A lack of promises made and promises unfulfilled. A little bit of a pulling the rug out from underneath us.

We don't have the luxury of time.

GLRI funds have been effectively deployed to protect safe clean drinking water supplies, clean up toxic sites, protect wetlands and shorelines, hold off invasive species from entering the Great Lakes, and safeguard aquatic resources.

Recently, Senator Murkowski joined Senators Sullivan, Whitehouse, and others in authoring a letter to the Department of the Interior.

Thank you Chairman Jeff Merkley, Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski, and Members of the subcommittee for your leadership to reduce pollution in rivers, improve clean water access, safeguard public drinking water supplies.

I appreciate that. Again, we certainly, I am certainly hearing from the Native leaders about the need to prioritize Tribal participation within the conservation of the Cooperative Management.

I am glad you heard it directly. I am glad that you were impacted by it.

What is the rationale between--with just enacted levels when it comes to MMIW across the country?

As you well know we have a public safety issue in the State of Alaska, some have described it as a crisis.

I have already set up a team internally to start looking at how we might address that.

I would hope that you would agree that this proposed move is a reorganization that is defined by the Committee's reprogramming guidelines, and so therefore would be subject to Appropriations' Committee approval.

What I am trying to drill down though, is whether or not there is legally defined reference definitions.

I would like to focus my first round of questions on contract support costs, and the 105[l]s.

I appreciate that. But our situation here is, at the end of 2022, the unobligated balance for IHS was $6 billion.

How do you respond, though, to just the reality that that the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) creates a rural priority for subsistence based on where one lives.

It is my hope that we can continue our bipartisan tradition to prioritize the needs of Native communities.

I have expressed some concern, again, about the pace of processing the individual permits.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Assistant Secretary, we have had a conversation in other committees as well, about the budget proposal to shift the Office of Subsistence Management, OSM, from Fish and Wildlife to BIA.