[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 8411-8412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO FACILITATE INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AT AND 
 POTENTIAL USES OF POINT SPENCER IN THE BERING STRAIT REGION OF ALASKA

                                  _____
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 15, 2014

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation 
to facilitate infrastructure development at, and potential uses of, 
Point Spencer in the Bering Strait Region of Arctic Alaska by and for 
both the public and private sectors through fostering a public/private 
partnership among the Federal Government/the U.S. Coast Guard, the 
State of Alaska, the Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) and 
industry.
  I will be joined in co-sponsoring this bill by my friend, the 
Chairman of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of 
the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Honorable 
Duncan Hunter.
  What the Bill Provides: This legislation seeks to address the 
legitimate interests of the Federal and State Governments as well as 
the private sector in providing a means for future uses of Point 
Spencer by Federal, state, and private sector stakeholders for a 
variety of tasks and missions, including search and rescue, shipping 
safety, economic development, oil spill prevention and response, port 
of refuge, arctic research, maritime law enforcement and related and 
other uses.
  For the Coast Guard: The bill provides a footprint at Point Spencer 
that the Coast Guard has indicated that it needs to retain to support 
possible future uses of a portion of Point Spencer, a total of 
approximately 140 acres. That includes a major footprint on the water 
and the land on which buildings that the Coast Guard boarded up in 2010 
are located, as well as rights to use at no cost the current and any 
future airstrips for Federal purposes. The bill provides that the 
Secretary of the agency in which the Coast Guard is operating could, 
instead of retaining the lands reserved for the Coast Guard, have those 
lands conveyed to BSNC and then leased at no cost to the Coast Guard by 
BSNC. Also, a federal Navigational Servitude is reserved for the Coast 
Guard to exercise upon tidelands and submerged lands.
  For the State of Alaska: The bill provides for the conveyance of 
approximately 180 acres to the State, including the airstrip and a 
shoreline footprint on the water as well as a right-of-way should it 
decide to build a road in the future from the airstrip to the mainland 
across Coast Guard and/or BSNC land. The State would also have a choice 
of having the lands identified in the bill to be conveyed to the state, 
conveyed to BSNC instead and then leased back to the state at no cost 
to the state. The tidelands and submerged lands around Point Spencer 
would be recognized as having continued ownership by the State of 
Alaska as they were presumptively conveyed to the State under the 
Statehood Act.
  For Bering Straits Native Corporation: The bill provides for BSNC to 
receive the remainder of the lands not set aside for the Coast Guard or 
the State and thereby to be able to serve in facilitating the future 
uses of Point Spencer. If the Coast Guard and the state prefer to have 
access to the lands through a lease arrangement rather than having them 
retained or conveyed as applicable, BSNC would receive the lands 
identified for Coast Guard or State use and then lease those lands back 
at no cost to the Coast Guard or the State. BSNC would have access to 
the airstrip but could be charged usual and customary landing fees to 
help defray maintenance and administrative costs associated with the 
operations of the airstrip. Provision is made in the bill to help 
ensure protections for archaeological and ancestral items of antiquity 
through the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, the 
National Historic Preservation Act, and the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act.
  Background: By way of background, Point Spencer is a small 2,600 
plus-acre spit of land located in the Bering Strait region and was used 
for thousands of years by the Inupiat Eskimos and their ancestors and 
was the site of an ancient lnupiat village. Long before the coming of 
Europeans and Americans to this region, Point Spencer served as a major 
trading hub for the intercontinental movement of items among the 
indigenous groups of what is today, Alaska, and eastern Eurasia. With 
the ``discovery'' of whales north of Bering Strait in the 1840's by 
non-Natives, Point Spencer and adjacent Port Clarence, served as a safe 
harbor for the vessels of the American Whaling industry. In 1850-1852, 
vessels searching for the lost Franklin expedition over-wintered in 
Port Clarence. From 1865-1867 the area saw activity related to the 
Western Union Telegraph project, an uncompleted plan to link North 
America with Russia across Bering Strait. Point Spencer-Port Clarence 
continued to serve as a major harbor for the Revenue Cutter Service 
(forerunner of the USCG) during the 19th and into the 20th centuries. 
Throughout this period of initial contact, the residents of Bering 
Strait provided food, safe harbor, and guiding services to the visiting 
EuroAmerican ventures.
  Because of the use of this spit of land by indigenous Peoples, the 
ancestors of those who now comprise the BSNC, for thousands of years 
before contact by non-Natives, the land is of great importance 
archaeologically and culturally to Alaska Natives living in the region.
  After passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 
1971, the purpose of which was to help settle aboriginal land claims of 
Alaska Natives and also help clear the way so that the Trans-Alaska 
pipeline right-of-way could be secured and the pipeline constructed in 
the 1970s, BSNC filed a selection to Point Spencer in 1976 as a 
14(h)(8) selection under ANCSA. Key among the reasons for this 
selection by BSNC was the recognition of the historically strategic 
place of Point Spencer within Bering Strait history, and to help ensure 
that the artifacts and archaeological resources from their ancestors 
would be better protected and the land would be available for future 
purposes.
  However, because Point Spencer had been withdrawn in 1962 from 
appropriation under

[[Page 8412]]

the mining and mineral leasing and other relevant laws of the U.S. so 
as to permit the construction of a Coast Guard LORAN (Port Clarence 
long-range radar site) station in 1966 at Point Spencer, the lands were 
unavailable for BSNC to select or to use unless and until the U.S. no 
longer needed the lands for the LORAN site. Two years after BSNC filed 
its selection at Point Spencer, the State of Alaska in 1978 filed a 
selection application under the Statehood Act on most of the land there 
and then top-filed on the entire parcel in 1993.
  In 2010, the LORAN site at Point Spencer (named the Port Clarence 
LORAN station) was closed, hardened and abandoned by the Coast Guard 
and LORAN was thereafter no longer utilized for navigation purposes. At 
that time, BSNC began to explore the potential for fulfilling its 
aspirations for selecting Point Spencer that began 34 (thirty-four) 
years earlier.
  BSNC contracted in 2010 to have a geomorphic study of Point Spencer 
undertaken to determine the long-term stability of the landform. BSNC 
also conducted an economic study of the lands and began an analysis of 
the hazardous materials contamination that the Coast Guard generated 
during its years of operating the LORAN facility and cataloguing any 
necessary clean-up that would be required to make some of the abandoned 
site useable. Working with the shipping and response industry, BSNC has 
also begun developing a phased infrastructure development plan for the 
Point Spencer lands. Such infrastructure could play a key role in 
fulfilling the purposes outlined above as well as in enabling the U.S. 
to pursue and protect national security, transportation, and potential 
economic interests in the region as the sea lanes open up and natural 
resource development is considered in the Arctic.
  Potential for Job Creation: The bill seeks to provide for public 
sector interests and at the same time ensure that the priceless 
archaeological and cultural artifacts of the ancestors of the people of 
the Bering Straits region are protected, many of which artifacts have, 
unfortunately, been allowed to be taken and sold abroad during the 
years of use for the LORAN site and post abandonment. This would 
provide job opportunities for its people in a region where villages can 
face poverty rates of over 40% and where unemployment in some 
communities reaches nearly 50%. If wise use is made of this area, the 
essential needs of each stakeholder can likely be addressed.
  Economic opportunity in this region of rural Alaska is an imperative 
to be achieved. Suicide rates among young rural Alaska Natives are 
extremely alarming and the Bering Straits region experiences that 
tragedy time and again. Much of the underlying cause of such tragic 
incidents comes from young people not having work and vocational 
training opportunities in an area their ancestors have inhabited for 
generation after generation. While development at Point Spencer would 
not be a panacea to all social maladies and challenges of the people of 
the region, it would be a remarkable and enlightened advancement for 
the people of the region and at the same time serve the federal and 
state interests and those of the private sector. And, in my mind, it is 
indefensible for those of us in leadership positions not to attempt to 
help address this scourge of suicide through sensible approaches to 
prudent use of lands such as is provided in this legislation.
  National Security Interests Will Be Fully Supported: Whatever 
national security interests that may be involved ultimately with 
respect to Point Spencer and its future potential uses can be fully and 
responsibly dealt with through the approach set forth in this 
legislation. Since its establishment pursuant to authorization by 
Congress under ANCSA and incorporated under state law, BSNC has carried 
out numerous contracts with the federal government that were/are 
directly tied to the national security interests of the U.S., and this 
Native Corporation has met the challenge fully and performed well. BSNC 
has the capacity and capability to support the advancement of U.S. 
national security, transportation, and economic development interests 
at Point Spencer. Relevant to this discussion, a recent report to 
Congress entitled ``Feasibility of Establishing an Arctic Deep-draft 
Seaport'', dated February 11, 2014, states: ``The Coast Guard is 
currently engaged in negotiation to turn over most of this large parcel 
[Point Spencer] of property to the Bering Straits Native Corporation . 
. . Another goal is to pursue innovative arrangements to support the 
investments needed in the Arctic region, including `new thinking on 
public-private . . . partnerships.'''
  The following is a list of a few of the types of federal and private 
sector contracts that Alaska Native Corporations, including BSNC, have 
been involved in over recent decades, including many with the 
Department of Defense and the various Armed Services of our nation 
including work on military bases and posts throughout the nation: 
Aircraft maintenance and support; aircraft refueling; aerospace 
engineering; Tactical gear manufacturing; survival training; winter 
warfare training; Intelligence analysis; BRAC management; Software 
design, implementation, and testing; Ship building, Ship repair, IT for 
various branches of the military service; Constructing landing strips; 
Base Operations Support, Aviation Services; Research and Development; 
Engineering, Medical Staffing, Telecommunications, Cyber security; 
Security; Environmental remediation, Port and Harbor Operations; 
Healthcare Services; and Construction of a marine fiber optic subsea 
cable system to the nation's largest Coast Guard base to a Missile 
launch facility, to a major Alaska city and by microwave transmissions, 
to Alaska Native villages bringing high-speed, reliable, all-weather 
broadband to places that heretofore did not have access to such 
technology.
  It is in part through such contract work that Alaska Natives have 
made incremental but significant progress in realizing the promise 
envisioned in the enactment by Congress of ANCSA. That work for Alaska 
Natives (and for other Native Americans in the country) has begun to 
help extricate their people from the vicious cycle of chronic and 
pernicious poverty, unemployment and lack of job opportunities for 
their youths, particularly in remote rural areas, and thereby help 
address some of the social ills that are associated with such 
conditions.
  Conclusion: With the introduction of this legislation, and as it 
moves forward, the interests of all stakeholders interested in seeing 
that productive use is made of Point Spencer for diverse legitimate 
uses in the Arctic region can be fully met.
  This approach is an equitable and sensible way to address the 
interests of the public and private sectors in Point Spencer. I believe 
that passage of the bill is in the best interests of our nation, the 
State of Alaska, the indigenous people of the Bering Strait region, as 
well as the private sector.