Murkowski speaks to Rotary

WASILLA — If she could highlight anything she was proud of accomplishing in the last Congressional session, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she would pick two things.

Murkowski was speaking at the Wasilla Rotary Club Wednesday. She made multiple stops in the Valley, including Houston High School and Mat-Su College, before hopping on a Valley Mover bus for the return trip to Anchorage.

First, she said, she was proud to have gotten oversight of permits to drill offshore in Alaska moved from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of the Interior. The Department of the Interior monitors drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Alaska was being treated differently than other states.

“It was months, if not years, of added-on process,” Murkowski said. “EPA was trying to build it as they went. They didn’t have that experience.”

Second, she said, was something that didn’t make any headlines. She said a lot of the most satisfying work a senator does is helping constituents with things like lining up health care or fixing an immigration problem to reunite a family.

One of those pieces of constituent work got her a big hug from a woman working at the Hotel Captain Cook. Of course, Murkowski, said, she didn’t earn that hug alone; mostly, it was staff in her office who put in the legwork.

As for things she found frustrating about this last session, top on the list seemed to be the lack of any kind of movement.

“We have got to start governing as a Congress. We have allowed the elections to distract and detract,” Murkowski said.

She said she’s happy to be home, but this is the earliest Congress has shut down in her experience.

“We’re not getting any business done,” she said.

And that is most evident in the much-discussed budget. Automatic, across-the-board cuts are due to go into effect at the start of the year. In Alaska, those deep cuts will be more apparent than most places, Murkowski said, given how much federal money comes into the state.

She said she thinks the way that the federal government is going to avoid those cuts will be to kick the can slightly farther down the road, but she said her hope is there will be strong constraints, requiring that the fiscal house be put back in order and quickly, through taking a tough look at entitlement programs and preventing the spending of money the government doesn’t have.

“Put it on a short enough leash with no back door,” Murkowski said.

Something needs to be done, she said.

“I think the people around the country are getting a little fed up,” Murkowski said.

As for the looming election, Murkowski said she’s never seen a more crucial vote, with a more stark contrast between the two sides. And it matters a lot for Alaska.

“I have been very critical on some of the energy policies that the administration has proposed,” she said.

Visiting different parts of the state, she said, she often hears about constituents’ desire for the federal regulators to “be reasonable.” She said she’s been urged to “stop this takeover, this insidious takeover.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.