Political Quotes

“This one deals with the working relationship of the State of Alaska with the Native communities in Alaska. That is a very good working relationship. We have put in place a program now to deal with bringing sanitation systems and clean water to the Alaska Native villages. I described this to the Senate last week. In January 1992 Governor Hickel convened a sanitation task force to meet regarding the dire problems of rural villages in Alaska. State and Federal agencies and the Native organizations of Alaska participated in that task force. The problems were outlined and a consensus was reached on how to best try to deal with the problems. Basically, the cooperative effort has facilitated delivery of Clean Water Act funds to villages in Alaska. This amendment makes sure the cooperative relationship is maintained for funds authorized under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Our amendment does so by ensuring that grants for village safe-drinking water projects go through to the villages in the same way as the clean water grants. This will allow for an even greater level of coordination in the delivery of drinking and wastewater projects to these areas.”