White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu was in Anchorage Tuesday to announce $100 million in broadband infrastructure grants for rural Alaska as well as to showcase the broad range of federal funding that the Biden administration has given to Alaska.
“Just within the last week, we’ve been here and we have announced several items,” Landrieu said, moving documents around a podium in the Alaska Native Heritage Center. “I’m trying to locate the card that points out the fact that.”
He uncovered the following of $22 million to fund energy at Port Graham, $44 million to allow salmon passage and $10 million to help with salmon recovery all within the past week.
“So when you add the trips of presidents, the premier lady and the Attorney General Secretary of Transportation as well as mine too — when you sum up the events of the last week’s visit, and when you add the $5 billion that’s been earmarked for more than 900 projects and the additional $100 million that was received today, the only conclusion you could arrive at is that Joe Biden and his administration are very concerned about the Alaskans. Alaska,” he said.
Landrieu who was a ex-mayor of New Orleans, is following the practice of the past. August is the month where federal officials from the top go to Alaska to promote major projects. The way they do it: Cabinet members and their appointees host press conferences, usually in Anchorage. They give credit to the president together with representatives of Congress present, in this case Rep. Mary Peltola. They also travel to smaller towns, which Alaska’s congressional delegation demands in order for the lawmakers to be aware of how distinct their rural Alaska compares to the rural regions of their states.
These VIP-related announcements as well as trips this year are coming quickly, due in large part to the massive infrastructure legislation that Congress adopted in 2021.
The broadband funds are divided nearly equally among three fiber-optic initiatives. One project worth $35 million has been allocated to Hoonah.
“This system will be beneficial to 28 persons, eight companies and one educational institution,” a government fact sheet on the grant claims.
This could seem like it’s about one million dollars per person.
However, Chris McLean, assistant secretary of the Rural Utilities Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture He said that taking a look at how many homes serviced is a wrong calculation. The entire country could, he added, benefit from the talent and imagination from rural Alaskans.
“The common denominator should be the total population of that part of the United States, because you’re expanding the network we have,” he said. “Because each investment, even if they’re just small groups, contributes to a larger network of communications. That’s what we’re all about which is why we’re so happy to be a part of this. It’s money that is very well spent.”
Another grant is awarded the GCI company Unicom to provide subsea fiber optic cables from Platinum to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Communities that include Toksook Bay Tununak as well as Emmonak. Residents in the area are currently moving to Starlink -which is a satellite-based service. However, GCI Senior Vice President Billy Wailand said he’s not concerned about competitors. He added that Starlink is a solid service but fiber optics have the capacity to handle more customers.
“In the long run the long term, if you can get fiber in a village” he explained, “the type of speeds that you’re able to offer and the longer-term direction is that demands will actually enhance your capacity to keep pace with it There’s no better alternative.”
Wailand explained that GCI will use the grant funds to advance its goal of bringing urban rates and speeds for rural Alaska. He added that subsidies can lower the monthly cost for households that are eligible to the point of zero.
Within a couple of hours of the broadband announcement, and only a few miles away, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was holding his own party.
