Political Quotes

“I have one more item, relating to legislation addressing several important aspects of the administration and management of Glacier Bay National Park in my State of Alaska. As many of you know, Glacier Bay National Park, west of Juneau in southeastern Alaska, has been named as the No. 1 national park in our country's National Park System. It is a unique tourist destination. It can only really be reached by cruise ship. The season runs roughly from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the season for the cruise ships that visit southeastern Alaska. For the most part, these are the same ships that traverse the Caribbean in the wintertime, then move to Vancouver, BC, in order to sail to Alaska in the summer. There are probably 30 ships. I believe the number of tourists who visit Alaska by cruise ship is somewhere in the area of 600,000 in that short 90-day period. Because of the popularity of this unique tourist destination, the legislation I have introduced would encourage the continuation of the Park Service's ongoing efforts to work with concession operators to try to improve visitor services, as well as deal fairly and finally with the longstanding dispute over the status of the commercial and subsistence fishing that has gone on in that park from time immemorial.”