[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 202 (Wednesday, December 3, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8468-S8472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
S.J. Res. 91
Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I am coming down on the Senate floor,
once again, to talk about another Congressional Review Act resolution
that I am encouraging all of my colleagues, Democrats, Republicans--by
the way, our last one on the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska,
right here, was bipartisan. I want to thank Senator Fetterman for his
support here.
This is a really big one, and some people are like: Geez, Senator
Sullivan, Senator Murkowski, you are down here a lot on these CRAs. We
are down here a lot on these Congressional Review Act resolutions
because of this. All right? I have trotted out this chart a lot, but it
bears repeating. The Biden administration decided, because the far-
left, radical environmental groups say: Hey, when Democrats get in
power--that will mean the minority leader, if he ever became majority
leader, that would include him--when they get into power, what do they
do? They want to make sure they shut down the great State of Alaska. I
won't go into all of the reasons, but they do it, and they are
aggressive on it.
So, as I have said before, during the 4 years of the Biden
administration, we had this last frontier lockup. Here is the actual
list. It is shocking. I don't think, in the history of America, the
Federal Government, the White House, ever used its powers so much to
try to crush one State. They did it during the 4 years of the Biden
administration with the support of my friends on the other side of the
aisle--70 Executive orders and Executive actions, singularly and
exclusively focused on the great State of Alaska--by the way, 10 on day
one.
So when Joe Biden got inaugurated, man, he was raring to go to crush
Alaska, kill thousands of jobs--by the way, great union jobs, by the
way. Nobody ever talks about that. These are all great union jobs to
develop resources for the great State of Alaska. So that was it.
Seventy--can you imagine any other State in America having their own
Federal Government crush them? We got sanctioned more than Joe Biden
sanctioned Iran and Venezuela, and they are terrorist states. But that
is what we dealt with.
So the reason I am down here so often on these CRA, Congressional
Review Act, resolutions is, it is our chance--it is the Republican
Senate, with a Republican President and a Republican House--to say:
Now, wait a minute. We don't think the power of the Federal Government
should be used to crush any State like this, especially one with all
these great resources and great Native people.
I am going to get to all of this, but the Democrats do that.
So I am asking my colleagues on one of these--I can't remember which
one;
[[Page S8469]]
there are several dealing with ANWR--to rescind the Biden rule, get it
over to the President, and sign it into law.
Now, I am going to talk about the ranking member from New Mexico who
just came down and spoke against this. He is the No. 1 guy in the
Senate who loves to crush Alaska. But I am going to go into a little
bit about his State and maybe something--the word called ``hypocrisy''
that we are going to get to here in a minute.
But this one is really big. The CRA that the Biden administration did
to lock up ANWR--because out of all of the CRAs, a lot of these were
illegal. They are illegal. They go against what Congress says the law
is, and the executive branch just wouldn't do. It wouldn't follow suit.
But the ANWR one was particularly illegal.
So, in 2017, in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Congress of the
United States, after debating this topic for almost 40 years, said the
Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is going to be
open for resource development--responsible resource development. We
have the highest standards on resource development in the world in
Alaska.
So the Congress, in a law, didn't ``suggest'' that we do it. The
Congress mandated two lease sales--have to do it, Executive branch--
offering no fewer than 400,000 acres in this area, what we call the
1002 area. That is named after section 1002 of ANILCA. We finally got
it done.
This is a hugely bipartisan issue in Alaska. We know how to develop
our resources. By the way, the Native people, great, heroic Native
people, Inupiat Natives who live on the North Slope of Alaska in NPR-A,
in ANWR-I just did a townhall, by the way, with the great people, our
North Slope Borough, and the one community actually lives here, just
last night. They all, the leadership almost unanimously, wanted this
resource development.
I am going to get into that in a minute.
So the law of the United States--the President signed the 2017 Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act. Section 1 was about tax cuts and jobs. Section 2 was
about opening ANWR. That is what it said: Shall do it, must do it. OK?
That was the law.
So imagine when the Biden administration came in, and they started
saying: Eh, we are not going to follow the law. As a matter of fact,
the Secretary of the Interior of the Biden administration, she
announced at a press conference that through a regulation--that we are
going to rescind today--they were going to lock up and shut down ANWR.
No lease sales. They were going to cancel the lease sales of the Trump
administration.
This is blatantly illegal. None of my colleagues on the other side of
the aisle said: Wait a minute. You can't do that. You are violating the
law.
They talk about a lot of administrations violating the law, but when
it came to Alaska, Joe Biden violated the law every day almost.
So this is a quote from Secretary Haaland. Despite the law--she was a
former Congresswoman--saying you have got to develop this--shall, must,
Congress is telling you--she said that ``with today's action'' on an
Executive order ``no one will have the rights to drill'' in this area.
Whoa. Well, that is pretty darn illegal when the Congress said: No,
you have do that.
So it is not just me saying that. In 2025, after litigation by the
State of Alaska against the Biden administration, one of our Federal
judges in Alaska, Judge Gleason, wrote that the ``Federal
Defendants'''--that is the Biden administration--``cancellation of the
[ANWAR] leases,'' which they did illegally, ``was not in accordance
with the law.'' I am quoting the judge. The Department of the Interior
error is serious. The Department of the Interior canceled these leases
without following congressionally mandated procedure.
So there you go. It is not just me, one Senator, saying that what Joe
Biden did was illegal. It was a Federal judge.
This vote today is actually to vindicate the rule of law. My
colleagues on the other side of the aisle like to talk about the rule
of law a lot. So I certainly hope that we can do that.
To Senator Heinrich, the senior Senator from New Mexico, and his
colleague Secretary Haaland, I think they need special recognition on
what I would just refer to as hypocrisy, because as soon as that 2017
law was passed saying, ``hey, you can now develop this area,'' the
senior Senator from New Mexico led a letter with dozens of Democrat
Senators, writing to all the investment banks and all the insurance
companies, saying: We are a bunch of Senators. We have a lot of power.
Don't invest in Alaska. Don't invest in ANWR--don't.
I mean, I could threaten businesses and stuff. We are a bunch of
powerful Senators. Don't do it.
Could you imagine if every Senator in the Senate decided, ``hey, I am
going to pick on New Mexico; I am going to make it my point in life to
just go after New Mexico, shut down their economy, kill thousands of
jobs''? This place wouldn't work at all.
But the senior Senator from New Mexico has made it a career of
shutting down my great State. In one of those letters, he said: We have
to do this. Shut down Alaska. Don't invest in Alaska.
He is down here on the floor arguing against voting for this CRA
because he said we have to ``meet America's climate goals.'' So that is
one of his arguments: Let's shut down the great State of Alaska so we
can ``meet America's climate goals.''
So here is how I am talking a little bit about hypocrisy. During the
time of the Biden administration and these 70 Executive orders--right
there, to crush my State, kill thousands of jobs--what was going on
with New Mexico, where the senior Senator is from and where Secretary
Haaland is from? Well, the press never writes this story. I have given
a speech on this many times. It was ``drill, baby, drill'' in New
Mexico--``drill, baby, drill.''
You want to talk about climate goals? You want to talk about a
climate bomb?
My State barely has 500,000 barrels a day of production. New Mexico,
under Joe Biden and Secretary Haaland and the senior Senator from New
Mexico, they went from a million barrels a day to 2 million barrels a
day, all on Federal lands. Was that hypocrisy or what?
There were 9,366 applications for permits to drill during the first 2
years of the Biden administration. My State got zero from these guys.
Over half of all permits to drill on Federal lands in the first years
of the Biden administration went to what State? Oh, shoot, New Mexico.
``Drill, baby, drill.'' Climate bomb.
But the senior Senator is going to come down here and continue what
he has done throughout his career, which is try to shut down my State.
It is outrageous. It is outrageous.
Like I said, New Mexico has increased oil production since 2019 from
1.2 million barrels a day to 2 million barrels a day, all on Federal
lands. They are the second most oil-producing and climate-producing
State in the country. Last year, the New Mexico Legislative Finance
Committee took the tax receipt from all its ``drill, baby, drill'' oil,
and do you know what they are doing with the money? Free college, tax
cuts, infrastructure, childcare, healthcare, you name it. Yet this guy
wants to shut down my State--hypocrite, hypocrite.
Mr. President, let me end with one final point because I heard the
senior Senator from New Mexico coming down to say: Well, the Native
people really want to keep this area locked up.
That is so wrong. That is not correct at all. It is frustrating as
can be when I hear another Senator try to speak on behalf of the Native
people I have the privilege of representing. The vast, vast majority of
the people who live on the North Slope of Alaska, the Inupiat Natives,
they want to develop the resources. Why? For the same reason that New
Mexico is giving healthcare and childcare and infrastructure from oil
revenues to their people.
I find it very frustrating when I have Senate colleagues,
particularly the senior Senator from New Mexico, come down on the floor
and say: Well, we have to shut down Alaska. We have to keep them from
developing. We will kill thousands of good union jobs. But, hey, don't
look. It is ``drill, baby, drill'' in my State--which it is. It has
been.
I will submit to the Record the Native voices of my State who want to
develop their resources. There are a lot of reasons for that. My
colleagues on the other side of the aisle love to talk about how there
are poor people of
[[Page S8470]]
color, indigenous people, minority communities. But there is a big
asterisk--not if it is Native Alaskans, no way. They love to keep them
down, keep their economic prospects limited, and take away opportunity.
That is why, Mr. President, I would like to submit this letter for
the Record in support of this CRA, in support of this Senate
resolution. This is from the trilateral group of the Inupiat Community
of the Arctic Slope. This is the Tribe--all the Tribes on the North
Slope of Alaska, right here. They are for it, the North Slope Borough.
I did a townhall and presentation in front of them. That is the
borough here, the North Slope Borough. That is the elected officials.
Almost all are Alaska Natives. Maybe all of them are Alaska Natives,
including the mayor, including the president of the borough--good
friends of mine. By the way, that borough, I think, is about the size
of Montana. So it is pretty big. And there are the Alaska Native
corporations too. This is the trilateral. They say this is a really
important Senate resolution.
These are the Native people of my State who live where this action
that we are taking here on the Senate floor is going to take place.
They are saying this is absolutely critical to their sovereignty, to
their economic development, to their cultural heritage. It is a very
powerful letter.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have this letter printed in
the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
November 19, 2025.
Re Support for S.J. Res. 91 and H.J. Res 131--Congressional
Review Act Disapproval of the ``2024 BLM Coastal Plain
Oil and Gas Leasing Program Record of Decision''
Hon. Lisa Murkowski,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Dan Sullivan
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Nicholas Begich III,
U.S. Senate, Washington DC.
Dear Senators Murkowski, Sullivan, and Representative
Begich: On behalf of the North Slope Inupiat leadership--
including Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS) the
North Slope Borough (Borough), and Arctic Slope Regional
Corporation (ASRC), we write in strong support of
Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions introduced being
introduced by the Alaska Congressional Delegation, 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 ``2024 Coastal Plain Oil and
Gas Leasing Program 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 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.
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.
North Slope Trilateral Disapproval of the 2024 Coastal Plain ROD
It is important to emphasize that our trilateral
organizations did not support the 2024 Coastal Plain Oil and
Gas Leasing Program Record of Decision. The primary reason
for our opposition was the lack of meaningful consultation
with the Inupiat people, our tribal government, and regional
institutions. The previous administration failed to engage in
meaningful government-to-government consultation with ICAS,
the Borough, or ASRC, despite the fact that North Slope
communities are the most directly impacted by decisions in
the Coastal Plain.
This failure disregarded the sovereign rights of ICAS, the
municipal authority of the Borough, and the land and
shareholder interests of ASRC. Federal law requires that
agencies conduct meaningful consultation with tribal
governments and Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) before
issuing decisions that affect our communities. That did not
occur in this case. Instead, the process sidelined the voices
of our people, creating a decision that was neither
legitimate nor consistent with the principles of self-
determination.
For the Inupiat, consultation is not a procedural box to
check, it is a Legal obligation that recognizes our
relationship to the land and our right to be heard. By
ignoring this responsibility, the Coastal Plain ROD failed to
account for the subsistence needs, cultural values, and
economic stability of North Slope communities. This is why
our organizations could not support the ROD, and why we now
stand behind its disapproval through the CRA process.
Support for S.J. Res. 91 and H.J. Res. 131
For these reasons, our trilateral organizations strongly
support passage of the CRA
[[Page S8471]]
which disapproves of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Land
Management relating to ``Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing
Program Record of Decision (issued December 9, 2024).
Overturning this rule is necessary to restore balance to
federal policy, reaffirm Congress's intent for responsible
development in Alaska, 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, which encompass both the Coastal Plain
and the NPR-A. 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 reflect both national priorities
and the needs of the people who call the Arctic home.
Mr. SULLIVAN. There is also what we call the VOICE of the Inupiat,
another group similarly situated--all Alaska Natives, all from this
area. They were established to speak with a unified voice for the
Native people on the North Slope, to preserve the advancement of the
Inupiat culture and economic self-determination. All of the members of
the board of directors of this organization unanimously support this
resolution.
I ask unanimous consent to have this letter printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
November 18, 2025.
Hon. Lisa Murkowski,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Dan Sullivan,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Nick Begich,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan, and
Representative Begich: Voice of the Arctic Inupiat (VOICE)
writes today in support of Senate Joint Resolution 91 and
House Joint Resolution 131, the congressional disapprovals of
the Bureau of Land Management's 2024 Record of Decision (ROD)
for the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In 2017, VOICE's
Board of Directors unanimously passed Resolution 2017-04 in
support of the opening of the 1002 Area, also known as the
Coastal Plain, of ANWR to oil and gas exploration and
development.
VOICE is a nonprofit established in 2015 by the region's
collective Inupiaq leadership to speak with a unified voice
on issues impacting the North Slope Inupiat, and to preserve
and advance North Slope Inupiaq cultural and economic self-
determination. Our 21 member organizations collaborate to
ensure that our collective voice is heard and respected--
locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. VOICE's
Board Members are elected leaders representing local
governments, federally recognized tribes, tribal service
providers, and Alaska Native Corporations from across the
North Slope.
Our Board of Directors unanimously supports the
Kaktovikmiut, the residents of Kaktovik, and their right to
self-determination. Since the passage of the Alaska National
Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980, which was
crafted, passed, and signed without consulting the North
Slope Inupiat, the Kaktovikmiut have been fighting for their
right to explore and develop their homelands located in the
Coastal Plain of ANWR, which they have occupied and which
have sustained them for thousands of years. VOICE is proud to
support policies that reflect their voices, including this
effort to nullify the 2024 ROD.
Thank you for your efforts to ensure that the people most
affected are included and heard in the policymaking
processes.
Quyanaqpak,
Nagruk Harcharek,
President.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Finally, Mr. President, it is important to know that
the Trump administration is also fully supportive of our Senate
resolution in terms of this CRA. This is a statement of administrative
policy, where it States:
The Administration strongly supports passage of H.J. Res.
131.
I ask unanimous consent to have that statement printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record as follows:
Statement of Administration Policy
H.J. Res. 131--Joint Resolution Providing for Congressional Disapproval
of the Rule Submitted by the Bureau of Land Management Relating to
``Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Record of Decision''--(Rep.
Begich, R-AK)
The Administration strongly supports passage of H.J. Res.
131, which would disapprove a Record of Decision issued by
the Bureau of Land Management during the previous
Administration. The 2024 Biden-era Coastal Plain Oil and Gas
Leasing Program Record of Decision imposed burdensome and
unnecessary restrictions on oil and gas leasing in the
Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area
set aside by Congress for potential oil and gas production,
by reducing the acreage available for responsible development
and imposing broad restrictions that undermine the Nation's
energy security and economic interests.
The Record of Decision, against the wishes of those who
actually live on the North Slope, effectively nullified
statutory directives from Congress to establish and
administer a competitive leasing program for the Coastal
Plain by placing more than 1 million acres off limits and
layering on operational constraints that make leasing
commercially impracticable. This disastrous Record of
Decision stifled the energy needs of our nation in
unnecessary red tape, destroyed confidence in Federal leasing
programs, and wreaked investment certainty across the energy
sector.
President Trump is committed to unleashing American energy
dominance and Alaska's extraordinary resource potential.
Unlike the short-sighted and completely failed America-Last
energy policies of the Biden Administration, President Trump
prioritizes energy independence, global energy dominance
against our adversaries, and high-paying job creation that
supports Alaska's communities. The Trump Administration is
committed to driving down energy costs, and putting
hardworking Americans and their paychecks first.
If H.J. Res. 131 were presented to the President in its
current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign it
into law.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Why do our Alaska Native people so strongly support
this CRA and the one that we did on the National Petroleum Reserve in
Alaska a couple of weeks ago? Why? I talked about this many times, but
I am going to do it again because it is really important. Yes, it is
jobs. Yes, it is economic self-determination. All of those are really
important. It is having the Federal Government actually work with them
and listen to them.
By the way, on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, Biden shut
down. The Native people from the Tribe, from the ANC, from the Bureau
came to Washington, DC, eight times. They flew 4,000 miles, eight
times, to meet with Secretary Haaland to say to her: Don't do this. We
are the people of the region. We are the Native people of the region.
Don't issue this regulation that is going to lock up opportunities for
us, going to lock up healthcare, going to lock up healthier living.
And you know what? She never even met with them. She never met with
them. They flew here eight times, and she never even met with them.
Talk about canceling Native voices.
But why does it matter? Well, I think this chart explains a lot. I
have brought it on the Senate floors many times, but it bears
repeating. I want my colleagues--I want the senior Senator from New
Mexico, as his State spends billions of dollars from their ``drill,
baby, drill'' oil revenues, climate bomb revenues--that is fine for
them, right? I have nothing against that. But I do when that State is
doing it, and then they try to shut down my State. He leads the charge,
by the way, almost every time, which really frustrates me.
Here is a really important study from the American Medical
Association, from 1980 to 2014--so a 25-year period. It said: Let's
look at America, and where are people's lives increasing, and where are
people's lives decreasing?
That is horrible. We don't want that as Americans.
So when you look at this chart and you see a kind of yellow, orange,
and red, those are actually places where the life expectancy of
American citizens went down. That is very unusual for us. We don't want
that. Unfortunately, that has been in places like West Virginia,
Southern Ohio. That is primarily opioid epidemic stuff, which is
horrible.
Then, where has life expectancy increased? You see the green, blue,
and then purple. The increases are dramatic. It is 13 years where the
purple places are. Well, guess which State increased life expectancy
the most over that period, from 1980 to 2014: Alaska. Guess which parts
of Alaska: the parts with predominantly Native populations--the North
Slope Borough, Northwest Arctic Borough, Aleutian Islands chain, some
here in southeastern Alaska. Life expectancy went up by 13 years.
I have said this many times when I am debating my Democratic
colleagues. Give me an indicator of policy success more important than
that the people you are representing are living longer. There isn't
one. No one ever came to me and said: Here is better. We are putting
out less emissions.
[[Page S8472]]
That is not a better indicator of policy success.
So the people of my State, particularly in the North Slope Borough
region, Northwest Arctic Borough region, Aleutian Islands chain
region--they are living longer. That is great. Everybody should applaud
that.
Why do you think they are living longer? Here is why they are living
longer. It is responsible resource development. On the North Slope,
starting around 1980, we discovered and started developing the largest
oil field in North America, Prudhoe Bay. In the Northwest Arctic
Borough, they discovered and started developing the biggest lead-zinc
mine on the planet.
By the way, this is all great for America. It makes us stronger. But
it is really great for the people of the region.
In the Aleutian Islands chain, because of Federal law, the Magnuson-
Stevens Act, we started developing our own fisheries--American
fisheries--out to the 200-mile limit. In all of these areas, people
started living longer. Why? They got good jobs. They got revenues for
schools, for health clinics, for running water and flushed toilets. A
lot of these places don't even have running water and flushed toilets.
Yet my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are going to block
this kind of development.
For the senior Senator from New Mexico, his State is ``drill, baby,
drill,''--2 million barrels a day. They are now using that oil money
for everything under the Sun--infrastructure, childcare, healthcare--
but for Alaska, no way. We are going to shut you down.
Do you know what? You are going to actually make the people I
represent not live as long.
So that is why I come down to the Senate floor. I get a little bit
hot under the collar because I just see this blatant hypocrisy on the
other side. I just need one Democrat beyond Senator Fetterman to vote
with the people of Alaska, the Native people--for their livelihoods,
for an increase in how long they live. That would be a courageous vote.
That would be the right thing to do.
I hope that all of my Republican colleagues will stand strong with us
on voting yes on this important resolution, and I hope that maybe one
or two of my Democratic colleagues will. By the way, they know it is
the right thing to do. This resolution will help people live longer. It
will help our country be stronger in terms of American energy. It will
vindicate the rule of law after Joe Biden and Secretary Haaland
blatantly violated it.
I hope all of my colleagues will join me in supporting ``yes'' on
this important resolution for the Native people of Alaska, for my
State, and for our great Nation.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. MORENO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the rollcall
vote commence immediately.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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