Appalachian Ethane Storage Hub Study Act

Mr. President, I join my colleague from Alaska today in honoring Bill Van Ness. Chairman Murkowski has identified some of the significant contributions that Bill made to Alaska and Alaskans. I would like to focus specifically on one of those contributions, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act or ANCSA, and the role that law has played in improving the lives of Alaska's Native people. Through ANCSA, the State of Alaska, the Federal Government, and the Alaska Native community reached a settlement regarding aboriginal claims to lands and resources throughout the State. Alaska Natives set aside those claims in exchange for nearly $1 billion and the right to select approximately 45 million acres of land.

Bill's creativity is evident in the manner in which ANCSA addressed the fundamental question of how to ensure that the thousands of individual Alaska Natives received their fair share of the settlement funds and lands. To answer that question, ANCSA authorized the creation of corporations, in which Alaska Natives are the sole shareholders, to receive the funds and hold title to the selected lands. For the most part, this corporate structure has proved to be very beneficial to the Alaska Native shareholders and to the State of Alaska.

In this regard, I point to the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, ASRC, which is owned by Alaska Native people who have inhabited the North Slope of Alaska for thousands of years. With strong leadership from its shareholders, officers, and board members, ASRC has grown into a multibillion dollar enterprise that is Alaska's largest domestic company and that provides dividends to its nearly 13,000 Alaska Native shareholder, as well as many jobs to shareholders and other Alaskans. Bill Van Ness's contributions as an author of ANCSA and later as a private attorney representing ASRC were keys to ASRC's success story.

Mr. President, I have come to the floor to pay tribute to William J. Van Ness, an individual who was instrumental in the maturation and development of Alaska as a State and who passed away last November.

Bill's contributions to Alaska began in 1966 when he joined the staff of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, the predecessor to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, under the chairmanship of Senator Henry ``Scoop'' Jackson.

As special counsel and later chief counsel for the committee, Bill was one of the architects of the settlement of the aboriginal land claims of Alaska Natives, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, as well as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act of 1973. The enactment of these foundational laws has enabled Alaska to achieve many of the promises of our statehood.

As an Alaskan, a Senator representing Alaska, and the current chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, I was saddened to learn of Bill's passing, but am proud to help recognize his contributions to our state.

I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an essay made possible by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, which Bill served as president of from 1988 until 2008. The essay, which appeared on HistoryLink.org, highlights many of Bill's accomplishments.