Sullivan Secures Army Corps Pledge to Fast-Track Juneau Flooding Solution
By Office of Senator Sullivan on Comments Off on Sullivan Secures Army Corps Pledge to Fast-Track Juneau Flooding Solution
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, received commitments from Adam Telle, President Trump’s nominee to head the Army Corps of Engineers, to expedite efforts to protect homes and property from the recurring threat of glacial lake outburst flooding in Juneau, Alaska. Sen. Sullivan emphasized the unique challenges facing Alaska’s capital city, where seasonal glacial flooding has become an urgent concern, damaging hundreds of homes and causing millions of dollars in losses to personal property and infrastructure last year. Sen. Sullivan also received a commitment from Mr. Telle to implement President Trump’s Day One executive order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” declaring “the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works shall immediately review, revise or rescind any agency action that may in any way hinder, slow, or otherwise delay any critical project in the state of Alaska.”
Sen. Sullivan posed his questions to Mr. Telle during his confirmation hearing before the committee.
Below is a full transcript of Sen. Sullivan’s exchange with Mr. Telle.
Sen. Dan Sullivan: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the witnesses and your families for your service. Mr. Telle, you’re a glutton for punishment. A lot of folks don’t know you had your Armed Services confirmation hearing yesterday, so you did a great job on that one. This should be a piece of cake.
Adam Telle: Thank you, Senator Sullivan.
DS: By the way, in my state—I’m going to focus a lot on Alaska. I appreciated our meetings, Mr. Telle and Mr. McMaster. It’s hard to build anything in Alaska. Right? You want to build a road, a sidewalk, you usually get 12 radical far-left environmental groups that sue to stop it. We have the King Cove Road. We’ve only been trying to get that done for 40 years. A nine-mile, single-lane gravel road that every Democrat in the country—including, God rest his soul, Jimmy Carter, writes op-eds [saying] you can’t build a road in Alaska. Then it went so bad, we had the Biden administration’s Last Frontier Lock Up. My great state suffered through 70 executive orders and executive actions from the Biden administration singularly focused on Alaska. I like ripping this up because that’s not the issue anymore. We now have President Trump who issued his day-one executive order called, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.” Mr. Telle, as you and I discussed, there’s a lot of great provisions in here. This is all about getting things done in Alaska, not crushing us as the radical left wants to do. There’s a really good provision about the Corps of Engineers. I’m going to read it to you: “The assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works”—that’s you—”shall immediately review, revise or rescind any agency action that may in any way hinder, slow, or otherwise delay any critical project in the state of Alaska.” That’s from the President. Will you commit to abide by that very expansive provision to get things done in my great state after four years of being crushed by the previous administration?
AT: Senator Sullivan, absolutely. When I visited your office, I tattooed the executive order that the President issued on Alaska on my heart.
DS: By the way, that’s a great answer.
AT: I will go ahead and read the second paragraph to you from memory, which essentially says that I shall, if confirmed, coordinate as closely with the Governor of Alaska as a human could possibly coordinate.
DS: Good. And the Senator from Alaska.
AT: Of course.
DS: Okay. Just double checking on that. We talked about the Juneau glacial lake outburst flooding. You want to talk about a unique issue in Alaska—we’ve had this flooding that pretty much happens now every summer. It’s amazing it hasn’t killed anybody. We need the Corps’ help, right? This is a unique challenge. The Corps is uniquely qualified to help us. You can’t have flooding. I went and toured where this happened this past summer. Over 200 homes were flooded. We’ve got to fix it and the Corps initially said, “Well, Senator, we’re going to work on this. We think it’ll be ten years to study and fix this.” Say what? That is the wrong answer. Can you commit to me, and really importantly, the citizens of Juneau, Alaska, that the Corps is going to bring its best minds in a very rapid way to help address this unique challenge that we really need the Corps’ help on?
AT: Senator Sullivan, thank you for the question. I failed to mention as a part of my answer to your previous question that Alaska is home to greater than 60% of the U.S.’s wetlands. So it makes the work of the Corps of Engineers critically important. That’s the need for the executive order. With regard to the glacial outburst issue, you rightly point out that this is an issue that is brand new, as far as I understand it to be, in terms of flood risk management, and it’s going to require creativity.
DS: Yes, it is.
AT: The Corps of Engineers was made to solve tough problems. I look forward to working with you, with the surrounding communities, to try to solve this challenge.
DS: Great. Thank you. In an expedited manner, not ten years. That’s just…
AT: In an expedited manner, Senator.
Below is a timeline of Senator Sullivan’s work to address the Juneau flooding challenge:
On August 7, 2024, Sen. Sullivan visited Juneau following the largest glacial outburst flow ever recorded along the Mendenhall River system. Sen. Sullivan surveyed the damage and spoke to homeowners and local leaders.
On August 8, 2024, Sen. Sullivan spoke with the FEMA administrator to coordinate the immediate emergency response to the flooding.
On August 16, 2024, Sen. Sullivan coordinated an initial meeting between the City and Borough of Juneau and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on long-term response solutions. Corps flood fighting officials visited Juneau in September, October, and November 2024 to provide flood fighting expertise and insight.
On September 27, 2024, Sen. Sullivan led a letter to the Corps with his Alaska congressional delegation colleagues requesting the agency to advance measures to mitigate the imminent threat of glacial flooding by prioritizing a long-term engineering solution for the community.
On October 16, 2024, following advocacy from the Alaska delegation, President Biden approved the major disaster declaration for the Juneau flood.
On November 19, 2024, Senator Sullivan led a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) with his Alaska delegation colleagues requesting that funding for the Mendenhall Glacier flood recovery and mitigation be considered and included in the disaster supplemental request to Congress, including the addition of necessary expenses related to flood mitigation, disaster relief, long-term recovery, and restoration in areas that received a major disaster designation due to “glacial flooding.”
On December 3, 2024, Sen. Sullivan met with Lt. Gen. William “Butch” Graham Jr., Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the Corps, and pressed the urgency of achieving a solution for Juneau. In this meeting, Graham shared that the Corps was committed to Juneau and leading the project to a long-term engineering solution.
On December 21, 2024, H.R.10545, the American Relief Act, was signed into law and included a Sullivan-led provision for a Corps study of Juneau’s glacial lake outburst flooding, the first step to identify long-term engineering solutions for the community.
On January 14, 2025, Sen. Sullivan led a letter to OMB urging that, as the funding allocations under the American Relief Act are evaluated, recognition of the congressional intent to address the Mendenhall Glacial flood recovery and mitigation efforts be reflected in OMB’s budget.
On March 4, 2025, Sen. Sullivan sent a letter to OMB with his Alaska congressional delegation colleagues requesting an increased permitting budget for the Corps in Alaska to better reflect Alaska’s geographic scope, unique regulatory challenges, and the new directives outlined in Executive Order (EO) 14153, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” issued by President Trump to expedite permitting and infrastructure development in Alaska.
On March 14, 2025, the Corps designated $4.75 million for a feasibility study following Sen. Sullivan’s requests for funding.
