Salmon Lake Land Selection Resolution Act

Mr. President, I would like to announce for the information of the Senate and the public that a hearing has been scheduled before the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. The hearing will be held on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, at 2:30 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:

S. 220, to provide for the restoration of forest landscapes, protection of old growth forests, and management of national forests in the eastside forests of the State of Oregon;

S. 270, to direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain Federal land to Deschutes County, Oregon;

S. 271, to require the Secretary of Agriculture to enter into a property conveyance with the city of Wallowa, Oregon, and for other purposes;

S. 278, to provide for the exchange of certain land located in the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests in the State of Colorado, and for other purposes;

S. 292, to resolve the claims of the Bering Straits Native Corporation and the State of Alaska to land adjacent to Salmon Lake in the State of Alaska and to provide for the conveyance to the Bering Straits Native Corporation of certain other public land in partial satisfaction of the land entitlement of the Corporation under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act;

S. 322, to expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the State of Washington, to designate the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River and Pratt River as wild and scenic rivers, and for other purposes;

S. 382, to amend the National Forest Ski Area Permit Act of 1986 to clarify the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture regarding additional recreational uses of National Forest System land that is subject to ski area permits, and for other purposes;

S. 427, to withdraw certain land located in Clark County, Nevada, from location, entry, and patent under the mining laws and disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials, and for other purposes;

S. 526, to provide for the conveyance of certain Bureau of Land Management land in Mohave County, Arizona, to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, for use as a public shooting range;

S. 566, to provide for the establishment of the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System;

S. 590, to convey certain submerged lands to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in order to give that territory the same benefits in its submerged lands as Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa have in their submerged lands;

S. 607, to designate certain land in the State of Oregon as wilderness, to provide for the exchange of certain Federal land and non-Federal land, and for other purposes;

S. 617, to require the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain Federal land to Elko County, Nevada, and to take land into trust for the Te-moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada, and for other purposes;

S. 683, to provide for the conveyance of certain parcels of land to the town of Mantua, Utah;

S. 684, to provide for the conveyance of certain parcels of land to the town of Alta, Utah;

S. 667, to establish the Rio Grande del Norte National Conservation Area in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes;

S. 729, to validate final patent number 27-2005-0081, and for other purposes;

S. 766, to provide for the designation of the Devil's Staircase Wilderness Area in the State of Oregon, to designate segments of Wasson and Franklin Creeks in the State of Oregon as wild rivers, and for other purposes;

S. 896, to amend the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to expand the authorization of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior to provide service opportunities for young Americans; help restore the nation's natural, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational and scenic resources; train a new generation of public land managers and enthusiasts; and promote the value of public service; and

S. 897, to amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to clarify that uncertified States and Indian tribes have the authority to use certain payments for certain noncoal reclamation projects.

Because of the limited time available for the hearing, witnesses may testify by invitation only. However, those wishing to submit written testimony for the hearing record should send it to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510-6150, or by email to allison_seyferth@energy.senate.gov.

For further information, please contact Scott Miller or Allison Seyferth.

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Mr. President, I would like to announce for the information of the Senate and the public that a hearing has been scheduled before the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. The hearing will be held on Wednesday, May 25, 2011, at 2:30 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:

S. 233, to withdraw certain Federal land and interests in that land from location, entry, and patent under the mining laws and disposition under the mineral and geothermal leasing laws;

S. 375, to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to enter into cooperative agreements with State foresters authorizing State foresters to provide certain forest, rangeland, and watershed restoration and protection services;

S. 714, to reauthorize the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act, and for other purposes; and

S. 730, to provide for the settlement of certain claims under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and for other purposes.

Because of the limited time available for the hearing, witnesses may testify by invitation only. However, those wishing to submit written testimony for the hearing record should send it to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510-6150, or by email to allison_seyferth@energy.senate.gov.

For further information, please contact Scott Miller or Allison Seyferth.

Mr. President, I rise to speak to a bill that I am reintroducing, being cosponsored by my colleague Mark Begich from Alaska, to resolve a land conveyance dispute in Northwest Alaska, the Salmon Lake Land Selection Resolution Act.

Shortly after Alaska became a State in 1959, Alaska selected lands near Salmon Lake, a major fishery resource in the Bering Straits Region of Northwest Alaska. In 1971, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to resolve aboriginal land claims throughout the 49th State. In that act Congress created 12 regional native corporations in Alaska, providing the corporations with $966 million and the right to select 44 million acres of land in return for giving up claims to their traditional lands. The land and money was to go to make the corporations profitable to provide benefits to their shareholders, the native inhabitants of Alaska. The Bering Straits Native Corporation, one of those 12 regional corporations, promptly selected lands in the Salmon Lake region overlapping State selections promised the State at the time that Alaska joined the Union in 1959. The corporation selected the area around the lake because the waters upstream and downstream from the lake are a prime fishery spawning area and contains fisheries resources of significance to Alaska Natives, in addition to offering land suitable for a variety of recreational activities.

For the past 40 years there have been conflicts over the conveyances, delaying land from going to the corporation, harming the economic and cultural benefits of the corporation model for all Native shareholders, and complicating land and wildlife management issues between Federal agencies and the State of Alaska. Starting in 1994, but accelerating in 1997, talks began among the State, Federal agencies and native corporations and towns in the region, located north of Nome--Salmon Lake itself is located 38 miles north of Nome--to reach a consensus on land uses in the region. Those talks reached agreement on June 1, 2007, with a resolution that satisfied all parties. This seemingly non- controversial legislation will implement the land management regime in the area and finally complete the conveyance of ANCSA lands to the Bering Straits Native Corporation--giving the corporation title after surveys to the last of the 145,728 acres it was promised by Section 14(h)(8) of ANCSA nearly 4 decades ago.

By this bill the Corporation will gain conveyance to 1,009 acres in the Salmon Lake area, 6,132 acres at Windy Cove, northwest of Salmon Lake, and 7,504 acres at Imuruk Basin, on the north shore of Imuruk Basin, a water body north of Windy Cove. In return the Corporation relinquishes rights to another 3,084 acres at Salmon Lake to the Federal Government, the government then giving part of the land to the State of Alaska for it to maintain a key airstrip near the lake. The Federal Bureau of Land Management also retains ownership and administration of a 9-acre campground at the outlet of Salmon Lake, which provides road accessible public camping opportunities from the Nome-Teller Highway. The agreement also retains public access to BLM managed lands in the Kigluaik Mountain Range. In return for the trade, the Federal Government gains other lands from the State.

The bill fully protects recreation and subsistence uses in the area, while providing the Corporation with access to recreational-tourism sites of importance to its shareholders and which might some day produce revenues for the Corporation. The agreement has prompted no known environmental group concerns and seems to be the classic ``win- win-win'' solution that all sides should be congratulated for crafting.

After this bill was introduced in late winter 2009, only support for its provisions was voiced by the public and the Administration and Federal agencies during a Senate hearing held by the Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 8, 2009. After that hearing, the bill was unanimously approved by the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee on December 16, 2009; and it was awaiting passage at the end of the 111th Congress. A nearly identical bill was approved by the full House of Representatives on July 1, 2010 by a unanimous vote of 410-0. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates last year, it would have ``negligible'' costs to the Federal Government during a 10-year scoring window, and it actually will likely reduce Federal outlays since the land's transfer will reduce Federal Bureau of Land Management administrative costs.

Passage of this act is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the Alaska Lands Conveyance Acceleration Act that this body passed 7 years ago that was intended to help settle all outstanding land conveyance issues in Alaska by 2009--the 50th anniversary of Alaska Statehood. While the original agreement/extension covering the land exchange among the Federal Government, the State of Alaska and Bering Straits Native Corporation expired in late 2010, it has been extended once again by all parties to give Congress additional time to ratify the land exchange's terms. Ratification will largely complete the land conveyance process in Northwest Alaska.

I hope that Congress this year, before the latest deadline passes, will quickly pass this legislation. I particularly hope that the land swap is ratified quickly since December 18, 2011 will mark the 40th anniversary of ANCSA's passage. The shareholders of the Bering Straits region have waited 40 years to finally receive the land and economic benefits promised to them when they relinquished their aboriginal land claims. It is only just that they not be made to wait any longer to enjoy the full benefits of the claims settlement act. This bill is also very important for residents of Nome who utilize the area for recreation and subsistence purposes and for all Alaska Natives who live in the Bering Straits Region.

Mr. President, I rise to speak to a bill that I am reintroducing, being cosponsored by my colleague Mark Begich from Alaska, to resolve a land conveyance dispute in Northwest Alaska, the Salmon Lake Land Selection Resolution Act.

Shortly after Alaska became a State in 1959, Alaska selected lands near Salmon Lake, a major fishery resource in the Bering Straits Region of Northwest Alaska. In 1971, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to resolve aboriginal land claims throughout the 49th State. In that act Congress created 12 regional native corporations in Alaska, providing the corporations with $966 million and the right to select 44 million acres of land in return for giving up claims to their traditional lands. The land and money was to go to make the corporations profitable to provide benefits to their shareholders, the native inhabitants of Alaska. The Bering Straits Native Corporation, one of those 12 regional corporations, promptly selected lands in the Salmon Lake region overlapping State selections promised the State at the time that Alaska joined the Union in 1959. The corporation selected the area around the lake because the waters upstream and downstream from the lake are a prime fishery spawning area and contains fisheries resources of significance to Alaska Natives, in addition to offering land suitable for a variety of recreational activities.

For the past 40 years there have been conflicts over the conveyances, delaying land from going to the corporation, harming the economic and cultural benefits of the corporation model for all Native shareholders, and complicating land and wildlife management issues between Federal agencies and the State of Alaska. Starting in 1994, but accelerating in 1997, talks began among the State, Federal agencies and native corporations and towns in the region, located north of Nome--Salmon Lake itself is located 38 miles north of Nome--to reach a consensus on land uses in the region. Those talks reached agreement on June 1, 2007, with a resolution that satisfied all parties. This seemingly non- controversial legislation will implement the land management regime in the area and finally complete the conveyance of ANCSA lands to the Bering Straits Native Corporation--giving the corporation title after surveys to the last of the 145,728 acres it was promised by Section 14(h)(8) of ANCSA nearly 4 decades ago.

By this bill the Corporation will gain conveyance to 1,009 acres in the Salmon Lake area, 6,132 acres at Windy Cove, northwest of Salmon Lake, and 7,504 acres at Imuruk Basin, on the north shore of Imuruk Basin, a water body north of Windy Cove. In return the Corporation relinquishes rights to another 3,084 acres at Salmon Lake to the Federal Government, the government then giving part of the land to the State of Alaska for it to maintain a key airstrip near the lake. The Federal Bureau of Land Management also retains ownership and administration of a 9-acre campground at the outlet of Salmon Lake, which provides road accessible public camping opportunities from the Nome-Teller Highway. The agreement also retains public access to BLM managed lands in the Kigluaik Mountain Range. In return for the trade, the Federal Government gains other lands from the State.

The bill fully protects recreation and subsistence uses in the area, while providing the Corporation with access to recreational-tourism sites of importance to its shareholders and which might some day produce revenues for the Corporation. The agreement has prompted no known environmental group concerns and seems to be the classic ``win- win-win'' solution that all sides should be congratulated for crafting.

After this bill was introduced in late winter 2009, only support for its provisions was voiced by the public and the Administration and Federal agencies during a Senate hearing held by the Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 8, 2009. After that hearing, the bill was unanimously approved by the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee on December 16, 2009; and it was awaiting passage at the end of the 111th Congress. A nearly identical bill was approved by the full House of Representatives on July 1, 2010 by a unanimous vote of 410-0. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates last year, it would have ``negligible'' costs to the Federal Government during a 10-year scoring window, and it actually will likely reduce Federal outlays since the land's transfer will reduce Federal Bureau of Land Management administrative costs.

Passage of this act is certainly in keeping with the spirit of the Alaska Lands Conveyance Acceleration Act that this body passed 7 years ago that was intended to help settle all outstanding land conveyance issues in Alaska by 2009--the 50th anniversary of Alaska Statehood. While the original agreement/extension covering the land exchange among the Federal Government, the State of Alaska and Bering Straits Native Corporation expired in late 2010, it has been extended once again by all parties to give Congress additional time to ratify the land exchange's terms. Ratification will largely complete the land conveyance process in Northwest Alaska.

I hope that Congress this year, before the latest deadline passes, will quickly pass this legislation. I particularly hope that the land swap is ratified quickly since December 18, 2011 will mark the 40th anniversary of ANCSA's passage. The shareholders of the Bering Straits region have waited 40 years to finally receive the land and economic benefits promised to them when they relinquished their aboriginal land claims. It is only just that they not be made to wait any longer to enjoy the full benefits of the claims settlement act. This bill is also very important for residents of Nome who utilize the area for recreation and subsistence purposes and for all Alaska Natives who live in the Bering Straits Region.

Mr. Speaker, it's been said this is a simple bill. In a way it is simple, but it solves a great problem.

As mentioned by the chairman and the ranking member, this bill probably wouldn't necessarily be passed if it wasn't because of the conflict we had between the State when we passed statehood, the Native Land Claims Act and, of course, the BLM. There is no one that objects to this bill. It solves a very important problem for the local people and the subsistence-style living. It also takes care of the recreational areas that they can be utilizing. And it's the right bill to do for the State of Alaska and Alaska natives.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to speak on another subject for a short moment which I believe relates to this. For the people listening to this great display of legislative action on the House floor, we'd like to remind them, you know, Little Red Riding Hood, do not go to sleep.

Just because the prices of gas have been dropping at the pumps, do not be lured into the idea that everything's going to be okay, because I've watched this now in my 40 years here go up and down, up and down; and every time we start to do something, start moving forward for self- dependency on our fossil fuels, those that are providing us the fuel from overseas at cost of great bloodshed and a flood of dollars, they take and drop their prices. When doing so, we start getting lulled back to sleep, and we don't do anything. And then they'll jack the prices up again, and the whole economy will not recover.

So I'm asking the public to understand one thing: do not go to sleep. Just because you go up to the pump station now and put that nozzle in and say, oh, my, gas is only $3.60 when it was $4.15, headed to $5. Watch it very closely, ladies and gentlemen. Watch this, everybody on the floor of this House, because you are going to sleep.

Oh, everything's fine and dandy. We do not have to worry about this anymore. Our good friends in the Middle East will take care of us. Yes, the good friend in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.

Think about this a moment, ladies and gentlemen. We're just where we were back in 1972 when we passed the

Trans Alaska pipeline. We had an embargo. People were lined up to buy the gasoline; lined up and actually shooting at one another because it was, at that time, 36 cents a gallon. And we built the Trans Alaska pipeline, and we lowered that price very rapidly.

As it went down, and the economy came back and people weren't shooting at anyone anymore, they were doing, in fact, one thing that we need to do today. That is the reality that we must start producing our own fossil fuels. Yes, fossil fuels, not wind power, not solar power. Yes, they're good. But fossil fuels that move objects.

Everybody listening to this show today, keep in mind every time you get in that car you're moving weight. Every truck that delivers a product to the grocery store and to anyplace you buy is moved by fossil fuels, not just made by fossil fuels, moved by fossil fuels, the trains, the planes, the ships, and, yes, the automobile.

We will spend this year close to $300 billion buying fossil fuels from people that do not like us, do not even tolerate us most of the time, would like to kill us every time.

And why this Congress and why the administration, yes, the previous administrations--no one's innocent in this project--will not set forth an energy policy that doesn't involve just wind power and sun power, but involves all the powers that we have to produce energy for the people of America. The coal, yes, we're going to burn cheap coal. It can be burned and should be burned. But most of all, the oil which we're still importing from abroad. That's what we have to do.

So I ask you, don't go to sleep, ladies and gentlemen, because the persons that raise the price of oil are there, and they will do it again. And this Congress will say, oh, we've got to do something. We'll have to do something. And by the time that prices go so high that it affects our economy, it will start going back down when we try to do something.

I'm saying that the leadership on this side of the aisle, we have an energy package. It's been sent over to the other body. I know I'm not supposed to mention that other body. In fact, I'm not. It's the other body. And it has not passed any energy legislation. We've done it on the House side numerous times, not just this year and last year, even some of the years before. We have passed energy legislation.

But it's time for this Congress, a reflection of the American people, to rise up and say we are going to do something so those people that have been hurting us all these years--$4 trillion worth of oil has been spent in the last 14 years overseas. Trillion, ladies and gentlemen. That was equal to the national debt.

But take $4 trillion off the existing debt, see where we would be today. We wouldn't have the unemployment rate. The President wouldn't have to say, well, it's getting a little better. The economy is better than it was, they say. But it all relates back to the cheap energy, energy that could be afforded by the working class people of America, the working class people of America, not the rich that can afford it, the working class that provide the economy to this machine that we have called a democracy.

So I'm asking the American public and this body to wake up. Wake up and let's do what's right. Wake up the other body and do what is right for the future of this Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 292) to resolve the claims of the Bering Straits Native Corporation and the State of Alaska to land adjacent to Salmon Lake in the State of Alaska and to provide for the conveyance to the Bering Straits Native Corporation of certain other public land in partial satisfaction of the land entitlement of the Corporation under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, S. 292 ratifies the Salmon Lake Area Ownership and Consolidation Agreement signed in 2007 by the State of Alaska, the United States, and the Bering Straits Native Corporation.

The agreement resolves overlapping claims to certain public lands by the State of Alaska, the United States, and the Bering Straits Native Corporation. The claims arose from the implementation of the Alaska Statehood Act of 1958 and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.

Though similar legislation sponsored by the gentleman from Alaska, and the sponsor in the House of this bill, Mr. Young, passed by 410 0 in the 111th Congress, the Committee on Natural Resources undertook regular order on S. 292, including a hearing in the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, and a markup in the full committee, which reported the bill out favorably.

I am unaware of any opposition to S. 292, and so I urge full House support for the motion to suspend the rules and pass this bill today.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield as much time as he may consume to the author of the legislation that the last Congress passed, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young).

I urge adoption of this legislation and yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.