Thursday’s passage of the $1.7 trillion Omnibus Spending Bill by the U.S. Senate was a joy for Sen. Lisa Murkowski. She was unsure where to begin.
She said, “There’s so many in this crazy Omnibus,” shortly after the vote.
She was already wearing her coat. The spending bill was the last thing Congress passed before she and other legislators headed to the airports to celebrate Christmas back home.
Her communications director carried a heavy sheaf of papers. They documented Murkowski’s “congressionally directed spending allocations” (or earmarks, as they are now known in Congress).
Murkowski grinned broadly and said that “You’re going get more text than any radio person ever asks for.”
More than 130 of her priorities are included in the legislation, which totals nearly $500 million across the state. The smallest item is $100,000 for Bethel medical equipment. The largest item is $99million for Fort Wainwright’s fitness and training center. Murkowski stated that it was the Army’s No. It is the Army’s No. 1 priority. Service members from Alaska will also have more spending money.
“The pay raise for our military, that will be very appreciated. She said, “I can assure that.” “Some of these dollars for military construction will be significant.”
Murkowski’s earmarks were from a list that she submitted to the Appropriations Committee months ago. She is a senior member of this committee.
She also suggested $300 million to assist people in recovering from fishing disasters. Murkowski stated that it was the topic of conversation in every community she visited this past year.
She said that “whether it’s the Yukon crash or the Kuskokwim, just a degree of despair” has set in. “And so to know we’ve made some great progress here when it comes down to funding for fisheries disasters — I think that that’s going be important.”
U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan was among 29 Republican senators that voted against the spending bill. His office declined to respond to a request for an interview. He has decided not to make earmarks requests. In a statement Sullivan stated that he liked the omnibus bill. It has many programs he helped with. He said that the process was confusing. He had 48 hours to go through the 4,000-page bill, which was negotiated by Senate and House leadership.
Sullivan also objected to the elimination of one his top priorities, the purchase of Aiviq, a small icebreaker that was to be homeported at Juneau and used until new Coast Guard icebreakers were built.
Murkowski stated that she was also disappointed at the abrupt, closed-doors removal of $150 million in funding for icebreakers. She claimed that the money was diverted to finance security measures at the southern border.
She stated, “Because we saw the diminution of the funding over at the icebreakers side, we also saw the plus-up in the border funding.”
The Omnibus spending bill includes many other priorities, besides appropriations, since it is the last train to leave the station. Among them are a rewrite to the Electoral Count Act to clarify the role of the vice president in certifying the presidential elections; the Pregnant Women’s Fairness Act; a measure that guarantees workers the time, space, and place to express milk for their infants.
The House will likely pass the bill quickly and send it to the President.
