The rights and responsibilities Alaskans won in our 1959 statehood victory are under continuing threat of erosion from the federal government. The Majority is defending these rights, passing legislation to protect Alaskans’ use of our public lands and wildlife, and our natural and financial resources.

Ensuring access for resources and recreation

• We worked with Alaska’s Congressional Delegation to protect Alaskans’ access to traditional hunting, fishing, and recreation areas.
• HJR 11 and SJR 39 encourage the United States Congress to pass S. 2214, a bill opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to responsible exploration, development, and production of its oil and gas resources.
• SJR 5 urges the National Park Service to allow snowmachiners to enter areas in Denali National Park that had been closed.
• HJR 60 opposes pending critical habitat designations by the federal government and asks the governor to pursue legal action if they are enacted.

Protecting Alaska's Lands and Waters

• We provided testimony before the U.S. Senate Resources Committee to protect commercial and subsistence fishing in Glacier Bay.
• HJR 15 urges Congress to pass the American Lands Sovereignty Act, affirming the authority of Congress over federal lands. HJR 15 also objects to naming any more sites in Alaska as World Heritage Sites or Biosphere Reserves without prior consent of the Alaska Legislature.

State-Federal Relations

• HJR 12 urges the federal government to withdraw its claims on the billions of dollars Alaska will receive from a huge settlement between certain states and tobacco companies.
• We testified before Congress opposing unfunded federal mandates.
• HJR 29 endorses U.S. Senate legislation sponsored by Senator Frank Murkowski to divide the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.