ms. murkowski: thank you mr. president. mr. president, this afternoon i come to the floor to recognize the life and the contributions of a friend, an alaskan a gentleman -- chuck bundrin founder and majority owner of trident seafoods fisherman who really forever changed the seafood industry in alaska. employing thousands of people across alaska and the country the processing and and processing hundreds of millions of pounds of finished seafood products each year, trident is the largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company in north america today. the -- the company has been critical in giving the rest of the united states and the world a taste of alaska's delicious and of course sustainably managed wild seafood. chuck has a pretty interesting story. he didn't grow up in alaska. he didn't even grow up near the ocean. he was born in tennessee and raised in indiana. he initially hoped to purr sue d pursue veterinary program but by the winter of 1961, he and a few friends drove from tennessee to seattle wi

ms. murkowski: madam president? the president pro tempore: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i have come to the floor this afternoon unexpectedly. i had anticipated that i was going to be taking the long trek home for even a short weekend, going back to alaska. that is not the case this weekend, unfortunately. our covid numbers are at all-time highs, and most of the events and meetings that i would have had back home are canceled, they're on zoom. and so life is just a little bit different. you roll with it, and it means that i'm here in washington, d.c., on this friday afternoon. but i opened up the paper this morning, the "anchorage daily news," our largest statewide newspaper, to again headlines that have just kind of unfolded over these past weeks with more just grim and difficult news. the headline today is, alaska infection rates remain high with over 1,200 new covid cases. we are leading -- we're leading the nation right now in our covid rates. and it's interesting. alaska has -- we're separated enough geographically, but through the advantages of air travel