Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Bureau of Land Management Relating to ``Central Yukon Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan''

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEGICH. Mr. Speaker, we are in uncharted territory. We are in uncharted territory because the previous administration took us here.

At the end of the day, we hear from voices across America, but we don't hear from the voices of the people of my home State. The people who I have spoken with, the landowners, the Alaska Natives, who were not consulted by the previous administration in the development and approval of this resource management plan, have stepped forward and said: We need to remove this plan, and we need to make sure that something like this does not happen again in the future.

I rise today in strong support of H.J. Res. 106, a resolution to overturn the Bureau of Land Management's 2024 Central Yukon Resource Management Plan. This Biden-era management plan locks up more than 13 million acres of land in Alaska, part of a region that spans 56 million acres in my State.

The plan threatens economic opportunity and undermines national security while ignoring the needs of everyday Alaskans. The plan also designates more than 3.6 million acres as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern with little or no justification.

The Biden plan restricts access to Alaska Native lands, violating commitments made under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Sadly, the plan also continues outdated land withdrawals that block responsible access to our Nation's critical mineral resources.

Mr. Speaker, this is not balance. It is Federal overreach that is ensuring that Alaska's wealth stays in the ground, unavailable to the people of one of America's most impoverished regions.

The plan also obstructs projects vital to America's future, such as the Ambler Road, which will bring access to strategic and critical minerals; and the Alaska LNG project, which is projected to deliver 3.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and create more than 10,000 jobs in Alaska.

These projects are essential to American energy security. They are essential to Alaska's economic growth, and they are essential to lowering costs for America's working families.

This resolution supports President Trump's commitment to unleashing Alaska's extraordinary energy and resource potential. It restores balance to public land policy, ensures that we meet our commitments to Alaska's Native communities, and allows for opportunity in an area of my State that is desperately in need.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.J. Res. 106 to strengthen America's energy and mineral dominance, to strengthen our economic and national security, and to keep our promises to the people of Alaska.

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Mr. BEGICH. Mr. Speaker, fewer than 20 Alaska native Vietnam-era veterans have received their conveyances. A big part of the reason why so few of the more than 2,000 eligible Vietnam-era veterans or their heirs have received those lands is because they were delayed or outright blocked by the previous administration.

The previous administration blocked their ability to select and receive their lands. To hear my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, in this Chamber suggesting that somehow Republicans are standing in the way of Vietnam-era veteran land conveyances in my home State is ludicrous. It is simply not true.

In fact, my bill extends the available time for them to make those selections by 5 years, and there is nothing in this CRA that prevents them from making those selections. We hope that they do. In fact, we want more land to be available to those families. In fact, there are some communities in Alaska where Vietnam-era veterans who are eligible in this program have to select land hundreds of miles away from their own community.

We are trying to unlock the State of Alaska, Mr. Speaker. It is my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this Chamber that have repeatedly blocked our ability to do so.

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