What Alaska has gained this year in Washington, D.C.

Spectrum/Lisa Murkowski

With the holiday-season close of this Congress, Alaskans have gained much under our trees. But we clearly have much more on our wish lists for 2005.

This year we won the key financial incentives for an Alaska natural-gas pipeline -- from the $18-billion loan guarantee to three-quarters of a billion dollars in tax incentives. We won regulatory and judicial streamlining to speed up the pipeline's construction and approval for a worker training program so Alaskans will directly benefit from the jobs created.

We solved the problems with a compensation package for nuclear workers so that Alaskan Amchitka workers and their families will finally receive the benefits and compensation they deserve for working for our national defense. We accomplished long-sought tax provisions to help fishermen and North Slope whalers. And we provided Alaskans the ability to deduct the local sales taxes they pay from their federal taxes.

We passed a land conveyance acceleration bill to clear the hurdles and allow Alaska and our Native corporations to finally get the last 89 million acres of land they were promised decades ago. We won a land exchange to help the city of Craig gain prime land for economic diversification while also winning approval of a Native allotment subdivision act to clear a cloud over easements and land sales.

Administratively and through spending measures, we provided additional help to Alaskans: gained an additional year of federal assistance to offset low salmon prices, helped make sure there were enough roe technicians in the country to process last summer's salmon harvests, won funding to fight domestic violence and sexual assault and hastened the installation of water and sewer services in rural Alaska.

Nationally, we passed intelligence reform to streamline our intelligence agencies and hopefully prevent a repeat of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. We reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to help all students gain a good education and we extended the child tax credit as part of continuing tax relief for working Americans. In the 109th Congress, I'm going to be pushing the federal government to do even more to help our economy grow:

ANWR: The delegation will do all it can to win approval for environmentally sensitive oil exploration on the Arctic coastal plain. With the results of November's election and continuing high oil prices, we have our best chance for passage of legislation to open a tiny sliver of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to development.

Energy aid: In a new energy bill, I'll renew my efforts to obtain federal funding for rural power assistance, to help reduce the high-cost of diesel-fueled power through alternatives such as wind, geothermal and natural gas.

Transportation: I'll be working to push my plan in a new highway bill to authorize the Denali Commission to spend up to $180 million extra to build rural roads. I'll also press for funds for our marine highways and for expansion of the Alaska Railroad to Canada.

Health insurance: To help families and small businesses, I'll press my measure to provide a refundable tax credit to help the 220,000 uninsured Alaskans and others across the country gain private health insurance.

Education reform: And to correct the problems rural districts and teachers face in meeting the terms of the No Child Left Behind Act, I'll be pressing for passage of common-sense amendments to make the law work better for Alaska students.

Congress in 2005 also will be focusing on a rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens fisheries act, the Ports and Harbors authorization bill and possibly the Endangered Species Act. By the end of 2005 there might be much more for Alaskans to be thankful for when our next holiday season rolls around.

Lisa Murkowski is a Republican who represents Alaska in the U.S. Senate.