[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 180 (Wednesday, October 29, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7798-S7801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5,
UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE BUREAU OF LAND
MANAGEMENT RELATING TO ``NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE IN ALASKA
INTEGRATED ACTIVITY PLAN RECORD OF DECISION''--Motion to Proceed
Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I rise to urge my colleagues to overturn
the Biden administration's sweeping restrictions of what we call in
Alaska the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska--so to pass the CRA,
the S.J. Res. 80, that we are going to vote on here in a couple of
minutes.
When I say the Biden administration's restrictions, in this case,
that is not strong enough. What the Biden administration did when they
came into office is they took the NPRA--that is right there, the
National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska--and they said we are going to
essentially shut this down.
So what is the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska? Well, it started
out--in 1923, President Warren Harding said: This is so important, this
area of Alaska, we are going to call it the Naval Petroleum Reserve of
Alaska for the U.S. Navy for oil.
Then Congress later came and in law said: No, we are going to
designate this the ``National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska.'' It is the
size of Indiana, and we are going to make sure it is developed for oil.
Development--that is what this body did.
Joe Biden comes in and says: Nope. We are going to take an Executive
order, and we are going to shut it down.
And that is what they did.
So the most important element of this is not just Biden flaunting the
law, which he did in Alaska many times, as I am going to get to--he
canceled the voices of the most important people in Alaska who lived
there.
So let me go to the next slide here. A lot of people have seen this.
This is what I call the Last Frontier Lock-Up. OK. This is a map of
Alaska. Here is NPR-A up here. Again, we are a big State. That is about
the size of Indiana.
Biden issued 70 Executive orders and Executive actions singularly
focused on my State during his 4 years--7-0. One of them is the lockup
of NPR-A, on this huge list.
By the way, I went to the President, President Biden, when this list
was at 48, and I handed it to him and said: Mr. President, what are you
doing? Do you even know what you are doing?
John Podesta was in there--all the bad, you know, far-left, radical
enviros.
You are crushing our State, you are crushing American energy, you are
killing workers, and you are not listening to the Native people of my
State who don't like this. And by the way, Mr. President, we have the
highest standards in the world on resource development in Alaska.
But they didn't listen. So 7-0 Executive orders singularly focused on
one State. It was an outrage. But it showed their priorities, which was
not to unleash American energy but to listen to the radical far left,
who always wants to shut down Alaska. They don't care about the Native
people; don't care about jobs; certainly don't care about union jobs.
So the good news is that when President Trump came into office, he
said: Enough of that. We are going to unleash Alaska.
So day one--this is a day-one Executive order from the President of
the United States. He said: We are going to unleash Alaska's
extraordinary resource potential.
That is a day-one Executive order from President Trump, and so that
is what we are doing. We are going to do it through the executive
branch--what the President is doing--and here in the legislative
branch. So, not surprisingly, this morning, there was a Statement of
Administration Policy from the Trump administration saying they
``strongly supports passage of S.J. Res. 80`` of my CRA.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the October 29, 2025,
Statement of Administration Policy be printed in the Record.
[[Page S7799]]
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and
Budget, Oct. 29, 2025]
Statement of Administration Policy
S.J. Res. 80--Joint Resolution Providing for Congressional Disapproval
of the Rule Submitted by the Bureau of Land Management relating to
``National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Integrated Activity Plan Record
of Decision''
(Sen. Sullivan, R-AK, and one cosponsor)
The Administration strongly supports passage of S.J. Res.
80, which would disapprove a rule issued by the Bureau of
Land Management during the previous Administration. The 2022
Biden-era National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A)
Integrated Activity Plan Record of Decision closes half of
the NPR-A to oil and gas development and imposes additional
restrictions on areas where development is allowed.
Recognizing that developing Alaska's largely untapped
supply of energy resources will benefit the Nation, President
Trump issued Executive Order 14153, ``Unleashing Alaska's
Extraordinary Resource Potential'' on his first day in office
and directed the Secretary of the Interior to review this
Biden-era decision. By restricting access to America's
abundant resources, this ill-advised decision strays from the
statutory direction for development of this important area
under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act, undermines
the President's pro-growth energy agenda, and weakens
America's energy security by increasing our reliance on
foreign countries and limiting America's preeminence in
powering innovation and growth. The decision is also
inconsistent with section 50105 of the One Big Beautiful Bill
Act, P.L. 119-21, which directs the Secretary to lease in
accordance with the 2020 Integrated Activity Plan Record of
Decision for the area, which the Biden-era decision amended.
President Trump is committed to unleashing American energy
dominance and reversing the failed, America-Last energy
policies of the Biden Administration. The Trump
Administration will continue its mission to unleash America's
affordable and reliable energy, drive down energy costs, and
put hardworking Americans first.
For these reasons, if this joint resolution is presented to
the President in its current form, his advisors would
recommend that he sign it into law.
Mr. SULLIVAN. So why would we want to do this? Again, we have the
highest environmental standards in the world, but when you unleash
Alaska energy, when you unleash Montana energy, when you unleash
American energy, it helps with jobs, it helps with our environment
because we have the highest standards in the world, and it really helps
with national security.
I remember a meeting I was in many years ago with Senator McCain,
John McCain, and a very prominent Russian dissident, Vladimir Kara-
Murza. Putin has tried to poison and kill this guy twice. He is still
alive. He lives in America now. He is a great hero.
At the end of the meeting, I looked at Vladimir Kara-Murza: What more
can we do to undermine the Putin regime?
Do you know what he said? He said: Simple, Senator. The No. 1 thing
America can do to undermine Vladimir Putin is produce more American
energy.
By the way, all of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who
love shutting down energy production, you are only helping our
adversaries--Venezuela, China, Russia.
So this is about national security and environmental stewardship.
Really important--I want to talk about another group that matters a
lot with regard to this CRA, and this is the Native people who live on
the North Slope of Alaska.
This is a slide that I put out a lot. This is where we are looking
at. This is the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska in my State.
This is what we call our trilateral in Alaska: the Inupiat Community
of the Arctic Slope--that is the Tribe; the North Slope Borough, which
is our government entity, which is huge--the North Slope Borough I
think is almost the size of Montana; and the Arctic Slope Regional
Corporation, which is our regional Native corporation.
They tried. Eight times they flew to Washington, DC. This is all
Native people. They flew to Washington, DC, during the Biden
administration. Eight times they flew down here--4,000 miles away from
their home--to try to meet with the Secretary of the Interior,
Secretary Haaland, and the White House of the Biden administration,
saying: Don't do this NPR-A lockup. This is our land. Don't do it.
Do you know what? The Biden administration never even met with them.
The Secretary of the Interior never met with them. They flew here eight
different times to say: Don't do it. This is every Tribal leader,
Native leader, on the North Slope, and their voices were ignored. Think
about that. Eight times.
Now, the total insult when Biden finally did this giant regulation
locking up the entire National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska--do you know
what he did? He and Secretary Haaland put out a statement saying: We
did this because the Native people of Alaska wanted it.
I went on national TV. I don't normally throw bombs, but I went on
national TV, and I said: That is a bald-faced lie from Joe Biden.
He was canceling Native voices, and then he was using them. He
literally said: We did this because the Native people of Alaska wanted
it.
Outrageous--actually, one of the most outrageous things I saw the
Biden administration do, and they did a heck of a lot of outrageous
stuff.
So I want to submit for the Record a letter from ICAS, the North
Slope Borough, and ASRC--the trilateral, as we call it--all the Native
leadership on the North Slope strongly supporting my CRA.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the October 3, 2025,
Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope letter be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Re Support for S.J. Res. 80 and H.J. Res. 124--Congressional
Review Act Disapproval of the BLM NPR-A Integrated
Activity Plan (IAP) Record of Decision (ROD).
October 3, 2025.
Hon. Lisa Murkowski,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Dan Sullivan,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Nicholas Begich, III,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Senators Murkowski, Sullivan, and Representative
Begich: On behalf of the North Slope Inupiaq leadership--
including Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), the North
Slope Borough (Borough), and the Inupiat Community of the
Arctic Slope (ICAS)--we write in strong support of S.J. Res.
80, introduced by Senators Sullivan and Murkowski, and H.J.
Res. 124 in the House, each providing for congressional
disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code,
of the ruLe submitted by the Bureau of Land Management
relating to the ``National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska
Integrated Activity Plan Record of Decision.''
Background
The North Slope Inupiat have called the Arctic home for
over 10,000 years. We are proud of our self-determination
efforts to ensure future generations of Inupiat continue to
reside in our communities and have access to essential
services. Without a stable economy, our communities will
suffer, along with our ability to fully engage in and sustain
our Inupiaq cultural traditions, including our vital
subsistence way of life.
The North Slope of Alaska spans an area nearly the size of
the state of Minnesota and, within that expansive area, there
are eight Inupiaq communities--Anaktuvuk Pass, Atqasuk,
Kaktovik, Nuiqsut, Point Hope, Point Lay, Utqiagvik, and
Wainwright. None of our communities are connected by a
permanent road system; all supplies must be flown or barged
in, making the cost of living extremely high and economic
opportunities generally low.
Over fifty years ago, the Federal Government directed
Alaska Native people to organize into a new structure of
indigenous representation. The Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) was a dramatically different
and transformative approach by the Federal Government to
federal Indian policy. The fact that our ancestral lands were
claimed by the Federal Government before our people had a
right to settle aboriginal land claims should inform every
decision the Federal Government makes in managing those
lands.
Unlike the Lower 48 model of indigenous representation
where tribal governments typically administer the delivery of
services such as healthcare, public safety, education, land
management, and economic development, the passage of ANCSA
created a shared system of Alaska Native representation and
delivery of services. Our region has a multitude of Alaska
Native entities that work together to effectively serve,
provide for, and enrich the lives of the North Slope Inupiat
we represent. Our three regional entities, the ICAS, the
Borough, and ASRC are three of those entities. While our
roles differ, our constituencies overlap, which is why we
work closely together to protect the cultural and economic
interests of the North Slope Inupiat.
While our leaders over fifty years ago were initially wary
of any development on our lands, our Inupiaq leaders have
spent decades
[[Page S7800]]
prioritizing open communication and transparency in planning
with industry. We have exercised true self-determination
through a unique framework of Alaska Native governance--a
framework that relies on our tribal governments, municipal
governments, and Alaska Native corporations established by
Congress to serve our indigenous constituents. For millennia,
Inupiaq ingenuity has transformed our relationship with
industry into a partnership that has both protected our
environment and our way of life and has brought significant
economic benefits to the region that would have otherwise
been absent. Our North Slope residents are keenly aware that
advances in our communities--running water, local schools,
health care, public safety, electricity, and more--have come
because of the coordination and cooperation of Alaska Native
leaders and entities across the region.
ICAS
Established in 1971, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic
Slope is the federally recognized regional tribal government
for the North Slope and represents over 14,000 Inupiaq tribal
members. The mission of ICAS is to exercise its sovereign
rights and powers for the benefit of tribal members, to
conserve and retain tribal lands and resources including
subsistence for millennia Inupiaq ingenuity has transformed
our relationship with industry into a partnership that has
both protected our environment and our way of life and has
brought significant economic benefits to the region that
would have otherwise been absent. Our North Slope residents
are keenly aware that advances in our communities--running
water, local schools, health care, public safety,
electricity, and more--have come because of the
coordination and cooperation of Alaska Native leaders and
entities across the region.
Borough
The Borough is a home rule government located above the
Arctic Circle that represents roughly 10,000 residents. The
Borough's jurisdiction includes the entire National Petroleum
Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and the eight villages within it. In
1972, the North Slope Inupiat formed the Borough, in part, to
ensure our communities would benefit from oil and gas
development on their ancestral homelands. It was the first
time Alaska Natives took control of their destiny using a
regional municipal government. The Borough exercises its
powers of taxation, property assessment, education, and
planning and zoning services to serve our communities. Taxes
levied on oil and gas infrastructure, not development, have
enabled the Borough to invest in public infrastructure and
utilities, support education, and provide police, fire,
emergency, health, and other services. Elsewhere in rural
Alaska, these services are typically provided primarily by
the State or Federal Government, or both.
ASRC
ASRC is a for-profit, land-owning Alaska Native regional
corporation formed pursuant to ANCSA. ASRC represents the
same region as the Borough and ICAS, and the same eight
villages whose residents are predominantly Inupiat, and who
comprise many of our over 14,000 Alaska Native shareholders.
ASRC holds the title to approximately five million acres of
land on the North Slope, including both surface and
subsurface lands. These lands--the ancestral lands of the
North Slope Inupiat--were conveyed to ASRC by the United
States pursuant to ANCSA to provide for the economic and
cultural well-being of our Inupiaq shareholders.
ASRC is committed to both providing sound financial returns
to our shareholders, through jobs and dividends, and to
preserving our Inupiaq way of life, culture, and traditions,
including the ability to maintain a subsistence lifestyle
that supports our communities. In furtherance of this
congressionally mandated mission to provide benefits to our
shareholders, ASRC conducts and continues to invest in a
variety of activities related to infrastructure and natural
resource development and other economic initiatives.
ASRC's perspective is based on the dual realities that our
Inupiaq culture and communities depend on a healthy ecosystem
and subsistence resources, as well as infrastructure and
resource development as the foundation of sustainable North
Slope communities.
Disapproval of the 2022 NPR-A IAP ROD
The NPR-A lies entirely within the homelands of the North
Slope Inupiat. Congress established the NPR-A with a clear
purpose: to ensure energy security for the Nation while
respecting the needs of Alaska Natives. Instead, the 2022
Record of Decision (ROD) issued by BLM has imposed sweeping
restrictions that curtail responsible development, undermine
congressional intent, and disregard the well-being of the
people who depend on these lands for both subsistence and
livelihoods.
The impacts of the 2022 ROD are especially severe for the
North Slope. Oil and gas development in the NPR-A funds the
Borough's schools, emergency services, and infrastructure. It
supports jobs for Inupiaq shareholders and residents. It
underwrites the continuation of our communities, even as we
maintain our subsistence way of life. By arbitrarily locking
away vast portions of the NPR-A, BLM's rule threatens these
essential services and imposes disproportionate burdens on
our people.
Equally concerning, BLM failed to engage in meaningful
government-to-government consultation with ASRC, the Borough,
and ICAS. This omission contradicts federal consultation
requirements and disregards the voices of the very
communities most affected. Our leadership has consistently
raised concerns about this process and its outcomes, yet
those concerns were ignored.
The 2022 ROD ignores congressional intent under ANCSA, the
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980
(ANILCA), the National Petroleum Reserve Production Act of
1976 (NPRPA), and the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1980. The
2022 ROD also disregards the economic needs of North Slope
communities, and creates unnecessary obstacles to
infrastructure, energy, and community health across the North
Slope of Alaska.
Support for S.J. Res 80 and H.J. Res. 124
For these reasons, our trilateral organizations strongly
support passage of S.J. Res. 80 and H.J. Res. 124 to
disapprove the 2022 NPR-A IAP ROD. Overturning this rule is
necessary to restore balance to federal policy, reaffirm
Congress's intent for the NPR-A, and uphold the economic,
cultural, and subsistence well-being of the North Slope
Inupiat.
Our identity, resilience, and survival are deeply rooted in
our traditional lands that the NPRA boundaries encompass. We
take great pride in our ongoing efforts toward self-
determination, focused on securing a future where future
generations of Inupiat can continue to live in our
communities with access to the essential services they need
to thrive. We thank you for your leadership on this important
resolution and look forward to continued collaboration to
ensure that federal policies in the NPR-A reflect both
national priorities and the needs of the people who call the
Arctic home.
Sincerely,
Nicole Wojciechowski,
President, Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope.
Josiah Patkotak,
Mayor, North Slope Borough.
Rex A. Rock Sr.,
President and CEO, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.
Mr. SULLIVAN. I would also like to submit for the Record a letter
from The Alliance, which is all of our companies--not just energy
companies but all related companies, the biggest group of businesses,
workers in Alaska, who also strongly support my CRA.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that The Alliance letter of
October 18, 2025, be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
October 18, 2025.
Hon. Lisa Murkowski,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Dan Sullivan,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Nicholas Begich III,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan and Congressman Begich:
As you know, the Alaska Support Industry Alliance (the
Alliance) is a 46-year-old professional trade organization,
representing companies who provide support to Alaska's oil,
gas, and mining industries.
Our mission statement is ``To lead and advocate for the
responsible exploration, development, and production of
Alaska's oil, gas, energy, and mineral resources, ensuring
durable benefits for all Alaskans and fostering economic
growth.''
On behalf of the 547 members of the Alaska Support Industry
Alliance and their 35,000 Alaskan employees, I am writing in
support of S.J. Res. 80, disapproving BLM's 2022 NPR-A
Integrated Activity Plan.
The 2022 NPR-A IAP Record of Decision, which cut open-for-
leasing acreage from 18.6 to 11.8 million acres and imposed
new constraints on development, caused great concern among
our members. Their livelihoods depend on a business climate
that continually attracts new exploration and development of
Alaska's vast natural resources. Anything that restricts the
ability to do so threatens the future of their business.
The opportunity given to Congress, a 60-day window for
expedited action, is an opportunity to restore the acreage
removed by the previous administration and align with
President Trump's EO 114153 ``Unleashing Alaska's
Extraordinary Resource Potential''. In addition S.J. Res. 80
supports a balanced, development-compatible management
framework for the NPRA.
Thank you for your efforts on this resolution and for your
consideration of our comments,
Respectfully,
Rebecca Logan,
CEO, The Alliance.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Let me just end with this: I hope my colleagues on both
sides of the aisle can vote for this CRA.
I talk about jobs, I talk about national security, and I talk about
working families, all of which are very important. At the end of the
day, this is so important because this actually, in my State, is a
matter of life and death.
[[Page S7801]]
What do I mean? Now, I have trotted out this chart a lot. I am going
to explain it here. But this is why I get so riled up about these
issues and why, when my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and
Democratic administrations always come up to Alaska, saying ``Hey, we
are just going to shut you down; we are going to crush your jobs,'' why
I get so animated about it. It is jobs. It is national security. When
you are producing energy from America, from Alaska, you are
strengthening the country, strengthening good jobs--good union jobs, by
the way--but the other thing you are doing is you are helping people
live longer.
What do I mean? I break this chart out a lot because it is really
important to me. This is from the American Medical Association from
1980 to 2014 on Americans' life expectancy--who was living longer and
who, unfortunately, was living less longer.
If you look here, this is America. The light blue, the darker blue,
purple--those are the States that are living the longest. The yellow,
orange, and red--that is actually people losing life expectancy. That
is not good at all.
The place that had the longest life expectancy increase from 1980 to
2014 was my State. Thirteen years. Look at this. Thirteen years on the
North Slope, Northwest Arctic Borough, Aleutian Islands chain. How did
that happen? It happened because responsible resource development
happened.
The Native people of my State were living 13 years longer--more than
any other place in the country. I have asked my colleagues a lot when
we debate this: Give me a policy indicator of success more important
than the people you are representing living longer. There isn't one. I
have never heard of one.
The people I am representing are living longer because we are
responsibly developing resources. And they get jobs, they get
gymnasiums, they get hospitals, and they get flush toilets and running
water, which a lot of the communities in my State, Native communities,
don't have.
So this is a matter of life and death, my colleagues, and I do want
to really try to encourage my colleagues on the other side of the
aisle: Join us. This is the right call. There is a lot of talk about.
Hey, we want to help minority communities. We want to help people of
color. Here is your chance. You are going to help them live longer.
So I am hoping that every Member of this body can come down and vote
for my CRA because it is the right thing to do. It is going to help
with jobs, it is going to help with national security, and it is what
the Native people in my State who actually live there want.
Again, they came down here eight different times and told President
Biden and Secretary Haaland: Don't do this. Don't do this.
Not only did they ignore their voice, they wouldn't even meet with
them.
So now we have a chance to right that wrong and pass my CRA. Again, I
really hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will do this
because it is the right thing to do, and the indigenous people of my
State who live here want this because it is going to help them live
longer. I don't think there is anything more important than that.
Motion to Proceed
Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 221,
S.J. Res. 80.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 221, S.J. Res. 80,
providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of
title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the
Bureau of Land Management relating to ``National Petroleum
Reserve in Alaska Integrated Activity Plan Record of
Decision''.
Vote on Motion
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
Mr. SULLIVAN. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 54, nays 46, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 595 Leg.]
YEAS--54
Banks
Barrasso
Blackburn
Boozman
Britt
Budd
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Curtis
Daines
Ernst
Fetterman
Fischer
Graham
Grassley
Hagerty
Hawley
Hoeven
Husted
Hyde-Smith
Johnson
Justice
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
Marshall
McConnell
McCormick
Moody
Moran
Moreno
Mullin
Murkowski
Paul
Ricketts
Risch
Rounds
Schmitt
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Sheehy
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Tuberville
Wicker
Young
NAYS--46
Alsobrooks
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt Rochester
Booker
Cantwell
Coons
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Gallego
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
Kim
King
Klobuchar
Lujan
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schiff
Schumer
Shaheen
Slotkin
Smith
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Welch
Whitehouse
Wyden
The motion was agreed to.
____________________