[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 167 (Thursday, October 9, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7088-S7090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             H.J. RES. 106

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to 
overturn the Biden administration's restrictive Central Yukon land 
management scheme, which threatens Alaska's self-determination and 
resource development. I ask my colleagues to support our resolution of 
disapproval, H.J. Res. 106, to protect Alaska's rights and future.
  The implementation of the Biden administration's Record of Decision 
and Approved Central Yukon Resource Management Plan, RMP, prohibits the 
development of natural resources and essential infrastructure in a 
broad and sweeping manner--completely undermining multiple-use 
management while ignoring the needs and input of local residents. We 
need to ensure that our conservation policies consider and allow for 
adequate economic opportunities for the communities and people impacted 
by those policies.
  Alaskans are some of the foremost conservationists in the world, with 
a long-standing record of balancing conservation with responsible 
resource and infrastructure development. On top of the jobs provided to 
Alaskan residents, responsible resource development funds various 
initiatives across the State, including education, infrastructure, and 
community services. It feeds our families, sustains our communities, 
and provides livelihoods for the thousands of Alaskans who work to 
responsibly develop the vast timber, mineral, material, and oil and gas 
resources that Alaska is blessed with.
  In the heart of my State is the Central Yukon planning area, which 
comprises 56 million acres in central and northern Alaska, an area 
roughly equivalent to the entirety of Virginia, Maryland, and 
Pennsylvania combined. The Bureau of Land Management--BLM--manages 
nearly a quarter--13.3 million acres of that area. The other major 
landholders within the area include the State of Alaska with 25.4 
million acres, approximately 45 percent of the planning area, and 
Doyon, Limited, one of the 12 land-owning Alaska Native regional 
corporations established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement 
Act--ANCSA--with an ownership interest in 4.65 million acres. 
Approximately 3,000 miles of Doyon's land borders BLM land. Many of 
those millions of acres were selected by Doyon for their economic 
development potential, consistent with the intent of ANCSA. The 
northernmost part of the planning area covers the traditional lands of 
the Inupiat people in the Arctic Slope Region.
  This vast area includes enormous critical mineral potential of 
national and strategic importance. As our geostrategic adversaries 
continue to place tighter controls on minerals essential for defense, 
advanced technology, and manufacturing, America needs these resources 
responsibly developed in places like Alaska. Additionally, the area 
includes incredible oil and gas resources that help to contribute to 
America's energy dominance. Further, this region contains abundant 
timberlands and substantial sand and gravel material resources that are 
essential for roads, airstrips, and other infrastructure. Local access 
to these materials allows rural villages

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in this region to avoid costly imports that contribute to the high cost 
of living in these communities.
  Importantly, the area also contains the Dalton Highway and the right-
of-way for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, Alaska's most essential 
piece of infrastructure and a nationally strategic asset for the United 
States. This system transports crude oil 800 miles from the North Slope 
oil fields to marine terminals in Valdez and provides the vital access 
necessary to develop the resources in the National Petroleum Reserve-
Alaska, the ANWR Coastal Plain, and construct the Alaska LNG pipeline.
  In 1971, the Department of the Interior issued Public Land Order--
PLO--5150 withdrawing from selection a 5.3 million acre stretch of 
Federal land to reserve it as a utility and transportation corridor to 
facilitate monetizing the oil reserves on the North Slope. These lands 
covered the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System right-of-way and the North 
Slope Haul Road, which was later named the Dalton Highway. The 
significance of these lands to Alaska cannot be understated; they 
represent the State of Alaska's highest priority land selections, and 
the State has top-filed for these lands pursuant to Section 906(e) of 
the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, ANILCA.
  After more than 60 years following the passage of the Alaska 
Statehood Act by Congress in 1958, Alaska has yet to receive its full 
land entitlement. To this day, over 60 percent of the land in Alaska is 
managed by the Federal Government. Key to the State's ability to 
finalize its land selections is the lifting of PLO 5150, which will 
enable the State to satisfy a large portion of its outstanding 
statehood land entitlement and unencumber other lands that have been 
selected to fulfill the entitlements of Alaska Native Corporations, the 
University of Alaska, and Alaska Native Vietnam Veteran land 
allotments.
  In 2006, as directed by the Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act, 
sponsored by my colleague Senator Murkowski, BLM released a report 
finding that withdrawals on 152.18 million out of 158.96 million 
acres--95 percent--``have outlived their original purpose'' and ``could 
be lifted consistent with the protection of the public's interest.'' 
BLM recommended that PLOs be lifted on 50.1 million acres of land it 
manages in Alaska. In 2012, then Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar 
wrote Alaska Governor Sean Parnell that ``BLM is committed to working 
with the State to consider further modifications of PLO 5150`` and 
indicated that the BLM Alaska State Office would initiate the planning 
process for the Central Yukon planning area to evaluate the public 
lands within the utility corridor located north of the Yukon River and 
said, ``I consider fulfillment of the State of Alaska's land 
entitlement a top priority.''
  Beginning in 2013, BLM began the formal public scoping process for 
the resource management plan, kicking off a multi-year-long planning 
process with dozens of public meetings and thousands of hours of hard 
work by BLM as part of the process of drafting an Environmental Impact 
Statement--EIS--to satisfy the National Environmental Policy Act. In 
December 2020, BLM released its Draft Resource Management Plan/EIS and 
identified Alternative C2 as the preferred alternative, blending 
resource protection and resource development, closing some 1 million 
acres to mineral material sales, but leaving 13.1 million acres open to 
locatable mineral entry. Importantly, Alternative C2 recommended full 
revocation of PLO 5150, enabling the State of Alaska's top-filed lands 
to become valid selections. It also recommended revocation of 
approximately 5.2 million acres of ANCSA 17(d)(1) withdraws opening 
land for selection by Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans who qualify 
for a land allotment under the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, 
Management, and Recreation Act, P.L. 116-9.
  While not perfect, Alternative C2 served as an important discussion 
point and something the largest land stakeholders in the area--the 
State of Alaska and Doyon--could work with toward a balanced final 
Record of Decision. However, following the election of President Biden, 
he announced plans to review the Central Yukon RMP EIS, one of 70 
Executive actions the Biden administration took targeting Alaska. In 
April 2024, BLM issued its Proposed RMP/Final EIS, identifying a new 
Alternative E that was not previously made available for public review 
and comment and contained sweeping restrictions on land use. The 
Proposed RMP/Final EIS had protests filed from Doyon Limited, the 
Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, the Alaska Miners Association, and 
the State of Alaska--all denied, ignoring Alaska Native voices and the 
people who live in and responsibly develop Alaska every day. This new 
Alternative E became the Central Yukon Record of Decision and Approved 
Resource Management Plan in November 2024, which the passage of this 
joint resolution of disapproval would invalidate.
  While the approved Central Yukon RMP applies only to the BLM-managed 
areas within the planning area, it affected access for other 
landholders in the region, principally Doyon and the State of Alaska. 
The Central Yukon RMP designated 21 Areas of Critical Environmental 
Concern spanning 3.6 million acres and reclassified Visual Resource 
Management areas in ways that hinder infrastructure development.
  Section 1326 of ANILCA provides clear and unambiguous restrictions on 
executive branch actions with respect to future withdrawals and further 
studies or reviews without congressional approval. Under ANILCA's ``no 
more clause,'' BLM may not withdraw more than 5,000 acres, in the 
aggregate, without congressional authorization. Designation of ACECs 
that remove lands from operation of the public land laws is a de facto 
withdrawal and an insult to Congress's express intent in ANILCA, 
locking up critical resources that our Nation needs to counter our 
dependency on hostile foreign powers.
  Doyon, the largest Alaska Native Corporation stakeholder in the 
Central Yukon Planning Area, notes these restrictive land designations 
complicate access to their lands and prevent it from realizing the 
economic and other benefits that Congress intended it would enjoy as a 
result of ANCSA's settlement of Alaska Native land claims. Doyon's 
letter of support for the disapproval resolution called the Central 
Yukon RMP ``misguided and harmful'' and cites the profound implications 
on the ability to place communication, electric transmission, and other 
infrastructure these land restrictions create, adding further obstacles 
to the extraordinary challenges faced by rural communities in Alaska, 
many of which are disconnected from the road system.
  Furthermore, the approved Central Yukon RMP did not recommend 
revoking PLO 5150--which has long outlived its original purpose--or 
ANCSA 17(d)(1) withdrawals, with limited exceptions, frustrating the 
State's ability to fulfill its statehood land entitlement and 
perpetuating unnecessary encumbrances on public lands in contradiction 
to BLM's own findings in the Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act 
Report to Congress.
  Fortunately, elections have consequences, and on his first day in 
office of his second term, President Trump signed Executive Order 
14153, ``Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential,'' which 
called for the rescission of the 2024 Record of Decision and a 
reimplementation of the draft RMP and EIS issued in December 2020. The 
Executive order further directed the Secretary of the Interior to 
evaluate the potential rescission of PLO 5150, and Secretary Burgum has 
admirably taken concrete steps toward delivering on that commitment. 
This disapproval resolution would effectuate the President's directive 
in Executive Order 14153, immediately rescinding the Record of Decision 
and would advance the ongoing work to revoke PLO 5150 and review 
outdated ANCSA 17(d)(1) withdrawals predicated on the underlying EIS, 
which would not be invalidated by H.J. Res. 106.
  The House has already passed this joint resolution, recognizing the 
impact that this highly restrictive plan would have on our national 
security, the massive Federal overreach stifling economic development 
opportunities, and the disregard for Alaska Native voices. I spoke of 
Doyon, Limited's letter of support earlier, but this resolution is also 
supported by the North Slope Regional Trilateral which is made up of 
the elected leaders of the

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North Slope Borough, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, which 
is the regional Tribe, and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, the 
Alaska Native Regional Corporation for the Inupiat people living on the 
North Slope of Alaska. It is supported by the Alaska Miners 
Association, Americans for Prosperity, the American Energy Alliance, 
the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the American 
Exploration and Mining Association, Citizens for Responsible Energy 
Solutions, the Resource Development Council for Alaska, as well as the 
Trump administration.
  I urge my colleagues to reject unlawful regulatory overreach, 
reinforce American mineral and energy security, and uphold Federal law 
and Alaska Native land rights by supporting the Alaska delegation and 
voting for this joint resolution of disapproval and rescinding this 
Record of Decision.

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