Articles & Op-eds
Anchorage Press: On Food Stamps and Alaska's Senators
by Kokayi Nosakhere
Invisible. That's the word which comes into my mind when I think of America's strange relationship to all public policy surrounding hunger. Common sense leads one to believe this issue is a no-brainer. Since birth, the constant companion to the human experience is hunger. The need for food is so basic, it cuts across all lines of social construction. Unlike the other two basic needs - shelter and clothing - hunger is not visibly apparent during the experience. We can see the physical result… Continue Reading
07.03.18
Thanks to so many…
by Congressman Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan
Now that the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act has passed Congress, I want to give my public thanks and acknowledgement to the many who helped make this possible. In Congress it was always-and had to be-a bipartisan effort. Senate Leaders McConnell and Schumer, Chairmen Murkowski and Grassley, my Democratic colleagues Senators Cantwell, Feinstein, Heinrich, Hirono, Menendez, Sanders, and Wyden were all involved. On the House side, I worked especially with Majority Leader … Continue Reading
07.02.18
New micro-grants to support locally grown food
As part of the 2018 Farm Bill passed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, a new grant program is available to support locally grown food, according to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. Schatz says the provision was authored by him and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (RAlaska). "This new federal money will give people the resources to start a garden or build a business that promotes locally grown food," said Schatz in a news release. "The farm bill also invests in Native Hawaiian education and creates more o… Continue Reading
07.02.18
KTVA: 'This is worrisome,' Murkowski on Chinese sanctions to Alaska seafood
by Liz Raines
China is slated to impose a 25 percent tariff on U.S. seafood -- including Alaska's -- by the end of this week, as part of increasingly heated trade negotiations between the two nations. According to a recent report by the McDowell Group, seafood is Alaska's second largest employer -- with 41,200 jobs created by the $2.1 billion industry. China is the state's largest trading partner. "This is worrisome, we'll work this through with the administration," Sen. Lisa Murkowski said of the s… Continue Reading
06.29.18
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski Serves As Keynote Speaker, World Gas Conference
by Maria Athens
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski delivered the opening remarks today, during a panel discussion on "Access to Sustainable Energy in Developing Economies" at the 27th World Gas Conference, held in Washington, D.C. Our Senior Senator offered the following comments via social media: "The U.S. is now the world's largest producer of natural gas. Our mindset has changed from a deep-seated fear of scarcity, to the incredible possibilities of abundance, which has opened new doors for us and for the… Continue Reading
06.26.18
ADN: Sen. Lisa Murkowski on politics, #MeToo and her first conversation with Presidentelect Donald Trump
by Caroline Biscotti
The following are excerpts from a May 31 meeting between Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the Anchorage Daily News editorial board. On her first interaction with President-elect Donald Trump after his election: He had not been sworn in, it was right after Thanksgiving. I wanted to weigh in on who the Secretary of the Interior should be. And so I was kind of like, "What adviser should I talk with?" And he didn't have any advisers. And so I thought, "Well, maybe I'll just call him myself." And so I got a… Continue Reading
06.22.18
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Murkowski introduces Alaska specific farm bill
by Erin Granger
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has introduced an Arctic specific farming bill to address issues of food security, conservation and trade in Alaska. The Food Security, Housing and Sanitation Improvements in Rural, Remote and Frontier Areas Act of 2018 includes a series of Alaska and Arctic-specific initiatives compiled based on the input of farmers and stakeholders across Alaska, Murkowski said. This bill is meant to accompany the nation's farm bill, which is updated every five years, … Continue Reading
06.21.18
Alaska Journal of Commerce: Poison pill’-free Interior Dept. spending bill moves ahead
by Elwood Brehmer
Sen. Lisa Murkowski is touting her Interior and environment budget bill as much for the process behind it as what's in it. Alaska's senior senator emphasized in a June 14 call with reporters that the $35.8 billion fiscal year 2019 discretionary spending bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier that day, which she said is a sign that Congress might finally be returning to regular order when it comes to funding the government. 13 Murkowski chairs the Appro… Continue Reading
06.21.18
ADN: Murkowski, Sullivan support plans to end separation of families at the border
by Erica Martinson
Alaska's U.S. senators say they favor keeping families together at the U.S.-Mexico border and crafting federal legislation to manage an influx of immigrant families seeking asylum. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that would stop the separation of children from their parents at the border, a process that escalated with a recently instituted "zero tolerance" policy for asylum seekers who enter the United States at unsanctioned places along the southern border. … Continue Reading
06.19.18
The Hill: Supreme court to rehear Alaska moose hunter, hovercraft case
by Miranda Green
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to rehear the case of an Alaskan man who sued the National Park Service (NPS) after being removed from a river while using a hovercraft to hunt moose. The case, brought by John Sturgeon against the NPS in 2011 after he was removed from Alaska's Nation River in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, will come before the Supreme Court for a second time after the court rejected a lower court's reasoning against him and sent it back for reconsideration i… Continue Reading
06.18.18
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Sullivan joins Murkowski is support of marijuana states' rights bill
by Erin Granger
Alaska's two Republican U.S. senators have announced their support of a bipartisan bill to ensure the ability of states to regulate legal marijuana industries. The Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act was originally co-authored by Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts. The bill looks into a number of areas in which state and federal marijuana laws conflict while also containing a number of safeguards to ensure states, territories and t… Continue Reading
06.09.18
Murkowski proposes a government role in the #MeToo movement
by Erica Martinson
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been asking a lot of questions about how people are treated in the workplace. As chair of the Energy Committee, she has in recent months pressed officials with the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Interior Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs about sexual harassment and bullying. And this week, Murkowski unveiled new legislation - along with California Democrat Kamala Harris - to place limits and requirements on employers when it comes to managing sexual … Continue Reading
06.07.18
Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman: ANWR leasing could come as soon as July of next year
by Tim Bradner
The federal government has leasing in ANWR on the fast-track, and a lease sale could come as early as July, 2019. The "scoping" process for an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, for ANWR is now underway. The EIS itself will be completed in late spring, 2019, Balash said. "We will definitely have a lease sale. The law (the federal Tax and Jobs Acts of 2017) says 'we shall," Balash said. Now that the decision has been made by Congress, "the purpose of the EIS is to inform the public and feder… Continue Reading
06.07.18
KTVA: Alaskan Indian Affairs nominee heads to full Senate
by Chris Klint
An Alaska Native who has been nominated by President Trump to head the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs passed her final committee vote Wednesday, setting the stage for her Senate confirmation. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's office said Tara Sweeney, a former Alaska Federation of Natives co-chair who has held senior positions at the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and formerly chaired the Arctic Economic Council, was approved by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on a voice vote Wednesday. Sweeney spoke b… Continue Reading
06.04.18
Delta Discovery: LETTER: Alaska’s Ophthalmologists Thank Senator Murkowski for Helping Protect Alaskan Natives from Permanent Blindness
Alaska's ophthalmologists today (May 22nd, 2018) thanked Sen. Lisa Murkowski, RAlaska, for her tireless efforts to secure important funding for preventing diabetic retinopathy among Native American and Alaskan Native populations. Sen. Murkowski led an important effort to secure $1 million in federal funds to upgrade retinal cameras used by an important Indian Health Service teleophthalmology program. The cameras are essential. Each allows the program to provide eye care to patients in Alask… Continue Reading
05.28.18
Let’s make Alaska home of the next big idea
by Senator Lisa Murkowski and Secretary Rick Perry
During the next few days, the University of Alaska will host a unique event that brings dozens of the world's best and brightest scientists to Fairbanks. Known as National Lab Day, this forum will provide an incredible opportunity for Alaskans to form new partnerships with the individuals who run our nation's premier research institutions. If national parks were America's best idea, National Labs were our smartest. From their founding more than 70 years ago, the laboratories now affiliated with… Continue Reading
05.24.18
ADN: What the new VA health care bill means for Alaska’s veterans
by Erica Martinson
WASHINGTON - A new bill is headed to President Donald Trump's desk that Alaska's U.S. senators hope will ultimately offer the state's veteran population greater access to health care in and near their homes, and bring new doctors to the state. The so-called V.A. Mission Act of 2018 will set the Department of Veterans Affairs down a multiyear path to expand private-sector treatment programs for veterans. Alaska's senators said a 2014 law unintentionally limited treatment options for the stat… Continue Reading
05.22.18
Alaska Public Media: Murkowski questions military officials over how sexual assaults involving minors are resolved
by Dan Bross
Alaska U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski raised the issue of sexual assaults involving minors on military bases during a Senate Defense Appropriations hearing last week. "Investigators released a total of eight cases at Alaska installations, five of them reportedly at Fort Wainwright," Murkowski said. "So, of course this certainly gets your attention." Senator Murkowski asked U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper about how youth on youth assaults are handled. Esper responded that the Army conducts … Continue Reading
05.09.18
Gray TV: Alaska Native Tara Sweeney inching closer to history at Department of the Interior
by Peter Zampa
A long wait could be over soon for an Alaska Native to take the nation's top job in Indian Affairs. Before Tara Sweeney leads the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, she has to pass through the U.S. Senate. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) says Tara Sweeney's knowledge of Alaska Natives will carry over for all native peoples. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a hearing Wednesday Sweeney's nomination to become the assistant secretary. The Inupiat Native from Bar… Continue Reading
05.08.18
Business Wire: Laos, Hmong Veterans Laud Passage, Enactment, by U.S. Congress, President Trump of Burial Honors Bill
Lao and Hmong-American U.S. Secret Army veterans of the Vietnam War in Laos, and their refugee families across the United States, are lauding the passage, and seeking timely and appropriate implementation, of the "Hmong Veterans' Service Recognition Act" by President Donald Trump and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), according to the Center for Public Policy Analysis. Laos,Hmong U.S. Secret Army veterans of the Vietnam War are lauding the passage and implementation, of the Lao Hmong … Continue Reading
