Press Releases
Media Requests: Members of the media can contact the press office by emailing Joseph_Plesha@murkowski.senate.gov or by calling 206-302-8317 and asking for the press office.
Murkowski: Defense Authorization Bill Will Bolster Alaska, National Security
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted in favor of S. 1605, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22), helping it to pass the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 88-11. This year's NDAA authorizes $768 billion for national defense, including $740 billion for the Department of Defense's (DOD) annual budget to ensure the Pentagon can compete and thrive amid strategic competition. The bill prioritizes military members and their families, training and readiness, strengt… Continue Reading
12.13.21
Klobuchar, Murkowski, Collins, Sinema Legislation to Honor Justices Ginsburg and O’Connor with Statues in the Capitol Passes Senate
Legislation sponsored by U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, along with U.S. Senators Murkowski (R-AK), Collins (R-ME), and Sinema (D-AZ), to place statues of former Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor in the U.S. Capitol or on the U.S. Capitol grounds to honor their service and dedication to our country passed the Senate unanimously. "Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor were trailblazers long before reaching the Su… Continue Reading
12.11.21
Murkowski: Latest Numbers Show Dangers of Reconciliation Spending Spree
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today released the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released reports showing the harm being caused by the Biden administration's energy and social spending policies. BLS reported that inflation is at a 39-year high, while CBO projected that the 'Build Back Better' agenda would add $3 trillion to the deficit over a single decade if made permanent. "These reports make it abundantly clear that Pr… Continue Reading
12.10.21
Act for ALS Act Passes House, Cosponsored by Majority of the Senate
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies (ACT) for ALS Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and U.S. Representatives Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.). The passage of the bill in the House comes just as the companion bill reaches 55 cosponsors in the Senate, with Senators Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) having been the 50th … Continue Reading
12.10.21
Murkowski Votes to Overturn Vaccine Mandate for Private Businesses
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) this week voted to overturn President Biden's vaccine and testing mandate for private employers. After cosponsoring S.J.Res. 29, a resolution of disapproval against the vaccine mandate, she helped the Senate pass it on a bipartisan vote of 52-48. "The Senate voted to overturn the President's mandate and I hope the House will follow suit. I question the constitutionality of this mandate and believe it sets a dangerous precedent. It is within a private employer'… Continue Reading
12.10.21
Vice Chairman Murkowski Takes Action To Address Violence Occurring in Alaska Native Communities
This week, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA) held an oversight hearing focused on "Restoring Justice: Addressing Violence in Native Communities through VAWA Title IX Special Jurisdiction." Concurrent with the hearing, Vice Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Chairman Brian Schatz (D-HI) released a discussion draft of the tribal title for the upcoming Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization for public comment. During her opening remarks at this week's hearing, Murkowski spok… Continue Reading
12.10.21
Grant Roundup: Senator Murkowski Announces Federal Grants to Alaska
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the senior Senator for Alaska, announced the following grants to organizations, Tribal entities, and communities in Alaska: Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: $184,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to create or expand programs to identify sources of lead in drinking water in tribally operated schools and childcare facilities. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: $199,991 from the National Science Foundation to collaborate with triba… Continue Reading
12.08.21
Murkowski, Schatz Work to Improve the Safety of Native American Women
Today, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai'i), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Vice Chairman of the SCIA, released draft legislation of a tribal title aimed at improving the safety of Native women in Indian Country and Alaska Native Villages. This bipartisan discussion draft reflects tribal stakeholder input over years of Committee oversight and legislative activity on public safety in Indian Country and Alaska Native communities, includi… Continue Reading
11.29.21
Murkowski Slams Interior Oil and Gas Report
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today released the following statement criticizing the Department of the Interior's "Report on the Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Program," which it issued the day after Thanksgiving after months of unexplained delay. The report, whose preparation was frequently used to justify the Biden administration's illegal ban on oil and gas leasing, calls for higher royalties and other policy actions that would restrict access and make energy production less viable in f… Continue Reading
11.24.21
Three Murkowski Bills Pass Out of Energy and Natural Resources Committee
During a recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee business meeting, three bills sponsored by U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) were reported favorably out of committee, advancing to the full Senate for consideration. S. 2524 amends the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to make clear that dividends from Settlement Trusts cannot be considered when determining eligibility for federal need-based programs for a Native or descendant of a Native who is 65 years or older, blind, or disab… Continue Reading
11.23.21
Murkowski: Biden Administration’s Decision to Tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve is Misguided and Insufficient
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today issued the following statement after the Biden administration announced it will exchange and sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which is meant to be used to respond to severe energy supply disruptions. Murkowski knocked the administration for pursuing this false solution - debunked as recently as last week at a hearing held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee - after months of supply-side restrictions that have added to … Continue Reading
11.22.21
Murkowski, Sullivan Introduce Landless Legislation to Rectify 50-Year Injustice
U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, introduced updated legislation to allow the Alaska Native communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Tenakee to form urban corporations and receive land entitlements under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The five Southeast communities were not included in ANCSA, which divided 44 million acres of land among more than 200 regional, village, and urban corporations to resolve land claims throughout Alaska… Continue Reading
11.22.21
Grant Roundup: Senator Murkowski Announces Grants Going to Alaska
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a senior member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced the following grants heading to organizations, Tribal entities, and communities in Alaska: Cordova: $20 million for the Cordova South Harbor Rebuild from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability & Equity (RAISE) grant program. This project will restore South Harbor floats and docks, including sheet piling and dredging, and construction of a new drive-down floatplane a… Continue Reading
11.20.21
Alaska Delegation Criticizes Biden Administration Rule to Restrict Economic Activity Across the Tongass
U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, issued the following statements after the U.S. Forest Service announced it will attempt to re-impose near-blanket restrictions on road construction and other economic activities across millions of acres of the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service will seek to do this by proposing a new rule to reinstate the 2001 Roadless Rule, despite finalizing a different rule to exempt the Tongass from the 2001 rule … Continue Reading
11.19.21
Delegation Condemns Harmful Resource Provisions in Partisan Reconciliation Bill
U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Congressman Don Young (all R-Alaska) today sharply criticized the House of Representatives' passage of a partisan reconciliation bill that would repeal the oil and gas program for the non-wilderness portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). That provision is among several in the bill that would harm Alaska's ability to responsibly produce energy and mineral resources needed by the rest of the country and the world. "The House reconcili… Continue Reading
11.19.21
Senators Introduce Bill Focused on Blue Carbon Ecosystems
Senate Oceans Caucus Co-Chairs U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) reintroduced the Blue Carbon for Our Planet Act, legislation focused on conserving, restoring, and understanding coastal blue carbon ecosystems. Blue carbon ecosystems-which include mangroves, tidal marshes, seagrasses, and kelp forests-provide a buffer from storm- or wave-driven coastal erosion, improve water quality, and serve as habitat for juvenile fish while also removing carbon from the ocean … Continue Reading
11.17.21
Murkowski Announces Anchorage, Alaska Chosen as Home for Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski today announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) selected Anchorage, Alaska as the location for the new Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. Named in honor of the late U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, the Stevens Center will support and strengthen advances DoD is making in the Arctic, using security cooperation, research and academia, and diplomacy. The Center will be the sixth DoD Regional Center and the only one specifically focused on the Arctic. "I h… Continue Reading
11.16.21
Senator Murkowski Joins Indian Boarding Schools Commission Legislation
Today, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, made the following statement after signing on as the lead Republican co-sponsor of S. 2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Act. "For many years, thousands of Native children were taken from their families, homes, and communities, and forced to attend boarding schools far away. These Indian boarding schools stripped Native children of their identities and forced them to ass… Continue Reading
11.15.21
Alaskans Voice Strong Support for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today attended a White House signing ceremony during which President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law. The measure provides historic investments into roads, bridges, ports, airports, broadband, ferries, water and wastewater, resilience, and energy projects-modernizing and upgrading the nation's core infrastructure. As a lead author and negotiator of this bipartisan infrastructure package, Murkowski secured a range of provi… Continue Reading
11.15.21
Senators’ Statement on Historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Being Signed into Law
U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Rob Portman (R-OH), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Mark Warner (D-VA) issued the following statement after the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law. The law represents the largest investment in infrastructure in our nation's history. "Today's signing of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act i… Continue Reading
