Lisa Murkowski

It's long overdue that we examine whether or not these statutes reflect our priorities as Alaskans today.

The responsibilities that I have to the people of the State of Alaska, so many of them, come back to our lands.

I don't have any illusions that by holding this hearing today we're going to solve, with one fell swoop, the issues as they relate to management of our wildlife in this State.

I think it's important to point out that, to my knowledge, a hearing of this nature has never occurred in this committee.

Litigation is not going to deliver more caribou, more fish or more moose.

We may have a lot of issues as it relates to subsistence in areas of disagreement, but it seems that the one area where we agree is things aren't working as promised.

At the core of the discussion, subsistence is about a way of life, pretty basic, pretty elemental.

I don't know why historically it has been an issue, but FERC has had not too stellar track record when it comes to responding to formal inquiries from this committee.

I will raise one quick issue though. That is the--during your tenure as CFO of NASA there was a situation where there were a series of documents that were subpoenaed.

I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman.

I think it's been noted that Dr. Robinson and Mr. Connor, neither one of you fielded the questions to the level that Mr. Binz did.

I will express my concerns about your nomination to the committee.

I appreciate your explanation. But I think it does speak to the issue that I have raised which is ensuring that the FERC is absolutely independent and that the leadership at the top remains so.

Again, FERC is an independent agency. It must remain an independent agency.

It is clearly, clearly distinct from executive agencies that carry out policy directives from the White House.

It is critically, and I will emphasize that, critically important for us to enable the agency and its professional, non partisan employees, who report to the chairman as their CEO, to maintain its strong culture as an expert agency, free…

So I think it speaks to the significance of the nomination that we have here today to be chairman of the FERC.

We have some issues that we need to resolve.

We recognize that FERC is independent by law and by design.

Executive branch officials and congressional committee leaders--including you, Mr. Chairman, and Senator Murkowski--have said that this proposal is impossible for constitutional and other reasons during each the Clinton, George W. Bush…

The fact that Puerto Rico has been engaged in this issue for also, many, many decades, but the fact that you have as many options as you do makes it perhaps, even more difficult than Alaska faced when it was just an up or down.

What I'm trying to understand is exactly what enhanced Commonwealth is and the question really here is whether or not it's consistent with the U.S. Constitution.

Now that the plebiscite has been held it's clear to me that a majority of Puerto Ricans do not favor the current territorial status.

When I use the term valid status options, I'm referring to the continuation of the current Commonwealth status, statehood, independence and free association similar to what the United States has with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and…

It's long been my position that the process for determining Puerto Rico's preferred political status should come from Puerto Rico and not from Washington, DC.