Lisa Murkowski

So you don't consider that outreach, do you?

One of the challenges that we have in Alaska, just as it is difficult to get things in, you have to fly barrels of fuel in at the end of winter, it is equally difficult to get things out.

Is this a false promise? Is this a false promise here?

I have been a member of the Indian Affairs Committee since I came to the United States Senate 20 years ago.

If you have greater resources, it would seem to me reasonable that this would certainly free that up. Would you not agree?

What do we do? You know what the answer is? We fly it in.

Fourteen percent, about 14 percent of households in Indian Country don't have electricity.

We need to prioritize the needs of our tribal communities in energy discussions.

You can't count on it. You can't afford it and you can't count on it.

For far too long, we hear about these programs, we hear about the funding that we have put, outlined in legislation, in law with specific, specific set-asides for tribal interests.

So when we are able to come together through these consortia, it makes a world of difference.

Native people pay more for electricity as a percentage of their household income than any other demographic out there.

But when it is our own systems that effectively hold them back, that is not fair to anybody.

It's kind of embarrassing to think that a country like India is going to have an icebreaker in the water before we would.

Alaska is really the first line of defense for our nation up there.

Let's visit on that because I'd also like to talk to you about the potential for the Ukrainian people that have come to Alaska.

We are lagging and a commercially available icebreaker is just going to be a gap-filler.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I understand the Navy is collaborating with the Coast Guard in designing the Polar Security Cutters.

We are well behind in the construction of how are we going to facilitate our icebreaking fleet.

I am all eyes on the Arctic all the time.

Just having a strategy is nothing if we do not resource it, and resources are reflected in the budget.

I appreciate that. But our situation here is, at the end of 2022, the unobligated balance for IHS was $6 billion.

I would hope that you would agree that this proposed move is a reorganization that is defined by the Committee's reprogramming guidelines, and so therefore would be subject to Appropriations' Committee approval.

I appreciate that. Again, we certainly, I am certainly hearing from the Native leaders about the need to prioritize Tribal participation within the conservation of the Cooperative Management.