[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 56 (Thursday, March 27, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1894-S1898]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Alaska

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, like all of us, last week, I was back 
home in my great State--the great State of Alaska. And, actually, I try 
to be home every weekend, even when we are in session. But this trip 
back home was particularly important because I was in Juneau, AK, our 
State's capital, to deliver my annual address to our legislature.
  We have a really great tradition in Alaska where the Senators get 
invited to come back and give a big address to the entire State senate, 
to the entire State house. Senator Murkowski did it a couple of days 
before I did, and then I was able to do it. Then you kind of do like a 
little prime minister time, where the legislators get to ask you Q&A's 
and do a big press conference.
  So it is a really important event for me. I know it is for Senator 
Murkowski. It is certainly one of the most important speeches I give 
all year, and I wanted to touch on some of the themes because the 
themes of the speech were actually about the long history and two 
visions that we have in DC about the great State of Alaska--my State. 
And boy, oh boy, these visions are competing all the time still, and it 
really, really matters to the people I represent.
  When one vision is kind of ascendant--and I will talk about that--my 
constituents really get harmed. That is the national Democrat vision 
for Alaska, which is the shutdown of Alaska. When the Republican vision 
is ascendant--and now we have President Trump, who is really, really 
focused on actually helping Alaska, unleashing Alaska's economy--then 
we do well.
  This has been going on for decades, and I feel very passionate about 
it because it really impacts the day-in and day-out lives of the people 
I am so privileged to represent.
  So let me just mention these competing visions in a little bit more 
detail. You have one vision, like I said, where there is this 
historical belief that Alaska would do better continuing as almost a 
territory run by an absent Federal landlord who protects us, 
occasionally gives scraps from the national wealth of America's table 
to our constituents back home, but they are not focused on truly 
unleashing the private sector opportunities and jobs and economy for 
Alaskans.
  Of course, this gets debated all the time and litigated all the time. 
We are one of the few States that have several very specific, large, 
complex Federal pieces of legislation that often get litigated and, of 
late, have gone all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. I want to 
talk about one of those because it really lays out the entire kind of 
debate, back-and-forth.

[[Page S1895]]

  In 1980, the Congress--over the objection of most Alaskans, by the 
way--passed a law called the Alaska National Interest Lands 
Conversation Act--that is a mouthful; it is called ANILCA back home--
which has had a huge impact on my State.
  ANILCA federalized over 100 million acres of land in Alaska. Can you 
imagine that? That is as big as California. The Fed said: Guess what, 
Alaska, we are taking it over.
  Since that time--1980; that was Jimmy Carter; we didn't like that--
Federal Agencies have interpreted ANILCA, and they have often 
interpreted ANILCA to say--the Federal Agencies--our role is to shut 
down Alaska, to not provide access to the lands, access to the 
resources. That is the way the Federal Government--especially when 
Democrats are in power--has interpreted ANILCA.
  But we just had actually not one but two U.S. Supreme Court cases 
interpreting ANILCA. The case is called Sturgeon v. the Department of 
the Interior--Sturgeon I and Sturgeon II--where the U.S. Supreme Court, 
9 to 0, said: Now, wait a minute, Federal Agencies. Wait a minute, 
Democrats and Congress. Alaska is different. Alaska is the exception. 
Federal Agencies, you can't just go and shut down Alaska the way you 
think you can with other Federal lands.
  Justice Kagan actually wrote the opinion in Sturgeon II and captured 
the principle that is at stake in so many of the specific litigation 
cases my State deals with.
  The lower 48 what we call ecocolonialists--the radical, far-left 
environmental groups--sue on everything in Alaska. You want to try to 
build a sidewalk in Alaska? You will have 13 environmental groups sue 
to stop. You can build a sidewalk in Connecticut. You can build a 
sidewalk in New Jersey. You try to build anything in Alaska, and here 
they come litigating.
  Well the Supreme Court said: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Federal Agencies, all 
these environmental groups, under ANILCA--that involved a great 
Alaskan. I know him well. John Sturgeon. He wanted to go moose hunting, 
and the Fed said: You can't go in a certain area. He was on a 
hovercraft to go moose hunting in a certain area of Alaska. He knew his 
rights. He was cited. He said: You know what, I don't believe the 
National Park Service has the right to cite me. I am going to appeal 
this citation all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  Here is what Justice Kagan said--not some kind of conservative, mind 
you, but a good Justice: ``If Sturgeon lived in any other State, his 
suit would not have had a prayer of success. . . . Except that Sturgeon 
lives in Alaska. And as we have said before''--``we,'' the Supreme 
Court of the United States--`` `Alaska is often the exception, not the 
rule' '' to these giant Federal lands issues.
  We like those Sturgeon I and Sturgeon II cases, but I will tell you 
this: When you hear that Alaska is often the exception, it plays the 
other way too.
  No offense to my friends on the other side of the aisle, but when 
national Democrats are in power, they often get there through the 
support of far-left, radical environmental groups. Those groups say, 
``Hey, we helped you get elected''--President Biden, President Obama, 
President Carter, and Senators on the other side of the aisle--``so 
here is what we want.'' The environmental groups say, ``We want to shut 
down Alaska.''
  So guess what happens. Guess what happens. My colleagues here--the 
minority leader is certainly one of them--in the White House, they put 
a huge amount of effort into shutting down my State, killing jobs.
  Throughout the decades here in DC, the national Democrats and their 
special interest, far-left environmental allies have not only 
encouraged this mindset of shutting down Alaska, they have used it for 
political gain and contorted it to keep my State locked up as some kind 
of beautiful American snow globe.
  Well, we are not a snow globe. We are one of the most important 
States in the country, from national defense, to resources, to 
strategic location. Just talk to the military, talk to the Pentagon.
  So this mindset has been on display for leaders of the Democratic 
Party for decades. It was on display, as I mentioned, when President 
Carter signed ANILCA in 1980. Our delegation secured some important 
terms and concessions, which is what Justice Kagan was talking about, 
when they locked up more than 100 million acres of our State. Try that 
anywhere else. Most States aren't even 100 million acres big.
  Jimmy Carter, when he signed this legislation, said: ``Public lands 
are Alaska's future.'' I don't think anyone else has ever said that 
about any other States. ``Public lands are Alaska's future.''
  We didn't like Jimmy Carter up in Alaska for what he did to our 
State.
  The mindset was also fully on display when we had President Obama--
his last couple weeks in office, he locked up what is called the Outer 
Continental Shelf, the entire Outer Continental Shelf of Alaska. He 
said: I am going to take that off the table.
  By the way, Congress said: No, you actually have to develop that. It 
is called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
  He didn't care. He said: I am taking it from Alaska. It is all coming 
off.
  Then he said that Alaska needs to ``move decisively away from fossil 
fuels'' and that the way ``to build a strong . . . economy''--this is 
the President of the United States--is to rely on things like 
``philanthropy.'' Philanthropy. Charity.
  Could you imagine in any other State a President saying ``By the way, 
don't worry about a strong economy. Don't worry about good private 
sector jobs for your citizens. You should rely on philanthropy''--kind 
of patting us on the head. Charity. Come on. Really? They do it for our 
State. Charity.
  But, of course, this arrogant Federal landlord view of Alaska was on 
its most full display and reached its zenith under President Biden in 
what I refer to as the ``Last Frontier Lock-Up.''
  Do you know what this was? I mean, it is really kind of hard to 
believe. That is the map of it. Every part of the State, every region 
of the State, all the resources--by the way, particularly targeting 
Alaska Native people, the indigenous people of my State, great, 
patriotic people. Holy cow, Joe Biden, Deb Haaland--they made sure 
Alaskan Natives got nothing.
  The whole State--here is what it was. I am going to show this for a 
minute. It is kind of amazing. The Last Frontier lockup was 70 
Executive orders and Executive actions during the Biden 
administration--7-0; by the way, there would have been more, but we 
stopped a few of them--exclusively and uniquely focused on shutting 
down Alaska. Think about that. That has probably never happened in 
American history, that a White House comes into power and says: I am 
going to focus on this State, and I am going to use all our Executive 
authority, many of which are illegal, and I am going to use it to crush 
one State in the Union.
  Has that ever happened? I don't think so. That is what happened with 
this administration. Seventy.
  By the way, I was in an Oval Office meeting with President Biden when 
they were at 46. I handed him the lockup. I said: Mr. President, with 
all due respect, I know I am in the Oval Office, I am not sure you even 
know what is going on with your administration. You guys have declared 
a war on working families in my State. Sir, with all due respect, it is 
not right that you are using the power of the Federal Government that 
you are in charge of to crush my State. Why are you doing that, Mr. 
President? Why are you doing that? And why are you particularly hurting 
the Native people? I thought you care about communities of color, 
indigenous people. You certainly don't in my State.
  I even told him: If a Republican administration came in and issued--
at the time, 46; this would be 2 years ago--46 Executive orders 
targeting little Delaware and you were still a Senator here, you would 
be on the Senate floor raising hell every day because it is wrong. You 
know it. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle know it. This 
should have never happened in any State in the country.
  Do you know what else about this that was a little frustrating? Do 
you think there was one national media story on this from the New York 
Times, the Washington Post, or, heck, even the Anchorage Daily News? 
Not one story. Not one story.

[[Page S1896]]

  The Federal Government using all its power to crush one State--often 
illegally, and I will get into that--and nobody wrote one story. Why? 
Because most of the media loved it. Hey, we love all these 
environmental groups. They want to shut down Alaska, so we are not 
going to say a word about it.
  You wonder why people doubt the media. That is a big story. Four 
years. The power of the Federal Government to crush one State, and we 
never had anyone write about it--not just that, but they wouldn't 
listen. They wouldn't listen.
  So a big part of these orders in Alaska were focused on this region 
we call the North Slope of Alaska. We have State land up here. We have 
ANWR. A lot people know about ANWR for oil and gas. We have a thing 
called the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska here, set aside by 
Congress to do what? The national Petroleum Reserve of Alaska? To 
develop petroleum for our country's strength and power.
  This is the North Slope Borough. It is led by Inupiat indigenous 
people. They are tremendous people. They are patriotic. They serve in 
the military. They are whale hunters. They are amazing people, some of 
my favorite people in the whole world.
  Their Tribe, their Alaska Native corporation of the borough--by the 
way, this is about as big as Montana; huge--they came to DC eight 
times, all the leaders of the North Slope. It takes a long time to get 
there, by the way. It is about 4 or 5,000 miles from DC.
  When they heard that Joe Biden and Deb Haaland were going to do all 
kinds of regulations to remove their lands from any kind of productive 
economic use, eight times they flew all the way to DC to meet with 
Secretary Haaland--eight times. Do you know how many times Secretary 
Haaland met with my great constituents? Zero. Zero.
  We held press conferences. We wrote letters: Madam Secretary, you are 
indigenous. These people are indigenous. You have a trust 
responsibility with them. How about meeting them once before you crush 
their economy?
  Never met with them.
  So talk about an arrogant, faraway landlord.
  By the way, there is good news here. Some of the leaders of the North 
Slope Borough just last week came down and requested a meeting with the 
new Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum. He met with them for an 
hour and a half the first time they were in town under the Trump 
Administration. Eight times under Biden--nope. Sorry. We are too busy. 
First time for Secretary Burgum--all these great leaders--an hour and a 
half. That is respect.
  It is not just Democrat administrations. Unfortunately, my 
colleagues--many of them, too many of them--weren't alone in this 
unprecedented lockup of our State.
  Let me just give you one example. We got ANWR open, fair and square, 
in 2017, in the tax bill. It is in the law: Open it up. Hold lease 
sales. Passed it. We have been trying to get that done for 40 years.
  It was bipartisan, by the way. Back home in Alaska, Democrats and 
Republicans, we all want this done--the Native people that live there. 
So that was done.
  The Trump administration is going to have a lease sale. They have 
mandated it at the end. But in the interim, my colleagues, led by the 
senior Senator from New Mexico--I am going to get to that in a minute. 
My colleagues, in a letter--boy, there is a whole bunch of them. Do you 
know what they did?
  My colleagues here, Democrat Senators, a bunch of them, they wrote 
all the insurance companies and all the big banks in America, and they 
said: Don't invest in Alaska. Don't invest in Alaska.
  A bunch of my colleagues, after we got a law passed that we have been 
trying to get done for decades: Don't do it, banks and insurance 
companies.
  A bunch, about a third of the Democrats here--that is pressure: Don't 
do it. We don't want you to do it.
  Why? Do you know what they said? It was remarkable. Because if you 
develop Alaska, America won't achieve ``its climate goals''--``its 
climate goals.''
  So that was Democrat Senators. By the way, no one asked me about 
this. They came in to crush my State about climate goals.
  Now, let's just talk a little bit about hypocrisy here. That was led 
by the senior Senator of New Mexico.
  Now, during the Biden administration, remember, they wanted to shut 
down Alaska. They were doing everything they could to shut down my 
State. We didn't increase production at all. Our oil production has 
been going like this.
  But there is one State in America where it is ``drill, baby, drill.'' 
The production of oil is through the roof. Guess what State that is. Oh 
my goodness, it is New Mexico--on Federal lands--when Secretary Haaland 
was the Secretary. Whoa, are you kidding me?
  The gray here is Alaska. The red is New Mexico. During the Biden 
administration, the 4 years they tried to crush my State, the senior 
Senator from New Mexico led the efforts to crush my State. Secretary 
Haaland, another New Mexican, crushed my State. And guess what. In New 
Mexico, on Federal lands, it was ``drill, baby, drill.'' They went from 
a million barrels a day to 2 million barrels a day.
  Where is the New York Times on that one? Where is the Washington Post 
on that one?
  Could you imagine the counterfactual? A Republican administration 
comes into office, and they target a Democrat State to crush them, and 
then that same Republican administration, with the Secretary of the 
Interior and one of their senior Senators, says: But in our State, we 
are going to unleash it. And we will shut down the other States because 
of climate concerns, but we will be the climate bomb of America--which 
is what New Mexico has become.
  OK. Where is that story? Where is that story?
  Again, you wonder why people don't trust our media. This is an 
unbelievable story.
  So is this, by the way. My colleagues all, can you imagine if every 
Senator here decided, hey, I am going to get a bunch of Senators, and 
we are going to write a letter to make sure we crush the economy in New 
York or Connecticut? Like this place wouldn't even work. But if it is 
Alaska, you get to do that.
  Well, I don't like it. But here is the other reason I feel so 
passionate about this, and this is what my colleagues--and look, they 
are writing a letter. We know why the senior Senator from New Mexico 
writes this letter--because all the radical far-left groups who support 
these guys tell them to do this.
  But here is what makes me really upset, because they don't realize 
what their letters do. It is not just about producing energy that our 
country needs or jobs. For me and the people I represent, it is about 
something even more.
  What am I talking about? I have brought this chart out a lot. This is 
an American Medical Association study from 1980 to 2014.
  What does it show? It shows life expectancy in America. It is a 
little bit hard to read here, but the increases or decreases in life 
expectancy. So if you are looking at, kind of, orange and red, 
unfortunately, parts of the United States have a little bit of orange 
and red. That is actually a decrease in life expectancy. We experienced 
that for 25 years, 1980 to 2014. In some parts of our country, 
according to the American Medical Association, the people in those 
parts, they lived less longer lives. It is really bad. I mean, it is 
horrible.
  Now, if you look at the map--I won't go into all of it--a lot of this 
is where the opioid epidemic really surged and destroyed so many lives. 
But other parts of America, if you look here--the blue, the purple--had 
an explosion in life expectancy.
  Wow, that is pretty important. As a matter of fact, I have debated a 
lot of my Democratic colleagues: Give me an indicator of policy success 
more important than that the people you are representing are living 
longer. Give me one. There isn't one. It is really important.
  So guess which State in that period, 1980 to 2014, had a huge 
increase in the life expectancy. My State. And guess which regions of 
Alaska had that. The North Slope--I was just showing you that--the 
Northwest Arctic Borough, the Aleutian Islands chain, all the way out 
here, had giant increases in 25 years, up to 13 years of life 
expectancy increases.

[[Page S1897]]

  Hmm, why did that happen? Well, it happened for two reasons. One, 
unfortunately, these are a lot of the areas where our Alaska Native 
communities live, and they started at really low levels of life 
expectancy--really low, 50-, 55-years-old average lifespan. It is 
horrible.
  So it was a low level. But what else happened? These areas all 
started to experience major resource development, fisheries.
  There is a huge law called the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which 
Americanized our fisheries. So the Aleutian Islands chain had 
incredible opportunities for resource development with fisheries.
  The North Slope, as I was talking about, the discovery of Prudhoe 
Bay, had big oil and gas developments.
  This area had a huge mine called the Red Dog mine, one of the biggest 
silver-zinc-lead mines in the world--or lead-zinc mines in the world.
  So resource development happened, and guess what. The Native people 
of Alaska started to get clinics, running water and flush toilets--
which a lot of them don't have--hospitals, gymnasiums, good jobs.
  Again, what policy indicator of success is more important than that 
the people you are representing are living 13 years longer than they 
did 20 years earlier?
  I don't think there is one. But all my colleagues came and said: No--
the Federal Government, Joe Biden, the senior Senator from New Mexico. 
We are going to shut all of this down.
  They are not listening to me or Lisa Murkowski. We are going to shut 
it down because some radical far-left groups, who don't give a damn 
about my constituents, are telling us to do it.
  Shame on you guys. Shame on you guys. I hope I never see another 
letter like this again--all the banks, all the insurance companies, led 
by Martin Heinrich--ridiculous. I wouldn't do that to New Mexico. Even 
though I was tempted, I didn't.
  So let me end with a couple of more points, with some good news.
  So like I said, you have 70 Executive orders and Executive actions. 
As I said, a lot of these were just blatantly illegal. Well, we just 
found out that I wasn't just saying that. One of the biggest Executive 
orders that Joe Biden put in place right away was like: Hey, I know you 
Republicans have ANWR open. Donald Trump signed it. But guess what. I 
am going to cancel all the leases.
  Wait a minute. You can't cancel all the leases. Congress said you 
have to put forward the leases.
  They don't care. Deb Haaland said: Hey, I don't care what Congress 
did. You can't develop ANWR.
  You can't do that. The Congress of the United States just passed it. 
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed it into law. 
You can't just cancel the leases. That is illegal.
  Nope, they did it. Joe Biden did it. Deb Haaland did it.
  Two days ago, the Federal district court in Alaska, on litigation, 
when we sued and said: You can't do that--a court, to be perfectly 
honest, where she usually favors the far-left environmental groups. She 
wrote a big opinion saying: Guess what. What Joe Biden did, what Deb 
Haaland did was totally illegal.
  Where is the New York Times and Washington Post story on that one? I 
don't know. They haven't written it.
  So the Biden action on ANWR was what? Illegal.
  Now, we have all kinds of people talking about a constitutional 
crisis right now. But my constitutional crisis was the last 4 years, 
because it wasn't just this. It wasn't just the ANWR provision. The 
Biden administration took this area of Alaska, the National Petroleum 
Reserve in Alaska, completely off the table. It is as big as Indiana 
right here, the NPR-A. They just said: We are taking it off the table.
  But the Congress said that the Department of the Interior ``shall 
conduct an expeditious program of competitive leasing for oil and gas 
in the'' NPR-A. That is what we said. So that is certainly illegal.
  I will give you another one. This is a huge critical mineral deposit 
area in Alaska called the Ambler Mining District. It has more critical 
minerals, probably, than any place in America.
  The Trump administration said: We are going to build a road to it. 
Congress, in 1980, said the Secretary of the Interior ``shall permit'' 
a road to the Ambler Mining District. ``Shall''--that is what we said.
  Guess what the Biden administration did. They canceled the road--
completely illegal.
  So it is not just actions to hurt my constituents. It is complete 
lawlessness in the process of doing that.
  So I am sounding a little cranky here because I am cranky about the 
attacks on my State. You have got an administration saying: We are 
going to shut down Alaska.
  And then you have a lot of my colleagues saying: And we are going to 
help.
  They never asked me. They never asked like: Hey, Dan, if we do all 
this, will we be hurting the life expectancy of the people you 
represent?
  Answer: Yes. They don't care.
  But I will tell you, we now have a new vision, and it is because 
Republicans are in charge in the Senate, in the House, and, very 
importantly, in the White House.
  And I want to thank President Trump and his team; Secretary Burgum; 
Secretary Wright, the Secretary of Energy; the Chief of Staff, Susie 
Wiles; all of them.
  On day one--day one--in the Trump administration, they said: We are 
not going to shut down Alaska. We are not going to hurt Alaska. We 
think Alaska is critical, not just for Alaskans but for America. We are 
going to unleash Alaska's extraordinary resource potential.
  That is the Executive order President Trump signed on his first day 
in office. And this is the vision that Alaskans want. This is the 
vision that will strengthen my State's economy, create more jobs, and 
not have this arrogant Federal landlord focused on shutting us down.
  It is a vision arising from our frontier heritage in Alaska, a spirit 
of strength, invention, energy, resilience, and shaking off the 
shackles of the past, and building a new world. It is a spirit of 
opportunity. It is a spirit of the last frontier.
  And we get it from the Alaskan Native people who have thrived on 
these lands for thousands of years, in some of the harshest conditions 
in the world. We get it from the gold miners who traveled north to find 
their fortune. We get it from the pioneers who came from thousands of 
miles away to build new communities in Alaska.
  We get it from our incredible veteran population. We have more vets 
per capita than any other State in the country, who have defended 
freedom for America all over the world.
  We get it from our construction workers and building trades, who have 
built Alaskan manmade marvels like the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, 
which, by the way, is another example of what I am talking about. It 
passed the Senate by a tie vote. The giant Trans-Alaska Pipeline system 
that has produced over 40 billion barrels for our State passed right 
here on the Senate floor with a tie vote from the Republican Vice 
President of the United States. We get this from our law enforcement 
officers who have brought law and order to a rough and rugged land. We 
get it from our fishermen on dangerous seas, and we get the spirit, the 
spirit that President Trump wants to unleash in our State, for the 
benefit of Alaskans, for the benefit of America. We get this from 
Alaskans who want to create private sector jobs, who want to create 
wealth for our State and our country, and want to reject what the 
national Democrats do every single time they get into power, which is 
crush my State; crush jobs; undermine working families; in particular, 
go after the interests of the Alaska Native people.

  So the final thing on this Executive order, which we are seeing--and 
this is where some of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate have 
actually been helpful to me, so I appreciate that--so we have a huge 
opportunity for a giant LNG project in Alaska that will be a counter to 
the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative by getting clean-burning Alaska 
natural gas to our allies in Asia, to Alaskans, to our military, to 
Americans. This is a huge project that the President of the United 
States in his State of the Union, in his Executive order, and in his 
recent meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan has said is one of his 
administration's top priorities.
  It will unleash jobs by the thousands. It will revitalize our steel 
industry.

[[Page S1898]]

And at full capacity, given how much natural gas we have on the North 
Slope, the estimates are that this will reduce our trade deficit by $10 
billion a year.
  So we are very focused on this. It is a new day in Alaska with regard 
to our economy and energy. And the new day is because Republicans are 
back in the White House. Republicans are back in control of the Senate, 
and Republicans are still in charge of the House. That is how we need 
to unleash our economy.
  One day, I am going to be able to convince some of my Democratic 
colleagues: Let us do this. We don't come attacking your States. We 
don't write letters to all banks and all the insurance companies 
saying: Let's shut down Arizona.
  We should all be trying to lift each other up. Someday, my Democratic 
colleagues will do that. But until now, with Republicans in charge, we 
got huge opportunities in my great State, and I am very, very thankful 
for that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.