Alaska State Legislature

News From The Senate and House Majorities

Ken Freeman (907) 465-3804
Wendy Lindskoog (907) 465-4582
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Actuality line: 1-800-478-6540
http://www.akrepublicans.org

Legislators To Evaluate Administration’s Progress On RS 2477 Rights-of-Way

JUNEAU -- A joint Senate and House Resources oversight hearing will be held Thursday, February 6, at 1:00 p.m. in Senate Finance Room 532 to evaluate the progress made by the state administration in pursuing RS 2477 rights-of-way since the last hearing in the Fall of 1995.

"The Legislature funded and encouraged an aggressive program for the state administration to assert the state’s ownership of RS 2477 rights-of-way," said Senator Rick Halford, Chair of Senate Resources. "On Thursday, we will ask members of the Department of Law, Department of Natural Resources and other state agencies to give a status report."

Halford noted that Revised Statute 2477, as enacted by Congress in 1866, guaranteed to the American public the right to establish access across federal lands. State law provides the basis for determining and defining RS 2477 rights-of-way.

In 1976, RS 2477 was repealed, but Congress recognized the legal existence of RS 2477 rights-of-way existing up to that date. The State of Alaska completed a $1.2 million, 2-year review of rights-of-way in Alaska and determined that 560 routes appear to qualify as RS 2477s.

"Recent actions by the federal Department of Interior (DOI) indicate an unwillingness to work with the states to establish RS 2477 rights-of-way," said Representative Scott Ogan, Co-Chair of the House Resources Committee. "The Department of the Interior has become the equivalent to a feudal landlord standing as a major obstacle to our state’s legitimate claims."

"Given the importance of access to Alaska's economic future, Alaska must continue to aggressively assert RS 2477 access routes and aggressively oppose the Department of the Interior's blatant disregard for the laws passed by Congress," said Representative Bill Hudson, Co-Chair of the House Resources Committee.

"All Alaskans must agree that bureaucrats, 5,000 miles away, should not be making decisions that belong in the hands and minds of Alaskans," said Halford.

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