[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 173 (Thursday, December 13, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13146-S13147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. MURKOWSKI (for himself and Mr. Stevens):
  S. 1816. A bill to provide for the continuation of higher education 
through the conveyance of certain public lands in the State of Alaska 
to the University of Alaska, and for other purposes; to the Committee 
on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, the University of Alaska, the 
University, is Alaska's oldest post-secondary school. The University 
was chartered prior to statehood and has played a vital role in 
educating Alaskans as well as students from around the world. But the 
University of Alaska is also an important asset for our Nation. Today 
it provides a leadership role in Arctic Science and Arctic Engineering 
Research. Bringing Arctic energy to the Nation has required new 
breakthroughs in technology and engineering and our need to better 
understand global climate change has placed a high value of studying 
the Arctic where climate changes are most easily detected.
  Additionally, the University has served as an important cornerstone 
in Alaska's history. For example, the University housed the Alaska 
Constitutional Convention where the fathers of statehood carved out the 
rights and privilege guaranteed to Alaska's citizens. Further, the 
University of Alaska is proud of the fact that it began life as the 
Alaska Agricultural and Mining College. However, what makes the 
University of Alaska truly unique is the fact that it is the only land 
grant college in the Nation that is virtually landless.
  As my colleagues know, one of the oldest and most respected ways of 
financing America's educational system has been the land grant system. 
Established in 1785, this practice gives land to schools and 
universities for their use in supporting their educational endeavors. 
In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Act which created the land grant 
colleges and universities as a way to underwrite the cost of higher 
education to more and more Americans. These colleges and universities 
received land from the Federal Government for facility location and, 
more importantly, as

[[Page S13147]]

a way to provide sustaining revenues to these educational institutions.
  The University of Alaska received the smallest amount of land of any 
State, with the exception of Delaware, that has a land grant college. 
Even the land grant college in Rhode Island received more land from the 
Federal Government than has the University of Alaska. In a state the 
size of Alaska, we should logically have one of the best and most fully 
funded land grant colleges in the country. Unfortunately, without the 
land promised under the land grant allocation system and earlier 
legislation, the University is unable to share as one of the premier 
land grant colleges in the country.
  Previous efforts in Congress were made to fix this problem. These 
efforts date back to 1915, less than 50 years after the passage of the 
Morrill Act, when Alaska's Delegate James Wickersham shepherded a 
measure through Congress that set aside potentially more than a quarter 
of a million acres, in the Tanana Valley outside of Fairbanks, for the 
support of an agricultural college and school of mines. Following the 
practice established in the lower 48 for other land grant colleges, 
Wickersham's bill set aside every Section 33 of the unsurveyed Tanana 
Valley for the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. 
Alaska's educational future looked very bright.
  Many Alaskans saw the opportunity to set up an endowment system 
similar to that established by the University of Washington in the 
downtown center of Seattle, where valuable University lands are leased 
and provide funding for the University of Washington which uses those 
revenues in turn to provide for its programs and facilities.
  Before that land could be transferred to the Alaska Agricultural 
College and School of Mines, renamed the University of Alaska in 1935, 
the land had to be surveyed in order to establish the exact acreage 
included in the reserved land. The sections reserved for education 
could not be transferred to the College until they had been delineated. 
According to records of the time, it was unlikely, given the incredibly 
slow speed of surveying, that the land could be completely surveyed 
before the 21st century. Surveying was and is an extraordinarily slow 
process in Alaska's remote and unpopulated terrain. In all, only 19 
sections of land, approximately 11,211 acres, were ever transferred to 
the University. Of this amount, 2,250 were used for the original campus 
and the remainder was left to support educational opportunities.
  Recognizing the difficulties of surveying in Alaska, subsequent 
legislation was passed in 1929 that simply granted land for the benefit 
of the University. This grant totaled approximately 100,000 acres and 
to this day comprises the bulk of the University's roughly 112,000 
acres of land, less than one-third of what it was originally promised. 
In 1958, the Alaska Statehood Act was passed which extinguished the 
original land grants for all lands that remained unsurveyed. Thus, the 
University was left with little land with which to support itself and 
thus is unable to completely fulfill its mission as a land grant 
college.
  The legislation I am introducing today would redeem the promises made 
to the University in 1915 and put it on an even footing with the other 
land grant colleges in the United States. The bill provides the 
University with the land needed to support itself financially and 
offers it the chance to grow and continue to act as a responsible 
steward of the land and educator of our young people. The legislation 
also provides a concrete timetable under which the University must 
select its lands and the Secretary of the Interior must act upon those 
selections.
  This legislation also contains significant restrictions on the land 
the University can select. The University cannot select land located 
within a Conservation System Unit. The University cannot select old 
growth timber lands in the Tongass National Forest. Finally, the 
University cannot select land validly conveyed to the State or an ANCSA 
corporation, or land used in connection with federal or military 
institutions.
  Additionally, under my bill the University must relinquish extremely 
valuable inholdings in Alaska once it receives its State/Federal 
selection awarded under Section 2 of this bill. Therefore, the result 
of this legislation will mean the relinquishment of prime University 
inholdings in such magnificent areas as the Alaska Peninsula & Maritime 
National Wildlife Refuge, The Kenai Fjords National Park, Wrangell St. 
Elias National Park and Preserve, and Glacier Bay National Park. So, 
not only does this bill uphold a decades old promise to the University 
of Alaska, it provides the Secretary of the Interior the opportunity to 
acquire thousands of acres of inholdings that will further protect 
Alaska's parks and refuges.
  Specifically, this Section 2 of the bill would grant to the 
University up to 250,000 acres of federal land. Additionally, Section 5 
of the bill establishes a matching program so that the University would 
be eligible to receive up to an additional 250,000 acres on a matching 
basis, acre-for-acre, with the State. This, obviously, would be done 
through the state legislative process involving the Governor, the 
Legislature, and the University's Board of Regents. The State matching 
provision is an important component of this legislation. Most agree 
with the premise that the University was shorted land. However, some 
believe it is solely the responsibility of the State to grant the 
University land. The legislation I am introducing today offers a 
compromise giving both the State and the Federal Government the 
opportunity to contribute while at the same time providing the Federal 
Government with thousands of aces of valuable inholdings in parks and 
refuges.
  Finally, this bill contains a provision that incorporates a concept 
put forth by the Governor of Alaska. This provision directs the 
Secretary of the Interior to attempt to conclude an agreement with the 
University and the Governor of Alaska providing for sharing NPRA 
leasing revenues in lieu of land selections to prevent the University 
from obtaining more than ten percent of such annual revenues or more 
than nine million dollars each fiscal year. If an agreement is reached 
and provides for disposition of some portion of NPRA mineral leasing 
revenues to the University, the Secretary shall submit the proposed 
agreement to Congress for ratification. If the Secretary fails to reach 
an agreement within two years of enactment, or if Congress fails to 
ratify such agreement within three years from enactment, the University 
may select up to 92,000 of its 250,000 initial land grant from lands 
within NPRA north of latitude 69.
  Therefore, this bill has been substantially changed from versions 
introduced in previous Congresses in two dramatic ways. First, in 
response to concerns from the Administration and environmental 
organizations the old growth areas of the Tongass National Forest are 
off limits for selection by the University. The only areas of the 
Tongass that could be selected by the University are those areas 
previously harvested. It is important that the University be allowed to 
select lands in this area as having the ability to study and manage as 
such areas are important tools for the University's School of Forestry.
  The second substantial change to the bill, which was previously 
noted, is the revenue sharing component. This aspect provides an 
alternative means of providing for the needs of the University. With 
the passage of this bill, the University of Alaska will finally be able 
to act fully as a land grant college. It will be able to select lands 
that can provide the University with a stable revenue source as well as 
provide responsible stewardship for the land.
  This is an exciting time for the University of Alaska. The promise 
that was made more than 80 years ago could be fulfilled by passage of 
this legislation, and Alaskans could look forward to a very bright 
future for the University of Alaska and those seeking an education or 
to conduct research.
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