Lisa Murkowski

I think the question that I will leave Mr. Pearce with is one that relates to management of our timber resources in Alaska.

Very clear impressions there, that as we deal with border enforcement issues part of our reality in being hamstrung in our ability to enforce is that we have public lands along that border that are held by the Department of Interior in…

Has been something that we have done historically.

I think this is a challenge. I hope our Committee is up to meeting it.

I think this is a bad way to budget.

I'm not certain that you actually have these numbers, but getting these numbers is going to be important to this debate.

There was a lot of discussion about the fact that the fire started on refuge land and whether or not there had been any level of active management.

I was out in Soldotna this weekend looking at the aftermath of the Funny River Fire.

It doesn't work. Yes.

This is a humanitarian crisis.

I wish to speak very briefly this afternoon to acknowledge a hero. I come to the floor just after the announcement has been made about a leader in the Senate, Senator Baker. While I did not have the privilege of serving at the same time as…

I think that's truly the goal here. The design of this legislation is to figure out how we can be more effective, be more efficient with the collaboration and the program management.

I worry about whether or not what we're doing is sufficient and that was the impetus for this NEWS Act, to try to get all of the relevant stakeholders working together.

In closing I'd like to thank Senator Murkowski and her staff, especially Ron Falbish, for devoting so much attention to an issue that is not only critical to the power sector, but for the well being of the Nation.

The energy/water nexus is a very important issue, certainly to me, I think to folks everywhere.

So it would be good to get updates as you go along so we can just kind of make sure we're all going in the same direction?

But yet, it's not just us that has this. It has been mentioned that there are other Nations, clearly, that have the ability to jump into this market.

I do think it is important that we understand and come to an agreement about what we're really talking about here.

Windows of opportunity do not stay open indefinitely.

I am expecting, I'm certainly hoping that by the end of this year we will see more projects than that will receive final approval from DOE after completing the review at FERC.

I happen to believe that that is the case.

There's a lot of skepticism out there.

We don't do near enough of it in this Senate, I think, when we think about the oversight issues.

Our rising production gives us the opportunity to satisfy our own needs here at home and to help our friends and allies around the world.

These were, in fact, the same allegations that my office forwarded to the Department of Defense Inspector General on June 19 of last year.