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1:23

Lisa Murkowski

44:21 - 45:45

"we have been able to not only engage with, but turn the views of many of the initial opponents to this legislation, among them the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy, some of the strongest protectors of environmental values, in the Tongass both have written letters of support for this bill, recognizing that we need to find this balance, but we also must address the inequities of the Native people who have been left out."

“we have been able to not only engage with, but turn the views of many of the initial opponents to this legislation, among them the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy, some of the strongest protectors of environmental values, in the Tongass both have written letters of support for this bill, recognizing that we need to find this balance, but we also must address the inequities of the Native people who have been left out.”
Speaker
Lisa Murkowski
Timestamp
44:21 – 45:45
Source
Senate Energy and Natural Resources (Murkowski): Business meeting to consider S.365 and H.R.1729, bills to amend the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to allow for additional entities to be eligible to complete the maintenance work on Bolts Ditch and the Bolts Ditch Headgate within the Holy Cross Wilderness, Colorado, S.764, to provide for the designation of certain wilderness areas, recreation management areas, and conservation areas in the State of Colorado, S.791, to establish the Justice Thurgood Marshall National Historic Site in the State of Maryland as an affiliated area of the National Park System, S.888, to designate certain land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service in the State of Oregon as wilderness and national recreation areas, to withdraw certain land located in Curry County and Josephine County, Oregon, from all forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws, location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and operation under the mineral leasing and geothermal leasing laws, S.945, to amend the Smith River National Recreation Area Act to include certain additions to the Smith River National Recreation Area, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain wild rivers in the State of Oregon, S.1088, to provide that the memorial to commemorate the sacrifice and service of the women who worked on the home front to support the efforts of the United States military during World War II may be located on the National Mall, S.1175, to amend section 6903 of title 31, United States Code, to provide for additional population tiers, S.1341, to amend the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 to add certain land to the Sarvis Creek Wilderness, S.1349, to withdraw the National Forest System land in the Ruby Mountains subdistrict of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the National Wildlife Refuge System land in Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Elko and White Pine Counties, Nevada, from operation under the mineral leasing laws, S.1413, to authorize additional funding for the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act, S.1476, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain segments of the Gila River system in the State of New Mexico as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, to provide for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over certain Federal land in the State of New Mexico, S.1737, to designate and expand wilderness areas in Olympic National Forest in the State of Washington, and to designate certain rivers in Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park as wild and scenic rivers, S.1870, to adjust the boundary of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to include the Rim of the Valley Corridor, S.2554, to provide for the recognition of certain Alaska Native communities and the settlement of certain claims under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, S.2754 and H.R.5911, to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey to the City of Ouray, Colorado, certain land managed by the Forest Service, together with a reservoir, S.3526, to provide for the protection of and investment in certain Federal land in the State of California, S.3725, to require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a project to supply municipal, rural, and industrial water to expand the capacity and reach of the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System, Inc. (doing business as "Lewis & Clark Regional Water System"), in the States of Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota, S.3732, to amend the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to authorize assistance under the storage program, H.R.249, to redesignate certain facilities at Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in honor of Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr, and the nominations of William Hague, of Washington, to be an Assistant Secretary, Kevin Lilly, of Texas, to be Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife, both of the Department of the Interior, and Kaveh Farzad, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy (International Affairs).
Community
Alaska News
Captured at
July 16, 2026

From the transcript

At the beginning, it was very much viewed as a a fight between giving back federal land into the hands of individuals. The environmental concerns were expressed that, oh, we're going to allow for an untrammeled environmental degradation of the land, and lots of concerns, and I think a lot of scare tactics that were there. There are no better stewards of our Alaska lands than the people who have lived on them for thousands of years. We have been able to not only engage with, but turn the views of many of the initial opponents to this legislation, among them the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy, some of the strongest protectors of environmental values, in the Tongass both have written letters of support for this bill, recognizing that we need to find this balance, but we also must address the inequities of the Native people who have been left out. So I added those letters of— letters from Nature Conservancy and the Wilderness Society to our hearing record in February, so I don't feel like I need to add them here.

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Senate committee advances bill to give land to five landless SE Alaska Native communities

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted July 16 to advance legislation that would let five Southeast Alaska Native communities excluded from the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act form urban corporations and receive land entitlements, sending the bill to the full Senate.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Southeast Alaska
Cover image for article: Senate committee advances bill to give land to five landless SE Alaska Native communities
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