00SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 6                                                                                           
01 Relating to federally held property in those states, including Alaska, admitted to                                      
02 the Union since 1846.                                                                                                   
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04  WHEREAS the founding fathers of this nation recognized that land is power and                                          
05 that a centralized federal government with a substantial land base would eventually                                     
06 overwhelm the states and pose a threat to the freedom of the individual; and                                            
07  WHEREAS the original 13 colonies and the next 15 states admitted to the Union                                          
08 were granted fee title to all land within their borders; and                                                            
09  WHEREAS the states admitted to the Union since 1846 were denied the same                                               
10 rights of land ownership granted the states admitted earlier; and                                                       
11  WHEREAS art. I, sec. 8, of the Constitution of the United States of America                                            
12 makes no provision for land ownership by the federal government, other than by purchase                                 
13 from the states of land "...for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and                             
14 other needful buildings"; and                                                                                           

01  WHEREAS acting contrary to the provisions of art. I, sec. 8, of the Constitution                                       
02 of the United States, the federal government withheld property from the states admitted                                 
03 since 1846, making them land poor and unable to determine their own land use and                                        
04 development policies; and                                                                                               
05  WHEREAS this action has made those states admitted since 1846 unequal to                                               
06 other states and subject to unwarranted federal control; and                                                            
07  WHEREAS restoration of property to which they are historically and                                                     
08 constitutionally entitled would empower the land poor states to determine their own land                                
09 use policies;                                                                                                           
10  BE IT RESOLVED  that the Alaska State Legislature urges the 104th Congress                                             
11 of the United States to right the wrong and to transfer to the states, by fee title, all                                
12 federally controlled property currently held within the states admitted to the Union since                              
13 1846; and be it                                                                                                         
14  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Congress  is urged to then purchase from the                                                 
15 newly empowered States land needed to meet the provision of art. I, sec. 8, United States                               
16 Constitution.                                                                                                           
17  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Strom Thurmond,                                               
18 President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Robert Dole, Majority Leader                                    
19 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of                                           
20 Representatives; to members of the delegations in Congress of those States admitted to                                  
21 the Union since 1846; to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank                                              
22 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative,                                             
23 members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.