Political Quotes

“Regarding the amendment offered by Senator Bennett concerning the backlog of land acquisitions facing the Department of the Interior, this amendment is not only responsible in its effort to address a responsibility that we all share, but it is critical from the standpoint of Federal land management and from the standpoint of simple fairness to private property owners that are going to be affected by this legislation. I really do not think those that are critical of the amendment offered by Senator Bennett have reflected adequately on what this does. Let me speak as the junior Senator from Alaska, who has personally experienced the injustice done to inholders by this process. My State of Alaska has been a State now for 35 years. In all of the efforts to address fairness to the inholders in my State, there has only been one inholder that has seen remuneration by the Federal Government for the inholding that was taken by the Federal Government. Mr. President, there are hundreds of inholders in Alaska that are still waiting for the Federal Government to step up and provide them with a fair settlement. In the meantime, their land is tied up. It is impossible to borrow on it; it is impossible to develop. What the Senator from Alaska understands is that the backlog, currently, of inholders waiting for adjudication by the Federal Government exceeds several billions of dollars.”