Stevens talks about security, ANWR

WASILLA -- U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens spoke Friday about how funding the nation's Homeland Security budget in light of Sept. 11 events could affect Alaskans in travel, tourism and funding.

Speaking to Frontiersman staff on a trip to the Valley, Stevens said a proposed frequent-flyer program would target people like Alaskans dependent on periodic business and family trips Outside.

He also predicted Alaska will have an increase in summer tourism in this time of difficult foreign travel, when Americans find they have few other places to go.

At the same time, President George Bush's $25.2 billion domestic Homeland Defense Budget, proposed after the Sept. 11 tragedy, could mean more money will go to local police departments. The money would be available in the form of federal grants to increase security in rural places, Stevens said.

"One of the things we learned after the events of [Sept. 11] was that the terrorists had spent their time in rural America and then came to the cities," Stevens said. "We're not accustomed [in rural America] to asking around about who is at

the Old Jones' place down the street. There is a lot of balance that will need to

be worked out in terms of privacy."

Stevens spoke with regret about the stalemate in U.S. Senate attempts to get a bill accepted that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil development. Currently, ANWR is removed from any House bills, and adding it to one would take 60 votes.

"We don't have 60 votes at this time," he said. "Eventually, [the opening] has to happen. This is a natural resource issue of national consequences."

When Sen. Frank Murkowski leaves office to become governor of Alaska, Stevens acknowledged he will be left to "break-in" a new senator.

"Our team has to change sometime," he said. "This

isn't to say I welcome Murkowski's leaving with open arms, because I don't."

Stevens will seek reelection. "I plan to be around a long time," he said, knocking on wood.

Federal appropriations, many of which Stevens sought for the Mat-Su Borough, totaled more than $20 million for fiscal year 2002. These include:

$10 million to shorten the Alaska Railroad for easier commuting time between Anchorage and the Mat-Su;

$500,000 in federal highway funds for the Mat-Su Borough/Wasilla;

$1.1 million for the Palmer Railroad right-of-way Park;

$1.5 million for Port McKenzie bus and bus facilities;

$600,000 for a Wasilla bus and bus facilities center;

$1.6 million for the Mat-Su Community Transit bus and facility;

$600,000 for virus-free potato germ plasm studies to the University of Alaska, Palmer;

$299,300 for arctic germ plasm studies to UA, Palmer;

$200,000 to the Alaska Rural Development Administration to maintain existing field offices and for the Natural Resources Conservation Service to undertake an erosion control project at the Matanuska River;

$1.5 million for Veterans/Housing Urban Development;

$500,000 to Life Quest Community Mental Health Center.