ms. murkowski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: madam president, i come to the floor just about an hour or so after a motion to proceed to take up the paycheck fairness act. and i struggled with my decision as to whether to move to a measure that i feel was flawed in terms of its approach to a solution, or to recognize that perhaps this was more an exercise in political messaging than an effort to try to resolve what i believe is an issue. and in sorting through all aspects, not only the merits of the legislation, the facts as they exist back home, the facts as they exist around this country where we see pay disparity between men and women. i had a lot on my mind. i had a lot to weigh. i did not come to the floor yesterday to speak with the many who rose to either offer amendments, proposed amendments to the paycheck fairness act, or those who wrote to speak to defend the act. and skwropbt my silence yesterday to be construed that t think this is an issue here, that i don't think this is something that needs to be address

ms. murkowski: mr. president, i'd like to thank my friend and my colleague from rhode island and the -- the cochair here on the senate oceans caucus. as he's noted, this was an issue as we speak of i.u.u. fishing, illegal, underreported fishing and really that's too polite a term for it. it's really piracy of our fisheries. and senator whitehouse has been a very -- has been very engaged in working on so many of these key issues. i think that this is quite important, what we are discussing today, the positive step forward, not only for fishermen in my state but for fishermen around the nation. i would like to thank those who have been involved in this effort not only senator whitehouse but senator wicker as well as senator begich for their efforts to help advance these treaties. and i would also like to recognize senator menendez and senator corker for their support through the foreign relations committee process. it should come as no surprise to any of my colleagues here in terms of alaska's role with f

ms. murkowski: mr. chairman. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i'd like to thank my colleague from north dakota. i had an opportunity to go to north dakota and see firsthand how in senator hoeven's state they are embracing this energy renaissance that we are seeing in this country, a renaissance that is truly allowing to us move forward with jobs and economic opportunity not only for the good of this country, but really for the good of so many others. when we're talking about our neighbors to the north in canada, or if you're from alaska, our neighbors over to the east there, there is a recognition that the united states and canada are really joined at the well, if you will. and that's a term that i have used quite frequently. but when it comes to energy issues, there are 17 operating oil pipelines between the u.s. and kaepbt. there are another 30 electric transmission lines. there's 29 natural gas pipelines. and these are all energy infrastructure that cross the border with canada, whether it's into montana, whether it's to washington,

ms. murkowski: mr. president, i want to commend my colleague, the senator from north dakota here not only for his leadership on so many energy initiatives, but for the proposal that he has put forth here this afternoon. i'm pleased to be able to join him in support of those various measures, measures that as he has outlined will not only as a nation allow us to move forward, take that leadership role which we so rightly, so rightly have, and really should use as something to benefit not only ourselves and our economy, jobs within the nation, but really to benefit other nations. and so the proposal that he has advanced, again, that i am pleased to join him on, one that allows for incredible jobs and opportunities with the construction of the keystone x.l. pipeline, provisions that will allow for expedited prosing of our l. -- processing of our l.n.g. exports, recognizing again that when we produce more in this country, when we produce more of a resource that not only allows us to be more energy secure, b

ms. kelly. chairman? good morning ranking member murkowski and members of the committee. i'm the president of the national association of regulatory utility commissioners and the chairman of the public service committee commission. thank you for the opportunity to testify about the security of the nation's electricity grid. there are three main thoughts i wish to share with you this morning. first, state utility regulators to share your concern about the resilience of the grade. for us it is job number one. it includes not only security from such physical and cyber attacks and the ability to bounce back from severe storms and accommodate the impact of markets and regulatory changes. they've already taken several steps towards a more resilient great coming and we welcome the conversation about what more can be done. physical threats are one of the challenges the utilities face each day. a massive storm such as hurricanes and he. we experienced consecutive 100 year i storms along with the electricity infrastructure. last august the assailant allegedly attempted to several p

ms. kelly. chairman honorable. >> thank you. good morning, chair laughter, ranking member murkowski, and members of the committee. my name is colette honorable. unprecedented national association of regulatory utility measures, and chairman of the public service committee. , commission. thank you for the opportunity to testify about the security of our nation's electricity grid. there are three main thoughts i wish to share with you this morning. first, state utility regulators share your concern about the resilience of our grid. for us it is job number one. second, the resilience our ratepayers expect include only security from physical and cyber attacks, but also the ability to bounce back from severe storms and accommodate the impacts of markets and regulatory changes. finally, naruc and the state of our taken several important steps toward a more resilient grid, and we welcome this conversation about what more can be done. the seriousness of the metcalf incident must not be discounted. however, physical threats are but one of the many challenges utilities faced each day. these vulnerabilities can take the sha

ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. i've come to the floor today to discuss the opportunity we have as a nation to truly take a leadership role when it comes to responsible development of the arctic region. and as we discuss about the great opportunities and the challenges that face us, i think it is fair to say that i will also be expressing some disappointment with the general lack of resources that our federal government has invested in this important issue, including just mote most recently through the president's annual budget request. back in may of 2013, the obama administration released its national strategy for the arctic region, and the national strategy was really designed to set forth this government's strategic priorities for the arctic. pretty important to recognize what our priorities are going forward. and while that might sound impressive, an arctic -- a national strategy for the arctic region, what we ended up seeing was just an 11-page document, really hard to describe it as strategic, are perhaps a m