[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 8, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S555-S558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Continued The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from 
                                Montana.


         Unanimous Consent Request--Executive Calendar No. 650

  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I rise today to speak in support of 
Martha Williams to be the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service.
  I represent a State that goes by many names. Most of you know it as 
Montana, but it is often called Big Sky Country, the Last Best Place, 
and even the Treasure State. Montana has earned these names through an 
abundance of beauty and natural resources, and as a result we have 
fostered a robust outdoor economy that relies on responsible forest 
management. Folks come to Montana from all over the world to enjoy all 
that our State has to offer. Thousands of folks make their living by 
working the land and showing folks the best way to enjoy it.
  But the key to preserving our multibillion-dollar outdoor economy is 
proper stewardship and oversight of our natural resources. That means 
talking to folks on the ground. It means bringing competing interests 
to the table to find the most sustainable ways to manage our public 
lands. Not only do our forests and rivers create thousands of good-
paying jobs, but they also create countless memories for families in 
our country. So it is critically important that we have balanced 
oversight in place to guarantee that Montana's outdoor economy remains 
vibrant for generations to come.
  The Director of Fish and Wildlife Service plays a central role in 
this oversight, and that is why I am proud to support Martha Williams' 
nomination today. As Director, she will be tasked with the management 
and recovery of our Nation's fish and wildlife and overseeing a large 
chunk of our public lands--89 million acres, to be exact, from 
Montana's own Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge all the way to 
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  As a Montanan and a former Director of the Montana Fish, Wildlife, 
and Parks, Ms. Williams has demonstrated time and time again her 
ability to bring folks together to find lasting solutions, to 
collaborate to find common ground. She always leads with science and 
has developed State management plans for issues ranging from grizzly 
bears to aquatic invasive mussels, and she has done it with input from 
all the relevant stakeholders.
  She also has a profound respect and understanding of the bedrock laws 
that guide responsible land and wildlife management. She will be 
bringing with her over a decade of legal experience with the Montana 
Fish, Wildlife, and Parks as well as a well-regarded legal scholar at 
the University of Montana.
  She has spent her entire career standing up for our public lands and 
proven herself to be a thoughtful, nonpartisan steward who works 
collaboratively with folks on the ground to make positive change. Her 
top-notch ability to find common ground between sportsmen and 
conservationists alike and her skills as an exceptional problem-solver 
will make her an outstanding Director at the Fish and Wildlife Service.
  She has strong support from sports men and women, biologists, and 
academics alike and has already received strong bipartisan support from 
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She was passed out 
of committee on a 16-to-4 vote.
  Make no mistake about it, we will miss her leadership in the Treasure 
State, but I am looking forward to seeing her effective management 
skills at the Federal level. This position is very important for the 
stewardship of our land and our waters, and I would urge my colleagues 
to support her confirmation today.
  And in that vein, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider 
the following nomination: Calendar No. 650, Martha Williams, of 
Montana, to be Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; that the 
nomination be

[[Page S556]]

confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon 
the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I would 
like to talk a little bit about not just Ms. Williams--who as my friend 
from Montana has mentioned--I actually think she is qualified--but the 
issues that are in front of the Fish and Wildlife Service, as we speak, 
that relate to my State, the great State of Alaska.
  Unfortunately, it has been one Executive order, Executive action, 
delay targeting Alaska--some from the Fish and Wildlife Service that 
has had an enormously negative impact on my State.
  I agree with the Senator from Montana. Fish and Wildlife Service is 
important. He mentioned that it manages 89 million acres nationwide. 
Well, 77 million acres of that 89 are in Alaska. Eight-five percent of 
Fish and Wildlife Service land that is managed is in one State, the 
great State of Alaska, a size bigger than the State of New Mexico, just 
for Fish and Wildlife Service land control.
  So this Agency, this nominee will have an enormous impact on my 
constituents and, indeed, right now is having an enormous impact on my 
constituents, and I can't get them to do anything constructive for the 
people I represent.
  Let me give you two, and perhaps my colleague from Montana can help 
me out with this. These are two directly--directly--in the jurisdiction 
of the Fish and Wildlife Service that we have been asking for support 
on and haven't gotten it. One is the Russian River land exchange. This 
is a vital exchange that needs to happen for a highway project on 
Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.
  Here is the thing about this land exchange. It has been in the works 
since 1975--44 years, to be exact. We believe it is the longest running 
federally led environmental impact statement in the history of America, 
which is actually what happens a lot in the great State of Alaska. 
Groups come up; they don't want any resource development; they don't 
want any access to land and they sue and they stop and they try to 
delay things. This one has been delayed, in one form or another, for 44 
years.

  Now, the previous administration, to its credit, heard the voices of 
Alaska, responded to the input from different stakeholders, and 
actually put forward a reasonable land exchange that was approved by 
the Federal Government. The regional office of the Fish and Wildlife 
Service sent the approved package to headquarters in Washington, DC, in 
November, where it sits--where it sits.
  So one thing I would like to do before this nominee moves forward is 
get a commitment to approve that. It is very simple--44 years. I don't 
think we are asking too much, but it is delayed.
  Let me give you another one. Many of you have heard about the King 
Cove road. You are going to hear about it again because it is an issue 
that every Alaskan, even those who don't live out on the Aleutian 
Island chain, are passionate about. Only in Alaska could this happen. 
It is an 11-mile, single-lane gravel road that will save lives for 
people in the community of King Cove--primarily Alaska Native--and they 
need approval of that through another land exchange. We have been 
working on that for over 40 years--40 years. People in my communities 
in that part of the State have died because there is no road to access 
an airport. There are a lot of storms in that part of the world, the 
Aleutian Islands. When they need access to get out on a plane, they 
often don't have it because we can't build a single lane, 11-mile 
gravel road.
  We have a land exchange approved by the previous administration. This 
administration has said they are looking to approve it too. That is 
great news, but the Secretary of the Interior has said she is not going 
to fully endorse it until she goes out to King Cove and sees it 
herself. OK. We have been waiting for that visit for a year--for a 
year.
  There is a theme here. With the new administration, if there is 
something that has been helpful to my State, primarily by the previous 
administration, the Trump administration, on so many issues, bipartisan 
issues for Alaska, which has helped us in historic ways--on those 
helpful things, the new administration comes in, and they say: We are 
going to delay it. We are going to delay it. We have to relook at it. 
We don't know. If the Trump administration did it for Alaska, it must 
have been bad. That is their thing.
  But on things that harm my State, this administration on day 1 has 
expedited so many things. Day 1, the President is in office for 1 hour, 
and he issues an order dealing with ANWR, which this body approved in 
2017. If it helps Alaska, they delay it. If it hurts Alaska, they are 
all over it.
  What we have in the first year of the Biden administration--first 
year--are 21 Executive orders and Executive actions negatively 
impacting my State across the board on every topic you can imagine: 
access to lands, tourism, fishing--21 Executive orders or actions.
  I gave a speech on this before the holidays, and it was 20--now it is 
21--solely focused on Alaska. There is no other State in the country 
that is getting this kind of attention from this administration. I am 
sure the great State of Montana isn't.
  It is not just about resource development. These actions are hurting 
the ability of my constituents to put food on the table, lights on in 
their homes, jobs, cultures.
  And one area that doesn't nearly get enough attention, these actions, 
so many of them, are actually negatively impacting the Alaska Native 
community of the great State of Alaska. The Native people of my State 
are targeted. Let me give you one example. The previous administration, 
working with this body in a bipartisan way, finally passed a bill that 
provided justice to Alaska Native Vietnam veterans who served their 
country during Vietnam. The Alaska Native community is one of the most 
patriotic communities in the country. They serve at higher rates in the 
military than any other ethnic group in the country.
  When many of them went to fight in Vietnam, they came home, and a law 
that had been on the books since 1906--the ability to get a Native 
allotment--had expired. They came home and said: Wait, I can't get my 
native allotment? So we finally fixed that almost a half century later. 
Of course, a lot of radical enviros hated it because it is giving land 
in Alaska to people.
  The No. 1 issue I raised with Secretary Holland during her 
confirmation process was to make sure the Executive order to get these 
lands to Vietnam veterans--Alaska Native Vietnam veterans--stays on 
track. The Trump administration did all they could to make it happen. 
All they had to do was hit ``send.'' She delayed it for 2 years--
delayed it for 2 years. She wasn't even going to tell the delegation. I 
guarantee you, in the next 2 years, as this is being delayed, a lot of 
these Vietnam vets--Alaska Vietnam vets--will die before they even get 
their lands. So we are starting to hear it.
  I want to make one final point. This is very important. This 
administration talks a lot about racial justice, environmental equity. 
They talk about it all the time, but it comes with a caveat. They say 
they want to help disadvantaged communities, minority communities. I 
think that is a good goal, but it comes with a caveat--racial justice, 
environmental equity, unless it is for the indigenous people of Alaska, 
and then they get targeted.
  A lot of these Executive orders are targeting them. I have a whole 
list where some of the most disadvantaged Americans in the country are 
being targeted--in my view, because of their race--by this 
administration.
  I have submitted these before, but I am going to submit them again 
for the Record, several letters from Alaska Native groups talking about 
this unwarranted lack of consultation and targeting of their interests 
in my State.
  I ask unanimous consent to have one of these letters printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                  Voice of the Arctic Inupiat,

                                                December 10, 2021.
     Re Executive Order 13985

       Dear Secretary Haaland: My name is John Hopson Jr., and I 
     am President of Voice of the Arctic Inupiat (VOICE). VOICE is 
     a nonprofit corporation whose members include representatives 
     from Alaska's North Slope tribal councils, municipal 
     governments, Alaska Native Corporations, our local school 
     district, regional health organization, and the tribal 
     college from the North Slope

[[Page S557]]

     of Alaska. I am writing today to provide comments on 
     Executive Order 13985 calling on federal agencies to advance 
     equity by identifying and addressing barriers to equal 
     opportunity that underserved communities face due to 
     government policies and programs.
       The North Slope region is one of the most remote areas in 
     the United States and all eight communities in our region are 
     considered ``underserved.'' We see many barriers and 
     challenges when addressing equity in government policies and 
     action. The focus areas identified in EO 13985 around 
     contracting, recreating on public lands and tribal 
     discretionary grants are part of a larger problem when 
     addressing the issue for native communities that we see, in 
     addition to recent decisions by this administration around 
     resource development and the economy our region relies on.
       As an organization built on inclusiveness, we emphasize the 
     importance of addressing equity in several ways: most 
     importantly, with continued dialogue because we still see and 
     feel the effects of a federal government that treated our 
     people as a burden and an impedance. Several of our 
     communities are still dealing with the cleanup of toxic 
     materials leftover from military occupation and the 
     development of Distance Early Warning--``DEW line''--sites 
     during the Cold War. One of our communities, Kaktovik, was 
     forced to relocate three times in recent history and their 
     homes and gravesites were bulldozed to flatten out a runway 
     for Air Force activity without restitution or even an 
     apology. Trust in our federal government is still being 
     built, and the basis of that relationship is meaningful 
     consultation, collaboration and only then can greater equity 
     be seen for underserved communities like ours.
       In terms of equity, we understand that the Biden 
     Administration has made promises domestically and 
     internationally to curb this country's emissions and we, as 
     Inupiat people whose homelands are on the front lines of 
     climate change, can understand the need to move in that 
     direction when it comes to address government policies. What 
     we cannot support, however, is that those efforts are made on 
     the backs of indigenous peoples without even a conversation, 
     that is not how more equity is achieved. The federal 
     government must allow us the time and resources for a 
     thoughtful, deliberate, and sustainable transition of our 
     economy but instead we have seen secretarial and executive 
     actions that threaten our way of economic sustainability and 
     therefore our way of life.
       Our most pressing concern is the imminent threat to the 
     North Slope Borough economy that started on day one of this 
     administration, with little warning nor communication through 
     reversing Records of Decision, halting new projects, and a 
     reductionist climate agenda that singles out and vilifies the 
     oil and gas industry as an alternative to creating a 
     realistic, multi-dimensional climate strategy. The State of 
     Alaska has some of this highest and most rigorous 
     environmental protection policies in the country with respect 
     to oil and gas development. Our regional government, the 
     North Slope Borough (NSB) is a home-rule government 
     responsible for more territory than any other local 
     government in the nation, an area roughly the same size as 
     the state of Indiana. The NSB receives 96% of their revenue 
     from property taxes that are levied on oil and gas industry 
     infrastructure on the North Slope, which enables them to 
     provide services that were historically inaccessible in the 
     Arctic. The Borough School District provides vocational and 
     academic education for people of all ages; NSB health clinics 
     provide modern medicinal services to residents in even the 
     smallest and remote of villages. The Municipal Services 
     Department operates water, sewer, and electric utilities, 
     plows roads and runways, and maintains landfills. The 
     Planning Department provides a third level of oversight to 
     the oil industry within our region on top of State and 
     federal oversight and regulations. Other NSB departments 
     provide housing, police and fire protection, search and 
     rescue, and other critical services to our communities. They 
     do this independently, without assistance from state nor 
     federal government. The benefits of modern American 
     civilization, common in the rest of the nation, have been 
     built on the foundation of the North Slope oil industry.
       In terms of equity for our region and as economies 
     transition, the U.S. government must work to create as much 
     stability as possible and make every effort to not leave our 
     residents to deal with the volatility and instability that 
     will likely result from policy changes made in the name of 
     decarbonization. Fossil fuel usage will no doubt decrease 
     over time as renewable resources become more widely available 
     and affordable. However, renewable resource technology has 
     not developed to a place where it can be widely applicable in 
     our region; charging an electric car is not easy in villages 
     that experience blackouts or still rely on diesel generators 
     for power. Instead of trying to score short term political 
     capital by drastically changing oil and gas extraction and 
     ignoring local perspectives, a long-term realistic outlook 
     and working with the people in the places that currently rely 
     on these resources is not only the right thing to do, but an 
     obligation of the government under its trust responsibility 
     with its indigenous peoples. Without that cooperation and 
     relationship, equity will be impossible to achieve as 
     indigenous and local voices will ignored.


   Contracts for Businesses with Characteristics that Align with the 
                  Definition of Underserved Community

       Impacts on equity seen through the contracts and businesses 
     awarded by federal agencies are visible in many ways. Our 
     region has had little investment or resources put in place to 
     develop businesses that can help build capacity to provide 
     the ability to search for, apply and win government 
     contracts. If a local business has an economic development 
     arm, most are not comparable to outside larger firms who have 
     an advantage and can adjust their business models easily to 
     bid and be awarded government contracts. The businesses that 
     do get contracts typically do not align with local traditions 
     and practices or rarely have the potential to bring tangible 
     economic return to the community beyond short-term labor 
     positions. When and if activity does occur, some larger 
     businesses fail engage with local tribes, and sometimes even 
     the awarding agency fails to communicate with residents on 
     what project or business opportunities are upcoming in their 
     own community. The Department of the Interior 
     (``Department'') can use power of procurement to contract 
     with and support businesses that align and respect native 
     communities, particularly small and disadvantaged businesses 
     that align with local traditions.
       We recommend that the Department find more creative ways to 
     distribute information via social media and local media in 
     addition to helping facilitate matching programs for small 
     businesses to become teaming partners. The Department can 
     also do better by communicating opportunities that are 
     available to tribal businesses by facilitating additional 
     networking through conferences, forums or meet and greets. 
     Another way would be for the Department to implement 
     additional policies requiring large businesses to work with 
     smaller businesses on contracting opportunities, like the 
     small businesses acting as a sub-contractor to a prime 
     contractor, allowing for partnership and mentorship between 
     the companies of different sizes. Regional non-profits can 
     help facilitate this partnership and have capacity that 
     smaller tribes and communities may not.
       Another way to improve the process and relationships around 
     federal contracting would be to help provide clearer 
     communication channels for businesses to access the 
     Department's point of contacts. As most interactions with the 
     federal government, it is difficult finding answers to 
     questions in a timely manner, creating additional issues for 
     smaller and tribal businesses who are trying to navigate the 
     application process.
       We also see barriers surrounding the application processes 
     themselves. No two agencies have the same procurement or 
     application requirements. This builds additional stumbling 
     blocks into the system and requires local businesses, often 
     an incredibly small team of people, to do significant 
     additional work. Streamlining federal grants and contracts to 
     have similar requirements would greatly improve equity and 
     the ability of small indigenous companies or entities to be 
     successful through these processes.


   Recreation Access to DOI-managed Lands for Underserved Communities

       The Inupiat people and the residents who call the Arctic 
     home have a unique relationship with the lands and water. 
     Historically our people regularly roamed hundreds of miles in 
     search of game and hunted up and down our coastlines to 
     survive. But many of our communities continue to have a 
     strained relationship with the federal government and 
     agencies with the Department because of historical slights 
     and being denied access to lands that were historically used. 
     On top of that, additional burdensome Departmental and agency 
     regulations and policies have created additional barriers 
     when trying to access and recreate on across our homelands 
     that are now public lands which surround many of our 
     communities. Two communities in our region, Anaktuvuk Pass 
     which lies inside the Gates of the Arctic National Park and 
     Kaktovik which lies within the Arctic National Wildlife 
     Refuge are impacted by Department agencies that have not 
     implemented their rights under the 1980 Alaska National 
     Interest Lands Conservation Act (``ANILCA''). There are 
     several provisions under ANILCA that have either not been 
     implemented or have been partially implemented that restricts 
     these communities access to their subsistence resources 
     through restrictions. Section 1110(b) was intended to protect 
     the traditional overland travel for these communities to 
     allow for summer access however the appropriate documentation 
     of traditional access has not been completed for Kaktovik 
     over 40 years after the passage of ANCSA. The regulation of 
     motorized vehicles on public land makes it harder for native 
     communities to access their own lands, let alone public lands 
     in the federal land system. The agencies have not worked with 
     either community in implementation of Section 1307 with 
     respect to tourism in either the park or the refuge. This is 
     the opposite of the question, in that the Department agencies 
     are issuing permits over the homelands of our people yet not 
     providing either Anaktuvuk Pass or Kaktovik the ability to 
     control tourism to their economic benefit by not following 
     Section 1307.


                             Climate Change

       Climate change appears in many different forms across 
     Alaska. It is well known that the Arctic is ``ground zero'' 
     for climate change; on Alaska's North Slope, increased

[[Page S558]]

     ice-free seasons have resuIted in greater coastal erosion and 
     difficulty accessing some of our subsistence resources; 
     melting permafrost has exacerbated this erosion in addition 
     to creating infrastructure damage that is expensive to 
     repair, ruining our traditional sigduaqs (ice cellars where 
     meat is stored) through flooding, and is making travel across 
     tundra more difficult. Elsewhere in Alaska, other regions are 
     also struggling with an increase in wildfires, the warming of 
     rivers that leads to stresses in the fish populations that 
     they rely on to subsist, flooding, and the introduction and 
     expansion of invasive plants and insects. Any response 
     mechanisms that the government introduces must be flexible 
     and robust enough to cover the varying changes that we are 
     seeing across our region and the State as a whole.
       VOICE's overarching recommendation is that the Department 
     consider--in lieu of new ``top down'' policies that, while 
     well intentioned, don't always serve communities as they are 
     intended--setting up a grant program that allows affected 
     communities the flexibility and empowerment to respond to the 
     impacts that they are facing in a culturally responsible way 
     that fits their local environment and community. Overall, we 
     have not seen very many examples of government responses and 
     assistance to our climate related changes that have been 
     particularly useful. Any action related to a changing climate 
     falls to the NSB, to handle the responses in our communities, 
     including building sea walls to protect against erosion and 
     fixing roads and buildings damaged by permafrost thaw. 
     Through a multi-year effort, the NSB has been working through 
     the process of receiving funding and support from the U.S. 
     Army Corps of Engineers to build revetment in the community 
     of Utqiagvik, our largest community, to prevent erosion from 
     consuming many houses, businesses, and local infrastructure. 
     Utqiagvik is not the only community in our region that is 
     experiencing significant erosion; there are similar needs in 
     Point Hope and Wainwright. Programs and policies that would 
     assist in assessment of climate related changes and address 
     solutions and funding around these impacts are necessary.
       In terms of climate change observation and other related 
     programs, we have seen most success in local observer 
     networks, when local people are trained to monitor and 
     measure the changes that they are seeing in their own 
     communities, this creates a sense of empowerment rather than 
     helplessness. Ideally, permanent, local jobs within our 
     communities threatened by climate change would be created by 
     an initiative from the federal government. We believe that 
     support of these local networks should be prioritized over 
     the many studies in our communities that are conducted by 
     multiple federal agencies. Current local network systems need 
     to be expanded to include all communities because they rely 
     heavily on indigenous and traditional knowledge of our 
     environment in a way that no western scientist can compare. 
     VOICE recommends that there are clear definitions developed 
     around climate change terminology, for example, `climate 
     change resilience' is ambiguous and is geographically 
     variable. The truth is that in the Arctic, and in Alaska in 
     general, we are well beyond the point of mitigation and have 
     firmly moved into the realm of adaptation. From retrofitting 
     existing infrastructure to moving entire communities, 
     adaptation is incredibly expensive. Federal agencies should 
     take a stronger initiative in partnering with our local 
     communities to better understand the impacts of climate 
     change and the viability of available renewable technologies 
     that can be utilized in arctic conditions. All of our 
     communities currently run off of hydrocarbons and we hear 
     from those unfamiliar with our ecosystem that we should begin 
     the switch to run our communities off of renewable resources, 
     but we have yet to see a legitimate solution to our energy 
     needs that is viable in the unique and challenging Arctic 
     conditions.


         Applying for and Accessing Tribal Discretionary Grants

       One way the process around discretionary grants for tribes 
     that can be improved would be to set up additional offices 
     and positions in regional offices like Tribal grant liaisons 
     to assist tribes and help build a sustainable beneficial 
     relationship. A regional grant liaison dedicated to tribes 
     would also be able to help the department create more 
     targeted communication grant campaigns and they could act as 
     a point of contact for tribes navigating the grants process. 
     Small tribes like those in our region often have a difficult 
     time building relationships with the federal government and 
     understanding the federal regulations around the grants they 
     are applying for. As I mentioned the burdensome reporting 
     process can create challenges with tribes that have low 
     capacity or high turnover, leaving them ineligible for future 
     grants. Federal agencies should take a stronger initiative in 
     partnering with our local communities to better understand 
     them before developing and awarding grants.
       Thank you for the opportunity to comment on addressing 
     equity in government policies. We hope that this conversation 
     will be ongoing and that our comments will be useful as the 
     United States Government decides how best to address this 
     issue.
           Quyanaq,
                                                 John Hopson, Jr.,
                                                        President.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Here is one. It is from the president of the Voice of 
the Arctic Inupiat, John Hopson, Jr.

       In terms of equity [racial equity] we understand that the 
     Biden Administration has made promises domestically and 
     internationally to curb this country's emissions and we, as 
     Inupiat people whose homelands are on the front lines of 
     climate change, can understand the need to move in that 
     direction when it comes to address government policies. What 
     we cannot support, however, is that those efforts are [often] 
     made on the backs of indigenous peoples in Alaska without 
     even a conversation, that is not how more equity is achieved. 
     The federal government must allow us time and resources for a 
     thoughtful, deliberate, and sustainable transition of our 
     economy but instead we have seen secretarial and executive 
     actions [from this administration] that threaten our way of 
     [life and] economic sustainability and therefore our [entire] 
     way of life [in America's Arctic].

  Another group: Apparently, consultation with all indigenous groups in 
the country, except for those in Alaska, is this administration's 
policy.
  So, bottom line, I need commitments from the Fish and Wildlife 
Service on these issues: the Russian River land exchange, the King Cove 
land exchange. More broadly, I need the administration to end its war 
on Alaska and our working families.
  I am happy to discuss with the Senator from Montana on these issues 
and maybe get his help, but for right now, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, could I just get a minute?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. TESTER. Because I know there is a vote coming.
  First of all, I would ask my friend from Alaska--I appreciate the 
fact you are standing up for your constituents to do what is right. I 
have no problem with that whatsoever. I have no problem with the 
concerns you brought up on the Russian River and the King Cove Road, 
although I don't know the issues nearly as well as you do. But my point 
is this: If you are able to put Ms. Williams in as Director of the Fish 
and Wildlife Service, she has a track record of listening to people. 
You happen to have a ``U.S. Senator'' in front of your name; you will 
be at the top of the list. She is not somebody who shuts the door and 
says: Just because you are Republican, I don't want to listen to you. 
She is somebody who always brings in people, collaborates, and comes to 
a decision that will work. I wouldn't be up here advocating for her if 
I didn't believe that.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Well, to my colleague, I look forward to working with 
you on that and those amendments and look forward to moving her 
nomination forward in that light.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________