Hundreds of people came to Haines last weekend for the Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival — including Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Friday evening, as people streamed into town, she gave a wide-ranging interview that touched on issues from school funding to canceled FEMA grants and Haines’ troubled Lutak Dock project.
Murkowski said she is particularly concerned about looming cuts to Medicaid. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a tax and spending bill on Thursday that would pay for sweeping tax cuts in part by reducing federal spending on Medicaid, among other programs.
The bill would do so by imposing strict work requirements and requiring states to verify some recipients’ eligibility more often. Both changes would increase costs for states. Murkowski said that’s a concerning trajectory in Alaska, which is heavily reliant on the insurance program and already wrestling with a strained budget.
“If what ends up happening is more costs are pushed to the state, the state can’t absorb it, those individuals will be dropped,” she said. “If they’re dropped, then it doesn’t make them any less sick. It just means that they’re going to defer their care until they have to go to the emergency room. And then we all pay for it.”
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich, a fellow Republican, voted for the bill. He told reporters last week that the legislation is “great” for Alaska because it would keep taxes low and “drives more accountability” for social safety net programs.
Murkowski was more optimistic about the trajectory of Secure Rural Schools. That’s a U.S. Forest Service program that provides funding for schools, roads and other municipal services, including in Southeast Alaska.
Congress failed to renew the funding earlier this year, leaving major holes in school district budgets. Just one example: the Chatham School District, which is home to the Klukwan School. The Chilkat Valley News reported in March that the district saw a $245,000 cut in Secure Rural Schools funding.
Murkowski said the budget bill could provide some relief, at least in the near-term.
“The House just passed this budget reconciliation over there. It does include an extension. It’s just a one year extension, which is not what we want. We need it to be longer,” she said. “But it recognizes that it’s a priority.”
Murkowski said it’s likely the Senate will move in the same direction. That’s the case, she said, given support from both the chair and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee – which plays a major role in the budget reconciliation process.
The senator said she has also been tracking the Trump administration’s effort to downsize the federal government and what that means for Haines, Skagway and Klukwan.
That includes the $20 million grant the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded to Skagway – and then cancelled. That money was meant to help mitigate rockslides above a cruise ship dock. Murkowski also mentioned cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which resulted in the Klukwan library losing the vast majority of its funding.
“We’re seeing the immediate impact of that. Klukwan library, the hours, dramatically cut and with no real relief in sight,” Murkowski said.
But Murkowski also spoke about FEMA more broadly. The Trump administration has ordered state and local governments to take more responsibility for natural disasters. But Murkowski said that won’t work in Alaska, which is plagued by a long list of catastrophes and often has to fend for itself when one does hit.
“When you’re here in Alaska, you’re a long way from your neighbor, and so we don’t really have the ability for the mutual aid that you do in other states,” Murkowski said. “So, to say, ‘state of Alaska, you’re just going to have to absorb all this yourself,’ that’s a really heavy lift.”
“I’m not convinced that that is the answer here, to just push everything to the state,” she added.
Murkowski also weighed in on a major infrastructure project in Haines known as the Lutak Dock. The dock is the entry point for most of the borough’s cargo, but it’s been crumbling for years, and along the way it’s become a major source of controversy.
The borough received a $20 million federal grant to repair the dock back in 2021.
But the project has stalled over disagreements about the dock design and legal disputes with the contractor. Murkowski says the situation isn’t ideal for the community or federal funding partners.
“We want our federal partners to look at the community and say, OK, they know what’s going on. We’re here to help. We’re all going to make this happen. And so the greater certainty and clarity that they have, it’s just easier for them,” Murkowski said.
“You don’t want them to think that you’re not ready, because it’s really easy to go on to the next one,” she added.
