I appreciate the efforts that are being made as we try to address the issues surrounding missing, murdered American Indians, Alaska Natives.

Thank you for the opportunity to review the budget that is before us today, the President's proposed budget, pretty stunning increase actually, $2.5 billion increase for this subcommittee's programs.

We expect you to follow the law and the law mandates an oil and gas leasing program.

I do believe that that's pretty clear.

I mentioned I was encouraged by yesterday's District Court ruling that determined that the administration's pause is outside of the law.

I appreciate that, and I will commend you to a letter that, Secretary Haaland, you received along with other Secretaries in the Cabinet from the Governor of the State of Alaska outlining the extent of the concerns and the issues, also…

I'm not opposed to conservation by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it's important to recognize that I come from a State where nearly 30 percent of our State is already conserved under ANILCA alone.

Know that we appreciate that. We will look forward to partnering very closely with you as the months proceed here.

We are really excited about it. The Alaska delegation certainly is, but also the communities up north.

We are trying to address these issues, and you are trying to look to what are the contributing factors, what is happening out there?

I am worried that this may happen at the VA, where we continually appropriate money at the problem but don't see improvement in the situation.

I want to make sure that once again at the subcommittee level we are directing that.

For many of the programs the department manages, there is a seemingly bottomless amount of need.

I think we recognize that it's hard to get a handle on the number and projecting forward if we haven't really defined what leases we're talking about here.

I expect today to hear your plans to resume implementation of those lease sales.

Will this Energy Community Revitalization Program fund remediation of contaminated lands that have been conveyed to Alaska Natives and to the State?

We promised we were going to give you the lands that were part of the Native Claims Settlement Act. We give you lands that are so contaminated you cannot use them. It is absolutely a travesty.

The level of discussion and openness before action consultation is always key.

So, this is not just my initiative, that the Governor, the State is very fully behind it.

I was in North Dakota last week discussing this very rule.

I appreciate that, and the fact that you are going out, whether it is to North Dakota, or other places, you are holding listening sessions.

It is critical that you, and really all of us, work to ensure that steep barriers to entry on infrastructure funding, such as high matching requirements, are avoided for these very smaller communities.

The Targeted Airshed Grant Program has been really helpful for them. So I am pleased that we were able to secure a $14.7 million grant Fairbanks North Star Borough to take actions like woodstove change out.

It is critical that remote and rural communities are able to easily access funding, which is a challenge many such communities face.

So this is--this is important. So let us keep working on this.