Alaska Tourism Restoration Act

Madam President, I want to thank Senator Murkowski for her hard work.

For the Alaskans who are watching, what just happened here is kind of quick but important. The U.S. Senate just passed our bill, the PVSA suspension act, that is going to give our tourism season and the thousands of Alaskans in that industry and the hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses that are hanging by a thread a fighting chance for this summer--a fighting chance for the summer. That just passed the U.S. Senate and is going over to the House.

So, again, I want to thank Senator Murkowski for her leadership on this and, of course, the Senators that she mentioned who were very engaged: Senator Lee, Senator Markey, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Cantwell, Senator Wicker.

You know, this, to me, is an example of the U.S. Senate working at its best--at its best. What was going on here and what we did for the last several weeks is we went to all of our colleagues and said: Look, we have a unique problem right now. In the Great State of Alaska, we are so proud of how we have done in terms of getting through the health aspects of this pandemic, but our economy is getting crushed for a whole host of reasons I have talked about on the floor here many, many times. One of the huge areas is the tourism sector and the unique challenges we have with the borders being closed by the Canadians, which is not helpful; the cruise ship industry not being able to move; and the millions of passengers who were expected to come to Alaska on cruise ships.

So we were going to each Senator and saying: Look, we know you have big, philosophical differences on some things that relate tangentially to this issue, but right now this issue is very narrow. Help us help our constituents. That is it. It is not going to impact any other State.

And to our colleagues' credit, all of them said: OK, Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan, we will help.

And that is a good spirit of cooperation. We essentially went to them and said: Hey, if your State had a problem uniquely focused on just your citizens, we would help you.

So that is what you just saw here. It took a little while. That is OK. Nothing moves fast in the U.S. Senate, but that is a step forward-- an important step forward.

But we still have work to do, as Senator Murkowski mentioned. This bill right now is going to be heading over to the House, right now, and we certainly hope, with the great leadership of the dean of the House, Congressman Young, and all his relationships in the House, that the House is going to show the same cooperative spirit that we just witnessed here on the U.S. Senate floor. So we are hoping for that. That is the next step.

But as Senator Murkowski mentioned, we are working all kinds of different angles--plan B, plan C, plan D. We need the CDC to continue its progress, finally--frustrating but finally. They need to continue to provide detailed guidance to operationalize their lifting of the no- sail order.

And as Senator Murkowski also mentioned, we are going to continue to work with our friends in Canada--``O Canada.''

Now, you know, in Alaska, we have one neighbor. We don't have any of our wonderful lower 48 States as neighbors. We have Canada. We don't really include Russia. Canada. So I would say that the Alaska delegation is probably the most pro-Canadian, certainly the most knowledgeable about Canada issues of any delegation in the U.S. Congress. We work to help them out on issues--big issues, small issues, trade issues, NORAD, military issues, mining. We have a great relationship--the Alaska-Canada relationship. But, to be frank, we are not getting a lot of help right now. The border is closed--fully closed. We think that is pretty draconian, to be honest.

Alaskans are having a hard time even driving home to get through Canada. We put forward a number of very reasonable suggestions to try to accommodate what we are hoping will be a fighting chance for our tourism season, for our small businesses that have been so decimated by this pandemic.

To our colleagues in Canada, reasonable compromises in the event that we don't make progress here--we are making progress here in the U.S. Congress. That is good, again, so that we can have a fighting chance for somewhat of a tourism season this summer. But up until now, all of these suggestions--they are really not even neighbors to the north; they are neighbors for us to the east--haven't gotten a lot of cooperation. So this is not the cooperative spirit that has defined the Alaska-Canadian relationship for decades, and quite frankly, we have been disappointed by it.

So to our House colleagues--Democrats and Republicans--you have just kind of witnessed two examples of cooperation. What happened here on the Senate floor just a couple of minutes ago was really good cooperation. All 100 Senators essentially had to agree to move this bill forward, and they just did. That is what just happened. That is good cooperation.

We haven't had such good cooperation from our Canadian neighbors-- disappointing. But look, my own view is that we need to start making sure that the Alaska economy is not held hostage to another country. We are going to start working on that.

But until then, to our House Members, please, if you can look at what just happened in the Senate, listen to Congressman Young, whom you all know is a great advocate. If we can get this done in the next 24, 48 hours, our State--your fellow Americans, who are working hard like everybody else here to get out of this pandemic--will have a fighting chance

With that, I yield the floor.

Madam President, it is Thursday, and it is that time of the week I come down on the Senate floor and get to do one of my favorite things of the whole week. I get to recognize the special Alaskan, someone whom we call the Alaskan of the Week.

But before I talk about our Alaskan of the Week--and my good friend from Texas, Senator Cornyn, just talked about the importance of supporting our police and leaders in the police forces, and it is National Police Week. It is very appropriate that the Alaskan of the Week this week is outgoing Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll.

I am going to tell you a lot about Chief Doll's great career in Alaska. I want to first begin by just giving a quick little update. I know people who watch the Alaskan of the Week want to know: Hey, what is going on in Alaska right now? It is such a great place, a special place.

Right now, it is approaching midnight Sun time in most places across the State. I will give you one example. In Anchorage, the Sun officially rose at 5:16 a.m. and will set at 10:37 p.m. That is a lot of daylight. Twilight actually starts around 4 a.m. and ends around midnight.

We are getting to that midnight Sun time, summer solstice time. A frenzied energy hits the State at this time of year. It is all the more so because the State is opening up, like so many States across America now, after a

long year of hunkering down--late night walks, softball, yard work, gatherings.

If you are watching and you have never been to Alaska, it is a great time to be in Alaska. I urge everyone in the Gallery and at home to come on up to Alaska.

You may have seen some of the action on the Senate floor a couple of minutes ago. It is looking more and more like we are going to have, hopefully, at least part of a cruise season. But we are welcoming everybody to come to Alaska this summer. You will love it. Heck, you can even get vaccinated if your State is not doing that for you, so come on up.

We all know that what makes the State truly great is not the hours of Sun it gets or its salmon-choked streams and rivers or the magnificent wildlife--moose, bear, caribou--or the soaring mountains, all of which, of course, in Alaska we have in spades. Nothing makes our communities, our State, our country strong like the people who live in our communities, and none are perhaps more important to community strength and cohesion than our brave first responders, our police officers who wake up every day determined to protect others.

I know there is a movement across the country, and Senator Cornyn just talked about it--in my view, a dangerous movement--and that is the call to defund the police. It makes zero sense, by the way. You want your communities safe, and you are going to get rid of your police? It makes no sense.

Here is the thing about police officers like Chief Doll and first responders. These jobs are not only important, in my view, they are sacred. Now, every job in America is an important job, but there is something special, there is something even sacred about the job of our first responders--police, firemen, our military--whose job it is literally to go lay down their lives for their fellow citizens if called to do that. That is sacred.

I think it is important for all of us here in the Senate to be very clear how much we support our police and our first responders all across the Nation, especially during this week. That is why I am so honored and thrilled in many ways to be able to recognize our Alaskan of the Week this week, who is outgoing Anchorage Police Department Chief Justin Doll, who has served with APD for 25 years and has been the chief of the department since 2017. Justin has worked with, supported, and overseen more than 600 members of the APD, brave men and women who keep about 300,000 residents in the Anchorage area, my hometown, safe--roughly 200 square miles.

Let me tell you a bit about Justin, who also happens to be a Marine Corps brother of mine--a man of service, a man of honor, courage, and commitment. Born and raised in Oregon, he moved with his family to Anchorage in 1985 when he was just 12 years old. The country was coming out of a recession. Alaska was doing well. His parents saw opportunity, so they packed their U-Haul and drove up to Alcan.

His mother ended up working in an orthodontist office, and his father worked for 22 years at the famous Hotel Captain Cook, one of the great locally owned hotels in all of Alaska.

Justin graduated from West Anchorage High School, and after a few years in college, he joined the Marine Corps Forces Reserves. Now, he didn't join just any Marine Corps reserve unit; he joined Echo Company, 4th Recon Battalion--the premier cold weather recon unit in the U.S. Marine Corps, reserve or active. How do I know? Because I was serving in that unit with Chief Doll for 5 years. As a matter of fact, I was Justin's platoon commander. Now, he laughingly describes himself as my Marine Corps disciplinary challenge. I don't remember him as a disciplinary challenge; I remember him as a fine marine and a great NCO who did a really good job with Echo Company.

In 1996, he was in the Reserves at that time, and he got a job with the APD. A lot of the marines in Alaska join our law enforcement, which is another great path into service. He didn't grow up wanting to be a police officer, but when presented with an opportunity to serve his community as he was serving in the Marines, he jumped at it, and he excelled. Throughout the years, he served as a patrol officer, an academy instructor, a motorcycle officer, a SWAT team member, a patrol shift commander. He was on the bomb squad and was a commander of the Homicide and Robbery/Assaults Detective Units. He did it all, and he did it all well.

Here are some of the ways in which his colleagues and his bosses have described him throughout his years in his fitness reports: ``Outstanding performance''; ``proactive leadership''; ``Gives credit where credit is due''; ``genuine concern for his fellow officers''; ``earned the respect of everybody''; leadership philosophy is to help guide and train up leaders to rise''; ``committed to excellence.'' Those are his reviewing officers' remarks.

His executive assistant, Gia Currier, talks about how, when people would meet Chief Doll, community members--young kids; it didn't matter--he never introduced himself as ``chief.'' He would just say: ``Hey, I'm Justin.'' She said:

He makes me proud to work at APD, and I am grateful to have

had the opportunity to work and learn from him.

It should be noted here that, in the meantime, in 2000, he married fellow police officer Monique, and in so doing, like many of us-- certainly, like me--he married up. Like Justin, Monique also rose through the ranks to become one of the APD's top detectives. In fact, she was the lead in catching one of the most sickening serial killers in Alaska's history, Israel Keyes. We are so grateful for her dedication and service to our State and our community.

We have a very unique community in Alaska, in Anchorage. We have earthquakes. Not too far away, we have volcanoes. We have 100-mile-an- hour windstorms. Our moose charge, and our bears attack sometimes. Once, when he was at a national training event with big-city police officers from across the country, he was talking to his fellow police chiefs, over beers, about bears and what was going on in their respective cities. He told the group how just the day before, a brown bear had charged, mauled, and tragically killed an Alaskan resident.

Terry Monahan--at the time, the police chief for New York City--said:

What? In the city? How do you deal with that?

By the way, I am pretty sure Justin, when he was telling that story to us, cleaned up the language from the New York City police chief when he recounted that story. But these are the many things that a police chief in Alaska has to deal with, has to be ready for, and has to be able to lead on.

Like all cities, we have had serious problems with crime. As a matter of fact, in 2017, right when Justin took over as the chief for the Anchorage Police Department, my hometown of Anchorage was going through a very serious, major crime spree. Violent crime was way up. Homicides were breaking records. Property crime and vehicle crime were way, way up. Justin got to work. He focused on making sure his officers had the training they needed to do their jobs. His goal was ``to set them up for success and let them be successful.'' His motto: ``One Team, One Mission.'' It sounds a lot like a marine: ``One Team, One Fight.'' He put a focus on engaging with the community. He organized the beats so that the officers got to know the people in their areas and patrolled those same areas during the course of their time. He brought back walking beats in the downtown area. He and his officers attended community council meetings and joined the communities throughout the entire city in smaller gatherings.

Now, as I mentioned, Anchorage is a big city in terms of area, but in a lot of ways, it is really a small town. Word gets around. When you get to know your police officer, you trust your police officer, and you begin to work with that person to make your community safer. That was Justin's philosophy, and that is what started to happen. At its heart, community policing is not more complicated than that, according to Justin, Chief Doll. Getting to know one another, respecting one another, trusting one another--that is how communities become safe.

He also worked on forming partnerships with the Department of Justice, the Attorney General's Office, and the FBI, which doesn't always happen in other localities across the country. Again, Anchorage is a big city and a small town. Federal agents were also having their cars stolen. They had

friends whose houses were getting broken into. This crime spree became personal for everybody, and everybody started to work together--with Chief Doll in the lead to solve it. Again, word got around. All of it-- training, empowering police officers, working with the Feds, community engagement--started to work.

We still have challenges, no doubt, in Anchorage, but since the time Justin Doll started, homicides have gone down almost 50 percent. The rates of property crimes and other violent crimes have also come down. That is a win. Mostly, it is a win for the people of Alaska, for the people of Anchorage. So Justin is leaving the department a winner, and he is also leaving the department with good memories. That was important to him.

There are challenges, and he recognizes those. Burnout, he said, is a problem, particularly these days. He didn't want to get that, and he hopes his fellow officers don't get that. According to Justin--he said: ``The world's a little insane right now when it comes to law enforcement,'' and he sees for himself what that does to the morale of his officers. He has experienced how disheartening it is to have the whole force, not just in Alaska but across the country--these are hundreds of thousands of good police officers across our Nation who have very, very stressful jobs--being disparaged because of the horrific actions of a few.

Across the Nation, he said:

We have completely lost sight of the fact that there are so

many people doing a good job keeping communities safe every

day. These are people who really want to do a good job and

take care of the people and citizens around them.

We should remember that, especially during this week, National Police Week, when we remember the sacrifices of so many of our frontline heroes.

Justin and Monique, his wife, will be leaving the force permanently in June. The current acting chief is Kenneth McCoy--also a very impressive officer. We are all rooting for Chief McCoy. Of course, we are rooting for Justin and his future endeavors. As we are for all of our police officers across the country, we are thankful for Chief Doll's service--fulfilling his sacred duty--for keeping us safe, and for keeping our communities whole.

So, Justin, one more time, congratulations on a great job. Congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week.

Semper Fi.

Energy

Madam President, I would like you to hear a quote: ``You know, if you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you, clearly.'' That was from our Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, yesterday, as she told reporters all about the cyber attacks on the Colonial Pipeline and the ensuing gas shortages and price spikes.

Think about that, America.

Of course, the media just let her go. They didn't ask her if she knew that, just as meat doesn't come from a grocery store, energy just doesn't come from a wall. It doesn't just appear like magic when you plug into it. It comes from many sources, including from natural gas, including from oil.

The media didn't ask about natural gas--yes, and oil--needing pipelines.

The media didn't ask her if she knew that all energy, including alternative energy, requires transmission lines--lines that are also subject to being attacked like the Colonial Pipeline.

They didn't ask her if she knew that the cost of an electric car, the average price, is more than $55,000. Maybe that is a bargain for her, but for the people the Biden administration is putting out of work in the energy sector, that is a huge pricetag.

The media certainly didn't ask the Secretary of Energy how this cavalier, condescending attitude, once again, about our energy sector-- one of our country's huge strengths that employs hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans--is received by the average American who is being hurt right now.

There are so many questions that were not asked, so many questions that aren't being asked about the Colonial Pipeline issue, and so many that continue to not be answered by the administration when it comes to this specific situation and how this administration's energy policies threaten to make this short-term disruption of our energy supplies into a long-term reality across the country.

The cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline is a warning for America not just from a cyber security standpoint but from a broader energy perspective standpoint.

I participated yesterday in the briefing of U.S. Senators by the Secretaries of Energy, Transportation, and Homeland Security on this cyber attack that is creating disruptions in energy supplies across the country, particularly on the east coast. Here is the advice I gave these members of the Biden administration: Respectfully, I said that I fear that this is going to be commonplace, this kind of disruption--and not just from a cyber standpoint--if we don't change the Biden administration's energy policies for America.

What was I talking about? They are restricting the production of American energy. That is one of the great comparative advantages of our country--that of producing more in oil, more natural gas, and more renewables than any other country in the world. They are restricting the production of oil and gas.

You have senior administration officials going to Wall Street saying: Don't invest in energy companies. You have Federal Agencies that are either killing pipelines or slow-rolling pipelines. None of this is good for the country.

So here is the advice I gave them. Pipelines are good. We need them, as this Colonial Pipeline shutdown certainly demonstrates. Importing more oil from our adversaries like Russia is bad, but, by the way, that is what is happening with the Biden policies. So we need a change.

We have plenty of oil and gas for Americans. We should produce it, as we do, with the highest environmental standards for the benefit of our own citizens and not restrict it or, this issue, this kind of disruption is going to be much more commonplace in our country.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, this week America celebrates National Police Week. It is a time for us to stop and pay tribute to those who died in the line of duty defending our communities and to thank those who continue to serve our communities.

Law enforcement is a calling answered by a select few. These men and women have chosen a difficult and often dangerous life dedicated to keeping our communities safe, defending our civil liberties, and protecting our neighborhoods. These jobs, obviously, require tremendous courage and sacrifice, not just from the officers themselves but their families too, and I am grateful to those who selflessly serve our communities every day.

Under normal circumstances, the events of this week bring tens of thousands of uniformed officers to Washington, DC, from across the country. Through laying wreaths, candlelight vigils, and church services, they ordinarily gather in remembrance of their fallen brothers and sisters in person. In previous years, I have had the pleasure of welcoming a number of Texas officers and their families who have traveled to Washington, DC, for this National Police Week observation, but as in so many other ways, this year is not like previous ones.

Over the last year, our country has faced unprecedented heartbreak and turmoil, which have made a career in law enforcement even more challenging. First came the pandemic. While millions of Americans hunkered down in their homes to slow the spread of the virus, law enforcement personnel continued to lace up their boots and go to work every day.

With the spread of COVID-19 and the lack of proper personal protective equipment in the early stages of the pandemic, even simple interactions with members of the community carried risks.

At the same time, the stresses of the pandemic led to a surge of drug overdose deaths and an increase in family violence. And across the country, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of homicides.

When a deadly winter storm hit Texas in February, police officers took on even more responsibility. They worked around the clock to help folks without power or water, often while worrying about the safety of their own families.

For all the ways the last year has taught us to appreciate the unique role that law enforcement officers play in

our communities, it has also put these men and women at the center of a tough, but necessary, national conversation about racial justice.

The killing of George Floyd shone a spotlight on issues in our justice system that absolutely must be rooted out and led to a national conversation about the need to do so.

There is no question we need to take action to improve transparency and accountability within our police forces.

We need to strengthen the relationship between police and the communities they serve. I believe everybody can agree on those points.

But as a country, we need to remember that the actions of a few do not define the masses, the rest of us. The vast majority of police officers are honorable, dedicated public servants who go above and beyond the call of duty to keep us safe and are committed to improving accountability and trust in police. There is a saying that nobody hates a bad cop worse than a good cop. Last summer, police officers in Dallas hosted a rally to show their support for the efforts to stop police brutality and racial injustice. We need to remember that, except for these occasional outliers, we are all on the same team, fighting for a justice system that keeps our communities safe and treats every person with dignity and respect.

For some, this movement has led to radical calls to defund or even abolish the police--two very dangerous ideas. Over the last year, we have seen an increase in violent crime in our country. Last year, major cities experienced a 33-percent increase in homicides--33 percent. The early data shows that things aren't getting any better this year. In fact, in too many places, things are getting worse.

This simply isn't the time, if there ever were a time, to strip local police departments of funding; rather, it is time to provide them with the resources and the policies they need to safely and justly protect our communities. I know we are having a lot of discussions across the aisle on the most effective way to do that, and I hope that this year, unlike last year, we will be able to make progress.

A job in law enforcement, as I suggested, is never easy. These men and women put on the uniform and leave their families, never knowing what the day ahead may entail. In the back of their minds, they have a question--whether this is the last time they will ever see their loved ones. Stopping a violent crime, helping a neighbor in crisis--you never know what a police encounter could bring.

Four months ago, Capitol Police officers certainly didn't anticipate what their jobs would require on January 6. This building was stormed by a violent mob who tried to threaten the very foundations of our democracy.

That day, as we know, this building was filled with Members of Congress, our staff, journalists, and countless men and women whom we count on to keep Congress running every day. Fortunately, that also includes the brave men and women of the Capitol Police Force. While protecting the people inside this building, Capitol Police officers were assaulted, threatened, and subjected to the violence of the mob for hours on end.

In the wake of this tragedy, the Capitol Police lost two of their colleagues, Officer Brian Sicknick and Officer Howard Liebengood. Last month, Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans was killed while protecting this institution.

I am grateful for the sacrifices law enforcement officers make every single day. This week, we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. One of the most emblematic remembrances of that sacrifice is the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, which sits along the National Mall here in Washington, DC. It is a beautiful tribute to the Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty and features marble walls filled with more than 21,000 names. Each of these names represents a hero, and, sadly, this year we added the names of 55 Texans who were killed in the line of duty last year.

These officers gave their all in service to our communities and to our country. Of course, there is nothing we can do to adequately thank these heroes and their families for their sacrifice, but we can take action to protect their brothers and sisters in blue.

In recent years, we have seen brutal, inexcusable attacks on police officers around the country, including one in Dallas that completely rocked our entire State. In 2016, a man killed five officers and injured nine others. It was a sobering reminder of the dangers these officers face every day and a call for us to take action to do more to support them.

Yesterday, I reintroduced the Back the Blue Act to make clear our support for the public servants who dedicated their lives to protecting our communities. This legislation sends a strong message to more than 800,000 law enforcement officers in our country that they are supported and that violence against them will not be tolerated.

The Back the Blue Act adds stiff, mandatory penalties, and it makes it a Federal crime to kill or attempt to kill a law enforcement officer, a Federal judge, or a federally funded public safety officer. It also makes it a Federal crime to assault a law enforcement officer. These men and women put themselves in harm's way every day, and we must make it clear that violence against them will never be tolerated.

Right now, there is a serious need to improve the relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve, and this legislation will help there too. It will allow grant funds to be used for efforts to help foster more trust between police and the communities they protect.

In light of the national conversation over the past year regarding the need to improve these relationships, this could not be more important. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this legislation and show law enforcement across the country that we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

I was also pleased this morning when a bill that I am leading with my colleague Senator Coons called the Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila Federal Officer and Employee Protection Act passed out of the Judiciary Committee. That bill came in response to an appellate court decision that reversed the convictions of cartel members who murdered a Federal agent and attempted to murder another one while those agents were fighting the cartels in Mexico. An appeals court held that the United States did not have jurisdiction to try the cartel members for the murder and attempted murder. This bill closes that loophole and states unequivocally that we can and will try and convict those who murder our law enforcement officers, even those serving outside the United States.

I am grateful for the law enforcement officers who courageously and honorably serve our communities every day. This week, we honor them and the generations of officers who came before them. In particular, we pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of S. 593 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Murkowski amendment at the desk be agreed to and the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time.

Madam President, I know of no further debate on the bill, as amended.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, we are at a much better place at this moment in time for the people of the State of Alaska, who have been anxious. We have all been anxious throughout this time of COVID, but we have been particularly anxious as we have watched our tourist sector just be decimated. And when I say ``decimated,'' I mean in the sense that when you have such a significant portion of one economic sector, the tourist sector, come to your State by one means, by one mode--and for us, in the State of Alaska, that is cruise ship.

We have had an extraordinarily robust tourist economy, growing over the years. People want to come and see the beauty and the splendor, and for many, they want to be on the comfort of a ship and watch the views go by, see the glaciers, see the whales come on up. It is a great place to visit. But for the past year, ships have not been sailing to Alaska. This is due to not only the CDC and the no-sail orders the CDC has imposed but also because of the limitations that have been put in place by Canada in terms of no sailing through the Canadian waters.

So there has been an effort to, as we try to regain our footing, rebuild a tourist sector, but you can't just flip a switch here. You just can't get an industry back on its feet this quickly without everybody pulling together, and this has been a struggle to get everyone pulling together. But I think we are at a place where there is a glimmer of hope for Alaska's tourism industry.

We were here on this floor just a couple weeks ago, Senator Sullivan and myself, talking about how significant cruising is as an element to Alaska's economy. At the time, I shared a chart with colleagues that showed that in 2019 we had 1.3 million visitors come to Alaska on a cruise ship, and in 2020 we had 48 come to Alaska on a cruise ship. I said at the time: That is 48 passengers, not 48,000.

You can just guess what that did to our economy--the statewide unemployment rate rising from 6.2 to 11 percent; municipal and State revenues dropping significantly; and every day that passes, more lost revenues, more lost salaries, more economic distress. So the effort that we have made to, again, try to get ships back in the water, try to get them heading north, has been considerable.

We have heard from so many in not only our coastal communities but, really, communities around the State about the economic impact and the hit they have taken.

In the Indian Affairs Committee, we had a hearing just yesterday about the impact on Native tourism due to COVID, and we had the CEO of Huna Totem Corporation, Russell Dick, describe to the committee the profound ``disruption of our local economy, as 80 percent of our local tax base comes from tourism,'' he said. Consequently, ``leadership from the city of Hoonah, the community, and Icy Strait Point are all eager for cruise ships to return.'' Consider that. Eighty percent of your local tax base comes from tourism, and if you don't have passengers coming in, if you don't have visitors coming in, you basically have nothing. So we needed to address this. We needed to fix this.

We have been working aggressively, not only the Alaska delegation here working with Congressmen but working with all members of the administration. We have the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is literally on speed dial, the Director of the CDC, who really doesn't want to hear from us anymore because I think we have been so constant. We have been engaging with the Secretary of Commerce. We have taken this to the head of the Canadian Government as well, with letters to Prime Minister Trudeau and to his Cabinet, to his Parliament. So the effort that has been underway has been considerable.

We had an opportunity on the floor a couple weeks ago to discuss this very issue. We heard concerns raised by Senator Blumenthal about some consumer protection provisions. We heard concerns from Senator Lee about the Passenger Vessel Services Act, the PVSA. We weren't able to come to a resolution at the time, but I think what was good at that time was a commitment to keep working on this. We kept working on this, and we are now to the point where we have successfully passed this temporary PVSA fix through the Senate.

I want to state, though, that this is not a fix for the cruise companies, if you will. This is help, this is a fix, if you will, for the communities in Southeastern Alaska, the communities around Alaska for whom opening up some semblance of a cruise season this summer is literally going to determine their future--not just whether they are able to open this year but whether they are able to open at all going forward.

To tell people that they have to hold on through 2022, hold on for yet another 14 months--that is just not possible because it has already been 19 months that these communities have been so severely and so significantly impacted.

So the timing of this is key. It is critical. It is literally every day counting, every day that matters, so that our communities can get the folks back in the little store, get your teams hired up to take the tourists out on the attractions, get us back to a place where again we can be more stable from an economic perspective and with regards to the benefit to Alaskans and the employment.

We are ready to go back to work. We have been working hard on the vaccine. We have advertised ourselves as a State to be coming to if you are looking for your travel adventure and do so in a safe place. But we have been tied--our hands have been tied--in our ability to get the season back up and running and in a way that is going to provide for a level of safety for all.

We are continuing to make progress with CDC. I think that is an important part to add to because that has been an impediment to us. The CDC has been slow--torturously slow--in laying down their guidance, but I am optimistic that we are very close. Hopefully--hopefully--we are going to have the necessary certainty for cruise companies to ramp up their operations to again prepare to cruise to Alaska.

With the CDC paving the way over there and the PVSA issue, we are very hopeful--very, very hopeful--that we will be able to advance over in the House, working with our colleagues over there, to be able to provide this certainty for a very short season that will allow Alaskans to have some glimmer of hope here.

But I want to end with a comment and a statement that came from Mr. Russell Dick, again, the CEO of Huna Totem Corporation. Mr. Dick is indigenous from the Hoonah region. Hoonah was his community, his village that he grew up in. And he reminded us of the situation that Canada has really placed us in.

The reality is, he has a community where they may have literally no economy this summer if you can't get cruise ships in. Eighty percent of the employees that work at Icy Strait there are local and native hire. But his comment was that we are dealing with this because Congress, in his words, hasn't dealt with the PVSA. And he says: This is not Canada's fault; this is the Federal Government's fault. And he says: Let me be clear. The PVSA right now is preventing us from hiring Americans in an American community that desperately needs those jobs. The U.S. Congress is responsible for this problem.

I think Russell made it very, very clear to us that we have to address this. We have to address this. What we have done just now is we have shown that when Canada is going to make some tough decisions, we are not going to stand by. We are not just going to say ``pretty please,'' withering on the vine here until another country--until Canada--catches up with our level of readiness. It should be up to us to be able to restore our economy, and we will take the first steps to do just that.

So I want to thank Senator Sullivan, absolutely, for his leadership throughout all of this, but I also want to recognize Senator Lee, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Cantwell, and Senator Wicker and their teams for helping us get to this place today

where we can be in a spot where we can tell Alaskans the light is coming on.

With that, I will yield to my friend and colleague Senator Sullivan

Madam President, reserving the right to object, it would be a gross understatement to say that Alaska tourism and, indeed, tourism around the country is suffering and has been throughout the pandemic.

The cruise industry, which accounts for more than 50 percent of all tourists visiting Alaska every year, has been particularly decimated not only due to the pandemic but also because of an arcane law passed by Congress back in 1886.

This law, known as the Passenger Vessel Services Act, or PVSA, states that no ship that is foreign built, foreign owned, foreign flagged, or foreign crewed may transport passengers between two U.S. ports or places. So instead of operating continuously in U.S. waters, ships and cruise operators departing from the United States are forced to make stops in foreign ports in order to remain in compliance with this 130- year-old law.

In other words, we are literally shipping our tourism and our economic activity abroad to other countries and, in the process, we are destroying countless opportunities for our own coastal cities, States, and towns.

Now, you don't have to take my word for it. You can google this and see it for yourself. Cruises from the United States, if they leave from the United States, must make stops in Canada, Mexico, or Pacific Island States in order to avoid incurring the wrath and the heavy penalties of the Passenger Vessel Services Act. Instead of welcoming tourists and the dollars they spend into American ports, we drive them to Canada, to Mexico, and to Pacific Island States.

Does this law even succeed on its own protectionist terms? Does this law protect American shipbuilders? It decidedly does not. It decidedly does neither, in fact. Just to be clear, this is a point of differentiation here. I have made no secret about the fact that I don't like the Jones Act. The Jones Act is a separate beast from this. They are both beasts. I dislike both of them intensely. I would repeal both of them today if I had the chance. I understand, at least, with respect to the Jones Act, what the arguments are as to why we would want to keep them intact. I strongly disagree with them, and I believe U.S. consumers pay for them dearly, especially in places like Puerto Rico and in places like Hawaii, in parts of New England, and in other places where they have more limited access to the goods that they might otherwise have access to in the absence of the Jones Act.

There is a big difference between the PVSA and the Jones Act. At least with respect to the Jones Act, there are other considerations, and those considerations do not exist with respect to the PVSA.

Now, it is important to keep in mind, again, the difference between the Jones Act and the PVSA, which is that with the PVSA, we are dealing specifically with passenger vehicles, passenger vessels. I am directing my remarks today to those passenger vessels in the large passenger vessel category; that is, those with at least 800 passenger berths or more.

With respect to those, this is very significant because the United States has not built a single large cruise ship in over 60 years--not one, not a single one. With respect to large passenger vessels, this law is literally protecting no one.

At least with respect to the Jones Act, people can point out: Well, perhaps it is helping to nurture the U.S. shipbuilding industry. Again, I think that argument overlooks the fact that we are laying that burden on the backs of poor middle-class Americans in places like Puerto Rico and Hawaii and New England and Alaska and other

parts of the country. But at least I understand that, when there is an industry at issue there. It is an industry that is being greedy, and it is an industry that, really, is engaging in crony capitalism. But I understand the argument.

With respect to the PVSA, we are not protecting anything because we do not make large passenger vessels in this country and haven't for over half a century. And so by taking away opportunities for American jobs in dockside maintenance and repair, in ports and coastal cities, in hotels and restaurants, and in the travel support sector, this law, the PVSA, as applied to large passenger vessels, harms American workers, and it redirects the demand elsewhere.

It also harms consumers who have fewer options--fewer cruises that they can take, higher prices for those cruises that are offered. And as we have seen during the pandemic, it has left us subject to the will and whim of foreign powers.

Make no mistake, the PVSA is not ``America first.'' This is the encapsulation of ``special interests first'' or even, you might say, ``Canada first.'' Perhaps this is the reason that the Canadian Government lobbies Congress to keep the PVSA in place. Think about that for a minute.

This unfortunate situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic, during which Canada has closed its ports to cruise ships, making it, effectively, impossible for Alaskan cruises to carry on. But the only reason why Canada wields this tremendous authority over us is because of our own law--our own law that they are lobbying us to keep in place because they benefit from it, but they are shutting it down, making it impossible for Alaskan cruises for the time being.

Without the necessary foreign port call, cruises simply cannot travel to Alaska. Without relief, the Alaskan tourism industry will evaporate, harming Alaskan dock workers, repairmen, those in the hospitality services, and more.

Just the same, think about all the jobs that aren't created that could otherwise exist, that could exist tomorrow if we just got rid of this 130-year-old law that serves no purpose--the jobs, the vacation opportunities, especially in port States, not just Alaska but Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New York, and many, many others, places where cruise ships already depart but are severely hobbled as to their itineraries because of this law, the PVSA, that serves no one--no one, perhaps, except these foreign powers.

The CDC's outdated no-sail order has made these matters so much worse, and we have to address those as well.

Alaska already lost last summer's season. That is tragic. I can't imagine Congress would force them to lose yet another season now. Yet that might already be the case, you see, because unless they start moving those ships up there right now, there can't be any cruise ship season for Alaska this summer.

Now, my two colleagues from Alaska, thankfully, introduced a bill to help correct the issue by exempting certain Alaskan cruise lines from the PVSA for the duration of Canada's border closure, a bill that I was happy to support in order to provide short-term relief for Alaska, even if it didn't provide the reform needed for the long term, as we desperately need.

Unfortunately, the bill that is now before us has deviated from that purpose. It now has poison pill provisions that add duplicative, unnecessary, and unrelated regulations that will harm, not help, the cruise industry.

Look, I remain ready, willing, and eager to negotiate the terms of this, but we have to provide relief. It is not just about an industry. It is not just about any one State. It is about the access the American people have through their businesses or their own travel interests. We should be able to do this. It makes no sense to anyone. No one could plan a road trip and say that we can't go to a neighboring State unless we can touch back to a foreign country in the meantime. Nobody would fly to an adjacent State or across the country if, in the process, they had to fly to a third-party country merely in order to comply with some arcane Federal law--no one, except, of course, the very wealthy, who could still afford it. Most Americans can't.

And the Americans who can least afford this law--this law that serves no one, perhaps, except the foreign interests I mentioned, including, but not limited to Canada--the people who really suffer for that, are America's workers. Shame on us if we don't fix that.

Look, I remain hopeful, optimistic, and ever-willing to negotiate this. I have lots of amendments to offer up. In deference to my colleagues from Alaska, I am going to hold off on counterproposing those right now. But I am filing them, and they are ready to go. I hope we can negotiate our way through this. If we can't, shame on us. The PVSA is bad. It is bad news. We need to let it go.

For these reasons, I object.

Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of S. 593 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I ask unanimous consent that the Murkowski amendment at the desk be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, we talked a lot about the pandemic and all that it has brought. I would like to take just a few moments here, at the outset, before I ask for full consideration, to share with colleagues, very briefly, what we have faced in the State of Alaska with regard to our State's economy. We have probably taken a greater hit than any State in the country.

We saw a 32-percent drop in revenue last year, 10 percent higher than any other State in the Nation. We are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and that is good, but we are also facing the prospect of another devastating tourist season.

Back home, right now, people are not talking about the season for 2021 coming up. The motto is ``Get through to `22.'' That is an awful way to be approaching our situation so they have asked for help. They realize that anything that we can do to try to salvage even a few weeks of the tourist season is going to be important to us.

So Senator Sullivan and I have been working on behalf of hundreds of small businesses that rely on this essential income just so they can scrape by for another year. A lot of people don't think about cruise ships as being an essential activity during a pandemic but, let me tell you, in our State, where so much of our economy is based on tourism, it is an imperative. It is jobs; it is livelihoods; and it really is what allows our small communities to keep their doors open.

In 2019, before the pandemic was upon us, we were looking at 1.33 million tourists who came to the State of Alaska by way of cruise ship. That is pretty significant. In 2020, there were 48 passengers. That is 48 passengers. That is not 48,000. So, in other words, you had an economy that was looking pretty strong and pretty good, and it absolutely went into a free fall.

Normally, the tourism industry generates more than $214 million in State and municipal revenue, more than $1.4 billion in payroll, $2.2 billion in visitor spending, and the prospect was doing nothing but going up until we were hit in 2020. The vastly diminished cruise season contributed to statewide unemployment rising from 6.2 percent to 11 percent. Southeast Alaska had greater unemployment, which increased from 4.7 to 11.3--17 percent of all jobs in the region impacted.

This kind of unemployment and this kind of stress is an extraordinary challenge. So Alaskans are trying to figure out is there a way to salvage there, and there are two points here.

We are ready to welcome visitors back in the State. We are leading the country in vaccination rates. Half of

all Alaskans have had their first dose. So 43 percent are fully vaccinated, but we have got two issues that we are facing here; first is, the Centers for Disease Control has their no sail order for the cruise industry in place. We actually got some very encouraging news just last evening. CDC has acknowledged these changing circumstances with regard to vaccination. They updated their guidance for how to safely resume cruising, so that is good. That is a positive.

But we have got a second issue, and that second issue is that Canada has a ban on allowing passenger vessels to depart from or transit through their waters. We are dealing with a law that is controlling so much of this because, in the United States, we only allow domestically built, owned, and crewed vessels to operate on solely domestic trips. This is the Passenger Vessel Services Act, the PVSA.

So we have got a situation that without a stop in Canada, a cruise to Alaska is a domestic ship. Canada has effectively been available to cruise companies that offer voyages to Alaska--not built in the United States, not crewed by U.S. citizens, not permitted to sail in Alaska without making a stop in a foreign country because otherwise this violates the PVSA. So what we are trying to do, we are trying to work with the Canadians to resolve this issue. It has been tough making headway because Canada is in a different spot when it comes to their vaccines.

We have turned to a legislative fix, a temporary legislative fix. There are a lot of different opinions on PVSA and the Jones Act. I am not here to debate them today, but what I am trying to offer, along with Senator Sullivan, is a temporary fix that will allow the cruise ships to travel between Washington State and Alaska because what we are trying to do here--I am not trying to save the cruise companies; I am trying to save communities that are so dependent on these vessels that bring these passengers up.

For them, it is critical. If we can't get some level of relief, and we can't get folks north, they are not going to--they have been on hold now since last year. So 14 months until we get into 2022, on top of what we have already seen, these businesses won't be there.

What we are doing is we temporarily deemed that a voyage to Alaska from Washington State without a stop in Canada is, by law, a foreign voyage. So PVSA is not going to hold us back. I have worked with Senator Cantwell, and I have worked with Senator Blumenthal to address some of the issues that they have raised, and I thank them both for their efforts to work with me.

We have incorporated, in this amendment, three simple requirements-- two of which the industry already adheres to--requiring defibrillators on ships, making sure that the passengers' bill of rights is publicly available, and we asked the Secretary to consider a rulemaking on how to safely return human remains in the tragic event that someone passes away on a cruise. These are simple, commonsense changes that ensure cruises are safe for passengers and the crew.

Along with Senator Sullivan and Congressman Young, I would ask the Senate to consider and pass the Alaska Tourism Recovery Act so that cruises can gain some semblance--some semblance--of opportunity in Alaska, as they have for so long.

So, again, I will restate my motion here asking unanimous consent that Murkowski amendment No. 593 be called up and agreed to.

Madam President, to just wrap up this discussion, I really appreciate the comments from my colleague Senator Sullivan because I think you have really keyed in on where we are today.

The Alaska Tourism Restoration Act is such a narrowly defined in scope initiative to, again, create this very brief period of time to allow for what is left or what will remain of a tourist season to proceed. But we are faced with bigger issues, and these issues clearly evoke great passion and debate, whether it is consumer protection or to Senator Lee's concerns that he has raised overall about Jones Act and