[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 92 (Thursday, June 26, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6502-S6504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. MURKOWSKI (for himself and Mr. Stevens):
  S. 967. A bill to amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and 
the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to benefit Alaska 
Natives and rural residents, and for other purposes; to the Committee 
on Energy and Natural Resources.


                 Technical Changes to ANCSA and ANILCA

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce legislation 
on behalf of Alaska Natives and residents of rural Alaska. This 
legislation makes technical changes to both the Alaska Native Claims 
Settlement Act [ANCSA] and the Alaska National Interest Lands 
Conservation Act [ANILCA]. Most of the provisions are similar to those 
contained in H.R. 2505 passed by the House last year. These changes are 
the direct result of more than three days of hearings consisting of 14 
panels and more than 155 witnesses, the Senate Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources held throughout Alaska during the last Congress.


                             ANCSA Changes

  Mr. President, ANCSA is 25 years old. This legislation is a living, 
working document being used to improve the lives of Alaska's Native 
residents and the future generations of Alaska Natives. We have amended 
this document numerous times with technical changes in order to make it 
a more effective piece of legislation.
  The changes I am offering to ANCSA today would:
  1. Allow Native Regional Corporations the option of retaining mineral 
estates of native allotments surrounded by ANCSA 12(a) and 12(b) 
selections.
  2. Amend section 22(c) of ANCSA to include the Haida Corporation in 
the transfer of the administration of certain mining claims.
  3. Codify an agreement reached between ANCSA Native corporations 
regarding revenue sharing on sales of rock, sand and gravel.
  4. Direct the Secretary of Interior to determine the value of certain 
Calista Corporation lands and to complete the exchange authorized by 
Congress in 1991.
  5. Authorize five southeast Alaska Native villages to organize as 
Native corporations.
  There are two provisions that I would like to single out here in my 
remarks today.
  Mr. President, section 5 of this legislation implements a land 
exchange with the Calista Corporation, an Alaska Native regional 
corporation organized under the authority of the Alaska Native Claims 
Settlement Act. This exchange, originally authorized in 1991, by Public 
Law 102-172, would provide for the United States to acquire 
approximately 225,000 acres of Calista and village corporation lands 
and interests in lands within the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge 
in southwestern Alaska.
  The Refuge serves as important habitat and breeding and nesting 
grounds for a variety of fish and wildlife, including numerous species 
of migratory birds and waterfowl. As a result, the Calista exchange 
will enhance the conservation and protection of these vital habitats 
and thereby further the purpose of ANCSA and the Alaska National 
Interest Lands Conservation Act.
  In addition to conservation benefits, this exchange will also render 
much needed economic benefits to the Yupik Eskimo people of 
southwestern Alaska. The Calista region is burdened by some of the 
harshest economic and social conditions in the Nation. As a result of 
this exchange, the Calista Corporation will be better able to make the 
kind of investments that will improve the region's economy and the 
lives of the Yupik people. In this regard, this provision furthers and 
carries out the underlying purposes of ANCSA.
  This provision is, in part, the result of discussions by the various 
interested parties. As a result of those discussions, a number of 
modifications were made to the original package of lands offered for 
exchange. Chief among these were the addition of another 27,000 acres 
of surface estate (fee and conservation casements) of village 
corporation lands, as well as the Calista subsurface estate lying 
underneath those lands, and the removal of the Tuluksak mineralized 
parcel from the exchange.
  In a last minute agreement to move the bill through the House last 
year, the total value of the exchange package was reduced by 25% to $30 
million. Such a reduction was unwarranted and seriously undermined the 
utility and benefit of the provision for the public and for Calista and 
the twelve village corporations involved. This legislation I introduce 
today restores the value to the Calista exchange portion of this bill.
  Mr. President, it is time to move forward with this exchange.
  Section 8 of this legislation provides long-overdue authorization to 
the Southeast Alaska Villages of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, 
Tenakee, and Wrangell, Alaska that will permit them to establish Native 
Corporations under ANCSA. The history of these five villages clearly 
shows that the Alaska Natives who enrolled in them and their heirs have 
been inadvertently and wrongly denied the financial and cultural 
benefits of enrollment in a Village, Urban, or Group Corporation.
  This section simply amends ANCSA to provide authorization for each of 
the five Unrecognized Communities to form a Native Corporation pursuant 
to ANCSA, and directs the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation 
with the Secretary of Agriculture, to submit to Congress a report 
regarding lands and other compensation that should be provided to the 
Corporations formed pursuant to this section. This section specifically 
requires further Congressional action to provide compensation for these 
communities.


                             ANILCA Changes

  This legislation also addresses changes that need to be made to 
ANILCA to ensure that the Federal agencies are fairly implementing this 
legislation consistent with its written provisions and promises. These 
changes will ensure that its implementation is consistent with the 
intent of Congress. These are simple changes that among other things:
  1. Require all public land managers in Alaska or in a region 
containing Alaska to take a training course in ANILCA.
  2. Authorize continuation of traditional subsistence activities in 
Glacier Bay subject to reasonable regulations by NPS.
  3. Protect traditional and inholder access in and across ANILCA 
lands.
  4. Protect property owners from having to relinquish ownership 
interests in cabins and possessions within them on ANILCA lands.
  Mr. President, seventeen years ago, Congress enacted the ANILCA. 
Despite the opposition of many Alaskans, over 100 million acres of land 
was set aside in a series of vast Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and 
Wilderness units. Much of the concern about the Act was the impact of 
these Federal units, and related management restrictions, on 
traditional activities and lifestyles.
  To allay these concerns, ANILCA included a series of unique 
provisions designed to ensure that traditional activities and 
lifestyles would continue, that Alaskans would not be subjected to a 
``permit lifestyle'', and that the agencies would be required to 
recognize the crucial distinction between managing small units 
surrounded by millions of people in the lower 48 and vast multi-million 
acre units encompassing a relative handful of individuals and 
communities in Alaska. The sponsors of ANILCA issued repeated 
assurances that the establishment of these units would in fact protect 
traditional activities and lifestyles and not place them in jeopardy.
  Early implementation of the Act closely reflected these promises. 
However, as the years have passed, many of the Federal managers seem to 
have lost sight of these important representations to the people of 
Alaska. Agency personnel, trained primarily in lower 48 circumstances, 
have brought the mentality of restriction and regulation to Alaska. The 
critical distinctions between management of Parks, Refuges and 
Wilderness areas in the 49th State and the lower 48 have blurred. The 
result is the spread of restriction and regulation and the creation of 
the exact ``permit lifestyle'' which we were promised would never 
happen.

[[Page S6503]]

  I have become increasingly aware of this disturbing trend. In my 
conversations with Alaskans, I hear many complaints about ever 
increasing restraints on traditional activities and requirements for 
more and more paperwork and permits. A whole new ``industry'' has 
sprung up to help Alaskans navigate the bureaucratic shoals that have 
built up during the past few years.
  Let me cite a few of the incidents that have come to my attention. 
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides it wants to establish a 
``wilderness management'' regime and eliminate motorboat use on a 
river. It proceeds with the plan until protests cause the Regional 
Solicitor to advise the Service that its plan violates Section 1110(a) 
of ANILCA. Owners of cabins built, occupied, and used long before 
ANILCA are told they must give up their interests in the cabins 
although Section 1303 expressly enables cabin owners to retain their 
possessory interests in their cabins. Visitor services contracts are 
awarded and then revoked because the agencies failed to adhere to the 
requirements of Section 1307. Small landowners of inholdings seek to 
secure access to their property and are informed that they must file 
for a right-of-way as a transportation and utility system and pay the 
U.S. hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare a totally unnecessary 
environmental impact statement. An outfitter spends substantial time 
and money responding to a request for proposals, submits an apparently 
winning proposal, and has the agency arbitrarily change its mind and 
decide to withdraw its request--it does not offer to compensate the 
outfitter for his efforts.
  Mr. President, the legislation I introduce today will ensure that 
agencies are fairly implementing ANILCA consistent with its written 
provisions and promises. These technical corrections to ANILCA will 
ensure that its implementation is consistent with the intent of 
Congress.
  Mr. President, conditions have changed in the 17 years since the 
passage of ANILCA and we have all had a great deal of experience with 
the Act's implementation. It is time to make the law clearer and to 
make the federal manager's job easier.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a table be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the table was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                          REVISED CALISTA LANDS PACKAGE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                       Per acre   Total exchange
         Parcel name                   Interest to be conveyed            Acreage       value          value
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dall Lake...................  Fee--Surface............................       10,000         $325      $3,250,000
Hamilton....................  Fee--Surface............................        7,135          325       2,318,875
Section 14(h)(8) entitlement  Fee--Surface and Subsurface.............       10,000          704       7,040,000
Hooper Bay..................  Subsurface..............................       27,034           90       2,433,060
Scammon Bay.................  Subsurface..............................       87,052           90       7,834,680
Kusilvak....................  Subsurface..............................       57,284           90       5,155,560
Calista subsurface on TKC     Subsurface..............................       17,000           90       1,530,000
 surface.
Calista subsurface on NIMA    Subsurface..............................       10,000           90         900,000
 surface.
TKC.........................  Conservation easement...................       17,000          243       4,131,000
NIMA........................  Surface.................................       10,000          325       3,250,000
Calista subsurface on         Subsurface..............................        7,135           90         642,150
 Hamilton surface.
Calista subsurface on Dall    Subsurface..............................       10,000           90         900,000
 Lake surface.
 
                                                VALUATION SUMMARY
 
NIMA lands..................  Surface.................................       20,000  ...........      $6,500,000
Hamilton lands..............  Surface.................................        7,135  ...........       2,318,875
TKC lands...................  Surface.................................       17,000  ...........       4,131,000
      Total village surface.  ........................................       44,135  ...........      12,949,875
Calista.....................  Surface and subsurface, all parcels.....      225,505  ...........      26,435,450
      Total exchange value..  ........................................  ...........  ...........      39,385,325
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

       By Mr. MACK:

  S. 968. A bill to provide for special immigrant status for certain 
aliens working as journalists in Hong Kong; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.


                    The Hong Kong Press Freedom Act

  Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleague, Senator 
Lieberman, to introduce the Hong Kong Press Freedom Act.
  Mr. President, as we consider China and Hong Kong in these final 
weeks before Hong Kong reversion, it is important for us to reflect on 
the facts, and what drives our behaviors toward China.
  We fought the Cold War for freedom and democracy. The war is over, 
but we know of 1.2 billion people still wearing the yoke of communism--
or at least nondemocratic oppression. On July 1, we might be forced to 
witness that number grow by 6 million as Hong Kong falls under control 
of the People's Republic of China. If the defining moment of the 1980s 
was the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and the spread of freedom and 
democracy, we should not allow this decade to be remembered most by the 
victory of totalitarianism over human dignity.
  One essential element of freedom is press freedom. Until recently, 
Hong Kong enjoyed one of the freest presses in the world. But already, 
experts point to instances of self censorship occurring on the island. 
All indications are that this freedom will continue to deteriorate 
following Hong Kong's reversion.
  Today, I am introducing a bill in the Senate to encourage press 
freedom in Hong Kong. A similar measure was introduced in the House by 
Representative Porter and 27 other members in February. The measure 
supports those Hong Kong journalists who chose to remain loyal to the 
standards of honest and open reporting. Specifically, this bill 
provides special immigration status to journalists and their families 
should they be threatened as a result of their reporting. When Senator 
Lieberman and I visited Hong Kong earlier this year, we heard several 
stories of self-censorship occurring in the Hong Kong press. Many of 
the larger papers were losing circulation and the underground and small 
papers were growing. It is this free thought and competition which we 
seek to preserve.
  Without press freedom, what other freedom can survive? While this is 
a small and specific measure, its impact can be profound. I urge 
immediate consideration and passage of this measure.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleague, 
Senator Mack, in introducing the Hong Kong Press Freedom Act.
  In a very few days, Hong Kong will revert to Chinese sovereignty. 
Already, there is evidence that China will not fully honor its 
commitment to preserve Hong Kong's democratic institutions and way of 
life under the rubric, one country, two systems. Beijing has announced 
it will eliminate Hong Kong's democratically elected legislative 
council and that it will reimpose several restrictive civil order 
statutes, including against certain types of political expression. Even 
more disturbing, there are indications that media self-censorship is 
replacing freedom of the press.
  It is fitting and proper that we introduce this legislation now. 
Eight years ago, Chinese authorities, most of whom remain in power 
today, brutally massacred students and others who wanted assurances 
that their government would become more accountable to the will of the 
people. They were seeking democratic progress, not revolutionary 
license. Beijing answered them with tanks, and 8 years later, Tiananmen 
Square remains a vivid reminder of what autocrats can and will do even 
in full view of astonished world opinion.
  This bill would not have prevented the evil of Tiananmen Square; and 
it is not intended as a warning to China. It is simply principle put 
into action. As Americans, we understand how important a free press is 
to preserving the rule of law and to protecting the rights and dignity 
of individuals against the

[[Page S6504]]

power of the state. Our action here will help assure that reporters in 
hong Kong will not be cowed by the memory of Tiananmen Square. This 
bill supports those who choose to put themselves at risk by reporting 
honestly and openly what they see and hear when the Chinese flag 
replaces the Union Jack. We owe them our gratitude and protection, and 
this bill will help us provide it.
  Specifically, this measure offers special immigration status to 
journalists and their families if they are threatened with reprisal 
because of their work. A similar measure was introduced in the House by 
Representative Porter and 27 other Members in February. I urge my 
Senate colleagues to join this effort and to pass the Hong Kong press 
freedom bill.
                                 ______