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Murkowski Directs $230 Million to Alaska Projects

Source: United States Senator for Alaska Lisa Murkowski

03.11.22

Congressionally Directed Spending Begins to Restore Alaskans’ Voice in Federal Budget Decisions

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, announced today that she directed more than $230 million within the Fiscal Year 2022 omnibus to Alaska through the new Congressionally Directed Spending process. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes all 12 annual appropriations bills and completes the Fiscal Year 2022 funding cycle, passed the Senate last night and now heads to the President to be signed into law.

“After years of ceding control over federal spending to the executive branch, our new process for Congressionally Directed Funding is already restoring Alaskans’ ability to help identify and address needs in our state,” Senator Murkowski said. “The funding I secured through this process will support local projects, create jobs, and provide communities with a much-needed boost. While some may disparage Congress’ role in shaping the federal budget, for the Alaskans who are working hard to help our state, this targeted support is incredibly significant. This is effectively returning Alaskan taxpayer dollars back to our state in direct response to community needs. 

“To name just a few meaningful examples, we are providing for a back-up power generator in Metlakatla, a new tsunami shelter community center for Old Harbor, progress on a new Community Health Clinic in Girdwood, and the demolition of the contaminated Polaris Building in Fairbanks,” Senator Murkowski said. “These projects will have real, tangible impacts on the lives of Alaskans, but may not have been funded without explicit direction from Congress. I’m proud to have secured this funding for Alaska and look forward to seeing the positive impacts it will have for years to come.”

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies

  • Wasilla: $1.5 million to the Mat-Su Food Bank for warehouse renovations and equipment to improve the ability to collect and distribute food to those in need.
  • Sitka: $840,000 to the Sitka Sound Science Center for renovation of educational facilities used for aquaculture training programs.
  • Statewide: $100,000 to the Alaska Division of Agriculture for statewide surveys of invasive species such as zebra mussels, elodea, and snail species that impact Alaska’s lakes and other bodies of water. 

Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies

  • Anchorage: $2 million for the North Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission to support Alaska fisheries and the adoption of 21st century technology.
  • Fairbanks: $5 million for the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys to support efforts to map coastal and nearshore Alaska.
  • Fairbanks: $2 million for the University of Alaska Fairbanks to support the research, testing, and evaluation of counter unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) in law enforcement operations.
  • Statewide (CDVSA): $5 million for the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault to provide programmatic support for victim service organizations statewide.
  • Kodiak: $987,000 for the Alaska Research Consortium to develop a refrigeration certificate training program for Alaska seafood processors.

Energy and Water Development

  • Seward: $3 million for the Lowell Creek Tunnel to protect Seward from damaging floodwaters. The Army Corps designated the tunnel “conditionally unsafe” in 2011 and major flooding in 2012 caused further deterioration.
  • Unalaska: $2.5 million for the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska to help build a 30 MW geothermal electrical generation facility.
  • Juneau: $420,000 for Alaska Heat Smart to support the installation of air-source heat pumps in lower-income households.
  • Kivalina: $100,000 to build a biomass facility
  • Togiak: $659,000 to support the construction of a heat recovery system.
  • Metlakatla: $540,000 to provide the Metlakatla Indian Community with an emergency backup generator.

Homeland Security

  • Old Harbor: $1.5 million to provide Emergency Operations Center Grant Program funding to the Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor to construct a new tsunami shelter community center.

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies

  • Alakanuk: $9.9 million for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to provide basic water and wastewater infrastructure to homes that have not had it previously. Residents currently rely on rain, river, or hauled water for drinking water and use honey buckets and on-property bunkers for their wastewater disposal.
  • Anchorage (USGS): $1 million to aid the development of an earthquake early warning system.
  • Statewide (Rossia): $350,000 to provide funds to repair and rehabilitate sites listed on the National Register for Historic Places.
  • Statewide (Fish and Wildlife Service): $750,000 for an Invasive Species Early Detection Rapid Response Strike Team in southcentral Alaska.
  • Statewide (State of Alaska, Division of Forestry): $3.25 million to coordinate and implement forest management activities across various jurisdictions to meet the wildfire prevention, mitigation, response, and restoration objectives in the State of Alaska’s Forest Action Plan. 
  • Anchorage: $1 million for the Alaska Native Justice Center to provide training and technical assistance (TTA) as well as organizational support materials to help address public safety, justice, and child welfare. 
  • Chugach National Forest: $5.77 million for the maintenance, construction, and restoration of portions of the Iditarod Trail.
  • Klawock: $1.22 million to purchase needed landfill infrastructure and associated maintenance costs for the cities of Klawock, Craig, and Coffman Cove to comply with new garbage removal requirements.
  • Kodiak: $3.25 million to replace a failing wastewater lift station.
  • Fairbanks: $10 million to assess known contamination, remediate, and demolish the Polaris Building, which poses significant health and safety risks to the Fairbanks community. 
  • Fairbanks (University of Alaska Fairbanks): $2 million to the University to review the feasibility of establishing PFAS treatment facilities across the State of Alaska, including mobile treatment systems. 
  • Fairbanks (Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center): $250,000 to work in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to assess where domestic violence shelters are necessary in rural Alaska. 
  • Galena: $3.66 million to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to administer piped water and sewer services to homes that currently do not have access to these services and rely on hauling water from a community water point and honey buckets.
  • Grayling: $4.34 million for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to replace a failing water distribution system that freezes and breaks, leading to water shortages in the community and inability to keep the water storage tank full. 
  • Juneau: $800,000 for the City and Borough of Juneau to reroute influent piping around obsolete solids separation equipment. 
  • Juneau (Seaalaska Heritage Institute): $500,000 to help support the Kootéeya Deiyi project, which will create a trail of totem poles and storyboards representing Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian clans along the Juneau waterfront. The project is expected to help increase economic development while highlighting and preserving Native art and culture, consistent with the goals of the NATIVE Act (P.L. 114-221).
  • Kenai: $385,000 to implement the community’s wildfire hazard mitigation plan, which includes addressing spruce bark beetle infestation that can lead to catastrophic wildfire. 
  • Kenai Peninsula Borough: $3.36 million to expand the leachate evaporation capacity at the landfill in order to help the landfill continue to meet regulatory requirements.
  • Ketchikan: $1.25 million to repair the decaying Schoenber Culvert to avoid its failure and potential subsequent discharges of untreated wastewater.
  • King Cove: $3 million to build needed capacity and purchase new processing equipment for the landfill, which is currently nearing capacity. 
  • King Cove: $5.2 million for construction of five new water wells and corresponding upgrades to the distribution system, storage tank, and control systems.
  • Kodiak: $50,000 for the Kodiak Area Native Association to study the public health and environmental impacts of harmful algal blooms in the region. 
  • Matanuska-Susitna Borough: $385,000 to implement the community’s fire reduction initiative to address spruce bark beetle infestation, which can lead to catastrophic wildfire.
  • Metlakatla: $780,000 to improve solid waste management, including the reduction of volume by using a multi-use portable shredder, for the safety and health of the residents and members of the Metlakatla Indian Community. 
  • Russian Mission: $5.22 million for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to build a new landfill because the current one is at capacity and causing trash to spill directly into the community.
  • Seward: $1.1 million for the Alaska Sealife Center to study marine animal health and changing oceans.
  • Skagway: $10.2 million to expand capacity at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which has recently experienced capacity difficulties due to increased use. 
  • Stebbins: $6.2 million for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to administer a piped water and wastewater distribution system. Residents currently haul water and use honey buckets.
  • Tununak: $8.3 million to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium for the construction of water and sewer infrastructure to serve 90 homes; this infrastructure will include a combined above and below ground water system, below grade gravity sewer system, residential service lines, and household plumbing, as well as a community drain field. 
  • Wrangell: $2.08 million to the City & Borough of Wrangell to fund a connection pipe between the Upper Reservoir and the Water Treatment Plant as a means of accessing the upper reservoir’s water.

Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies 

  • Anchorage (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium): $27.6 million to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to expand the Alaska Native Medical Center Emergency Department.
  • Anchorage (Covenant House Alaska): $500,000 to implement a statewide training program to address youth, child, and family homelessness in Alaska.
  • Anchorage (United Way of Anchorage): $1 million to make improvements to the 2-1-1 system. 
  • Anchorage (University of Alaska Anchorage): $295,000 to update and expand medical skills workforce labs at UA.
  • Bethel: $500,000 to the University of Alaska Anchorage to launch an Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) Acceleration Academy at the Bethel campus.
  • Aleutians East Borough: $2 million for health facilities and equipment. 
  • Girdwood: $800,000 toward the construction of a new Community Health Clinic.
  • Petersburg Borough: $8 million for the construction of a new hospital.
  • Sitka: $250,000 for the Youth Advocates of Sitka demonstration project to provide services to vulnerable youth experiencing human trafficking.
  • Wasilla: $1 million for MyHouse Mat-Su to support additional programmatic services for clients, including job training, sex trafficking recovery support services, as well as transitional housing wrap-around services.
  • Statewide (Sealaska Heritage Institute): $250,000 to increase early literacy among Alaska Native children.

Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies

  • Fairbanks: $5.4 million to create the physical infrastructure needed to support research and operations at the Army Corps’ ERDC-CCREL permafrost tunnel.

Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

  • Anchorage: $2 million to the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) to support the development of housing units for essential professionals in rural Alaska.
  • Juneau: $2 million to Southeast Conference to help establish a pilot program for electric ferries.
  • Juneau: $2.5 million to United Human Services of Southeast Alaska to build a facility that will host multiple organizations providing public health and social services for vulnerable populations, to be known as the Teal Street Center.
  • Ketchikan: $236,000 to Women in Safe Homes (WISH) to support the final stages of construction of the WISH Shelter in Ketchikan.
  • Ketchikan: $250,000 to First City Homeless Services (FCHS) to support the construction of a facility to support homeless individuals.
  • Kotzebue: $27.7 million to the City of Kotzebue to support the construction of an access road from Kotzebue to Cape Blossom.
  • Nome: $1.5 million to the Nome Community Center to provide housing and public health services for chronically homeless individuals through the Housing First Project of Nome.
  • Sitka: $2 million to the Youth Advocates of Sitka to build a facility to support victims of trafficking, exploitation, and substance use.
  • Wasilla: $23 million to the MyHouse Mat-Su Homeless Youth Center to fund the construction of a commercial building to support programs that offer services to homeless youth, which will be known as the Carson Cottle Center. This project would expand MyHouse’s successful job training programs statewide and offer additional space for the programs offered.