ms. sweeney on october 16 of 2017. she -- we received here in the senate her nomination about a week later, and from there she entered into this frustrating, bureaucratic purgatory is probably the best way to describe t it. so i mention to you that ms. sweeney is an inupiaq from the north slope. and like every other alaska native that was born before december 18 of 1971, she is a beneficiary of the alaska native claims settlement act. and under that legislation, ms. sweeney received 100 shares of stock in the arctic slope regional corporation, one of the 13 corporations that has been created by congress. ms. sweeney also inherited some additional shares from her mother, who died in 1996. the alaska native claims settlement act prohibits ms. sweeney from disposing of those shares. why is that? these are not shares that are like shares in i.b.m. or general electric. these shares are her birthright, her birthright as an alaska native. the department of the interior has concluded that her continued ownership of those share