Alaska did better than anticipated on Capitol Hill

30 Dec 2007 // Alaska fared better than expected on Capitol Hill in 2007, despite initial apprehension that Democrats’ ascension to the majority in both chambers of Congress would diminish the effectiveness of the state’s Republican delegation.

John Katz, the governor’s Washington office’s longtime director of state and federal relations, said the state dodged several policy bullets during the past year that sought to restrain the Palin administration’s ability to develop Alaska’s natural resources and cut funding to the state.

Democrats tried to attach policy riders to the annual appropriation bills that would have restricted oil and gas development in Bristol Bay and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, barred federally funded road construction in roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest, and limited access to federal lands through the use of historic state right-of-ways.

Meanwhile, fiscally conservative Republicans took aim at Denali Commission funding and other programs beneficial to Alaska.

None of the “anti-Alaska” riders made it to the president’s desk — most were eliminated during the negotiation of the massive $555 billion omnibus appropriations bill, which lumped 11 of the 12 annual spending plans into a single piece of legislation — but Katz expects many of the same issues to resurface in 2008.

Federal funding levels to the state also did not change significantly compared with 2006 levels, Katz said.

Congressional and presidential elections will likely keep alive many issues of interest to Alaska through November, though Katz doesn’t think any major policy changes will occur until the 111th Congress is sworn in.

Next year will provide a good indication of where public policy is headed in 2009, which will be much less predictable, especially if Democrats are able to expand the majority they won in 2006, Katz said.

“You have to conclude that there will be more Democrats in both bodies and possibly the White House,” he said.

The shift toward a Democrat-led Congress has forced the state to play a lot more defense, Katz said.

“It’s always critical that Alaska has the 40 votes (in the Senate) necessary to threaten a filibuster against legislation that’s inimical to Alaska,” he said.

At any one time, Katz and his staff monitor about 120 issues — from budget appropriations to national park policy — pending before the Congress and federal agencies.

One of the biggest issues of the past year was the attempted overhaul of the national energy policy.

Democrats won approval for legislation that boosted fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles for the first time in more than three decades and increased energy conservation and efficiency efforts. But a presidential veto threat forced them to scrap a tax provision that would have eliminated billions of dollars in tax incentives for the oil and gas industry, which Katz said had the potential to harm investment on the North Slope.

While the bill included some benefits to Alaska, such as funding for geothermal energy, the governor’s office ultimately considered it a disappointment because it failed to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, something President Bush had included in his original request to Congress.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., plans to renew efforts to pass legislation designating the ANWR coastal plain as wilderness, effectively putting it off-limits to development.

Katz said he doesn’t expect the Lieberman bill, which has 28 co-sponsors, to lead anywhere, but the issue could come up as an amendment to climate change legislation Congress plans to take up early next year. Democrats have also vowed to revisit the energy tax provisions in 2008.

In an effort to educate members of Congress about Alaska energy issues, the Palin administration has asked Arctic Power to expand its lobbying efforts beyond ANWR to include the national importance of a natural gas pipeline project.

The new message: Alaska has a secure source of domestic oil and gas that can be developed in an environmentally sound way.

The pro-ANWR group will have to do the extra work with less state funding, though. The Legislature approved $120,000 for fiscal year 2008 for Arctic Power, significantly less than previous years.

In addition to promoting Alaska’s energy potential, the governor’s office is following a raft of developing legislation and federal policy decisions that affect the state, including aquaculture, climate change research, hard-rock mining, veteran and military issues and health care, among others.

A lot of issues didn’t get addressed this year because of divisions between the Senate and House and between Congress and the executive branch, and those divisions are unlikely to disappear next year, Katz said.

“It seems either one party or the other wants to keep some of these issues alive for the election cycle,” Katz said.

Rising cost of wars

The escalating costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the worldwide fight against terrorism is nearly $15 billion a month, according to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

“This cost of this war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion of that every month,” Stevens said in a Senate floor speech on Dec. 18.

Stevens, ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, was speaking in favor of adding $70 billion to the omnibus spending bill for the wars. Stevens said the additional funds would provide the military adequate funding through March 31.

The Washington Post, which first reported Stevens’ speech, said Pentagon spokesmen would not comment on the figure but said their latest estimate for monthly spending for Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism was $11.7 billion as of Sept. 30.

Ethics top 10

The government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, has put out its inaugural list of the year’s top 10 ethical scandals.

Stevens made the list for remaining on the Senate Appropriations Committee despite a U.S. Justice Department investigation into his connection with former VECO Corp. chief executive Bill Allen.

The watchdog has called for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to remove Stevens from Appropriations and his other committee assignments until the investigation is concluded.

The full list is available at www.citizensforethics.org.

Meanwhile, the Web site Talking Points Memo releases the winners of its Golden Duke awards for bad behavior by politicians on Monday. The Web site’s founder Josh Marshall put out his picks Christmas day, and while all three of Alaska’s congressional delegation were named as contenders, none took home a statue.