Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am really glad to see we can pass eight bills by unanimous consent here. I want to thank my colleague from California Senator Padilla, my colleague from Oregon Senator Merkley, and my colleague from Ohio Senator Brown for helping to work to develop these pairs and to move them forward. I also want to acknowledge the cloakroom teams--thank you very much; we appreciate that--as well as the ranking member and the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee--Chairman Manchin and Ranking Member Barrasso--and their committee for their assistance. We have now passed a total of five Alaska lands-related bills in the past couple days. Just last night, my friend Senator Hirono graciously offered a pair that included my legislation to sunset an outdated requirement in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act for Native village corporations to help convey lands to the State of Alaska to be held in trust for municipal uses. By sunsetting this requirement and allowing our village corporations to regain title to these lands, it will help free up lands for pressing needs such as housing. I hear it all the time when I am out in the villages. We were able to move that measure. We paired it with a bill from Congresswoman Radewagen to allow American Samoa to more easily make amendments to its territorial constitution. I was out in American Samoa with a group of Members a couple of months ago, and this was a priority for the Congresswoman and for the Governor.…”