Leaders in the Alaska House and Senate say they’re deeply concerned about the impacts of federal staff purges and a forthcoming congressional budget reconciliation package that's expected to extend tax cuts, stiffen immigration policy and vastly scale back federal spending.
In a letter to the state's congressional delegation, Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, say the two Trump administration priorities “endanger the economic prosperity and social well-being of Alaskans.”
"The time to sound the alarm is over. It is time to act," Edgmon and Stevens wrote. "Please reach across the aisle and restore the checks and balances that our founding fathers envisioned."
The Alaska Legislature's two presiding officers say they're concerned the recent House-passed Republican budget framework, which calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, will leave Congress no choice but to slash programs like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Head Start and Bypass Mail.
"Even if half of what's been proposed happens to Alaska, it is going to reverberate around the state in a way that we haven't seen in many, many years," Edgmon told reporters on Friday.
Medicaid is a particular concern for state lawmakers. The budget resolution from the U.S. House — a necessary step to avoid a filibuster in the Senate — charges the congressional committee overseeing Medicaid and Medicare with cutting $880 billion over 10 years.
Even if the committee cuts everything in its purview other than the two programs, it would still be more than $600 billion short of that goal, according to an analysis by the New York Times. Edgmon and Stevens said the plan could lead to the loss of more than $2 billion in federal funding at a time when the state is already facing hundreds of millions of dollars in structural deficits amid faltering oil revenue.
"Absorbing a $2 billion plus reduction in the return of federal funds to our state is not an option," they wrote. "It is a direct threat to Alaska’s future, plain and simple."
Stevens and Edgmon also decry the Trump administration’s moves to fire more than 1,000 newly hired or recently promoted federal workers, from fisheries researchers and to forest rangers. Data on exactly which jobs have been lost has been spotty — though union leaders say they expect all of the nearly 1,400 so-called “probationary” federal employees in the state to lose their jobs.
Another leader of the largely Democratic coalition controlling the State House, Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, said she’s concerned the firings will put everyday Alaskans in danger, pointing to agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its subsidiary, the National Weather Service.
"It's horrifying for the safety of our fishermen," she said. "As we all know, that's one of the most dangerous endeavors or professions that there is, and to reduce the safety factor even more is just unconscionable."
In their letter, Edgmon and Stevens also say a freeze on millions in planned energy infrastructure spending threatens to derail important projects, including $130 million planned for rural Alaska.
"These modernization projects are life-sustaining in parts of the state where fuel can cost over $20 per gallon," they wrote.
Some Republican state lawmakers, though, say leaders are overreacting. Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, pointed to statements from congressional leaders promising to avoid sweeping cuts to aid programs. He says for now, it’s all speculation — after all, at this point, Congress hasn’t laid out the specifics.
"First of all, the process is just starting," he said. "Anybody who says anything about what's going to happen or how it's going to take place, or what's going to be cut, is pure speculation at this point."
As for the federal firings, Shower said he supports Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the footprint of the federal government. He said he’s optimistic that even if the cuts go too far at first, critical jobs will be filled.
"This is, maybe, the process of ripping the Band-Aid off a little bit, and it's painful, but we may have to look at rebalancing when it's over," he said. "It's going to be really a painful dip here, as they kind of basically go through with a sledgehammer, and then maybe it's time to come back in with a scalpel after that and start (saying), 'OK, now, what do we really need?'"
But to Stutes, that rings hollow. She said she’s worried that even if the jobs come back, the people who filled them won’t.
She said she's worried the cuts will exacerbate the state’s decade-plus-long struggle with outmigration as young people and families seek greener pastures elsewhere.
"That's great to say, as these cars are headed down the highway," Stutes said. "You think it was bad before?"
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