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.
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
11.11.21
Murkowski Welcomes New Federal Land Allotments to Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) issued the following statement after the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced it has finalized the first federal land allotments under the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veteran Land Allotment Program. Murkowski worked with Senator Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young (both R-AK), as well as Alaskan champions such as Nelson Angapak, Sr., to establish the new allotments program through her omnibus public lands bill in 2019. "We worked hard to enact this prog… Continue Reading
11.11.21
Senator Murkowski Speaks in Honor of Veterans Day
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released the following statement in honor of Veterans Day: For video of Senator Murkowski, click here. "On Veterans Day, we express how grateful we are to all who served in America's armed forces, and for the sacrifices that they willingly made on our behalf. We also know that many veterans endure the toll of their service well beyond the days of being in uniform. Their military service might be complete, but their sacrifice remains. "Our country and w… Continue Reading
11.08.21
ICYMI: Historic Infrastructure Package Heading to President’s Desk
Late Friday night, the House passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, legislation U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and her bipartisan group of nine other Senators worked for months to negotiate, draft, and pass through the full Senate. The infrastructure package - which drew the support of 228 members of the House, including Congressman Don Young (also R-AK) - will now head to the President to be signed into law. In case you missed it, Senator Murkowski recently highlighted some of… Continue Reading
11.06.21
Vice Chairman Murkowski: Historic Infrastructure Package Heading to President's Desk
Today, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, applauded the House passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, legislation she and a bipartisan group of nine Senators worked for months to negotiate, draft, and pass through the full Senate. Included in the legislation that will now head to the President's desk is substantial funding for Federal programs and Native communities to address water and sanitation, transportation, broadband… Continue Reading
11.05.21
Historic Infrastructure Package Heading to President’s Desk
Today U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) applauded the House passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, legislation she and a bipartisan group of ten Senators worked for months to negotiate, draft, and pass through the full Senate. The bipartisan bill will upgrade and modernize our core infrastructure-making critical investments in roads, bridges, rail, ferries, ports, airports, energy, water systems, and broadband. The landmark legislation also strengthens electric grid resiliency … Continue Reading
11.03.21
Schatz, Murkowski Lead Bipartisan National Native American Heritage Month Resolution
U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai'i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), vice chairman of the Committee, introduced a Senate resolution recognizing November 2021 as National Native American Heritage Month. "Every November we observe Native American Heritage Month to celebrate Native Hawaiian, American Indian, and Alaska Native peoples and their diverse cultures, achievements, and contributions," said Chairman Schatz. "I am honored to… Continue Reading
