there we go. >> now join us on our 50 states capital, from juneau, alaska is the lieutenant governor of that state. byron a lot. mallott. what are the duties of the lieutenant governor of alaska? lt. gov. mallott: the statutory duties are similar to many others.

including, of course, taking office in the event that the governor's not able to. secondly, alaska, the lieutenant governor has statutory responsibility for the conduct of the state of alaska elections. each new legislature has the responsibility to review and sign regulations. duties,e, other officials,lected other duties have may be asked of the lieutenant governor by the governor and are also always there. in this administration, the governor has asked me to be his

commercial fisheries advisor. on the -- i am the chair of his climate change initiative and that is significant responsibility without relationship with canadian provinces and territories regarding mining activity and keeping alaska's waters and flow from canada into alaska. i have been asked by the governor to do a variety of other things. including long-term responsibilities working with him on the alaska gasket pipeline. it's been a very busy for years. 15% of alaska's population belongs to the native population including you. lt. gov. mallott: yes.

i am from the southeast of alaska. and am the raven tribe wearing my clan symbol as you may see here. it's the humpback or pink salmon. our clan symbol also includes mount saint alina's the third highest mountain in north america. from myountain i see home in my home village. you mentioned that you are from yakatat. 22 are mayor at the age of and have been involved in alaska state politics for a long time, since it was a territory. lt. gov. mallott: yes, both business and political and public policy life, in addition

to being mayor of yak attack at at at age 22at which i saw after my father died while holding that office. to complete the work that he had undertaken in our small community. i was also mayor of the state capital of juneau in 1994. i have also been heavily engaged in business activity in alaska including being the president alaska of one of the settlement corporations which are unique institutions in alaska. but yes, i've had a long involvement with public life in alaska. you were involved in a corporation called sea alaska.

lt. gov. mallott: it was one of 12 for-profit corporations established by the alaska native claims settlement act which was passed and signed by president nixon in 1971. that act so it's claims. at the time of statehood, the state was authorized to select up to 103 million acres of land for its own use. development, the federal government had huge holdings in alaska. claims of the alaska native peoples across the state have never been settled. when they were settled, 12 regional corporations were established. they became the repository for roughly a billion dollars and 44 million acres of land in alaska.

which was a portion among those corporations based upon their tribal characteristics. essentially, all of the native eskimo,nd the various other native groups across the state became shareholders in those corporations. if you had 25% or more alaska native blood. these corporations have been in existence as the mid-70's. they have been economic engines for the rural areas of our state. they have become in some

instances so the largest industries in our state. chair ofmallott: he is the climate action for alaska leadership. how do you balance that with the states oil industry and potential climate change issues? lt. gov. mallott: this year, the alaska legislature passed of the bill whichrging, a for a percentage of the earnings of alaska's $65 which isermanent fund also the result of oil savings over the years by the state. it would allow earnings of the to be used for

state purposes which will reduce the budget by about 78%. is veryindustry significant in our state. up until the governor and i took office. alaska'sout 90% of the governmental revenue coming from petroleum. prices, decline in oil when the governor took office, we faced a $4 billion deficit. oil.e hugely dependent on it's now at 30% of what it used to be roughly. we will be dependent on oil. for decades to come. the same time, we believe that we have an obligation to plan for and develop a process

of moving from fossil fuels to renewable fuels over the. of -- over the course of time that both national, international, and state public policy were wired that to happen. be a periodhat will of multiple decades that we have to plan now. his team is embracing all of the .ectors of alaska leadership collectively, across the state, we are developing responses to climate change issues that affect us every day now. we have ocean shore erosion as a result in the decline of ice packs over the year, leaving

shores and rivers exposed during the fall months or as they used to be covered in ice. they used to be open and subject to storms. we have warming oceans. we have's ease movement. we are coming into alaska as the result of warming temperatures. forms ofnd other potential blight that can affect animal andes, both plant. weather events that would never have had before. alaska and so in the climate action team, which is a public team but we also have an internal cabinet lever

-- level climate action team as well. they are focused on what is affecting us every single day but also looking at our economic future and the need and the process by which we move from a to al-based economy renewable energy-based future. i want to discuss, if you would, from management point of view, shipping -- fishing and tourism. alaska seafoodt: industry is one of our most significant and one of the most significant seafood economies in the nation. are always atts the very top or among the very ports inollar landing

our country. it's a significant state export. particularly salmon. the warming temperatures in the north pacific ocean and the seas that surround our state, alaska has more coastline and the rest of the country combined. you can sense from that statistic that we are very marine oriented and seafood is a huge part of our economy and society. seafood by native people for everyday subsistence needs is very important. doherty state's highest use of our natural resources. had quite a change related. 2016 of because

population in the gulf of alaska as a warm water event called the huge expanse of warm water in the north pacific toan which was catastrophic ocks.stoxx -- cod st particularly, the port of kodiak by 70%. species thatn despite forecasts are not returning to alaskan waters. the numbers that had been predicted and with warming waters, with the blob having dissipated but still leaving the

residue of warm water in the northern pacific, to some degree, our ability to forecast and our ability to understand what is happening to our seafood stocks is something we are beginning to recognize. the need for research and science is very significant. how serious is the opioid crisis in alaska? the governor,tt: a bit more than two years ago, declared the opioid crisis a state emergency. to governor has the ability declare an emergency for a limited amount of time. billegislature passed a that keeps this a state

emergency. doing and alaska law. the governor has created an opioid tax force which includes both public and ngo and public health fusions. , the apartment -- department of law, health and public services. they are working constantly to deal with this very serious epidemic. we also work in close cooperation with both federal and other agencies. >> i read the population of the has aike kodiak alaska

lot of warships. is it overwhelming the state? oh, --. mallott: june juneau can have up to six cruise ships, at any given time. the city of just over 30,000 people can have two thirds of increasedpopulation in a single day. sitka, skagway, a number of other places in alaska have on a daily basis large numbers of tourists visits. that is good. it allows a local economy to flourish, at least during the summer tour season.

it puts strain on communities. as a passenger tax which is fair and responsible. allows communities to be responsible to the needs of both the community and tourist. this is another phenomenon in our state, the needs of the seafood industry, which is also as far as salmon is concerned, a .ummer based activity it can increase the populations of many small cannery and seafood processing towns by a factor of 25 to 75 percent. impact ongely the kodiak which has a resident population of seafood processing employees but also needs every

summer to increase that number. by literally thousands. he served as lieutenant governor of alaska. he and governor walker were elected in 2014 and running for reelection. he's a democrat, the governor is an independent. the state legislature in alaska is republican-controlled and that makes for some interesting politics, doesn't it? lt. gov. mallott: it does but it's interesting that when the 2014, i was iran in at democrat but at the time was the democratic nominee for governor. in andications showed three-way race in the general election, which was fast , theing at that time

incumbent republican would win and while that governor is a dear friend, today we wanted a different policy course in our state. i have come to know governor walker during the course of the campaign. we campaigned -- we combined our campaigns. took the top of the ticket and we worked very closely as a team. we are an independent administration. after the first legislature that we worked with which was fully , the legislature that just ended have a bipartisan coalition in the house, which was controlled by democrats and

a republican senate. we had a lot of issues to deal with with the alaska legislature's necessary involvement as the appropriators. to resolve our fiscal crisis, i mentioned earlier. we came into office with roughly a $4 billion which is about 80% of our state budget. that was in deficit. to 30%.now reduced that findill have the need to additional broad-based public revenues and we will work on that going forward. when you are focused on that kind of a disco gap, it concentrates the mind

wonderfully and one of the things the governor and i are really havet is to alaska growing again. we have been in recession. it's not a significant recession but a recession is a recession we have had our hands full. >> thank you for joining us. c-span's-- >> washington journal. coming up this morning, a reporters correspondent previews the weekend had an washington. and taxpayer advocate nina olson law, and reform, tax how to resolve tax problems with the irs. the sure to watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern this morning.

join the discussion. the c-span buses traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. it stopped in anchorage alaska asking folks what is the most important issue in alaska? >> we feel that the most important issue in alaska has to do with education and workforce development. we see students come into our university here who are underprepared for college. and who are also doing -- not doing a great job of providing an environment on campus to support them. what we are doing is engaging students as young as straight all the way through middle school, high school, and universities. they have a string of longitudinal off the -- opportunities that help support them by providing the

asone of the issues i see important is nationwide as well as in alaska and that is giving children garbage bags when they are being removed from their homes. to give backpacks and duffel bags to children when they are being removed from their homes are being transitioned or transitioning out of foster care. >> another issue that is is fisheriesme management. fisheries are extremely important to alaska. from a commercial standpoint and from a sport fishing standpoint and a tourism standpoint. i think we have some problems that need to be dealt with on all fronts and they need to be dealt with soon or we may suffer severe financial consequences. tsd.y thoughts on the p

way thatand it was a all of alaskan's can get some of the profits from our oil revenue because we are a very rich resource state. as far as the way that it has been handled lately, i think it has been a little unfortunate. it is effectively a regressive tax because alaska -- the people don't know we don't have a sales tax or an income tax. however, the way it was handled, people had to pay about $1000 in taxes. that is inequitable if you ask me. >> voices from the state on c-span. on tuesday, acting veterans

affairs secretary peter overlooked testify before the house veterans affairs committee on implementation of the accountability and whistleblower protection act which was signed into law in june 2017. this is two hours and 25 minutes. [inaudible conversations] thank yourning and for joining us today. affairs accountability. last year enactment of this bipartisan legislation was a culmination of years of work by members of this committee one of the consequential reforms to the federal service system in decades.