Federal Government

A group of Alaska’s rural school districts are asking for help after the federal government failed to renew a program that sends grant money to logging-dependent areas.

On Monday, the Alaska Legislature joined the call for help by passing House Joint Resolution 5, which asks Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

That act sent $12.6 million to Alaska schools in federal fiscal year 2023, but Congress has thus far failed to reauthorize the program.

The state Senate passed HJR 5 by a 19-1 vote on May 9 after modifying a version originally written by Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan. The House agreed with the changes, 37-3, on Monday.

The votes against the resolution came from conservative Republicans who generally oppose federal spending.

The Secure Rural Schools Act, as it is commonly known, was designed to compensate rural school districts for tax revenue lost as the federal government began to restrict logging in the 1990s.

In 2023, the law provided more than $250 million to districts nationwide, with about 5% of the funding coming to Alaska.

For some of Southeast Alaska’s rural school districts, the money was a big part of the local budget. Yakutat, for example, received more than $6,500 per student. Wrangell had almost $3,500, and the money was worth $584 for each of Ketchikan’s 2,045 students.

HJR 5, which will be sent to every member of Congress, asks for retroactive funding and for a permanent funding source to pay for the bill.

It also encourages Congress to open more federal land to timber cutting “in a manner that supports rural economic revitalization, conserves habitat, and promotes forest health.”

WASHINGTON — An estimated 14,000 Alaskans, and millions of Americans, would lose their health insurance from one feature of the Republican budget reconciliation bill now pending in Congress.

That element is a requirement that certain Medicaid recipients prove that they worked at least 80 hours each month.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders confronted Health Secretary Robert Kennedy about it Wednesday at a Senate hearing.

“Is throwing 13 million Americans off of the health care they have, poor and working class people, keeping America healthy?” Sanders asked.

“Well, I haven’t seen that number. I’ve seen the number 8 million, and … the cuts are not true cuts. The cuts are eliminations of waste, abuse and fraud,” Kennedy said, and he started to explain how at least one million people would lose Medicaid coverage but Sanders cut him off.

The idea of requiring poor people to work to receive public benefits like food assistance has been around since at least the 1980s. The first Trump administration encouraged states to require it for Medicaid.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded a study of what happened when Arkansas and New Hampshire added a Medicaid work requirement in 2018 and 2019. Katherine Hempstead, senior policy officer at the foundation, said most people who lost their coverage actually did work or were exempt but failed to report it properly.

“That’s the really sort of cruel and sad thing about work requirements is the way that it creates savings for the federal government is really this collateral damage of people who, you know, are unable to successfully document what they’re doing,” she said. “A lot of people don’t have computers. They have to do everything on their phone. They don’t always have internet.”

The work requirement in the bill would apply to adults in the so-called Medicaid expansion population, whose incomes are slightly higher than the regular Medicaid population.

Amber Lee, director of Protect Our Care Alaska, said most of the 76,000 Alaskans in this category are working already, or qualify for one of the exemptions, because they’re raising a child, are disabled or are entitled to care through the Indian Health Service.

But documenting that monthly work would be a burden for the recipient and for the state, Lee said, and it would fall on the same department that had such a hard time dealing with applications for SNAP, or food assistance.

“I think most Alaskans remember that Alaska almost lost our SNAP benefits because of the enormous backlog that they had. So work requirements are going to be a huge lift for the state,” Lee said. We’re going to have to build out the infrastructure to be able to do that.”

Having fewer insured Alaskans means higher cost for the entire health care system and everyone who relies on it, she said.

“It goes up for everybody, because people will wait to get health care until it’s an emergency situation. They end up in the emergency room, and that increases costs for everybody, because those are uncompensated costs,” she said.

The bill would also require copays for people who are in the Medicaid expansion population of up to $35 per medical service.

The reconciliation bill is still in House committees. It’s not certain to pass. Some Republicans don’t like the Medicaid changes and some don’t like that it would add to the deficit by continuing tax breaks that were due to expire.

Following a request by the federal government, the state of Alaska has turned over the personal information of roughly 70,000 Alaskans enrolled in the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

As first reported by NPR, the federal government normally collects information to determine a SNAP applicant’s financial eligibility for the program. The new request goes beyond that, to cover name, date of birth, address, contact information, Social Security number, citizenship status and information about people living in a recipient’s household.

It affects nearly 1 in 10 Alaska residents, who participate in the program.

In a May 6 memo, the USDA said it was requesting that information because of an executive order by President Donald Trump. Numerous news agencies have reported that the Department of Government Efficiency — part of the executive branch under Trump — has used that order to combine personal data collected from several agencies to help the federal government track and arrest immigrants they want to remove from the country.

“Alaska is complying with the federal government’s requirement to share the information as requested,” said Alex Huseman, a public information officer for the Alaska Department of Health.

“Per the USDA guidance on May 6, 2025 … all data related to SNAP is being shared with the federal government,” he said. “This includes any information on a client’s application or renewal, any documentation sent in as part of their application or renewal, or other data acquired by DPA staff while processing applications and renewals.”

The USDA is specifically requesting “records sufficient to identify individuals as applicants for, or recipients of, SNAP benefits, including but not limited to personally identifiable information in the form of names, dates of birth, personal addresses used, and Social Security numbers.”

Huseman said the federal government has not requested that information before.

The Alaska Legislature has previously expressed concerns about the federal collection of Alaskans’ personal data but has not addressed the SNAP data-sharing arrangement.

In 2008, the Legislature forbade the state from spending money to implement the post-Sept. 11 REAL ID program, and only begrudgingly reversed course years later.

In 2017, lawmakers said they did not trust federal government data collection and requested additional privacy protections. Among those lawmakers was then-Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla.

“Federal contractors, businesses, everyone’s a victim here, of the federal government,” Dunleavy told the Anchorage Daily News about the REAL ID program.

Alaska officials who help resettle immigrants say they’re facing a lot of uncertainty amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on legal and illegal immigration.

Issa Spatrisano is the refugee program coordinator for Catholic Social Services. During an appearance on Talk of Alaska on Tuesday, she said a large group of immigrants in the state come from Ukraine, and are classified as having humanitarian parole. However, she said a pause on certain federal programs has prevented those people from keeping their paperwork up-to-date.

“I don’t know how many Ukrainians I’ve spoken to that we serve who have bought land and are ready to buy houses, who were enrolled at UAA and questioning if they should go,” Spatrisano said. “I mean, people are at a loss of what to do.”

Spatrisano said the Trump administration has rolled back a number of Biden-era refugee policies that have left people who entered the country legally now told that they need to leave the country.

For asylum seekers, immigrants and other noncitizens currently in the country, immigration attorneys have been working to clarify what rights people have. Nicolas Olano is an attorney with Nations Law Group. He said some of that outreach involves telling people that they have a right to an attorney and that there’s a difference between the kinds of orders that law enforcement might issue to them.

“The judicial and administrative warrants that we’re talking about permit you to do different things,” Olano said. “The administrative warrant that ICE issues does not let you go into a house, for example, versus the judicial warrant that would allow the officers to go into the house and search for either people or certain specific things that they’re looking for.”

Cindy Woods, a senior immigration law and policy fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, said her organization has been hosting Know Your Rights presentations to combat rumors and misinformation around deportations, and she encourages noncitizens to reach out if they are concerned about their immigration status.

For thirty-five hours each week at the Klukwan Library, people study, check out books, and take workshops on everything from paddle making to Chilkat weaving.

Or at least they used to. The Trump administration recently notified the tribal library that it was canceling two grants that account for the vast majority of its budget. That left the staff no choice but to cancel all future events – and dramatically reduce their hours.

“The letter said that our grant is, unfortunately, no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities, and no longer serves the interest of the United States,” said Jamie Katzeek, the library’s co-director.

The money comes from an agency known as the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides funding to communities across the country, including libraries in Native villages. In Alaska alone, the agency awarded library-related grants to dozens of tribes over the last two years.

It’s not yet clear how widespread the cancellations are across Alaska – or the country more broadly. But Theresa Quiner, the president of the Alaska Library Association, has been doing her best to track what’s happening.

“My perception is that most people who are Native American Library Services grant recipients, I have a feeling that most libraries have gotten the cancellation notice at this point,” Quiner said.

Library hours go from 35 to 4 in Klukwan

The Chilkat Indian Village in Klukwan was among them. In 2023, the tribe was awarded a two year grant – called an enhancement grant – of nearly $150,000. The money helped fund a project that aims to both reclaim and sustain traditional knowledge.

Then, in 2024, the tribe also received a much more common, $10,000 basic grant, which can be used to pay for staff hours and other budget items.

But in mid-March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at eliminating the agency. The order dubbed it – alongside six other federal entities – an “unnecessary” element of the federal bureaucracy.

By early April, the large grant was canceled even though the library still had nearly $100,000 to spend. Three weeks later, the smaller one was terminated, too. That left the library with just one source of funding: an annual $7,000 grant from the state that’s set to wind down next month.

That means Katzeek will work four hours per week until the end of June. She said she will likely use that time ensuring the library spends down the rest of the state grant according to their application.

It all means the library will no longer be able to offer programming and events meant to preserve traditional knowledge – or provide library services to students and other community members during the weekdays and weekends.

“The biggest loss is probably the programming that we offered. We would partner with other organizations and offer instructors for paddle making, moccasin making, beading, Chilkat weaving,” Katzeek said. “A lot of those programs were important to the people that live here in Klukwan, even people from town.”

The cancellations also threaten the library’s ability to apply for the state grant in the next round, given that it typically uses federal funds to meet a state matching requirement.

“That basically makes us ineligible to apply for the next PLA grant, which is supposed to start July first,” Katzeek said.

Library cuts have big impacts in small communities

At least five other tribes that have received IMLS funding could not be reached for comment. But Quiner, of the Alaska Library Association, provided a few additional examples of libraries that have lost funding so far.

Among them is the Kuskokwim Consortium Library, where Quiner serves as library director. She said the library partners with the Orutsararmiut Traditional Native Council in Bethel to get the same $10,000 grant as Klukwan. And they got the cancellation notice, too.

It’s a smaller sum than the agency’s much larger enhancement grants, which go to fewer recipients but often exceed $100,000. But they still matter, Quiner said, particularly in places where $10,000 can be the difference between having some library services or none at all.

“I did hear from the Pedro Bay Village Council that they’ve had to lay off a library worker because of this grant cancellation,” Quiner said. “And so it’s a small amount of money, but it has a pretty big impact in a small community.”

Other libraries, such as the Tuzzy Consortium Library in Utqiaġvik, aren’t as reliant on federal dollars.

The library is part of Iḷisaġvik College – Alaska’s only tribal college – and supports the school’s students and staff. It also provides public library services to seven communities across the North Slope Borough.

Teressa Williams, the library’s director, said the library has received the $10,000 grant for each community for years. And as is the case in Klukwan and Bethel, those grants were cancelled.

She said the loss is a “significant hit” to the library. But she emphasized that the federal grant amounted to just 7% of her overall budget, which means the library won’t be as affected as others. She added that she also doesn’t have to worry as much about the matching requirement for the state grant.

“Thankfully, I’m able to use my local funds to be able to afford the match,” Williams said.

Still, she’s concerned about the broader ramifications of Trump’s effort to dismantle an agency that so many libraries rely on for funding. That’s especially the case, she said, given Alaska’s low literacy rate – and the role libraries play in getting early literacy resources to families in rural areas.

“Libraries provide not only just books, though,” she said. “There’s people in communities that don’t have internet at home. They don’t even have a computer at home. When they need services to apply for the PFD, to file their taxes, where are they going to go, if not the library?”

Further complicating the picture is a federal judge’s decision last week to halt the executive order amid ongoing litigation. Even so, neither the Klukwan Library nor the Tuzzy Library have received any indication that their grants may be reinstated.

In Klukwan, Katzeek said she’s working with the tribal administrator to appeal the cancellations. But for now, her options are limited.

“We don’t yet know what the what it’ll look like for the library after June 30,” Katzeek said. “But we may have to close temporarily.”

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation unanimously passed a seafood bill on April 30 to fight illegal fishing. The legislation would rely on efforts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which Sen. Dan Sullivan said is already struggling to complete key fisheries surveys.

Sullivan co-sponsored the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest, or FISH, Act with seven other senators, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Sullivan said he hopes it will help fight unfair trade practices and give a boost to Alaska’s fishing industry.

Sullivan said the act takes aim at foreign illegal, unreported and unregulated, or IUU, fishing.

“It would blacklist foreign vessels and owners that have engaged in IUU fishing — it’s mostly Chinese,” Sullivan said. “And it would provide much more enforcement with regard to our Coast Guard’s ability to increase at-sea inspections.”

Any blacklisted vessels would be prohibited from accessing U.S. ports, traveling through U.S. territorial seas, except in accordance with customary international law, making deliveries in U.S. waters, or receiving services from American vessels.

According to Sullivan, the U.S. Coast Guard would largely be responsible for the enforcement of IUU fishing violations. Still, NOAA would be required to build and maintain the “blacklist” of vessels.

At a separate Commerce Committee hearing the following day, Sullivan pushed for the Deputy Secretary of Commerce nominee Paul Dabbar to give government signoff for key fisheries surveys. He told Dabbar that while the Biden Administration was given increased funding for NOAA, they missed out on the “blocking and tackling” of their job, failing to complete stock assessment surveys.

“You guys came in, ‘Hey, we’re not going to be like Biden,'” Sullivan told Dabbar at the confirmation hearing. “But you’re not — I’m getting really worried that you guys aren’t doing this either. When you don’t do stock assessment surveys, you know what happens? My fishermen can’t fish.”

He pushed Dabbar to make sure a contract was signed with the Oscar Dyson — a research vessel from Kodiak — so that it can head out to perform important fish stock surveys.

“I kind of was kicking him in the rear a little bit,” Sullivan told KUCB after attending the nomination hearing for Dabbar. “His staff was watching. And I’m saying, ‘Go do your job.'”

According to a spokesperson with Sullivan’s office, the Commerce Department approved the contract for the Oscar Dyson to undergo scheduled maintenance. They say it should ensure that future surveys are not delayed.

Sullivan said he told the Trump Administration that NOAA needs the staff and funding to complete those surveying tasks.

“The federal government has two responsibilities: one is to do the surveys and one is to make sure they have the regulatory approvals to open fisheries,” Sullivan said. “That’s not a lot to ask.”

However, it could be with proposed funding cuts to NOAA. And NOAA would play a major role in enacting Sullivan’s FISH Act.

But Sullivan said more funding doesn’t necessarily generate a more productive outcome.

“Even when you give a federal government, in this case, the Biden administration additional funding, that doesn’t mean they’re doing the blocking and tackling of what NOAA is supposed to do — and that is basic fish surveys, species surveys, data surveys — so our fishermen can go fish,” he said.

A large chunk of the Trump Administration’s proposed funding cuts would take aim at climate-dominated research and grant programs. That wouldn’t necessarily affect any stock assessments. However, the National Marine Fisheries Service — also referred to as NOAA Fisheries — is responsible for the management, conservation and protection of marine resources off the U.S. coast. They predict fish stock status, set catch limits and ensure compliance with fisheries regulations. NMFS is facing a possible cut of around 30% to its operational and personnel budget.

Similarly, climate-based research helps scientists and fisheries regulators make educated and sustainable decisions for Alaska’s fisheries.

Sullivan said while the key is to do the surveys, “We need to look at all components of the science, including what climate change has done with regard to our fisheries.”

He said the government has a duty to allow fishermen to fish, under any administration. And at the moment, he is focused on making sure legislation helps fight unfair foreign trade practices, like forced labor and threats to maritime security.

“What I’ve been trying to do is encourage this administration, the last administration, through executive action and through my legislation to go on offense, to protect our fishermen — fishing communities like Unalaska — and enable them to have stronger markets in America, stronger prices, and not to have to compete against fishing fleets that have practices that are unfair,” Sullivan said.

Among Alaska industry partners, though, there is a more pressing concern right now about how tariffs might directly affect things like dock prices. Sullivan didn’t have an answer for how the tariffs might hit the state’s fishing industry. He says the ultimate goal of the Trump Administration’s threat to increase tariffs is to see them reduced.

“They are undertaking trade negotiations to actually — that will hopefully have the end result of not retaliation, but lower tariffs across the board that will actually help our seafood industry,” Sullivan said.

A large amount of the state’s seafood is processed overseas. Sullivan said the majority of that should be protected from any retaliatory tariffs.

“For Alaskan seafood exporters, when they are catching fish and then that’s getting processed overseas, there’s an exclusion of 20% or more of a product from tariffs if 20% of the more that product is domestic and was sent overseas for processing,” he said.

Customs and Border Protection has excluded products from reciprocal tariffs as long as they meet that 20% limit for U.S.-originating product.

While Sullivan’s Fish Act has been unanimously approved by the Commerce Committee, it will have to be heard on the House and Senate floors before heading to the President’s desk to be signed into law.