American Thinker

by Brian Tomlinson

    The senior senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, says that she is a firm “no” vote. Allegedly, the main premise of her refusal is the burden the Act would place on Alaska citizens who live in remote areas of her state. One might ask: Is this highly likely or simply an excuse to vote “no”  The evidence about Alaska’s level of wealth (often from the U.S. government) and technical sophistication implies the latter.

    The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which President Nixon signed in December 1971, was key legislation that enabled the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) to proceed. What’s relevant here is that land titles were transferred from the federal government to 12 newly formed Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) and over 200 Native Alaskan villages. Dividends are usually paid annually to members of the ANCs.

    One of the richest ANCs is the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. Recent annual dividends for ARSC for every Alaskan Native residing in their land area are $11,500. The average salary for residents in the Arctic North Slope Borough exceeds $95,000.

    Then there is the annual Permanent Fund Dividend, with an average disbursement of $1,000 per qualified Alaskan resident. The Permanent Fund was established to collect and invest State of Alaska oil royalties so that residents of Alaska could benefit from its dividends, not to fritter away the principal into general funds controlled by the state legislature or the governor. TAPS was commissioned nearly 49 years ago, and billions of barrels of oil have flowed through it since.

    Significantly, people must prove their eligibility as residents to receive this annual dividend. The cycle lasts nearly two years before a person receives the first dividend. I have lived in Alaska three times and know this well.

    Public Law 86-121 was established by Congress to provide safe water to Native Americans, including Eskimos, Aleuts, and Alaskan Indians. The U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), through its Indian Health Service (IHS), provides potable water treatment and distribution systems, as well as wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal systems under this law. I will not get into the details of HUD-provided housing nor USPHS-provided medical services to Alaskan Native Americans, courtesy of your tax dollars. Nor will I discuss details of the Native American advantages given when bidding work on federally funded projects. Suffice to say that a great deal of federal money flows to Alaska.

    After completing my work on TAPS, I decided to stay in Alaska and was commissioned as an officer in the USPHS-IHS to provide safe water to Alaskan Native villages. This was an experience of a lifetime. I would fly into villages on gravel airstrips in remote areas and be greeted by villagers like family.

    I thought that our work was honorable, and I enjoyed the cultural and geographical experiences in my life. I must admit, though, that I was taken aback when I visited remote villages in late 1977/early 1978 and found they had six-foot satellite dishes that provided free-to-air television and telephonic communications. Just a year earlier, we were still getting taped television coverage from Seattle sent to Anchorage. Watching a football game a week later lost some of its pizzazz. Some of us were still using party-line phones.

    In typical government fashion, we were installing some of the most up-to-date water and wastewater treatment systems in the world. I participated in training sessions for regional village operators of these systems at Noorvik Village in the northwest Arctic in late 1977.

    Many of these folks were lucky to have a complete elementary school education. My colleagues taught basic electrical work, how to tune water boilers, how to repair pumps and other mechanical equipment, and how to repair pipes; I taught basic water chemistry—a necessary fund of knowledge because the tendency to add more chemicals to a system that is not working can backfire on you.

    Quintillion Alaska, a private telecommunications company, has installed 1,700 miles of high-speed broadband fiber-optic cable along the northern remote coast of Alaska. About 1,200 miles of fiber optic cable is buried in the seabed, and 500 miles are buried on land near shore. This service now provides high-speed internet service to the northern Arctic villages and the oil and gas production facilities of the North Slope.

    Most remote villages also have telephone and internet services as well. Then consider that there are those who purposely left the grid to live in remote areas of Alaska and want to be left alone.

    The current population of Alaska is about 740,000 and has been in decline. Ninety percent of this population is distributed approximately as follows:

• Anchorage Municipality—289,000

• Mat-Su (adjacent to Anchorage)—118,000

• Fairbanks North Star Borough—97,000

• Kenai Peninsula Borough—61,000

• North Slope Borough—11,000

• Juneau City and Borough—32,000

• Ketchikan Gateway Borough—14,000

• Kodiak Island Borough—12,000

• Bethel Census Area—18,000

• Nome Census Area—10,000

• Kusilvak Census Area (coastal area between Nome and Bethel)—8,000

    Thus, contrary to Murkowski’s implication that Alaska lives in the 19th century, Alaska is the “North to the Future” state. The majority have access to the internet, mobile phones, and modern connectivity.

    The reason Senator Murkowski is not supporting the SAVE America Act—that Alaska’s population is too remote—is highly doubtful. After all, just remember how much scrutiny the State of Alaska applies to ensure residents are eligible to receive the annual Permanent Fund dividend.

    Here’s just a little more information about Lisa Murkowski: She was “installed” as U.S. senator from Alaska by her father, Frank Murkowski, in 2002. Frank had been a senator but ran for governor of Alaska and won. When he vacated his seat, he placed Lisa there as his replacement. Shortly after that, the State of Alaska changed the law so this kind of nepotism could not recur.

    Murkowski ran again in 2004 as a Republican and won another six-year term. In 2010, Lisa lost the Republican primary to Joe Miller, yet she ran as a write-in candidate and won in the general election. She was re-elected in 2016 and 2022. Alaska is now a “jungle primary” state. Does this help her win re-election  We will see in 2028 if she runs again and wins.

    Perhaps her stated reason for opposing the SAVE America Act is more of a pretense than a reality, and perhaps the real reason is a little more personal...

    Juneau, Alaska by Alan Wu. CC BY-SA 2.0.