(1) Americans cherish the continued existence 
of expansive, unspoiled wilderness ecosystems and 
wildlife found on their public lands, and feel a 
strong moral responsibility to protect this wilderness 
heritage as an enduring resource to bequeath undis-
turbed to future generations of Americans. 
(2) It is widely believed by ecologists, wildlife 
scientists, public land specialists, and other experts 
that the wilderness ecosystem centered around and 
dependent upon the Arctic coastal plain of the Arctic 
National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, represents the 
very epitome of a primeval wilderness ecosystem and 
constitutes the greatest wilderness area and diversity 
of wildlife habitats of its kind in the United States. 
(3) President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated 
protection of the wilderness values of the Arctic 
coastal plain in 1960 when he set aside 8,900,000 
acres establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Range 
expressly ‘‘for the purpose of preserving unique wild-
life, wilderness and recreational values’’. 
(4) In 1980, when the Congress acted to 
strengthen the protective management of the Eisen-
hower-designated area with the enactment of the 
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act 
(Public Law 96–487), Representative Morris K. 
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Udall led the effort to more than double the size of 
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and extend stat-
utory wilderness protection to most of the original 
area. 
(5) Before the enactment of the Alaska Na-
tional Interest Lands Conservation Act, the House 
of Representatives twice passed legislation that 
would have protected the entire Eisenhower-des-
ignated area as wilderness, including the Arctic 
coastal plain. 
(6) A majority of Americans have supported 
and continue to support preserving and protecting 
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including the 
Arctic coastal plain, from any industrial development 
and consider oil and gas exploration and develop-
ment in particular to be incompatible with the pur-
poses for which this incomparable wilderness eco-
system has been set aside. 
(7) When the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 
was established in 1980 by paragraph (2) of section 
303 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Con-
servation Act (Public Law 96–487; 94 Stat. 2390; 
16 U.S.C. 668dd note), subparagraph (B)(iii) of 
such paragraph specifically stated that one of the 
purposes for which the Arctic National Wildlife Ref-
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uge is established and managed would be to provide 
the opportunity for continued subsistence uses by 
local residents, and, therefore, the lands designated 
as wilderness within the Refuge, including the area 
designated by this Act, are and will continue to be 
managed consistent with such subparagraph. 
(8) Canada has taken action to preserve those 
portions of the wilderness ecosystem of the Arctic 
that exist on its side of the international border and 
provides strong legal protection for the habitat of 
the Porcupine River caribou herd that migrates an-
nually through both countries to calve on the Arctic 
coastal plain. 
(9) The extension of full wilderness protection 
for the Arctic coastal plain within the Arctic Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge will still leave most of the 
North Slope of Alaska available for the development 
of energy resources, which will allow Alaska to con-
tinue to contribute significantly to meeting the en-
ergy needs of the United States without despoiling 
the unique Arctic coastal plain of the Arctic Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge. 
(b) STATEMENT OF POLICY.—The Congress hereby 
declares that it is the policy of the United States— 
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(1) to honor the decades of bipartisan efforts 
that have increasingly protected the great wilderness 
ecosystem of the Arctic coastal plain; 
(2) to sustain this natural treasure for the cur-
rent generation of Americans; and 
(3) to do everything possible to protect and pre-
serve this magnificent natural ecosystem so that it 
may be bequeathed in its unspoiled natural condition 
to future generations of Americans. 
SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF ADDITIONAL WILDERNESS, ARC-
TIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, ALASKA. 
(a) DESIGNATION.—A portion of the Arctic National 
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska comprising approximately 
1,559,538 acres, as generally depicted on the map entitled 
‘‘Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Coastal Plain Proposed 
Wilderness’’, dated October 20, 2015, labeled with Map 
ID 03–0172, and available for inspection in the offices of 
the Secretary of the Interior, is designated as a component 
of the National Wilderness Preservation System under the 
Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.). 
(b) ADMINISTRATION.—The Secretary of the Interior 
shall administer the area designated as wilderness by sub-
section (a) in accordance with the Wilderness Act as part 
of the wilderness area already in existence within the Arc-
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tic National Wildlife Refuge as of the date of the enact-
ment of this Act. 
Æ 
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