I ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to my second session summer interns: Maddie McGowan, Mason Oney, Zayden Schijvens, Ben Lassey, Ellen Kennedy, Grayson McGuire, Kara Johnson, Mariana Low, Dylan Thompson…

I am here today to follow my colleague Senator Warren to discuss the legislation that we have been working on together, S. 1723. This is the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. As Senator Warren has just…

So I too want to make sure that we are not setting something up here where we have divergent views or opinions as to how this is all going to work.

I want to do a follow-up here with Mr. Crockett. I think, as I listened to our witness from the Department of Interior, I hear pretty strong support for S. 4370.

I believe this measure is timely, it is well warranted.

Well, what I did hear you say, Mr. Crockett, is that Forest Service does support removing the bordering or adjacency requirement for the TFPA projects on Federal lands.

You go on to say that Forest Service only has a presence in southeast Alaska, and therefore the TFPA issues are confined to the Tongass.

Mr. Chairman, I think you can hear, whether it is from Alaska and our lands up north to the lands as far south as New Mexico and Arizona, this is an issue that I think there is clearly common ground.

I want to acknowledge my Committee intern, Nyche Andrew. She is Inupiaq, she is Yup'ik, she is from Anchorage.

I want to focus my comments this afternoon on S. 4370, this is the Tribal Forest Protection Act Amendments of 2024.

Too often these fires ignite on remote Federal lands and spread to tribal lands, endangering Native people, property, infrastructure, and cultural resources.

Everyone agrees that the land now held by the state ought to be free from this obligation to be made available for the economic and social well-being of Alaskans.

I greatly appreciate the support and advocacy of our witness, Ben Mallott from the Alaska Federation of Natives.

I am very happy to have reintroduced this legislation with my colleague Dusty Johnson.

I rise today to pay a special tribute to a very special Alaskan, Suzanne Downing. Suzanne turned 70 this year, and--big news for Alaska--sold her news site Must Read Alaska to businessman Jon Faulkner of Homer, who has already done a great…

But we also know that you have to have the legal authority first. So that is what we are trying to do here.

Okay. So this bill will fix that legal authority, is that correct?

This is a commonsense piece of legislation that ensures the Federal Government lives up to its trust obligations while providing a humane, non-lethal option for animal population control.