Roe is still the law of the land. We don’t know the direction that this decision may ultimately take. Sen. Collins and I in February introduced a bil… - Lisa Murkowski

I mentioned that there have been some articles of late that just really kind of struck me. It is interesting because I thought they were pretty significant, but it seems they are relatively unnoticed here in Washington. According to Bloomberg, Russia has now supplanted Saudi Arabia to become the third largest supplier of crude oil in the United States. Canada is our No. 1. But there has been a series of circumstances. As our domestic production is falling, the Saudis have also reduced theirs, and it has been Venezuela. Venezuela is subject to sanctions. Their production has pretty much gone offline to the United States. Part of what we are seeing, though, is the refusal on the Federal Government's side to approve cross-border pipeline infrastructure. Canada, again, is our largest--we import more from Canada than anywhere else, and they have greater capacity to help us out here so that we don't have to take it from Russia. But, instead, we haven't been able to take more from Canada to fill in that gap because of pipeline capacity. So what happens is, we are sending more of our money to Russia at a time when we are not on very good terms with Russia. Need we say elections? Need we say SolarWinds? Need we say what we are seeing from Putin? This is what is happening: We are sending more of our dollars to Russia, and they are sending us more of the resources that we could produce here at home or perhaps at least import them from some friendlier nations.

We had a win this week that originated in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee when it comes to some of our land and conservation measures. The Great American Outdoors Act passed by a strong margin. It was the work of a lot of good people, but both measures, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, as well as the Restore Our Parks Act, began with the good work of a committee working together to move those pieces of legislation through the committee process. It is not perfect, in my view, but I knew these were good policies that many Members across both sides of the aisle wanted to place a priority on. Let's figure out how we can make something like that happen. I am proud of the fact that we can move good initiatives through this committee.

John fought for our institution because he never lost sight of the fact that the legislative branch is a coequal branch of government, not subordinate to the White House. He took no guff--we all know--from the administration, no matter who was in charge. That wasn't just because John liked to flex his senatorial muscle; it was because he was a true believer in the Constitution and its checks and balances. He was a true believer in the institutions of government and a true believer in democracy. John certainly made his share of history, and he has earned his place in it. I think we all know how much we will miss him, his passion, his courage. His loss leaves us sad, but at the same time, I think it offers us a beacon of hope here in the Senate as we reflect on his life and his contributions.