[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 107 (Monday, August 3, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1514]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 4060, ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 29, 1998

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, this motion is an attempt to 
obstruct an effort to redress some of the most abject poverty and 
living conditions of people living in rural Alaska. The motion makes no 
sense whatsoever, unless proponents are contending the federal 
government has no role to play in fostering public works projects and 
iniatives to improve the life of our rural areas.
  Many communities in Alaska, most of which are Native villages, do not 
have public works projects such as those taken for granted by most 
communities in other states. The proposed commission will complement 
Alaska's ongoing work to alleviate the nearly Third World conditions 
brought on by the absence of basic infrastructure, such as modern water 
and sewage treatment or safe and environmentally sound bulk fuel 
storage.
  Because of the magnitude of the problem--unsafe water, lack of modern 
sewage treatment, infant mortality, alcoholism, suicide, lack of job 
opportunity--a commission chartered by Congress will advance efforts to 
grant a shimmer of hope to those who know only hopelessness in these 
rural areas.
  Let me offer just one example of why the Denali Commission is 
necessary. Forty percent of rural Alaska lacks flush toilets. Residents 
of these areas literally haul raw human waste in honeybuckets and dump 
them in a community lagoon sometimes leading to outbreaks of viral 
minengitis. Americans should not be living in these conditions in this 
day and age.
  These problems have not been ignored by any stretch of the 
imagination: Congress and the State of Alaska have been cooperating for 
several years to devote resources to correcting these problems. 
However, these efforts have the effect of a ``scattershot'' approach to 
solving a $1 billion problem. The Denali Commission is a single entity 
that can bring a unified direction and approach needed for some of the 
poorest areas of the country.
  There has been a lot of talk on the Floor about how generous the 
government has been to Alaska. In fact, it has not been very generous. 
Many of the funds Alaska receives are in defense programs, which serve 
a national as opposed to parochial purpose. It must also be recalled 
that when Alaska was made a statehood, it had to forego the benefit of 
reclamation projects such as those found in the lower 48. In addition, 
the federal government owns and controls two-thirds of Alaska's lands, 
but has awfully slow to show rural Alaskans any benefit this had 
brought them.
  For these reasons, the Denali Commission is justified, necessary, and 
vital to the well-being of Alaska's rural people.

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