Don Young

It has always been my strong belief that Alaska Natives can manage conservation units or national park systems units as well or even better than the federal government.

I am pleased to introduce a bill to expand Alaska Native contracting of Federal land management functions and activities

Today I am introducing legislation that would address several matters of concern to Alaska Natives through an amendment to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

The cruise industry pays millions of dollars in taxes each year.

The cruise industry created 176,433 jobs for U.S. citizens in 1997.

The cruise industry has made to the great State of Alaska and this country.

Congress should end a long-running, 26 year controversy and name the mountain after what the people of the State of Alaska want it to be called: Denali.

My bill formally redesignates Mount McKinley as Denali, and requires the Interior Department to reflect this correction in all maps, references, and products put out by the United States government.

Today I would like to congratulate and honor two outstanding Alaskan students who have achieved national recognition for exemplary volunteer service in their community.

I am confident that this Congress will pass the American Land Sovereignty Protection Act.

Slow, cumbersome, and enormously expensive.

So if a dead tree is dead, a dead tree is dead, and there is no harvesting of trees. Of the 93 percent, that means there will be no new trees. So, for future generations, that is nothing but dead trees.

93 percent of the forest is left. Ninety-three percent is left, and now, get this, of the 93, that is all 500-year-old trees. But do forests grow back?

In fact, I encourage the gentleman to withdraw the amendment and let this thing go over to the Senate side without the mention of Tongass and see what happens. But if the gentleman leaves it in there, I want to tell him, Katie bar the…

That was done by the administration. That was done by the Forest Service rightfully due. I am saying that was rightfully done. We had a TLUMP process. We were told it followed the TLUMP. That is the planning program. We were told that. We…

As I have said, I have left the Tongass, as the gentleman from Washington will say, out of this bill. We have reached an agreement on our side with those people that do not like road purchases of credit, et cetera, et cetera. We reached…

I want to stress that again. This issue I thought had been put to bed. The good Senator, bless his heart, never does sleep. But to be frank, I would suggest to the gentleman from California, if he wants to open up the Tongass, and he has…

In answering the question of the contractual agreement of the forest, it will affect the ability to take trees off that forest. There is no doubt about that. With all due respect to the gentleman from California, I do believe his legal…

This is not necessary, except only in the case where the plebiscite voted for statehood and they made the application to the Congress, the Congress votes, there is a transition stage, this goes back, and they have to reach the 75 percent?

Again, this is our opportunity, as we close this debate to thank everybody participating in the debate for their decorum and their honesty and their strong beliefs. I believe that this is the correct way to go. I believe it is the right…

The bill does not exempt the project from any environmental law and it explicitly references the spotted owl guidelines.

If it is a federally controlled levee. If it is a district, such as in the Sutter Basin, if that is under district control then Fish and Wildlife can only give them the authority, and they do not have that authority. That is what happened…

I just want to refute what the ranking member said. We did not repeal the Endangered Species Act, nor did we attempt to. We tried to rewrite it without any help from the minority at all, and this administration has been asked many times…

I happen to think that the issuance of an IDQ, or IFQ, and then creating a great value of it, to be sold for wealth, is very wrong, and it is wrong to accumulate a massive amount, creating a monopoly. We are going to continue to address…

Let the House participate. Let this Congress participate in this process. This is the people's house. Let the people have the decision to make. That is crucially important, to continue the process. That is all this bill does. For those…