I am glad the Service has acknowledged the importance of the program and requested enough funding to extend FIA to interior Alaska.

It is vital that we support self-determination for Native tribes.

This is a must, this is a must-have.

I think we also need to be honest that it doesn't all come back to fire borrowing.

I am getting a little more familiar with that bat of yours. I do understand it eats the mosquitoes, and that is a good thing.

I am committed to working with my colleagues to find a way to stop fire borrowing.

I do share a little bit of the concern and, perhaps, disappointment that we have not been able to do better by some of our timber-reliant communities across the country.

This conversation is just the same whether you are up north in Alaska or whether you are sitting there in Montana.

So is that how you are going to be entering this coming fire season with this mix?

I do believe we should reauthorize and modernize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, this is a proposal, looking at your budget, Chief, that I can't support.

We also need to get back to the idea that the Forest Service should manage our forests for multiple use and sustained yield.

I appreciate you bringing it up.

Well, that is clear in Alaska because we have run off the timber jobs.

It is not a false choice to pursue both healthy local economies and healthy forests. We can have both.

So it is vital to our national security interest.

Even if the Big Thorne sale makes it out of litigation, there is really nothing by way of additional volume behind it.

We should never ever take our eye off other corners of the world where we have individuals and regimes that are just potentially very, very volatile.

I guess the second-best alternative would be basing it at Fort Wainwright.

There has been a lot of back and forth about the future of the 18th Aggressor Squadron, which operates the F-16s out of Eielson.

No other electricity network on Earth provides as much power to as many people as reliably and affordably as our American grid.

if you have market-based solutions you can make sure that these technologies, using your words, Senator Murkowski, pass the do no harm test, but I would add, at a reasonable cost to consumers.

Keeping the lights on... is a highly complex and technical undertaking that requires scores of talented individuals.

I appreciate that. And then further information you can get back with me on regarding the F-35s is appreciated.

I think we have got a good bill. We have built a strong bipartisan coalition around it.

I also want to speak to the substance of the legislation and explain why it is so important to so many of us.