Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I come to the floor with my friend and colleague from Nevada Senator Cortez Masto to seek unanimous consent to pass two noncontroversial bills as a bipartisan pair. The first is H.R. 2815. This is sponsored by Congressman Begich from Alaska. It is the identical companion to my Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act. And the second is H.R. 972, sponsored by Representative Dina Titus of Nevada. It is the identical companion to Senator Cortez Masto's Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act.

These are important bills to those in Southeastern Alaska and in Nevada. It probably won't make headlines out of those two areas, but they are very significant and important bills. After more than five decades, the Cape Fox bill will finally complete the land entitlement for the Native Village of Saxman in Southeast Alaska. The Sloan Canyon bill will facilitate construction of a water pipeline in the Las Vegas Valley. This is critical infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of people.

These are House-passed bills, OK, so they can go directly to the President's desk to be signed into law. I mentioned that they are both noncontroversial. Their pairing is also noncontroversial. Both have had full process in the Senate over the course of multiple Congresses. So if these look familiar, it is because we have seen them before.

Both these bills passed the Senate by unanimous consent at the end of 2024, so over a year ago. Our cloakrooms on both sides of the aisle hotlined them again 6 weeks ago, and so that is what brings us here today as we are still trying to move them.

We have kind of gotten to a really difficult and frustrating-- frustrating, as much as anything--time in our process. People are wondering, and they are asking me--those in the Ketchikan-Saxman area: What is the holdup here? If everybody is supportive of this, why is it taking so long and proving so hard for Congress to agree on things?

I don't have a good answer on that. I am not sure that there is one. But, again, we are trying to move noncontroversial bills through a process that requires support and consent on both ends of this building. And this end of the building has said yes, and things are getting stuck over on the other side. And rather than point fingers and call names, I want to unstick things. I want to have us know that we can move these bills that are important in our communities and in our regions and they don't get taken hostage, if you will, by the other body as they are trying to figure out how they gain leverage over something else here. That is not fair to the constituents that we represent. That is not fair to the lawmakers who are working very hard to try to advance their bills. So I appreciate the discussion that I have had with my colleagues here on the floor about a way, a process, a dialogue that needs to be had with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

So there are a few bills that we are looking at today specifically, but I think it goes to a bigger concern that needs to be addressed in a way that is going to work for other Members who are also trying to advance their bills into full passage by law.

So my commitment to my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle and on the Democrat side of the aisle is let's leave from here and let's make the calls to set up the sitdowns with our colleagues on the other side--in the other body--to talk about how we are going to move these in a way that is fair and does not penalize the Members, the communities. We need to do right by our own process, and I would just suggest that we need to be doing more than we are so that we are not in a situation where we are waiting months and months and months to be able to see these matters resolved.

Before I make any motion on these bills, I want to yield to Senator Cortez Masto.

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, we speak about the frustrations. There is always room for frustration around here. But I share the many concerns of my friend from California. Three of my bills and ones that he also cares about and more that I have cosponsored are also pending over there. And so this is not just the three of us sharing that we need to find a path forward, but I think it is also an effort and a need to find a path forward, working with the House to move these bills forward.

In the meantime, here in the Senate, we need to keep doing our work, but we can't forget that we have the other body that we need to have a working relationship with, and passage of the bills requires just that.

So I think, today, we want to get focused on outcomes, pushing to pass the bills where we can, however we can, whether they start with an ``H.R.'' or an ``S,'' not caring about who gets the credit but just making sure we are advancing some laws here.

2815, Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act of 2025 and H.R. 972, Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act.

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I want to thank not only the Senator from California but my colleague Senator Cortez Masto from Nevada as we have worked through this.

Know that the Senator from California does have my commitment to try to address not only the matters that are on your specific docket today but, again, to try and find a better path forward for all the legislation that means so much to so many of us in our communities. And I thank you for the courtesy today.

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