[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 147 (Tuesday, August 18, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E769-E770]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   THE GREAT AMERICAN OUTDOORS ACT AND THE CHUGACH ALASKA CORPORATION

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 18, 2020

  Mr. YOUNG. Madam Speaker, I rise concerning the recent passage by the 
Senate, and the House, and enactment by the President, of the Great 
American Outdoors Act, H.R. 1957 as passed in the House, and now P.L. 
116-152.
  I rise to highlight and speak to an issue of critical importance to 
Chugach Alaska Corporation (CAC), the Alaska Native Claims Settlement 
Act (ANCSA) Regional Corporation for the Alaska Natives of the Chugach 
Region. Today, Federal Land Management Agencies, and the States, are on 
the cusp of implementing P.L. 116-152, the Great American Outdoors Act 
(GAOA). One of the central purposes of GAOA is to provide permanent 
funding, at the fully authorized level, for the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund (LWCF). I have worked tirelessly with Members on both 
sides of the aisle to accomplish the principal provisions of the GAOA--
in fact, the legislation is very similar to language that I sponsored

[[Page E770]]

years ago which passed the House as the Conservation and Reinvestment 
Act (CARA). I worked hand in hand with Members on both sides of the 
aisle to permanently authorize the LWCF when we passed the bipartisan 
John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation Management and Recreation Act (P.L. 
116-9), in early 2019. I want to emphasize that a priority use of the 
LWCF funding, provided for in the enacted GAOA, is the consolidation of 
ownership and management of split estate federal and public lands, in 
appropriate circumstances such as that referred to in Section 1113, the 
``Chugach Region Land Study,'' contained in P.L. 116-9 the ``Dingell 
Act,'' between willing private sector land owners and the United 
States, especially when such willing private sector land owners are 
Native American Tribes or Alaska Native Regional Corporations 
established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
  It is important to clearly declare that the LWCF can, among and 
between willing parties, be used for this purpose of facilitating and 
executing recommended land exchanges per the Chugach Region Land Study 
provision, Section 1113 of the Dingell Act. This understanding and 
direction is completely consistent with that Act and the GAOA.

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