Begich says federal budget bill benefits Juneau with icebreaker, Alaska with new oil projects
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 7
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 8
Alaska’s lone congressman bypasses public meeting during Juneau visit to speak at cryptocurrency convention
A protester said if she could ask Rep. Nick Begich III (R-Alaska) one question it would be: "What does he think (in) that bill will benefit Alaskans specifically and Americans in general?"
The protester was Gina Chalcroft, the leader of a group of about a dozen demonstrators standing outside Centennial Hall this weekend. The question was about the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" that drastically reshapes federal government policy and spending — by hurting the poor and helping the rich, protesters say.
Begich was inside the convention center on Sunday after voting Thursday in favor of the bill that passed the House with the bare minimum of 218 votes.
The first-term congressman answered Chalcroft’s question — and discussed other topics such as Juneau’s efforts to safeguard against glacial outburst floods — in a 15-minute interview with reporters during a break in a cryptocurrency conference where he was a featured speaker.
Begich justified his budget vote foremost by saying it will result in substantially more oil drilling and other natural resource development opportunities for Alaska.
"What I want to see is rapid implementation of these (oil) lease sales that are promised under the bill," he said. "I think that's really important for our state to generate revenue."
"What we've seen is that the federal government does not have unlimited funds and, as one of the most federally dependent states in the country, it's important for us to be able to chart our own course. Having access to the promised resources that exist on federal lands is an important part of our own self-determination, and it's been denied to Alaska for too long. So that's one of my most significant concerns, is making sure that we're following through on that promise."
The budget bill increases the federal debt by more than $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s due to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that critics say primarily benefit the wealthy, plus more than $1 trillion in spending cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and a wide range of other programs ranging from education to renewable energy.
Critics are calling the bill "the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history," and say 11 million people (including 35,000 in Alaska) may lose health insurance coverage. President Donald Trump, who championed the bill as a foundational aspect of his second-term agenda, told reporters last Thursday benefits include the "biggest tax cut in history, great for security, great on the southern border…it's going to make this country into a rocket ship. I think we're going to have record numbers."
Many of the provisions — including full implementation of Medicaid restrictions and revenue from oil lease sales —won’t take effect or otherwise become reality during the coming federal fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Begich, when asked Sunday what he believes the most significant immediate impacts of the budget bill will be, said they "relate to the business deductibility for investing that's really intended to supercharge capital investment in the United States."
The budget bill extends provisions from Trump’s 2017 tax bill that reduce the corporate tax rate to 21% instead of 35% and provide a 20% deduction for pass-through income that applies to most businesses. There are also new deductions for things such as research and development costs.
"I think Alaska stands to benefit from that significantly, particularly when it comes to resource infrastructure," Begich said. "Some of that infrastructure can take up to 30 years in order for a business to fully realize the deduction. Now the businesses can realize that deduction in year one, which helps them a great deal in terms of their commitment to making an investment now versus maybe at some point in the future."
Some of the oil and gas provisions in the bill highlighted by Begich — as well as Alaska’s two Republican U.S. senators and other state politicians backing the bill — won’t take effect for many years. A 50-50 split with the state from 90% of federal revenue from federal oil leases, won’t see a provision changing the state’s share to 70% until 2034.
But Begich said he believes Alaska may see new revenue within a year or so from lease sales of areas on the North Slope that are being opened up for oil drilling by the Trump administration.
"Lease sales will start relatively soon, so we'll get a portion — we'll get half of the lease sale revenue," he said. "Once the sale occurs, then it's going to take a little bit of time for the production to kick in. But I think that's going to be the medium- to long-term solution. The sooner we get started there, the sooner we're going to benefit."
Medicaid and other social program cuts
GOP leaders in Congress are already expressing fears the cuts to Medicaid and other social programs will cost them seats in the midterm elections next year, with recent nationwide polls showing respondents opposing the budget bill by a roughly 2-1 ratio.
The Medicaid cuts are being implemented by requiring "able-bodied" people to work up to 80 hours a month and imposing other eligibility restrictions. Begich, who supports the work requirements, said "what hasn't been communicated to the public generally are the exclusions" for those requirements.
"People that are excluded from the work requirement are caregivers, people who are looking for work, people who are working, people who are Alaska Native or American Indian, people who live in a county or a borough with more than one and a half times the national unemployment," he said. "All those folks are excluded. And people who choose to volunteer instead of work — they volunteer 20 hours a week or more — they're also considered working for the purposes of the bill."
"So what we've tried to do is just isolate the very small group of folks who are not working, who could be working, are not a part of the traditional Medicaid population, and don't fall into those other categories, and just say simply, ‘Look, you have the ability to contribute. People around you are contributing, give something back."
Begich also said people who qualified for Medicaid before eligibility was expanded by the Affordable Care Act will remain eligible.
However, critics have said the requirements to document work and other exclusion criteria are burdensome to the point that many people who technically remain eligible will nonetheless lose coverage.
Federal cuts to food stamps, officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, are another highly controversial aspect of the bill. The bill requires states with payment error rates of 6% or more to pay up to 15% of the SNAP benefits costs, depending on the error rate.
But Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) added a provision that delays the shift for two years for states with high error rates in processing applications, which critics say rewards poor-performing states. Alaska ranks at the bottom among states with error rates of 60% in 2023 and 24% in 2024, compared to the national average of about 11%.
Begich said he supports that provision because "it gives us a little bit of time to get our house in order on improper payments."
HESCO barriers "good first step"; future FEMA funds an unknown
A foremost concern for many Juneau residents and officials this summer is whether another massive glacial outburst flood will have the destructive impact of two record floods the past two years that damaged more than 300 homes. Begich said his top congressionally directed spending request (commonly known as earmarks and all of which were struck from the budget bill) was $3 million toward long-range flood-prevention solutions discussed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"The HESCO barriers are a good first step and it's what we can do in the interim," he said, referring to a semipermanent levee constructed along the Mendenhall River the past few months. "But I think (in the) long run there needs to be a more structural solution to this."
The HESCO barriers are intended to remain in place for up to a decade while a permanent solution is researched and implemented. Begich said he stands by earlier assertions that the Army Corps of Engineers’ estimate of a decade-long timeframe is not acceptable and "our office has reached out to the Corps requesting accelerated approvals."
Last year’s flood was declared a federal disaster, with Juneau residents and the city receiving relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, Trump has called for the elimination of the agency, declaring states should take over disaster response management — possibly with some funds currently going to FEMA.
Begich said he doesn’t know yet if FEMA funds will be available if Juneau suffers enough damage from a flood this year to merit another federal disaster declaration.
"I assume they will," he said. "If they're not we're going to fight for it."
Big break for Juneau icebreaker
Begich, in a separate interview with the Juneau Independent on Sunday, also reiterated one of the biggest benefits for Juneau in the budget bill is $300 million for the U.S. Coast Guard that among other things will help homeport a recently acquired icebreaker in Alaska’s capital city.
"The problem is that we've been promised this funding for years and years, and there has been a chronic underfunding of the Coast Guard," he said. "And while we've received (previous) promises of receiving this funding, it's been reprogrammed within the Coast Guard to go to other locations. We needed a significant investment in order for the promises that had been made to actually be fulfilled."
The Storis icebreaker is scheduled to be officially commissioned in a ceremony in Juneau next month, with an initial limited deployment further north also scheduled to begin that month. However, Coast Guard officials have said it will be several years before the 360-foot-long ship that was privately owned is fully brought up to Coast Guard Arctic deployment standards and the necessary infrastructure in Juneau is built for the 190 personnel expected to eventually be deployed here.
Bypassing a public meeting in Juneau
If the protesters standing outside Centennial Hall expected to be able to confront Begich with their concerns, they came away disappointed.
He didn’t arrive as originally scheduled Saturday — due to attending the budget bill signing in Washington, D.C., late Friday night — which is when most of the protesters showed up. And on Sunday the convention hosts rearranged tables and security at the entrance to prevent outsiders from crashing the meetings inside.
Chalcroft, as the leader of Saturday’s protest, said her questions probably weren’t anything Begich hasn’t heard and answered before in some manner, but she wanted a direct discussion to make him fully aware of her specific concerns.
"I’m sure he has heard it several thousand times, but I don’t think we can live with ourselves if we don’t say it over and over and over," she said. "He won’t talk to us, and Alaskans are going to die, and he doesn’t even have an office here. He can’t be bothered to talk to us and so we have to do this."
Begich, in response to that observation, said Sunday he was scheduled two months ago to be at the conference and he wasn’t aware of any local requests for meetings during his visit. He also noted he’s conducted several town halls in Alaska since being elected and his office "takes many thousands of cold calls."
"We work to try to get back to constituents that reach out," he said. "Anyone who reaches out to the office is heard. We note their comments pro or in opposition. And so we try to be as available as we can, but we're limited by time and staff — we have a certain congressional budget that limits how many people we can actually employ or take feedback. But I'm on three committees and eight subcommittees in the United States House. I work 16- to 20-hour days, so I'm not sure that there's any way that I know of that we can be even more available to the public."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
