[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 103 (Friday, June 20, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CENTENNIAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY COMMISSION

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 20, 2008

  Mr. YOUNG. Madam Speaker, I have the pleasure of informing my 
colleagues that the International Boundary Commission (IBC), the entity 
responsible for making, maintaining and mapping the Canada-U.S. border, 
is celebrating its centennial this month.
  Through the IBC, Canada and the United States have collaborated for 
over 100 years to peacefully maintain the longest shared border in the 
world, 5525 miles long, from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic 
Ocean. My state of Alaska shares more boundary with Canada than any 
other State, 1540 miles (Water and Land). Of those 1540 miles, 710 
miles of land is defined by 90 mountain peaks and 97 intermediate 
monuments from the Portland Canal to Mt. St. Elias. This summer, the 
field parties for both the U.S. and Canadian sections of the IBC will 
be surveying the land boundary in Southeast Alaska (710 miles). The 
main goal of this project is to update the boundary positions to the 
currently used coordinate reference system, as well as identify and 
mark the boundary points the original surveys were unable to physically 
occupy.
  The work of the IBC is fundamentally important to our national 
interest; to law enforcement--land administration, customs and 
immigration; and to the management of the transboundary resources. The 
last 100 years of work of the IBC exemplifies the close and enduring 
Canada-U.S. relationship.
  Madam Speaker, and my fellow members, join me in celebrating the 
centennial of the International Boundary Commission.

                          ____________________