Rep. Mary Peltola visits Mat-Su with the latest from nation’s capital

Alaska’s U.S. Representative Mary Peltola was in Palmer last Thursday, meeting people and giving the latest on federal actions affecting Alaskans. On a matter of prime interest in the Mat-Su Peltola said the planned national grocery chain merger that would affect Carrs and Safeway stores in Alaska has been put off most likely until August.

“That will give people more time to make their views known to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission,” which must approve the merger, Peltola said in an interview.

Peltola said she hopes to persuade FTC commissioners and staff to visit Alaska this summer to hear Alaskans’ views first hand. Inevitably the merger between Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer stores, and Albertsons, which owns Carrs and Safeway, will result in fewer options for groceries in the state- according to Peltola.

The companies have already said that several Carrs stores in Alaska will be sold to another company. There could be closures of stores, too, particularly where outlets are close to each other, such as in Mat-Su.

“We all know that Alaska is a unique place to do business with unusual challenges due to weather and geography,” Peltola said.

Those conditions may be difficult for a company new to the state. Peltola also spoke to matters of interest to the large military family and veteran presence in the region. She typically works in a partnership with the state’s two Republican senators, Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, but since Peltola is Alaska’s only member of the U.S. House of Representatives she must help steer whatever comes out of the Senate as Alaska priorities through the House. An example is the latest National Defense Reauthorization Act, or NDAA, which recently passed Congress and included a 5.2 percent increase in military pay.

“This was the largest military pay increase in years, and we’re not done yet,” Peltola said.

There was also an increase in the Basic Needs Allowance, which helps military families in Alaska offset high food and housing costs.

“Alaska is at the front lines of our nation’s defense, and I’m glad that our hardworking servicemen and women will receive their largest pay raise in decades. This is a well-deserved and overdue increase that I was proud to vote for,” Peltola said.

One aspect of the early versions of the NDAA that concerned her were provisions that related to privacy, particularly restrictions on female military being transferred to a state where abortion is legal, which includes Alaska. Peltola helped get rid of those provisions. There were also major investments in military family housing, child development centers, and replacement of aging unaccompanied housing, what used to be called barracks.

There was also improved FMLA family and medical leave eligibility for federal employees. Also, several high priority items for Alaska’s military bases are in the new NDAA including the $100 million for runway extension at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, additional personnel housing at Fort Wainwright, and a consolidated munitions complex at Eielson Air Force Base. The bill also supports Alaska defense contractors by exempting them from certain requirements for past contract performance.

Another example of a successful collaboration within the delegation was on Willow, the new $7.5 billion ConocoPhillips oil project now under construction on the North Slope.

Getting the Department of the Interior to finally approve a positive Record of Decision for Willow, which is in the federal National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, took a massive lobbying effort by Alaskans including Alaska Native tribes and corporations.

Peltola’s contribution, as a Democrat, was in maintaining a connection to the White House, where fellow-Democrat Joe Biden is President. Another matter Peltola is involved in is pressing the U.S. Postal Service against a proposed rate increase for “full-network” products like Priority Main Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, for destinations in Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. Territories.

In a letter to the chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, Peltola said: “The Postal Service’s filing characterizes the proposed price increases as modest, but they are well above current rates of inflation and well above other zones’ pricing (Alaska is ‘Zone 10’). For example, a review of the proposed price increases demonstrates that a 10-pound Priority Mail package will be 10% higher than the current Zone 8 price, 28.3% higher than the current Zone 7 price, and 66.8% higher than the current Zone 6 price.”

“The proposal to single-out select remote and rural communities for disproportionate price increases is inconsistent with the Postal Service’s Constitutional purpose and with its historical approach of a uniform price structure for customers, no matter where in the nation a resident lives,” Peltola said in the letter.