep hearing, not just from Alaska but other Western delegations, that there\u2019s a concern that if we\u2019re going to execute on the President's executive orders, we need the men and women to do just that.\n\nSo, we\u2019ve got a lot to discuss on this busy day. Again, I thank you for being here, thank you for your leadership, and I look forward to working with you and your team as we on the committee here work to craft another good bill with my counterpart, Senator Merkley.\n\nNow, I'll turn to you, sir.", 1, "2026-04-23T05:48:52Z", "2026-04-23T05:50:10Z"]], "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"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-burgum-discuss-alaska-successes-priorities"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9925818778574467, "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"}