WASHINGTON DC –
Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND), of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, announced Thursday the Committee has elected Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) as the committee’s new Vice Chairman. She succeeds the late Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY), who died June 4, 2007.
With her election, Senator Murkowski becomes the first woman to serve as Vice Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
In remarks following Murkowski’s election, Dorgan and Murkowski agreed to continue the Committee’s bi-partisan approach to its work and pledged to make enactment of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act its top priority.
Pictured here, Chairman Dorgan presents Vice Chairman Murkowski with a new nameplate for seat on the Committee dais, immediately after the Committee voted to elect her Vice Chairman.