Alaska Tourism Restoration Act

Mr. President, thank you for passing that very important piece of legislation.

The official name of that legislation that just passed the Senate is the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act. This is a really good day for Alaska right now and for our small businesses and working families and the overall economy in Alaska, across our State.

I want to say this is also a good day for the Congress. Both Houses, over the last week, have been able to come together, Members on both sides of the aisle, when they recognized that a relatively narrow segment of this great Nation--my State, Senator Murkowski's State--had a huge challenge right now with our economy relating to tourism. Senators and Members of the House worked together, and we just passed a piece of legislation that is going to the President's desk. It is really going to help.

This pandemic has really hurt a lot of our economies in different States. I would say the Alaskan economy has been really hammered--the energy sector, the commercial fishing sector, and, of course, our tourism sector. But we have hope.

As I mentioned, we just passed the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act. This bill, cosponsored by Senator Murkowski and myself here in the Senate and Congressman Young in the House, is going to give our tourism season and the tens of thousands of Alaskans in that industry and the hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses in Alaska in that industry that are hanging by a thread--it is going to give them a fighting chance this summer.

These are businesses whose owners have put their life savings, their hard work, their hopes, and their dreams into these small businesses, and many have been on the brink financially because of the pandemic and because the short cruise ship season that drives the tourism economy in Alaska was about to be canceled again this summer. That is now not going to happen.

Think about these numbers. In 2020, last year, during the pandemic, Alaska was estimated to get--we were supposed to get, prior to the pandemic, a record number of tourists via cruise ships: 1.5 million. It would have been the alltime record. Of course, in 2020, with the pandemic, none of them showed up, not one, and 2021 was shaping up to be the same.

Think about that. These small businesses get almost all their revenue during the summer season. That would have been 2 years with no revenues. No small business can withstand that.

So 2021 was looking to be canceled again as a result of the CDC, which took too long to provide clear guidance to the cruise ship industry, but they are now working cooperatively with our communities back home in Alaska and the industry. So that is good news. That is starting to happen. It is really important.

But even with the CDC cooperating an working constructively, which is now happening, 2021 wasn't looking good anyway because of a law--dating back to the 1880s, by the way--a U.S. law that made it impossible, without Canada's cooperation, to sail to Alaska on a cruise ship. It was impossible unless we got a bill from Congress passed that would allow cruise ships to sail to Alaska without stopping at a Canadian port, and that is just what we did. That is just what we did.

I want to thank, again, Members of the House and Members of the Senate. We are hoping that this bill is now going down to the White House for a signing by the President as soon as possible.

I know I am speaking on behalf of Senator Murkowski and Congressman Young in thanking all the Members of this body and the House for that work. We are going to have a fighting chance in Alaska for a summer tourism season that was looking very dismal just a couple of weeks ago.

One of the reasons it was looking very dismal is unfortunately because of our neighbor, who hasn't been really helpful. In Alaska, we have one neighbor, if you don't count Russia, and that is Canada. We don't have our wonderful lower 48 State neighbors; we have Canada.

We read in the Canadian press the last several weeks that there was no way the Americans could get their act together to pass a law that would fully bypass Canada--no way. That is what the Canadians were saying, Canadian politicians. So there wasn't a lot of need to work with us.

Well, here is a message for Canada: Never bet against America. Never bet against America. Pretty much every country in the history of our country's history that has bet against us has lost.

I would say that our delegation, the Alaska delegation, is probably the most pro-Canadian delegation there is. It is certainly more knowledgeable than most on Canadian issues. We work together on all kinds of things, big and small--trade issues, military issues, NORAD issues, mining issues. We, in my view, have a typically great relationship. Alaska-Canada is really strong. But that relationship needs cooperation, collaboration, and on this issue, it really didn't happen. So next time we ask our Canadian colleagues for cooperation, we think that is important, but we didn't need it, ultimately.

So I mention in closing, good news for Alaska. But I will say this to anyone watching on TV: This is good news for America. Why is that? Here is a message for the rest of our beautiful country: Alaska is open for business. Come on up. We are safe. We are healthy.

By the way, if you come up, you can get a vaccine. It is open to all tourists.

We are beautiful--breaching whales, soaring mountains, salmon-choked rivers, the best people in the world.

It has been a tough year. Now, I am not just talking Alaska; I am talking the whole country. We know it. Everybody has been at home.

To our fellow Americans who are ready to get out and see our beautiful Nation, come on up and see one of the most beautiful parts of America--really, one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Come on up to Alaska. We are waiting there for you. If it is on your bucket list, there is no time like the present to do it. Get on a cruise ship. Fly up. I think the Canadians have still blocked the border, so it is hard to drive up. That is a whole other issue. But there will be cruise ships heading up to the great State of Alaska, hopefully by mid-July. In fact, I have a call with several cruise ship executives this afternoon, and I am going to encourage them, in the aftermath of the U.S. Congress passing this bill, encourage them to rev up their cruise ships and get up to Alaska soon. We know that demand is high.

To all Americans, we would love to have you.

In closing, to my fellow Alaskans, while this tourism season certainly won't be one of our biggest--it certainly won't be like what we were anticipating in 2020--we are confident now, with this action, there will be ships, and there will be people. Help is on the way. We are a resilient, strong, tough State.

Thank you, Alaskans, for your patience. We now have a fighting chance at a decent summer tourism season in 2021. Hopefully, every American citizen watching this will head on up to Alaska. You will have a great time.

I yield the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 1318) to restrict the imposition by the Secretary of Homeland Security of fines, penalties, duties, or tariffs applicable only to coastwise voyages, or prohibit otherwise qualified non-United States citizens from serving as crew, on specified vessels transporting passengers between the State of Washington and the State of Alaska, to address a Canadian cruise ship ban and the extraordinary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Alaskan communities, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Madam Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that upon receipt from the House, if the text is identical to the text of S. 593 that passed the Senate, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1318, the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.