00CS FOR SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 6(RES)                                                                               
01 Relating to federally held property in those states, including Alaska, admitted to                                      
02 the Union since 1802.                                                                                                   
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 that                                     
05 a centralized federal government with a substantial land base would eventually overwhelm the                            
06 states and pose a threat to the freedom of the individual; and                                                          
07  WHEREAS the original 13 colonies and the next five states admitted to the Union                                        
08 were granted fee title to all land within their borders; and                                                            
09  WHEREAS all but two states admitted to the Union since 1802 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 makes                                      
12 no provision for land ownership by the federal government, other than by purchase from the                              
13 states of land "...for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful                        
14 buildings"; and                                                                                                         

01  WHEREAS acting contrary to the provisions of art. I, sec. 8, of the Constitution of                                    
02 the United States, the federal government withheld property from the states admitted since                              
03 1802, making them land poor and unable to determine their own land use and development                                  
04 policies; and                                                                                                           
05  WHEREAS this action has made those states admitted since 1802 unequal to other                                         
06 states and subject to unwarranted federal control; and                                                                  
07  WHEREAS restoration of property to which they are historically and constitutionally                                    
08 entitled would empower the land poor states to determine their own land use policies;                                   
09  BE IT RESOLVED  that the Alaska State Legislature urges the 104th Congress of                                          
10 the United States to right the wrong and to transfer to the states, by fee title, any federally                         
11 controlled property currently held within the states admitted to the Union since 1802; and be                           
12 it                                                                                                                      
13  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Congress  is urged to then purchase from the newly                                           
14 empowered States land needed to meet the provision of art. I, sec. 8, United States                                     
15 Constitution.                                                                                                           
16  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Strom Thurmond, President                                     
17 Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Robert Dole, Majority Leader of the U.S.                                  
18 Senate; the Honorable Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; to                                   
19 members of the delegations in Congress of those States admitted to the Union since 1802; to                             
20 the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the                                     
21 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.