First 100 days

By U.S. Senator Mark Begich

Observers say the first few months of this congressional session have been the busiest and most productive in years, as Congress and the new president work together to deal with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and other pieces of major, long-stalled legislation.
In just the four months I’ve been Alaska’s new senator, several major pieces of legislation have passed into law, including an historic Lands Bill, the Fair Pay Act, Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Omnibus Bill, and the budget resolution.

I was pleased to be one of the critical “yes” votes on the Recovery Act, as I believe we have to inject money in our economy to get the economy going and sustain or create new jobs. Alaska is in line for about $1 billion, with 8,000 jobs created or protected, if we take advantage of the money available to our state.

Fortunately Alaska has been sheltered from the worst of the economic downturn, but we are not immune to the national recession. Our state’s unemployment rate reached 8 percent in February, the highest since 1992. And recently we learned that more Alaskans lost their homes through foreclosure than at any time since the oil price crash of the early 1990s.

The Recovery Act is really three parts; building and investing in infrastructure; investing in education and job training; and tax cuts. Effective at the beginning of April, some 300,000 Alaskan families are receiving a collective $100 million through the “Making Work Pay Tax Credit.” And thousands more Social Security recipients and disabled veterans also are getting extra relief.

I know many Alaskans are concerned about the size of the Recovery bill and what paying for it will mean for the national debt. I am, too. Frankly, it would have been a lot larger had a group of us not stepped up to say “enough.” Working with independent-thinking moderates from both parties, we cut the size of the Recovery Act by nearly $100 billion and refocused it on investments in public facilities and tax relief.

That has been my overall approach in the Senate: reaching out to educate my colleagues about Alaska, about issues like protecting Second Amendment rights and building coalitions among like-minded senators.

I am a freshman, but I am in a unique position to bring positive focus to our great state as a member of the party in power as final decisions get made.

High on my list of other priorities is Alaska’s oil and gas industry, which has taken its share of lumps recently with the fall in world oil prices. That’s why I was troubled by proposals from the national administration to scale back incentives designed to increase domestic oil and gas production which make our nation more energy secure.

I am working with senators from states like Louisiana, Nebraska, Montana and Texas to educate the administration and members of Congress on the need for a healthy American oil and gas industry.

I am pleased our new Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, accepted my invitation to visit Alaska to hear from Alaskans about proposed outer continental shelf oil and gas development off our coast.

My message to the secretary was that as America’s energy storehouse, Alaskans generally welcome OCS development, as long as it’s done right and where competing resources are protected. The best way to do that is to provide Alaskans a greater say in how and where offshore waters are leased, explored and drilled.

The other big energy issue in Washington is the Alaska natural gas pipeline. President Obama has embraced the Alaska gasline as one of the top five “green energy” priority projects for his administration. But as more natural gas floods the domestic market from both domestic and foreign sources, many worry the window on the Alaska gasline may be closing.
I intend to work with the Obama administration and Congress to ensure that the Alaska gas pipeline is considered a national priority.

In addition to the economy, we will see major work done in the coming months on climate change and health care reform. We also will continue to defend American interests abroad and ensure that the young Americans serving us in harm’s way return home to the benefits and services they deserve.

I am truly honored to serve as the first Alaskan since 1968 on the Senate Armed Services Committee, with broad jurisdiction over our military across the world.

As we celebrate 50 years of statehood this year, there remain many misperceptions about the 49th state. I look forward to continuing to work on behalf of all Alaskans to clear up those misperceptions, and reach across political and geographic boundaries, to make sure Alaska’s concerns are adequately addressed by the national government.