Lisa Murkowski

What are we going to do about small sites? The answer was distance delivery.

It's called collaboration.

Making sure that that opportunity for grant funding remains solid, remains viable, and really rooted to its initial purpose.

We are putting together what we're calling the Alaska Education Library.

Thank you for holding this hearing on a subject of vital concern to the Native community.

I think we also need to recognize that we have got to be working a little bit creatively here.

Your Chairmanship, sir, has been greatly appreciated. I appreciate your leadership not only on the Committee but on so many different issues.

Not only do we have half the Tribes in the Country in Alaska, we are a State that is one-fifth the size of the United States of America.

I have great concerns about what that would do to us, but probably less discussion about what is happening on the discretionary side of the budget.

I am concerned that as we deal with the fiscal issues, we need to understand what it will mean in certain areas.

We cannot, we simply cannot afford to do that. It really abrogates the contracts, the terms of the deal that we have a responsibility to respect.

I appreciate that, Mr. Katz. I appreciate you working with my staff on this to just better understand what we're dealing with.

Would that be difficult to isolate that or to account for them in a different way?

Do I understand correctly, though, that currently you have begun to ask for that information?

Why is this so difficult? Why is it so hard to identify this?

Isn't the power value protected by the PSC already being utilized then?

Madame Chairman, thank you first of all for conducting this hearing including my bill on the agenda this morning.

We would also like to thank the sponsor of this bill: Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)

The comment has been made that the Administration has failed to meet the timeline for the implementation plan which I understand was due July 31.

It's not clear. I mean, legally the NRC cannot issue those licenses that would depend on that waste, the confidence determination.

If the implementation due date or the implementation plan due date was July 31 and you have now missed that by 2 months. When do you expect that you might be able to produce that?

Do you know who in the Administration would be able to give us better guidance on that?

Let's continue talking about the consent based approach because I think as we've discussed this that's a logical, certainly more doable way to achieve the goal here when we're talking about our nuclear waste repository.

If you can provide us a better estimate. Are we a month away? Are we 6 months away or a year away? I think that would be helpful.

States will have no significant or serious option to protect themselves if they make such deals without 1, meaningful regulatory authority and 2, a linkage that you've created in your very sequenced and adaptive legislation that allows for…