Editing Ted Stevens (section)

===Department of the Interior===
====Alaska statehood====
[[File:Ted Stevens and Dwight Eisenhower.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Dwight D. Eisenhower, left, in a bright-colored suit, talks to Ted Stevens, right, in a dark colored suit, circa 1958|Stevens with [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight Eisenhower]] in 1958]]
In March 1956, Stevens's friend Elmer Bennett, legislative counsel in the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]], was promoted by [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] [[Douglas McKay]] to the Secretary's office. Bennett successfully lobbied McKay to replace him in his old job with Stevens, and Stevens returned to Washington, D.C., to take up the position.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}} By the time he arrived in June 1956, McKay had resigned in order to run for the U.S. Senate from his home state of [[Oregon]], and [[Fred Andrew Seaton]] had been appointed to replace him.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}}<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood">{{cite news|last=Whitney|first=David|date=August 10, 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609200127/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AS&p_theme=as&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=headline(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)%20AND%20section(all)%20AND%20date(all)&p_field_advanced-0=title&p_text_advanced-0=(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes|title=Seeking statehood: Stevens bent rules to bring Alaska into the union.|work=[[Anchorage Daily News]]|archive-date=June 9, 2011|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AS&p_theme=as&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=headline(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)%20AND%20section(all)%20AND%20date(all)&p_field_advanced-0=title&p_text_advanced-0=(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes|url-status=dead|access-date=June 1, 2007}}</ref> Seaton, a newspaper publisher from Nebraska,<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}} was a close friend of ''[[Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]]'' publisher C.W. Snedden, who was in addition friends with Stevens, and in common with Snedden was an advocate of Alaska statehood,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> unlike McKay, who had been lukewarm in his support.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}} Upon his appointment, Seaton asked Snedden if he knew anyone from Alaska who could come down to Washington, D.C. to work for Alaska statehood; Snedden replied that the man he needed (Stevens) was already there working in the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]].<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The fight for Alaska statehood became Stevens's principal work at Interior. "He did all the work on statehood", Roger Ernst, the then Assistant Secretary of Interior for Public Land Management, later said of Stevens. "He wrote 90 percent of all the speeches; Statehood was his main project."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> A sign on Stevens's door proclaimed his office as "Alaskan Headquarters", and Stevens became known at the Department of the Interior as "Mr. Alaska".<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}}

[[File:Interior Dept. Secretary Seaton & Solicitor Stevens.jpg|thumb|right|Secretary [[Fred Seaton]] and Solicitor Stevens, 1960]]
Efforts to make Alaska a state had been going on since 1943, and had nearly come to fruition during the [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] administration in 1950 when a statehood bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, only to die in the Senate.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The national Republican Party opposed statehood for Alaska, in part out of fear that Alaska would, upon statehood, elect Democrats to the U.S. Congress, while the Southern Democrats opposed statehood, believing that the addition of 2 new pro-civil rights Senators would jeopardize the Solid South's control on Congressional law.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> At the time Stevens arrived in Washington, D.C., to take up his new job, a constitutional convention to write an Alaska constitution had just been concluded on the campus of the [[University of Alaska]] in Fairbanks.<ref name="akconvention">{{cite web|publisher=University of Alaska|year=2004|url=https://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/constitutional-convention/|title=Constitutional Convention|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105211841/https://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/constitutional-convention/ |archive-date=November 5, 2016|work=Creating Alaska: The Origins of the 49th State|access-date=June 21, 2007}}</ref> The 55 delegates also elected three unofficial representatives (all Democrats) as unofficial Shadow congressmen: [[Ernest Gruening]] and [[William Allen Egan|William Egan]] as Shadow U.S. Senators and [[Ralph Rivers]] as Shadow at-large U.S. representative.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>

[[File:Ted Stevens 1967.PNG|upright|thumb|left|alt=Ted Stevens lighting a pipe on January 23rd, 1967. He is in a dark room, wearing glasses, a black suit, and a black tie. His head is tilted downwards, and his body is tilted slightly to the right hand side of the photograph.|Stevens in January 1967]]
President Eisenhower, a Republican, regarded Alaska as too large in area and with a population density too low to be economically self-sufficient as a state, and furthermore saw statehood as an obstacle to effective defense of Alaska should the Soviet Union seek to invade it.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Eisenhower was especially worried about the sparsely populated areas of northern and western Alaska. In March 1954, he had reportedly "drawn a line on a map" indicating his opinion of the portions of Alaska which he felt ought to remain in federal hands even if Alaska were granted statehood.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>

Seaton and Stevens worked with Gen. [[Nathan Farragut Twining|Nathan Twining]], the incumbent [[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]], who himself had previously served in Alaska; and Jack L. Stempler, a top [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] attorney, to create a compromise that would address Eisenhower's concerns. Much of their work was conducted in a hospital room at [[Walter Reed Army Medical Center|Walter Reed Army Hospital]], where Interior Secretary Seaton was receiving treatment for reoccurring health issues with his back.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Their work concentrated on refining the line on the map that Eisenhower had drawn in 1954, one which became known as the PYK Line after three rivers (the [[Porcupine River|Porcupine]], [[Yukon River|Yukon]], and [[Kuskokwim River|Kuskokwim]]) whose courses defined much of the line.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The PYK Line was the basis for Section{{spaces}}10 of the [[Alaska Statehood Act]], which Stevens wrote.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Under Section 10, the land north and west of the PYK Line{{snd}}which included the entirety of Alaska's [[Alaska North Slope|North Slope]], the [[Seward Peninsula]], most of the [[Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta]], the western portions of the [[Alaska Peninsula]], and the [[Aleutian Islands|Aleutian]] and [[Pribilof Islands]]{{snd}}would be part of the new state, but the president would be granted [[emergency power]]s to establish special national defense withdrawals in those areas if deemed necessary.<ref name="alaskastatehoodact">Statehood Act, Pub. L. 85-508, 72 Stat. 339. July 7, 1958. Codified at [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode48/usc_sup_01_48_10_2notes.html 48 U.S.C., Chapter 2.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026061522/https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode48/usc_sup_01_48_10_2notes.html |date=October 26, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.eisenhowerfoundation.net/sites/default/files/psl_media_files/AL16_memo%252CfromTedStevensREAlaskaStatehoodAct%252C7_4_58.pdf Eisenhower Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520155210/https://www.eisenhowerfoundation.net/sites/default/files/psl_media_files/AL16_memo%252CfromTedStevensREAlaskaStatehoodAct%252C7_4_58.pdf |date=May 20, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.seniorvoicealaska.com/story/2015/07/01/columns/alaska-wins-battle-for-statehood-in-1958/809.html | title=Alaska wins battle for statehood in 1958 | access-date=May 20, 2023 | archive-date=May 20, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520155219/https://www.seniorvoicealaska.com/story/2015/07/01/columns/alaska-wins-battle-for-statehood-in-1958/809.html | url-status=live }}</ref> "It's still in the law but it's never been exercised", Stevens later recollected. "Now that the problem with Russia is gone, it's surplusage. But it is a special law that only applies to Alaska."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>
[[File:Ted Stevens 1977.jpg|thumb|upright|Stevens's Congressional portrait for the [[95th United States Congress]], 1977]]
Stevens, illegally, also took part in lobbying for the statehood bill,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> working closely with the Alaska Statehood Committee from his office at Interior.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Stevens hired Marilyn Atwood,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> daughter of ''[[Anchorage Times]]'' publisher Robert Atwood,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> who was chairman of the Alaska Statehood Committee,<ref name="robert-atwood">University of Alaska. (ca. 2004). [http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/whoswho/alaskans/atwood.xml "Alaskans for Statehood: Robert B. Atwood."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908193213/http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/whoswho/alaskans/atwood.xml |date=September 8, 2006 }} ''Creating Alaska: The Origins of the 49th State'' (website). Retrieved on June 21, 2007.</ref> to work with him in the Interior Department. "We were violating the law", Stevens told a researcher in an October 1977 oral history interview for the [[Eisenhower Presidential Center|Eisenhower Library]]. Stevens explained in the interview that they were violating a long-standing statute against lobbying from the executive branch. "We more or less masterminded the House and Senate attack from the executive branch."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Stevens and the younger Atwood created file cards on Congressmen based on their backgrounds, identity and religious beliefs, as he later recalled in the 1977 interview. "We'd assigned these Alaskans to go talk to individual members of the Senate and split them down on the basis of people that had something in common with them."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The lobbying campaign extended to presidential press conferences. "We set Ike (Eisenhower) up quite often at press conferences by planting questions about Alaska statehood", Stevens said in the 1977 interview. "We never let a press conference go by without getting someone to try to ask him about statehood."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Newspapers were also targeted, according to Stevens. "We planted editorials in weeklies and dailies and newspapers in the district of people we thought were opposed to us or states where they were opposed to us." Stevens then added "...Suddenly they were thinking twice about opposing us."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>

The [[Alaska Statehood Act]] became law with Eisenhower's signature on July 7, 1958,<ref name="alaskastatehoodact"/> and Alaska formally was admitted to statehood on January 3, 1959, when Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Proclamation.<ref name="akstateproclaim">University of Alaska. (ca. 2004). [http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/infodocs/pictures/statehoodproclamation.xml "Signing of the Alaska Statehood Proclamation, January 3, 1959."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912232953/http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/infodocs/pictures/statehoodproclamation.xml |date=September 12, 2006 }} ''Creating Alaska: The Origins of the 49th State'' (website). Retrieved on June 21, 2007.</ref>

==== Solicitor of Interior ====
On September 15, 1960, George W. Abbott resigned as Solicitor of the Interior to become Assistant Secretary, and Stevens became Solicitor. He stayed in this office until the [[Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower administration]] left office on January 20, 1961.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1960-09-15 |title=SEATON AIDE NAMED; TWO ENVOYS RESIGN |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/seaton-aide-named-two-envoys-resign.html |access-date=2023-02-24 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223071445/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/seaton-aide-named-two-envoys-resign.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In his position as the highest attorney in the Interior Department, he authored the order that created the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]] in 1960.<ref name="drilling"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.audubonofkansas.org/prairie-wings.cfm?fx=XJHK1ACMSK0OFPDI|title=A Kansas Native Led the Politically-Challenging Campaign to Create the Arctic Wildlife Range/Refuge|website=audubonofkansas.org|date=Winter 2012|author=Dick Seaton|access-date=10 May 2023|archive-date=June 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630194537/https://www.audubonofkansas.org/prairie-wings.cfm?fx=XJHK1ACMSK0OFPDI|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="greenpeace">{{cite web|url=https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/ted-stevens-chronology.pdf|title=Ted Stevens chronology|website=greenpeace.org|access-date=10 May 2023|archive-date=April 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420152237/https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/ted-stevens-chronology.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>