[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 123 (Monday, July 29, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5532-S5533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Michael Sfraga

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, it is Monday afternoon. We are back 
for what appears to be the last week of full session before we are due 
to go on an August recess. There is lots to do back home but clearly 
lots to do here in the Senate as well.
  It looks that this week we are going to probably spend the end of the 
week wrapping up some of the nominations that are out there, and I want 
to speak to a nomination that I feel very, very strongly about and 
would hope that we will have an opportunity to weigh in as a Senate on, 
on a priority that I don't think enough of us as Americans think about: 
our role as an Arctic nation.
  As we are processing nominations, I want to kind of move our 
attention to the top of the world, up in the Arctic.
  We have a lot of hotspots in the world right now, and the last thing 
in the world that we need is for the Arctic to become one of those 
hotspots. Whether we want it to or not, whether we want to will it away 
or not, the Arctic is increasingly gaining attention by others for 
different reasons, and the fact that the United States doesn't have 
that diplomatic presence, if you will, is a disservice, I believe, to 
us as an Arctic nation.
  So I have come to urge this body to take up the nomination of Dr. 
Mike Sfraga. Mike is an Alaskan, but he would be our Nation's first 
Ambassador at Large for Arctic Affairs.
  We have not had a confirmed Ambassador at Large position. We have had 
a Special Representative to the Arctic, but when you send a ``Special 
Representative'' to some of these dialogues, to sit at tables with 
other countries' Ambassadors, there is a disparity there, and I think 
we have recognized the importance and the role of this Ambassador at 
Large position.
  Dr. Sfraga was nominated in February of 2023. He was reported out of 
the Foreign Relations Committee this March, and it is time for us to 
take him up and confirm him.
  And I get it. I mean, there is a lot going on. I mentioned hotspots 
around the world. You look at what is happening in Ukraine and in 
Israel and in Taiwan and in China and in North Korea, and you have 
everything that is happening domestically. Sometimes I think the Arctic 
is out of sight, out of mind for many, but it is important that we not 
lose sight of the consequential nature of the Arctic itself. Again, we 
use the phrase ``It is a cold place,'' but it is becoming its own 
hotspot. So what we can do, again, to assert not only our areas of 
oversight and overlay but also from the diplomatic perspective is 
something that I think is worthy of focusing on.
  So why this time? Why this particular nominee?
  First, we have incredible opportunities on the Arctic issues--
everything from resource development to tourism, to shipping, to 
infrastructure. You have the people who live and work and raise their 
families there. Thousands of American Alaskans live in the Arctic, and 
their interests deserve to be taken seriously and represented in the 
highest councils of our government. We also have a very dynamic 
situation in the Arctic right now with climate change, with national 
security, engagement with other nations.
  So let's just talk about our neighbor to Alaska's west there, and 
that is Russia, the largest Arctic nation. Their war on Ukraine is now 
in its third year, but it is being powered by their revenues from oil 
and from gas and now, more and more, also from seafood.
  Russia is increasingly shipping its oil through the Northern Sea 
Route, which has the potential to threaten Alaskan waters and our 
marine resources. They are testing a combat icebreaker, which could 
give it a significant, strategic advantage that we currently lack.
  The Acting President pro tempore is well aware that in this country, 
we lack that icebreaking capacity. We have one operational icebreaker. 
She is currently at dry dock and will be there for a period of months. 
Our medium-strength icebreaker, the Healy--it was just reported last 
Thursday--had a fire aboard ship as it was going across the Northwest 
Passage. I have not yet received the report, but my understanding is 
that that vessel is not in a condition to continue with the mission 
they had set out on. And that is it. That is it.
  We have worked through the appropriations process to authorize the 
icebreaking capacity to build out the fleet. We are not there. We are 
not even close to being there. In fact, the updates we get from the 
Coast Guard on this are beyond frustrating. They are to the point where 
we have a responsibility to ensure that the commitment we have made for 
the taxpayer dollars, for the infrastructure that we need, which is the 
icebreaker--we have to line these up, and we have to line them up 
quickly.
  Last week was an interesting week. I know that Senator Sullivan and I 
had some pretty in-depth briefings from the head of NORAD and the head 
of the Alaskan Command when we saw really an unprecedented air exercise 
between the Russian Bear bombers--two of them--coming together, 
coordinating with two Chinese H-6's and coming into the Alaskan ADIZ, 
into our area, some close to--basically separating these aircraft by 
about 200 miles from our shore. They were close enough to certainly get 
our attention. They were operating within the rules, and they were 
operating safely. But, again, it is a demonstration, a show of 
partnership. While it may not be the first time we have seen the 
Russians and the Chinese flying together, we have never seen them in 
these northern areas. So it begs the question: Why? What is their 
interest up there? So making sure we are engaged has to be a priority.
  I mentioned seafood. People don't necessarily think about the 
prospect or the reality that Russia would be engaged in economic 
warfare on seafood--overharvesting fisheries that are shared with 
Alaska, selling that overharvest to China for reprocessing to get 
around the sanctions that are in place, and generally throwing the 
global seafood markets into chaos--all to generate additional revenues 
for its war machine. This threatens not only the species, the seafood, 
but also the way of life for so many who count on the fisheries for 
their very existence.
  In many, many areas, we are seeing the Russians and the Chinese 
partnering to help enhance the Chinese position in the far north. I 
mentioned the activity we just saw last week in the air. We are seeing 
the cooperation and the collaboration on Russian energy, the 
collaboration with the processing of Russian seafood. Now the Russian 
Federation's security service has signed a memorandum of understanding 
with the Chinese Coast Guard to enhance maritime security cooperation 
in the North Pacific, in the Bering Sea, and in the Arctic.

[[Page S5533]]

  Last year, one of the pictures that got, again, a lot of attention 
was a flotilla of 11 Russian and Chinese warships off the Aleutian 
Islands. Just a few weeks ago, there was a new flotilla of Chinese 
military ships that transited the U.S. EEZ off of Alaska. We know they 
are not going out whale watching or looking at the glaciers. This is 
activity that is close to Alaska, along our shared maritime border with 
Russia and just beyond our sovereign territory.
  But I share these because these are the events that are happening 
now. These are the events that are happening now, and they are 
capturing the attention of the country. So we need to make sure that, 
as we are paying attention to these current events, we have somebody 
whose day job it is to do nothing more than monitor, engage, work with 
the State Department, work with our friends and allies, and work with 
the administration.
  We have made some good progress in recent years on infrastructure in 
the Arctic. We have done a lot more in partnering from a diplomatic 
perspective by putting a consulate there in Nuuk, Greenland. We have to 
do a lot more to ensure our Nation's interests and well-being in the 
region, and that is why it comes down to the right people in the right 
place--the right people in the right place.
  This is why I am so strong in urging that we take up Dr. Sfraga's 
nomination to be the Arctic Ambassador at Large. He has over three 
decades of experience on Arctic issues. He is the Chair of the U.S. 
Arctic Research Commission and has been since 2021. Prior to his 
nomination for Ambassador at Large, he was the founding director of the 
Polar Institute. He was the director of the Global Risk and Resilience 
Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 
Washington, DC. He was a colead scholar at the State Department for the 
Fulbright Arctic Initiative. He has served as chair of the Committee of 
Visitors Review of the Section for Arctic Science, Office of Polar 
Programs, National Science Foundation. He earned the first Ph.D. in 
geography in northern studies from the University of Alaska in 
Fairbanks.

  The guy knows the Arctic. He gets it. He is clear-eyed about the 
realities and the intentions of our adversaries. He understands what we 
need to do to advance our Nation's equities in the Arctic. He knows the 
people; he knows the scene. And they know him. That is really 
incredibly important.
  They are waiting for us. They are waiting for us to confirm Dr. 
Sfraga's nomination. They have worked with him in the past, and they 
are really anxious to have him in this position.
  I was at an event last week. It was the going-away for Iceland's 
Ambassador to the United States. Her next role is a newly created role. 
She will be Iceland's Ambassador to the Arctic-at-Large. We should 
confirm our own already.
  The Arctic is where our domestic policy meets foreign policy. It is 
where homeland defense meets the protection of our national fisheries. 
It is where our changing climate meets increased resource development 
and shipping and trade. It is where NATO's ``other flank''--its western 
flank--meets Russia and China. It is the most strategically important 
place in the world.
  I know that people are looking at our calendar. They are saying that 
time is running short. I don't disagree. But I think it is critically 
important that we have somebody of Dr. Sfraga's caliber in this 
position. We need to have that representation. I would certainly urge 
the Senate to act on his nomination, hopefully, before we are able to 
conclude at the end of this week.
  The reality is, if we want to do right by the Arctic and all of our 
growing interests and challenges in the region, we really can't wait 
any longer.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Michigan.