[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 32 (Thursday, February 27, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO EXPAND NATIVE CONTRACTING IN THE STATE OF 
                                 ALASKA

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                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 26, 2003

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I am again introducing a bill to 
expand the Alaska Native contracting of Federal land management 
functions and activities and to promote hiring of Alaska Natives by the 
Federal government within the State of Alaska.
  Many rural Alaska native communities are located within close 
proximity of refuges that play an important role in the culture of 
Alaska natives and other residents in rural Alaska. Congress, through 
Sections 1307 and 1308 of the Alaska National Interest Lands 
Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980 directed the Secretary of the 
Interior to establish programs whereby Native lands were given 
preference for siting of conservation service unit facilities and for 
native hiring. These provisions also recognized that the Natives whose 
front and back yards were now part of the federal parks and preserves 
systems should be involved in the administering of the lands because of 
their special knowledge and expertise concerning the natural or 
cultural resources of such areas.
  P.L. 106-488 authorized two pilot projects in the Bering Straits and 
NANA Region in northwest Alaska. These include the following preserves: 
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve; Cape Krusentern National 
Monument; Kobuk Valley National Park; and Noatak National Preserve. 
Neither of these projects have been implemented.
  Twenty-three years have passed since the 1980 ANILCA amendments were 
enacted, and the contracting and native hire provisions remain 
unfulfilled by the Department of the Interior. My bill would remedy 
this by directing the Department of the Interior to implement sections 
1307 and 1308 of the 1980 ANILCA amendments and enter into 
demonstration projects.

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