Senator Lisa Murkowski Was In Mike Miller's Back Yard Monday Touring Devastating Interior Wildfires
Murkowski Working Hard to Provide Federal Assistance to Help Fight Interior Fires
Anchorage, AK - Seemingly unaware of his own surroundings and of the devastating wildfires in his own back yard, Mike Miller issued a press release questioning Senator Lisa Murkowski's whereabouts on Monday. Mike Miller obviously failed to read his own hometown newspaper or watch the local news to realize that Senator Murkowski was in the Interior inspecting the Boundary and Chena Hot Spring fires.
While in the Interior on Monday, Senator Murkowski also received briefings on efforts to battle the other wildfires that have burned more than 1.8 million acres of Alaska in the past two weeks with an estimated cost of $8.5 million in fire suppression efforts alone.
Senator Murkowski has been closely watching the wildfires and has won the assurances of U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton that the federal government will do everything it can to battle wildfires in Alaska that threaten communities near the state's second largest population center.
"As for Mr. Miller's assertions that I somehow ducked the vote on President Bush's judicial nominee, I will tell him what I have told others in Alaska: that I support President Bush's judicial nominees, I do not apply litmus tests to the bench, and as long as President Bush sends qualified nominees to the bench they deserve a straight up or down vote, not filibuster threats from the Democrats," said Murkowski.
"It is true that I was not there for that vote, but I think most Alaskans are more concerned about the fact Alaska has more acreage under fire than any other state in the nation. As a Senator I have a responsibility to see first-hand what is happening in Alaska and to report to Congress and the Administration what amount of federal assistance is needed," said Murkowski.
If Mike Miller does not believe Senator Murkowski's whereabouts he is encouraged to review the many news stories that covered Murkowski's tour on Monday and Tuesday:
"Sen. Lisa Murkowski had one word for the destruction that laid waste to thousands of acres of wilderness after touring both the Boundary and Wolf Creek fires in an Army National Guard helicopter Monday: 'stunning.' 'It's very difficult for me to explain to the constituents whose property that is at risk that, 'Well, this was an asset that wasn't authorized to go ahead and protect even though it was flying,'" she told a room full of state and federal fire management officials at the Fairbanks International Airport before her flight. "So I wanted to make sure that, if in fact we had a situation like that, there was a clear go ahead." - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, July 6, 2004
"Because the fire is so big and so threatening, Sen. Murkowski paid a personal visit to the U.S. Department of the Interior, charged with overseeing the nation's lands. At that meeting, Secretary Gale Norton assured Murkowski that the Boundary fire is the nation's top priority, and that adequate resources will be committed to it. It was also a relief to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who toured the area Monday aboard a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter, and who was encouraged by what she saw. "The good news is that the wind's working in your favor and it doesn't hurt to have a little bit of rain like we're blessed with now," she said. "We're grateful that the conditions not only in town are improving, but all over around here."
- KTUU Channel 2 News, Monday, July 5, 2004