▶ 0:20:47Chair Lee: The committee will come to order. Good morning and welcome. Today we're holding a business meeting to consider the nominations and some legislation. I support each of these items and I urge my colleagues to support them as well. First I'll give my opening statement and then recognize senator heinrich for his ranking member statement. But to accommodate our members' schedules, as soon as there is a voting quorum present, I'll pause briefly and move along with votes.
▶ 0:21:16Chair Lee: And then after the voting and statements are concluded, I'll recognize any senator who may wish to speak on the business listed for today's meeting. President trump has selected three highly qualified nominees to serve in positions with significant consequences for american energy, public lands, and national security.
▶ 0:21:38Chair Lee: William hague has served as principal deputy assistant secretary for insular, international and ocean affairs since may of last year and brings decades of experience to the job. The office has been nominated, the office he's been nominated to lead is responsible for america's territories and our relationship with the freely associated states at a time when the chinese communist party is seeking greater influence throughout the pacific.
▶ 0:22:05Chair Lee: Kevin lilly has served as acting assistant secretary of the fish and wildlife and parks since june of last year. He's led major private sector institutions, served the state of texas and spent decades in military service. The decisions of the office he's been nominated to lead affect the management of hundreds of millions of acres of federal land and the communities surrounding them. I'm confident that Mr.
▶ 0:22:29Chair Lee: Lilly will bring experienced leadership and respect to the people who live closest to that land. Kaveh farzad brings experience from the department of energy's office of international affairs. In prior service to the state department, american energy abundance strengthens our economy, supports our allies, and limits the leverage of hostile regimes. Mr.
▶ 0:22:55Chair Lee: Farzad's background has prepared him to advance american energy interests abroad, protect work, and help achieve american energy independence. During their confirmation hearings, each of these nominees demonstrated confidence and a firm grasp of the challenges they will face. Each is uniquely qualified to serve in the positions for which they've been nominated, and I urge colleagues to support all three.
▶ 0:23:18Chair Lee: I also want to speak briefly about the small county parity act sponsored by senator daines and cortez masto. The federal government owns more than 2/3 of the land in my state, the state of utah. Counties cannot collect property taxes on that land, because they're prohibited by law from doing so. Yet they're charged with maintaining roads, supporting emergency services, and conducting stephen and rescue operations, and otherwise providing for their residents.
▶ 0:23:48Chair Lee: The federal government owns the land. Local communities carry the cost. Congress created the payment in lieu of taxes program 50 years ago to provide partial compensation for the tax base that washington, D.C. has removed from them. I emphasize there partial. For many small counties, the current payments remain woefully inadequate.
▶ 0:24:13Chair Lee: A county may have relatively few residents, while maintaining an enormous amount of federally controlled land. And a correspondingly small amount of land from which tax revenue can be derived. And in countless circumstances, that is the case. The small county parity act would establish additional payment tiers for counties with fewer than 5,000 residents.
▶ 0:24:41Chair Lee: This reform would allow these communities to receive payments that more accurately reflect the burdens placed upon them. Mass federal landownership has left public land states on an unequal footing. This cannot fully correct that inequality, but congress should ensure that the program better reflects the real costs imposed on rural communities. So I applaud senators daines and cortez masto for advancing this bill.
▶ 0:25:09Chair Lee: I want to recognize senator murkowski's work on the alaska native landless equity act. When congress enacted the alaska native claims settlement act in 1971, five southeast alaska native communities were excluded from recognition. Other similarly situated communities received corporate status and land, while these five were left out.
▶ 0:25:35Chair Lee: The legislation would finally recognize those communities and provide them the same opportunity to organize and receive land that congress extended to others more than 50 years ago. Senator murkowski has worked for years to resolve this issue. The committee has examined the legislation for multiple hearings and reported a similar bill in the 118th congress. She and her staff have remained persistent on behalf of these communities, and I applaud their work.
▶ 0:26:06Chair Lee: Senator heinrich?
▶ 0:26:06Sen. Heinrich: Thank you, chairman. I will be voting no on Mr. hague and Mr. farzad's nominations today. My opposition is not to these nominees personally. But frankly, to the policies of the trump administration which have been -- which they have been nominated to further.
▶ 0:26:27Sen. Heinrich: For the past year and a half, this administration has consistently sought to roll back the nation's programs on climate, clean energy, on land conservation, and stewardship, and on environmental protection. It is also waged a war on the west by trying to sell public lands and erase our history from our national parks and monuments. I have no reason to believe that these nominees, if confirmed, will charge a different course. I will, however, make an exception for Mr. lilly.
▶ 0:26:57Sen. Heinrich: He has taken my calls, listened to my concerns, and shown a willingness to work with me on issues of concern. And for that reason, I will vote to report his nomination. Turning to the bills on the agenda, I first want to thank chairman lee for putting senator bennet and hickenlooper's crystal reservoir bill agenda item number 18 on both the agenda and the shortlist. The crystal reservoir bill is a good example of how the committee should operate.
▶ 0:27:27Sen. Heinrich: It is a bipartisan bill sponsored by a republican in the house and two democrats in the senate, and the forest service has been supporting. It transfers a federal reservoir site to the local government in order to restore what had been an economic engine for the community, while at the same time ensuring the land remains in public ownership with full public access for recreational activities.
▶ 0:27:53Sen. Heinrich: I also want to thank the chairman for cosponsoring a substitute amendment which improves the bill by addressing several technical concerns that were raised by the forest service. As I said, this is how we should be doing our work, and it should serve as an example of how we can work together to move beneficial legislation. It also stands in stark contrast to the treatment of 14 other bills on the agenda that are not on the shortlist and will not be considered today.
▶ 0:28:22Sen. Heinrich: Like the crystal reservoir bill, it deserves the committee's attention and favorable consideration. Lastly, I want to acknowledge the good-faith discussions that I have had with senator murkowski on s.2554. While we are not yet in a place where I can vote yes today, I am committed to working with senator murkowski to find a past forward, and I look forward to our continued conversations.
▶ 0:28:49Chair Lee: Thanks so much, senator heinrich. We're now just one member shy of a voting quorum. I'm told that should be resolved within a couple of minutes. We can start into the process now in any event. What we're going to do is have voice votes on amendments for the bills, followed by voice votes on the bills themselves, and then proceed with a roll call. A series of roll call votes pending nominations.
▶ 0:29:18Chair Lee: And then afterwards I'll recognize any member of the committee who may wish to speak. I'm told that without the recording quorum present, we can go ahead and proceed with the four voice votes on the amendments themselves. If by then we still don't have a reporting quorum, we may have to pause for a moment. Let's go ahead and do these.
▶ 0:29:41Chair Lee: Unless any member feels compelled to speak on any of the amendments prior to voting, I ask that we proceed to a voice vote on the four amendments en bloc. That's 10-a to agenda item 10. Amendment 17-a to agenda item 17. Amendment 18-a too agenda item 18. And amendment 20-a to agenda item 20. Committee will vote by voice en bloc on these amendments. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed say nay.
▶ 0:30:16Chair Lee: Theys appear to have it. The amendments are agreed to. In any moment we will proceed to a voice votes on the bills as amended as soon as the reporting quorum is present.
▶ 0:30:34Sen. Daines: Just for the time, chairman, thanks for the kind words about the small county parity act you mentioned. Just brief background, the problem we have is we've got large counties out west at very low populations, and the calculation is driven primarily by calculation, not square miles. So this is really a fairness issue. I can tell you there's some real small counties out in montana that are bigger than new mexico or utah.
▶ 0:31:03Sen. Daines: That's not quite right, but they seem that way. And consequently, they feel like their voice is never heard back here in washington. And this is going to be a true boost forward here to help them. Because they've got to deliver the same services no matter the size of the county, which a high percentage of federal land, so this will be a big win for a bunch of big counties from a geography point, but very small by population. So thanks for the support on that.
▶ 0:31:31Chair Lee: Thank you. It's a very useful bill. We got counties in utah, including dagget county, including wayne county that could really benefit from this approach. When you've got, especially when you've got a very small population and you've got the double whammy where you've got the 90-plus percent of the land in that county being federal, it leaves a tiny tax base and very little money and big problems, so thanks for working.
▶ 0:32:07Sen. Daines: Their voice has finally broken through, Mr. chairman, and I want to thank senator cortez masto for being a great partner on this as well.
▶ 0:32:13Chair Lee: Great.
▶ 0:33:08Chair Lee: All right, we'll take care of one other procedural matter while we're waiting. The previously discussed national parks subcommittee hearing was not noticed for members on tuesday. For that reason, in accordance with rule 4-a of the news, I ask unanimous consent this subcommittee hearing be noticed following today's business meeting for tuesday, july 21, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. Is there objection? Without objection, the hearing will be noticed following today's business meeting.
▶ 0:33:44Chair Lee: >> Mr. chairman?
▶ 0:33:44Sen. Murkowski: Mr. chairman, if we're just marking time here, I'm happy to either sing or tap dance, whichever you would prefer. Both are going to be bad. But I can talk very eloquently about my particular bill, if it's appropriate at this time. And then when we do achy a quorum, I'm happy to suspend my comments.
▶ 0:34:09Sen. Murkowski: But I want to thank you as the chairman and your team, as well as senator heinrich for including s.2554. The alaska native landless equity act. This is no stranger to this committee. We've had actually seven hearings on this matter since 2013.
▶ 0:34:33Sen. Murkowski: So it is well known, the history in alaska is also well known, and unfortunately, a really kind of a sad history. As you have mentioned in your comments, there are five small communities in southeastern alaska, haynes, ketchikan, petersburg and rangel that were just omitted when we passed the alaska claims settlement act back in 1971. Nobody really knows why.
▶ 0:35:03Sen. Murkowski: We've asked for a review and an understanding of that. But the fact of the matter is we've got about 35,000 alaska natives in this part of the state that have not received any of their land under the settlement act. And so what you have is an inequity and unfairness that has existed for some 50 years now.
▶ 0:35:27Sen. Murkowski: And so to remedy all of this, we have been working again for years, for decades really, to complete this settlement, and to allow for the formation of five what we call urban native corporations. We in this legislation specify the exact parcells of land that would fulfill these native communities' land entitlements. And believe me, that'sen an easy process. We had to vet these parcells.
▶ 0:35:59Sen. Murkowski: We've had to solicit, address the local input. We had to ensure that public process and valid existing rights, including fishing, hunting, recreation and assistance, were allowed for, and we have done so.
▶ 0:36:16Sen. Murkowski: We worked to get this legislation in a place where most everyone can support it, but it's taken a lot of work, and now that my colleague to the right of me has sat down, I'm going to suspend here so that we can move forward, recognizing that people have places to go and other votes to cast. But I would like to pick up where I left off when we included the vote.
▶ 0:36:42Chair Lee: Of course. Thank you very much. We'll now turn to the confirmation votes on the three pending nominations. They are Mr. william hague, Mr. kevin lilly to be assistant secretaries of the interior, and Mr. kaveh farzad to be assistant secretary of energy. First is agenda number one, the nomination of Mr. william hague of washington to be assistant secretary of the interior for insular, international, and ocean affairs. The clerk will call the roll.
▶ 0:37:11The Clerk: [calling roll]
▶ 0:37:49The Clerk: On this vote the yeas are 11, the nays are 9.
▶ 0:37:58Chair Lee: The second matter is agenda item number two, the nomination of Mr. kevin lilly of texas to be assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife. The clerk will call the roll. The clerk] calling roll]
▶ 0:38:45Chair Lee: On this vote the yeas are 12, the nays are 8.
▶ 0:38:49Chair Lee: The yea have it. The nomination will be reported favor ally to the senate. Our final vote is agenda item number three, the nomination of Mr. kaveh farzad to be assistant secretary of energy. The clerk will call the roll.
▶ 0:39:06The Clerk: [calling roll]
▶ 0:39:38The Clerk: On this vote the yeas are 11, the nays are 9.
▶ 0:39:42Chair Lee: The ayes have it. It will be reported favorably to the senate. How we will now proceed to the bills as amended. The bills are agenda items number 10, 13, 17, 18, and 20. Those are respectively s.1175, s.1413 by senator padilla, s.2554 by senator murkowski, and s.2754 by senator bennet, s.3725 by leader thune.
▶ 0:40:10Chair Lee: The committee will vote on these vote en bloc by voice as amended by these five bills as a bloc, all those in favor say aye. All opposed nay. Theys appear to have it. The ayes do it. They will be favor recorded favorably for the senate. >> I would ask that we be record on item 17.
▶ 0:40:34Chair Lee: Duly noted, thank you. All right, so what we'll do now, we'll go to senator hickenlooper, and then back to senator murkowski, and anyone else who wants to speak after that. Senator hickenlooper? Thanks for your cooperation, everyone.
▶ 0:40:51Sen. Hickenlooper: Thank you, Mr. chair. I'd like to thank you as the chair and ranking member heinrich for including a bill in today's markup bill to help the city of ouray, colorado, boost its recreation economy while making the water supply more resilient.
▶ 0:41:11Sen. Hickenlooper: The act would transfer a beloved destination, popular for fishing, hiking, even weddings, would transfer to the city of ouray. The forest service recently owns, has owned the crystal reservoir and the land it sits on. In recent years, the agency has drained the reservoir due to concerns about its condition. But that's left the local community without this key resource for tourism, for water supply, for wildfire response.
▶ 0:41:39Sen. Hickenlooper: Transferring the reservoir as water rights will allow the city of ouray to step up and make fixes to the dam and restore this valuable water storage facility for the town's drought resilience capability. It's also going to implement the vision of local governments, water managers, recreational groups, and citizens who worked diligently to develop this locally-led solution and return this population destination to its former glory.
▶ 0:42:07Sen. Hickenlooper: Also pleased to see the act led by senator daines and cortez masto on the agenda. Rural colorado knows how critical it is to maintaining their operations, and this is true for the counties with the smallest populations, which this bill would serve. I'm grateful to the chair for helping advance these two bills, and I hope you will continue to work with us on other bills, like our service creek complete act, which we've requested.
▶ 0:42:37Sen. Hickenlooper: That bill has strong on the ground support, very strong throughout the community. I'm hopeful we can take that next step and advance it through this committee in the year to come. Again, thank you.
▶ 0:42:49Chair Lee: Thank you. Senator murkowski, back to you. It's really a stunning anomaly in history with those five being left out. Of course, you wouldn't be born for another 20 years after that legislation was passed, but it's good that you fixed it now. Go ahead.
▶ 0:43:06Sen. Murkowski: Well, thank you Mr. chairman, and indeed, we are trying to fix it. And again, this has been one of those efforts that when you think about legislation, you have worked over the course of a legislative career, the engagement on that goes on within the communities, the engagement with goes on with different groups, the engagement that goes on with different legislators.
▶ 0:43:27Sen. Murkowski: This dais changes from time to time, from congress to congress, so I've had the opportunity to work with various members on this, and now with senator heinrich as we worked to, again, educate and try to reinforce the wrong that we are attempting to right here. And I think oftentimes when you think about the claim settlement, you think, ok, a settlement is a settlement, 50 years ago, one and done.
▶ 0:43:56Sen. Murkowski: And in fairness, it is all about ensuring that the terms of the settlement as were agreed to actually translate into the opportunities that that settlement was intended to do. So I mentioned the outreach that we had been engaged in at the beginning.
▶ 0:44:18Sen. Murkowski: It was very much viewed as a fight between giving back federal land into the hands of individuals. The environmental concerns were expressed, you but we're going to allow for an untrammelled environmental degradation of the land and lots of concerned, and I think a lot of scare tactics that were there.
▶ 0:44:48Sen. Murkowski: There are no better stewards of our alaska lands than the people who have lived on them for thousands of years. We have been able to not only engage with but turn the views of many of the initial opponents to this legislation.
▶ 0:45:05Sen. Murkowski: Among them, the wilderness society, the nature conservancy, some of the strongest protectors of environmental values in the tongas, both have written letters of support for this bill, recognizing that we need to find this balance, but we also must address the inequities of the native people who have been left out.
▶ 0:45:27Sen. Murkowski: So I added those letters from nature conservancy and the wilderness society to our hearing record in february, so I don't feel like I need to add them here. But I'll just remind, this should not be the controversial measure that it historically been viewed at. All you need to do is look at the house and their recent actions on this.
▶ 0:45:56Sen. Murkowski: They worked on this bill together across the aisle, recorded it from full committee a month ago. Well, I guess a couple of months ago, that the full chamber has now passed it on suspension by a voice vote with no recorded opposition.
▶ 0:46:14Sen. Murkowski: So I'm just going to remind you, no opposition in the house, in this current house, where we don't see a lot of measures, particularly land measures, that go without that, and I think there's good reason for that, because it comes back to the inequity that we have seen and an effort to do right by the alaska native peoples who were excluded so many decades ago.
▶ 0:46:38Sen. Murkowski: So again, I want to thank all who have continued to work with us, and I want to thank senator heinrich for your engagement on this. I understand your view toward conservation, and we respect those, the concern that we have from so many back home is that when we're looking at an area where we already have so much of our land that is federal, so much of our lands that are
▶ 0:47:09Sen. Murkowski: Already in conservation status, there's just not a lot left over, and so, again, making sure that we can get ourselves to a good place with this is most appreciated. I appreciate your willingness to have this measure move out by vote today.
▶ 0:47:27Sen. Murkowski: I acknowledge that you have asked to be recorded as a no, and my goal and my ambition and that of our teams is to help you and your teams get to a place where we can all be supportive in rectifying this long overdue. With that, I thank the committee and I look forward to further engagement and moving this and passing it into law.
▶ 0:47:51Chair Lee: Thank you very much. With that, today's business meeting is concluded, and I'll thank my colleagues for their participation. We stand adjourned.