[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 195 (Tuesday, December 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7434-S7435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. Sullivan):
  S. 3740. A bill to establish a congressionally chartered seaway 
development corporation in the Arctic, consistent with customary 
international law, with the intention of uniting Arctic nations in a 
cooperative Arctic shipping union, where voluntary collective maritime 
shipping fees will help fund the infrastructural and environmental

[[Page S7435]]

demands of safe and reliable shipping in the region; to the Committee 
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, the second piece of legislation I am 
introducing is the Shipping and Environmental Arctic Leadership Act of 
2018--the SEAL Act--which establishes a congressionally chartered 
seaway development corporation in the Arctic.
  So this Arctic Corporation will work with representatives from NOAA, 
from the State Department, from the Coast Guard, and from DOT, as well 
as representatives from the State of Alaska, the Alaska business 
community, Alaska coastal and subsistence communities, and the Alaskan 
Maritime Labor Organization to help to develop an Arctic shipping union 
whose leadership will advocate for safe, secure, and reliable Arctic 
seaway development and further ensure that the Arctic becomes a place 
of international cooperation rather than competition or conflict.
  The capacity to get maritime and shipping services funded by means of 
international cooperation is not a new concept. We have seen it done, 
and it exists with the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation in 
the United States. This is one example where countries that share a 
large maritime border--the United States and Canada--are able to 
develop a seaway system--one that is safe, secure, and reliable for its 
users.
  I have people stop me and say: Well, this is so many years off from 
when we are going to see levels of commercial activity in the Arctic. 
There is no real need to move on this, is there?
  Well, again, I will just remind you of some of the charts we have 
seen. The multiyear ice that once made the Arctic impassable and 
shielded our northernmost border year-round is diminishing, again, due 
to climate change. Because of this, shipping in and around the Arctic 
traffic will increase. So when you appreciate where we are with the 
Northwest Passage here, the Northwest Passage, by 2025, is 
intermittently open, but the for pathway, if you are going from the 
Bering Strait, right off of Alaska here and through Rotterdam, you are 
going to have an opportunity to basically be cutting through there.
  For the northern sea route, following through Russia, by 2025, they 
anticipate that this sea lane will be open for a full 6 weeks.
  The transpolar route, going more directly over the pole, by 2025 will 
have 2 weeks of open shipping.
  So, yes, shipping is going to increase. When you can figure out a 
quicker way to get from Asia to Europe, when you can shave off days, 
when you can use less fuel, you are saving money. So this is, from a 
trade perspective, hugely significant.
  But this looming increase in commercial vessel traffic also 
translates to greater demand for services and processes necessary to 
ensure that Arctic shipping can be reliable and safe for shippers that 
need to transport goods from one place to another on a timetable.
  This last chart that I am going to share is just a reminder of not 
today's reality, but this is the number of vessels that were tracked 
between year 2014 and 2015. So this is the Aleutians right down here. 
This is where the Great Circle route ships come through. It is so black 
here that you can't even tell that these are lines, but this 
demonstrates the level of existing traffic that we have here. Even 3 
years ago, the number of vessels that transited up to the Arctic, 
whether it was to go over into the Beaufort or the Chukchi in the 
Arctic Ocean or to go through the northern sea route in that 
direction--this is here, and this is now. This is what is happening in 
the Arctic.
  So what we are seeking to do with this SEAL legislation is to help to 
fund a system of Arctic ports--not just one port but a system of Arctic 
ports--ports of refuge for ships in trouble and ports to send, receive, 
and transship goods and people, private aids to navigation, all-weather 
tugs that can help ships that may have lost power or steerage, and to 
provide a commercial architecture to support the private sector 
investments in and use of icebreakers that can help ships that may be 
boxed in because of the ice. That happens.
  So as we talk about this proposal that we are laying down in this 
legislation, I have likened it to Uber for icebreakers. It helps people 
kind of understand what it is that we are looking at here.
  Port infrastructure will also benefit rural Arctic communities and 
bring down costs for delivering fuel, groceries, and other necessities 
which, in my State at this time, are just extraordinarily high. I think 
this legislation can help the United States to organize and attract 
investment opportunities for ports and icebreakers, for our own safety 
and for that of commercial vessels that are venturing into the Arctic, 
as well as, again, for those who live there.
  So these two bills, building on the strategic efforts of the 
Department of Defense and the strides that have been made in the NDAA, 
can provide the legislative direction needed to help to develop that 
aspirational plan that Secretary Carter recognized that we need.
  While I will be introducing these now, I am also going to be 
reintroducing them in the next Congress, and I certainly look forward 
to working with any and all of my colleagues and interested parties, as 
well as the executive branch, to refine them in the hopes that we can 
truly reclaim America's leadership role in the Arctic in this next 
Congress.

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