but in some ways, this runs into what senator murkowski mentioned. sometimes the biggest challenge is us and the inner agency process. because a lot of the conversation is part of the study was really about the department of interior. the department of interior was in these processes and was very engaged, but they didn't request the study. this was about the department of energy trying to understand its emerging role in the arctic. but it was -- it was a part of the process that i think was very interesting. it was to see and to witness and have everyone experience it, as well as getting the critical voice from alaska. again, we in the washington policy communities get so focused on our inner agency fights and our regulation and who is doing what, and we've always been returned to what's important, and that's the people. and i was so grateful. again, for my two cents, i think the larger question this study raises, it doesn't come out, but this is my takeaway from it. does the united states want to develop the offshore arctic resources. do we or don't

senator murkowski, on the energy committee from alaska? host: muted, the main people that reacted was senator murkowski, who is not quite sure , does not want to pop out the champagne, not sure demonstration will let this happen -- the ministries and will let this happen. senator markey out of massachusetts has been vocal against drilling including alaska and along the eastern seaboard. he was critical. with arctic drilling, it is a political issue and something that incites passion and if it is not in lawmakers backyard, they do not care as much. you see images of alaska pristine, home repairs, the arctic national wildlife refuge. i think it should be noted that despite this conditional approval obama has taken several steps in the last few months to restrict oil and gas drilling in and around alaska. he cut off 13 million acres of national wildlife refuge, and parts of the beaufort sea. add late last year, he stop developing. he has taken what's that forward and one step back in alaska which has infuriated people like senator murkowski.

i think that we should be doing more in that area. >> senator murkowski, thank you so much. this was so timely. we wish you very safe travels next week as part of the delegation. we look forward to seeing the outcome of the canadian chairmanship and the arctic economic council, which is a deliverable for their chairmanship. and then the torch is passed to us. we look forward to the hearings and the leadership and guidance that you will provide. please join me in thanks senator murkowski for being with us. [ applause ] >> because we have more to come, just one quick thing please refresh your coffee. we're going to do a scene change up here. we have an incredible conversation about the petroleum arctic study talking about economic development. >> can i put a final plug in before people stand? >> of course. sorry. >> you can see, i get very energized and animated about the arctic opportunities. what i am finding exciting is what is happening with young people and their interest in the arctic. in my senate office, the enthuse yas asm is infectious. i have a couple young people i

murkowski. >> thank you for that question. the our a lot of lessons we learned about things we should be. for example, we should treat technology or any of the capital asset as an end. it's an means to an end. we get attacked by the bright and shiny thing ever don't think about why or how it will help us do our jobs. sometimes it's difficult because we don't always have metrics because we don't have history. we are doing things that are new to us and we have to understand that as well. so that's one thing. technology is a means to an end, it's not an end in to itself that we can't impose technologies on people who use it. went to involve them in debt to invite us to bring technologies. that's a classic mistake. we can't aspire to immature technologies before they're ready for us really to start to use them, and we do that very often. so those are all sort of acquisition lessons learned that i would say we don't in the past that we need to remember not to do in the future. >> those are good ones. those are good ones. >> thank y

murkowski. senator murkowski: thank you. i would remind you that that big fish in my office, there's more in the waters. there is flyfishing in montana, but we welcome you to alaska at any time. again, thank you for your service. i want to talk to you about the arctic. i had submitted women from the war college wanted to talk about issues, and i asked them if they were sitting in my chair today what would you ask the secretary and general dempsey, and without question it was the arctic. where are we in the arctic when it comes to u.s. investment? the general opinion is that if it's talking about icebreakers or communication infrastructure, or even wheeled vehicles that can operate in arctic environments, the united states may be 40 years behind depending on who you are talking to. i was at the arctic council meeting last week with secretary kerry, and all anybody wanted to talk about was russia's arctic push and what we were going to do with that regard, and i think we are all trying to understand exactly what russia is doin

eisele, welcome. >> good morning, senator murkowski murkowski, senator cantwell, and members of the committee. it's an honor for me to be here to share my experience with you today. i've been involved with fire my entire life, started with the volunteer firefighter to a prescribed burner for the county of san diego, fire behavior analyst on a federal incident management team for 15 years, and i like to think of myself as a student of fire. i've learned in southern california that we will also have extreme fire weather we will always have a drought but there will always be ignitions and ignitions are plentiful and they're random. so the driver of the entire system is fuel. young fuel doesn't burn very well and doesn't burn very fast, even under extreme conditions. old fuel, conversely burns extremely hot, extremely well, and extremely fast. for example, the origin -- the fuel at origin of fires in san diego county in the past -- since 1950, the average age of the fuel where the big fires start is 71 years. and we don't find any fires starting in fuels less than 20 years old that go to become m

murkowski: on the issue of heroin we have issues. we have meth issues in kodiak. law-enforcement is focusing on that. they are not able to focus on some of the smaller villages that are out there. you mentioned the heroine task force that is in place, i would ask that you not forget the smaller communities where we see an addiction and a devastation taking our communities, wiping them out. it is a frightening thought that the resources may be there and available for the cities, that smaller communities, we are losing it young people. it can be so significant to the health and morale and safety. i would ask that you work with us. i have other questions i would like submitted for the record. most specifically with the codification of the brady obligation and statute. i would like further follow-up on that. senator: last year, we had the victims of child abuse act we reauthorized both programs. children's advocacy centers funded do interviews. they are respectful of the delicate needs of childhood victims of abuse. i was disappointed to see the budget only ask for ha

we have these fantastic priorities that agencies come again what we pray for senator murkowski don't have to use existing resources try to reprioritize and we know in this budget scarcity especially difficult. so that was step one. we missed a huge opportunity that can it can produce chairmanship is going to because a lot of really good projects putting projects modeling project that we will showcase but quite frankly the funding will just not be sufficient to boost them your great work being done but they need some turbocharged budgets. i never like to end on a pessimistic note so the white house did have a new body in place, the arctic executive stephen cribb which is led a very senior level. this group has been charged with doing a gap analysis. so if you dared to read the white house implementation plan for the national strategy for the arctic region, short little title, we do see where in the implementation plan that are clear outlined four, ethical to coordinate better coverage of health and survival rates the arctic and indigenous people to facilitate improvement in welding as

congress passed that ban back in 19 are 75 and senator murkowski has been one of the biggest reversing it. >>> here in washington the biggest gathering of mutual fund executives taking place and today i spoke with the ceo of charles schwab and you heard from him yesterday. today i spoke with bill mcnabb, the head of vanguard. i asked him about the rising interest rate environment and what it could mean for bonds and stocks. >> i think rising rates are inevitable at some point but it has been longer than anybody would have anticipated. i think it will depend tyler on how quickly they rise. we anticipate that the rate increases will be metered out, if you will and be fairly steady and gradual and probably smaller than some will anticipate. and i think investors will be able to handle that and we've been education material out there to encourage people to understand how risg rates do effect their bonds. >> do you have a view on stock prices today. >> we think stocks are value ated at the highest debt value if you look at historical values and we are plain spoken over this over the next de

murkowski. senator murkowski: thank you. i would remind you that that big fish in my office, there's more in the waters. there is flyfishing in montana, but we welcome you to alaska at any time. again, thank you for your service. i want to talk to you about the arctic. i had submitted women from the war college wanted to talk about issues, and i asked them if they were sitting in my chair today what would you ask the secretary and general dempsey, and without question it was the arctic. where are we in the arctic when it comes to u.s. investment? the general opinion is that if it's talking about icebreakers or communication infrastructure, or even wheeled vehicles that can operate in arctic environments, the united states may be 40 years behind depending on who you are talking to. i was at the arctic council meeting last week with secretary kerry, and all anybody wanted to talk about was russia's arctic push and what we were going to do with that regard, and i think we are all trying to understand exactly what russia is doin

murkowski? >> yes, sir, thank you for that question. i think there are a lot of lessons we learn about things we shouldn't do. for example, we shouldn't treat technology or any other capital asset as an end. it's a means to an end. and we often get attracted by the bright shiny thing. and we don't think about why or how it will help us do our jobs. sometimes it's difficult because we don't always have metrics. we don't have history. we're doing things that are new to us. we have to understand how to do things that are new to us and collect data and iterate on that. technology's a means to an end, it's not an end in to itself. we can't impose technologies on people who use it. we have to involve them. and they have to invite us to bring technologies. that's a classic mistake. we can't aspire to immature technologies before they're ready for us really to start to use them. and we do that very often. so those are all sort of acquisition lessons learned that i would say that we've done in the past that we need to remember not to do in the f

senator murkowski: i look forward to those conversations with you and your team. on the issue of heroin, we have issues. you have heard it said several times, but i will reiterate, in our very remote rural areas, our islands, areas not accessible by road, we are seeing the impact of heroin, whether it is in killing him, whether it is in kodiak. we have mass issues in kodiak. law-enforcement is focusing on that. they are not able to focus on some of the smaller villages that are out there. you mentioned the heroin task force that is in place, i would ask that you not forget the smaller communities where we see an addiction and a devastation taking our communities, wiping them out. it is a frightening thought that the resources may be there and available for the cities, that smaller communities, we are losing it young people. -- losing few young people. it can be so significant to the health and morale and safety. i would ask that you work with us. i have other questions i would like submitted for the record. most specifically with the codification of the brady obli

murkowski: on the issue of heroin we have issues. we have meth issues in kodiak. law-enforcement is focusing on that. they are not able to focus on some of the smaller villages that are out there. you mentioned the heroine task force that is in place, i would ask that you not forget the smaller communities where we see an addiction and a devastation taking our communities, wiping them out.

senator murkowski, on the energy committee from alaska?ost: muted, the main people that reacted was senator murkowski, who is not quite sure , does not want to pop out the champagne, not sure demonstration will let this happen -- the ministries and will let this happen. senator markey out of massachusetts has been vocal against drilling including alaska and along the eastern seaboard. he was critical. with arctic drilling, it is a political issue and something that incites passion and if it is not in lawmakers backyard, they do not care as much. you see images of alaska pristine, home repairs, the arctic national wildlife refuge. i think it should be noted that despite this conditional approval obama has taken several steps in the last few months to restrict oil and gas drilling in and around alaska. he cut off 13 million acres of national wildlife refuge, and parts of the beaufort sea. add late last year, he stop developing. he has taken what's that forward and one step back in alaska which has infuriated people like senator murkowski. th

lastly, senator murkowski talked about the importance of educating the next generation about the arctic and i think some other speakers mentioned that as well. i'll finish with this slide. this shows my young 2-year-old daughter looking at the arctic human development report when it came in. notice the smile on her face and the thrill with this. she was actually born and raised during my writing of this whole thing. so i'll stop there and take any questions you may have. [ applause ] >> thanks very much, we heard a lot about suicide, heard a lot about water and sanitation, both with respect to the work on your way specific to alaska but also work that is under way in the broader arctic council context. i take that to mean from certainly the cdc and nih perspective that these are the areas where there's the greatest promise and there's an agenda formed up and a way forward. i also took away from listening to your presentations and listening to tim that we need to be quite realistic, that there are -- there are some significant barriers to really carrying forward that agenda or other broa

murkowski? >> yes, sir, thank you for that question. i think there are a lot of lessons we learn about things we shouldn't do. for example, we shouldn't treat technology or any other capital asset as an end. it's a means to an end. and we often get attracted by the bright shiny thing. and we don't think about why or how it will help us do our jobs. sometimes it's difficult because we don't always have metrics. we don't have history. we're doing things that are new to us. we have to understand how to do things that are new to us and collect data and reiterate on that. technology's a means to an end, it's not an end in to itself. we can't impose technologies on people who use it. we have to involve them. and they have to invite us to bring technologies. that's a classic mistake. we can't aspire to immature technologies before they're ready for us really to start to use them. and we do that very often. so those are all sort of acquisition lessons learned that i would say that we've done in the past that we need to remember not to do in the

murkowski? >> yes, sir, thank you for that question. i think there are a lot of lessons we learn about things we shouldn't do. for example, we shouldn't treat technology or any other capital asset as an end. it's a means to an end. and we often get attracted by the bright shiny thing. and we don't think about why or how it will help us do our jobs. sometimes it's difficult because we don't always have metrics. we don't have history. we're doing things that are new to us. we have to understand how to do things that are new to us and collect data and reiterate on that. technology's a means to an end, it's not an end in to itself. we can't impose technologies on people who use it. we have to involve them. and they have to invite us to bring technologies. that's a classic mistake. we can't aspire to immature technologies before they're ready for us really to start to use them. and we do that very often. so those are all sort of acquisition lessons learned that i would say that we've done in the past that we need to remember not to do in the

welcome. >> good morning senator murkowski and other members of the committee. thank you for inviting me here today. my name is sharon hood. i'm a post-doctoral researcher at the university of montana. previously i worked as a forest service ecologist prior to earning my ph.d. at the university of montana in 2014. fire and native bark beetles have huge impacts on conifer forests across the country. my testimony focuses on fire and thinning can reese ponderosa pine resistance to mount pine beetle but also that thinning is not a substitute for fire. ponderosa pine is adapted to survive frequent low-severity fire, a type of fire that burns through the forest's understory but generally causes little mortality to larger trees. however, lack of fire since the late 1800s has increased tree density and changed species' composition in many areas. we continue to actively suppress the majority of wildfires today. however, there is recent acknowledgment such as the 2014 national action plan for the national cohesive wildland fire management strategy that we must allow more

murkowski. senator murkowski: thank you. i would remind you that that big fish in my office, there's more in the waters. there is flyfishing in montana, but we welcome you to alaska at any time. again, thank you for your service. i want to talk to you about the arctic. i had submitted women from the war college wanted to talk about issues, and i asked them if they were sitting in my chair today what would you ask the secretary and general dempsey, and without question it was the arctic. where are we in the arctic when it comes to u.s. investment? the general opinion is that if it's talking about icebreakers or communication infrastructure, or even wheeled vehicles that can operate in arctic environments, the united states may be 40 years behind depending on who you are talking to. i was at the arctic council meeting last week with secretary kerry, and all anybody wanted to talk about was russia's arctic push and what we were going to do with that regard, and i think we are all trying to understand exactly what russia is doin

murkowski. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general dempsey, thank you for your service and i was reminded of big fish on my wall and my office, there's more in the waters here there's no flyfishing in montana but we would welcome you any time. thank you for your service. i want to talk about the arctic. i just came from a made in my office. primarily men and women from the war college who want to talk about issues. i said if you read my chair today but was u.s. secretary and general dempsey. without question that was the arctic. where are we in the arctic when it comes to u.s. investment? the general opinion is whether it is talking about icebreakers for communication or even wheeled vehicles that operate in arctic environments, the united states may be 40 years behind depending who you are talking to. i was at the arts council meeting last week with secretary kerry and all anybody wanted to talk about was precious arctic push and what were we going to do without regard and i think we're all trying to understand exactly what r

113th congress in the senate, the top five -- susan collins of maine, joe of west virginia, lisa murkowski of alaska, and mark pryor of arkansas. can bipartisanship be a detriment to reelection? guest: there is a possibility, unfortunately, that bipartisanship could be difficult, in terms of the election. that constituents in the primary election may vote with more extreme elements, either on the democratic or the republican side. so, i -- i don't suggest as a political strategy of survival necessarily, but at the same time in the same -- in terms of doing your duty for the country, and for the best of the congress, it seems to me that there is likely to be a growing group of people who are going to support people who are constructive trade -- constructive. and i believe the appeal, you mentioned susan collins in maine, i know that she sent out immediately press releases indicating her standing in the bipartisan prole -- poll. they felt that their constituents would appreciate that rating. and this would be a plus factor for them. host: we will go next to john. charleston south carolina. ,

murkowski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: while my colleague from oregon is still on the floor i want to thank him for his leadership through these discussions these past several days on the floor but long prior to that he has been a leader trying to thread the needle and it's been a little bit harder, but i appreciate the fact that we are here today and hopefully moving forward to that agreement that will allow us as a nation to do the best that we can be and to engage in a level of trade that is, that is fair, free and really of great benefit to us as a nation. so i thank him for that. mr. president -- madam president, i too want to speak about the trade promotion authority and some of the issues associated with it. but before i do, i want to acknowledge the comments that were made by my colleagues from new hampshire when they spoke about national police week and honoring those brave men and women who serve us day in and day out those who go where many of us choose rather not to their families that worry about th

senator murkowski talked about the young people and their enthusiasm. we can't see arctic young people not see a promising future and committing suicide. thank you again. >> pamela? >> thank you. and thank you for the introduction. it's a pleasure to be here. the many opportunities and challenges we have herd discussed this morning ex-i'm going to focus on one of those suicide and suicide prevention. just to orient all of you this graph -- oops -- this graph shows you some data on suicide rates in the united states over the last 20 years. the red line shows you homocide rates in the united states, which you can see have dropped substantially over the last 20 years. suicide rates have increased by 17% from 2002 to 2012. and in 2013 there were 41,000 suicides in the u.s. to give you a sense of when we're talking about these polar communities. the bottom arrow shows the u.s. suicide rate and the communities in the arctic, the top arrow is the suicide rate in afc. the main takeaway, the yell yellow bars represent nord rick countries, green represents greenl

thank you chairman murkowski, i look forward to our discussion. zbls thank you mr. secretary. again, appreciate your leadership on this and the opportunity to work with you going forward. this is a big report. there's a lot in it. there is as much to consider but we see a lot of good thoughtful reports with much to consider that come before us here in the congress. and one complaint that many of us have is that we -- this is not directed at you but we see these good strong solid reports but then there's no follow through with legislative proposals coming out of the administration. one example is the energy trust fund from last congress. i had proposed it. the president actually noted it in one of his state of the unions, we never really saw something happen from that. so the question very broadly is how do you envision a plan for engagement with this committee, with the congress, on the qer beyond this hearing? are you looking for input from members of congress here? are you going to send legislative text? how do you view moving forward from a broader perspective? >> madam cha

murkowski, you feel free to jump in if you feel and assess the two.s used on the northern border? >> yes, sir, they are used on the northern border. >> in concert with the canadians? >> no, they are used in conjunction with the border patrol, sir. >> it's not a joint effort? you guys? >> it is not. >> how about radar in the northern border? >> we do pull in all faa radar feeds dod feeds. >> how about radar under 5,000 feet on a northern border? >> the coverage is limited. >> okay. >> what about ground sensors? >> yes. on the northern border. and those feeds are directly shared across international -- >> okay. that's good. how many miles would you say on a northern border ground sensors are utilized? >> i could be precise to the record with some data -- >> that'd be fine. >> each of the sectors. >> when we're talking about a technology like drones and ground sensors in particular, less on radar, but when ground sensors and drones in particular, is there -- is there some reduction in manpower when they're utilized? or is that not the case? >> in making

like to say thanks to senators inhofe, mayotte, boozeman, casey, king, kirk, fisher hatch, helder murkowski, rand, roberts, round, shaheen, sullivan, tester, wicker and widen. in summary, ga needs your help. we look forward to working with the pilots bill of rights 2 in the upcoming faa reauthorization, both which stand to put our industry in a much needed climb. thank you. >> thank you, mr. baker. ms. gilligan i wanted to ask you for an update on the progress of the pilots' records database, and where the initiative stands and what we can expect in terms of it moving forward. >> thank you, senator. development of this database has proven to be quite a technical challenge. we have run a proof of concept. so we do know conceptually what it is we need to do in order to meet the requirements of the bill. what we've run into is that the amount of records that the bill would have us incorporate into the single pilot database is really creating the challenge. many records now and going forward will be automated records but the bill calls for the complete history of every pilot who is currently in

. >> good morning, senator murkowski and other members of the committee. thank you for inviting me here today. my name is sharon hood. i'm a post-doctoral researcher at the university of montana. previously i worked as a forest service ecologist prior to earning my ph.d. at the university of montana in 2014. fire and native bark beetles have huge impacts on conifer forests across the country. my testimony focuses on fire and thinning can reese ponderosa pine resistance to mount pine beetle, but also that thinning is not a substitute for fire. ponderosa pine is adapted to survive frequent low-severity fire, a type of fire that burns through the forest's understory but generally causes little mortality to larger trees. however, lack of fire since the late 1800s has increased tree density and changed species' composition in many areas. we continue to actively suppress the majority of wildfires today. however, there is recent acknowledgment such as the 2014 national action plan for the national cohesive wildland fire management strategy that we must allow more

113th congress and the senate, the top five -- susan collins of maine, joe of west virginia, lisa murkowskif alaska, and mark pryor of arkansas. can bipartisanship the a detriment to reelection? guest: there is a possibility, unfortunately, that bipartisanship could be difficult, in terms of the election. that constituents in the primary election may vote with more extreme elementse democratic or the republican side. so, i -- i don't suggest as a political strategy of survival necessarily, but at the same time in the same -- in terms of doing your duty for the country it seems to me that there is likely to be a growing group of people who are going to support people who are constructive trade -- constructive. and i believe -- susan collins and maine, i note that she sent out immediately press releases indicating her standing in the bipartisan prole -- poll. they felt that their constituents would appreciate that rating. and this would be a plus factor for them. host: we will go next to john. south carolina. a democrat. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: senator, -- host: john, ple

senator murkowski: i look forward to those conversations with you and your team. on the heroine issue, you're for repeated several times here today but i will reiterate that in our very remote rural areas areas that are islands. areas not accessible by road, we are seeing the impact of heroine. whether it is telling him or in kodiak. we have meth issues in the community of kodiak and law enforcement is focusing on that so they are not able to focus on some of the smaller villages that are out there. you mentioned the heroine taskforces in place. i would ask that you not forget the smaller communities where we see an addiction and the devastation truly taking our communities, -- just wiping them out. it is a fighting thought that the resources they be there and available for the cities, but are smaller communities we are losing young people and it could be so significant to the health and safety. i would ask that you work with us on that. mr. chairman, i do have other questions i would like submitted for the record. more specifically with the codification of the gr

effort of the oceans caucus, it was led by myself and then senator begich on our side and senator murkowski and senator wicker on the other side. it was hotlined on both sides and cleared. so it's a useful treaty to be in it's important for our american fishing industry to make sure that they are not being punished or harmed by foreign competitors who aren't fishing sustainably who are fishing illegally, who are violating the laws of the jurisdiction in which they're fishing and because of their misbehavior they're able to bring catch to market less expensively than fishermen who play by the rules. so i would ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside so that i may call up my amendment number 1221. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: objection. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. whitehouse: i understand that there is some issues on the floor that need to be resolved and this there are issues pending but i did want to speak to this amendment. it is an amendment i hope can either get a vote or because of its noncontroversial, bipartisan status,