[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 145 (Wednesday, September 18, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6146-S6147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI:
  S. 5081. A bill to amend the Arctic Research Policy Act of 1984 to 
improve the Act; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I wanted to take just a couple of 
minutes here at the close of the evening to speak to an anniversary. 
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Arctic Research and Policy Act. It 
is known as ARPA. We use the acronym ``ARPA'' around here quite 
frequently. We talk about ARPA-E and ARPA-H.
  But the original ARPA was the Arctic Research and Policy Act. It was 
legislation that was actually drafted by the previous Senator Murkowski 
from Alaska. It was one of the first pieces of legislation that Frank 
Murkowski introduced and got passed into law. It was signed by 
President Reagan. It was cosponsored by the likes of Ted Stevens and 
Scoop Jackson, Warren Magnuson; on the House side, Congressman Young.
  It was significant in that it laid a foundation for the policies that 
we are seeing put in place today and over these past 40 years. It has 
been laying out much of the knowledge and the understanding and the 
policy for Alaska.
  I talk a lot about the Arctic, coming from the State that makes us an 
Arctic nation, but I think it is important to recognize that many of 
our allies around the world--many of those who are not our friends 
around the world--are also talking about and taking a keen interest in 
the Arctic.
  There is a lot of focus on this week because we are seeing levels of 
engagement from the Russians up in the Alaska ADIZ and the area in the 
high north. We have seen joint exercises with the Russians and the 
Chinese, both in the air and on the waters in our northern waters. 
There is a level of focus and intensity about what may be heating up in 
a cool place--not something that we like.
  But it is important to recognize that when we speak about the Arctic, 
it is not just its geostrategic location on the globe that makes it 
such a key place for defense and strategic defense. It is the role that 
the Arctic plays when it comes to just the health of our planet. Some 
describe it as kind of the big thermostat up north. And we see down 
here on the east coast and parts of the country where, when you have 
Arctic weather coming down, pushing things in different directions, 
everything kind of goes out of whack. And we are all starting to pay 
attention to what is going on with the weather and where it is coming 
from.
  Well, the science that comes to us in better understanding what is 
happening in the Arctic, much of this came about through the 
development of the Arctic Research and Policy Act.
  So leading in these areas has been important for all the right 
reasons, whether it has been environmental; whether, again, it has been 
just from a geostrategic perspective; whether it has been a focus on 
the health and the well-being of indigenous peoples; whether it is 
understanding the extraordinary science that is unique to the area, 
understanding the impacts of a thawing permafrost and what that may 
mean, understanding the impacts within our ocean.
  But it is also better understanding that geography. With the mapping 
that we have seen that has been spurred from both NOAA and USGS, we 
have been able to identify an area north of the shore of Alaska--an 
area, well, two times bigger than the State of California--that we 
identify as part of our Outer Continental Shelf, allowing us to submit 
claim to that territory.
  The real-world advances that we are seeing in understanding more 
about the Arctic come about because of good legislation that began so 
many years ago.
  There is a reception probably going on right now with many of those 
who have been involved with the U.S. Arctic Research Commission over 
the years and their partner Agencies. There are some 18 partner 
Agencies that participate. Several of the commissioners who have served 
currently and who have served in the past are present and are speaking 
about the contributions.
  Two of the former commissioners, heads of the U.S. Arctic Research 
Commission--actually, both former Lieutenant Governors for the State of 
Alaska, Fran Ulmer and Mead Treadwell--came together and penned a joint 
op-ed that ran in the Anchorage Daily News last month. And I want to 
read just one paragraph from that op-ed because I think it really is a 
sum of what we have seen as a result of the framework from this law. It 
states:

       Our nation's long-running Arctic research programs in . . . 
     NOAA and the . . . USGS provided the essential data to enable 
     America to recently claim new rights to an offshore land area 
     larger than two Californias. The law has added momentum to 
     efforts to build new, powerful icebreakers and to increase 
     our Arctic presence as Russia and China increase theirs. It 
     laid the groundwork for safe shipping and resource 
     development in the Arctic by identifying methods to reduce 
     risk. It helped evolve our understanding of continental 
     drift, and the plate tectonic evolution of the Arctic Ocean 
     basin. Arctic health research is informing policy to improve 
     health outcomes and to reduce disparities. Forty years of 
     purposeful, coordinated U.S. Arctic effort, involving 
     national resources, partners across the Arctic region, and 
     Alaskans is something to celebrate and take pride in.

  So I just wanted to include just, again, a few short moments in the 
Congressional Record today about this anniversary, with a recognition 
that it is important to recognize the accomplishments of what we have 
built and the foundation that guides our science and informs our 
policy, which we use to benefit our people and our Nation.
  But it also needs to be a push for us, an impetus to keep our foot on 
the gas,

[[Page S6147]]

so to speak, to keep moving forward, because we need to be more than a 
nation in the Arctic that has the title. We need to be that active 
participant. We need to be the leader in the Arctic space.
  So what more does that mean? It means confirming our nominee to be 
the first-ever Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs, a gentleman by 
the name of Mike Sfraga, Dr. Mike Sfraga, who is currently the head of 
the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. He has been nominated by the 
President. He has gone through the committee. We need to get him 
confirmed because of the immediacy of so many of these Arctic issues 
that are playing out now.
  Every time we have national conferences and other Arctic ambassadors 
are there, there is a void in the U.S. space. We need to make progress 
on matters that have been longstanding. It has been decades now--
decades--that several of us have been working to advance progress on 
ratification of the Law of the Sea treaty. Some on my side still have a 
little bit of older history, at a time--actually, during the Reagan 
years--when there were some concerns about ratification. I think we 
have tried to address them over the years.
  But the world has changed up there. When I say the world has changed, 
the world is opening up in the Arctic: the levels of commerce that we 
are seeing; again, the levels of engagement from a national security 
perspective; other countries--China--looking to the Arctic waters for 
resources there, whether it be fisheries or whether it be minerals. It 
has changed, and so our active participation as a member of that 
important treaty, I think, needs to be an imperative.
  We have got to figure out icebreakers. We have got to do better. We 
have authorized six icebreakers. We have funded--we have appropriated 
to three, and we still have nothing, nothing that is moving forward 
fast enough to satisfy anybody out there.
  Other nations are not sitting still while we are trying to literally 
get our act together on this. This is an area where we have to keep 
moving. We have to keep building out our Arctic infrastructure. We are 
moving forward with a deepwater port in Nome that is critically 
important.
  There are other aspects of infrastructure that we cannot assume are 
in place, whether it is adequate housing, water, wastewater, 
broadband--all of the infrastructure that is so important to live in a 
cold and remote area--and then recognizing the situation of the people 
who live and work and raise their families there and have since time 
immemorial and want to do so for generations going forward, making sure 
we are paying attention to education, to healthcare, housing, economy, 
jobs.
  So today I have introduced legislation that would amend the Arctic 
Research and Policy Act with the very fancy title ``Arctic Research 
Policy Amendments Act of 2024.'' I don't go for the big acronyms in the 
titles. What we are doing is we are broadening the scope of the act to 
account for the Arctic's increasing role in national homeland defense; 
to strengthen climate and environmental research; to establish an 
annual award for excellence in Arctic research--we need to support and 
recognize those who are doing great work; and then to reflect the 
essential role of the indigenous people, incorporating the wisdom and 
experience of those who have lived there for millennia.
  So it is good to work with the Commission. They continue to do great 
work. It is something that I--I appreciate colleagues here also waking 
up to the fact that this is the age of the Arctic, and how we embrace 
it, how we embrace our leadership role, is critical.
                                 ______