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Session: State Capitol, Room 30 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-3873 Fax: (907) 465-3922 Send E-Mail Interim: PO Box 1441 Wrangell, AK 99929-1141 Phone: (907) 874-2318 Fax: (907) 874-3470 352 Front St Ketchikan, AK 99901 Phone: (907) 225-8088 Fax: (907) 225-0713 |
For Immediate Release: April 14, 1999
Contact: Senator Robin Taylor at (907) 465-3873.
Juneau -- Senator Robin Taylor (R-Wrangell), will testify April 15, before the United States Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on behalf of the Alaska State Legislature on two bills of significant importance to the State of Alaska.
S. 501, introduced by U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), provides for the continuation of Alaska's historical commercial and subsistence fishing activities within Glacier Bay National Park. The bill is intended to address the ongoing federal infringement of the state's sovereignty under the constitutional doctrine of equal footing, as confirmed by Congress in the Submerged Lands Act, and the Alaska Statehood Act.
The Alaska State Legislature holds that the United States government has no jurisdiction over the navigable waters of Alaska nor the submerged lands beneath. Nothing in federal law mandates the closure of Glacier Bay National Park, a remote and relatively inaccessible national park, to recreational, commercial or subsistence fishing. However, the federal bureaucracy is trying to eliminate some of these uses.
Fishermen are being harassed unnecessarily by Park Service Rangers and the constant threats of regulatory restrictions are having unsettling effects on people's lives. Alaskans have a 40-year record of commitment to good stewardship of the resources we manage within the Park and this good stewardship is expected to continue. Passage of S. 501 will authorize continued subsistence fishing and gathering under the existing federal governing authority for such activities.
S. 744, also introduced by Senator Frank Murkowski, will, when enacted, fulfill the original land commitment of the federal government to the University of Alaska.
In March, 1915 the United States granted the Territory of Alaska a total of approximately 268,000 acres of federal land for the University of Alaska. Due to the survey requirements and other impediments, less than 12,000 acres of the original grant, including the 2,250-acre campus, were conveyed before repeal of the 1915 Act by the Alaska Statehood Act in 1959.
As a result of this inequity, the University of Alaska has received one of the smallest land grants in the country. Among the 48 states which had received federal land or land scrip to establish land-grant colleges, mining schools, teachers' colleges, and state universities, only Delaware received fewer acres than Alaska.
S. 744 would grant 250,000 acres of federal land to the University of Alaska. The bill would grant an additional 250,000 acres of federal land to the University provided that the State of Alaska granted a like amount. Senate Bill 7, sponsored by Senator Taylor, was introduced in the Alaska State Legislature earlier this year. SB 7 would grant the University 250,000 acres of state land which would meet the requirements of S. 744 for matching acreage. This would finally make our University a true land grant college.
The Alaska Senate and the Alaska House of Representatives strongly support both S. 501 and S. 744 and urge the Congress to pass these measures as quickly as possible.