2. Coast Guard

Of course, our military includes our Coast Guard. The heroic, brave men and women who rescue Alaskans on our seas. We love our Coast Guard. They are such an integral part of our communities as well.

Since I’ve been in office, we’ve been able to significantly beef up our Coast Guard assets, with hundreds of millions of dollars of additional investments and additional personnel. We’ve convinced the Coast Guard to stay in communities like Valdez and dramatically expand their presence in communities like Sitka, Kodiak, Seward, and right here in Juneau. More is coming in the budget reconciliation bill on the Coast Guard.

As I mentioned, right here in Juneau, we’re making history with regard to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard Cutter Storis—the first polar icebreaker in a generation—is now being retrofitted—that’s the one that was commercially bought—as we speak, and should achieve its initial operating capability—operating up in the Arctic—by August of this year.

After years of work, the Coast Guard has committed to us that they will homeport this icebreaker where the ice is. Imagine that! In Alaska! They’re going to homeport this icebreaker here, in Juneau, Alaska. That’s going to be great for Juneau, great for Southeast, great for Arctic security, and great for America! Again, an icebreaker near the ice—great idea Coast Guard.

3. Veterans

Our large military presence in Alaska also means that we have a very large veteran population, the most veterans per capita of any state in the country. Can I ask all of our proud veterans to stand up, and the spouses of our veterans? Thank you very much. As a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, I’ve worked hard to make sure our veterans get the care and benefits they have earned. We want to continue to attract our military members to stay in Alaska when they retire. It’s such a great benefit to our state.

4. Social Security Fairness Act

But it’s also other outstanding public servants—like teachers, fire fighters, policemen—that we need to advocate for to stay here! On this topic, I want to give a shout-out to Representative Alyse Galvin for organizing a joint resolution, signed unanimously by every single one of you, asking me to support the Social Security Fairness Act.

I had been working on a state-focused solution to the unfair penalties to Alaska’s public servants’ and their retirements for years. Frankly, I didn’t think a national fix was going to be possible. But it was.

This was a great example of the state and federal legislators working together.

You might remember, in 2023, I came to all of you in my remarks to the Legislature and said: We have to work together on this Willow Project, implementing a successful strategy to make it happen. You delivered. The joint resolution from all of you was critical. Unanimous joint resolution.

So you came to me last year—thank you again, Alyse—coming together with one voice, unanimously, and asked me to support the Social Security Fairness Act. We did, and that passed. That is the power of speaking together as Alaskans on a big issue with one voice. Thank you very much for that.

I’m sure you have too, but I’ve heard from a lot of our retired firefighters, teachers, who are benefitting and saying, “I’m staying in Alaska to contribute in another way.” That’s going to be great for our state. Thanks, again, on that.

5. Aviation

Let me turn very quickly to aviation. We have had a number of high-profile aviation accidents in our country over the last couple of months, including the Bering Air crash that took the lives of 10 Alaskans. Our hearts still weigh heavy for the families and loved ones lost.  

In response, to the crash here, in February, I organized a press conference with the new Secretary of Transportation, the Chair of the NTSB, and the acting head of the FAA, and our entire congressional delegation to focus on Alaska aviation safety needs.

The aviation sector, as you all know, is critical to our state. We have more pilots per capita than any state in the country. It’s critical to our economy. But, unfortunately, we have the highest rates of accidents, including fatalities, of any place in America.

In February 2020, the NTSB issued a report detailing these troubling numbers in Alaska on aviation accidents. My team and I got to work with the FAA and our private sector to launch the FAA Alaska Safety Initiative, “FAASI,” to focus on reducing the number of crashes in Alaska, to get better weather data reporting, and infrastructure for our community airports. As I’ve said to the FAA many times, it doesn’t matter if it’s expensive, we should have the infrastructure that every airport in the Lower 48 has. We passed the FAA reauthorization act last year. I was able to get many amendments for Alaska related to FAASI and an additional $25 million annual appropriation for this Alaska safety initiative.

You may have seen in our recent press conference, the first for the new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, that he and the FAA are very committed to this safety initiative in Alaska. That is going to be good news for all of us.

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