Federal Government

The Juneau Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Monday night urging Alaska’s congressional delegation to oppose cuts to federal agencies. The move is a response to the local effects of the Trump administration’s widespread federal firings.

In 2024, more than 700 people living in Juneau worked for the federal government. It’s not clear how many are still employed after the firings. 

Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs introduced the resolution. 

“I just want to make sure that we’re doing like every single thing we can to let the people who are our representatives in the federal government know that we want you to do something about this,” Hughes-Skandijs said after the meeting. 

The resolution was passed through the consent agenda, which means they didn’t discuss it, and there wasn’t public testimony. 

Hughes-Skandijs said the firings will negatively impact Juneau’s economy and vital services residents rely on. Her resolution does not name the Trump administration, which carried out the terminations.

“Is that person who was the breadwinner for their family going to stay in Juneau?” she said. “The fallout effects of a bunch of federal workers getting laid off, I think, has the potential to have a major impact to our community.”

Hughes-Skandijs also pointed to the National Weather Service’s role in public safety by monitoring Suicide Basin and issuing warnings ahead of each year’s glacial outburst flood. 

She also acknowledged the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, which the resolution calls a “cornerstone of Juneau’s tourism economy.” 

The visitor center, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, recently saw a near-complete termination of its staff. Some have since been rehired, but the staffing situation ahead of the approaching tourism season remains uncertain.

In her annual speech to the Alaska Legislature last month, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski condemned the ways the Trump administration is carrying out the mass firings, calling some “unlawful.”  

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan downplayed the firings in his own legislative address and said that Trump advisor Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is making “noble progress” to reduce the national debt. 

Both Murkowski and Sullivan recently co-sponsored a resolution to keep the U.S. Postal Service independent and public. 

The Assembly also read through a proposal to set aside $200,000 to help staff the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. The Assembly will vote on it at its next meeting on May 19.

The emails started arriving late on a Monday night.

“The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposes to reassign you as part of a broader effort to strengthen the department and more effectively promote the health of American people,” the email read. “One critical area of need is in the American Indian and Alaskan Native communities.”

Amid the Trump administration’s massive layoffs at HHS, these reassignment emails accelerated an apparent purge of leadership at federal health agencies. Top officials in different parts of HHS were put on administrative leave with the option of relocating to a new job in Alaska, Montana, New Mexico or other postings within the Indian Health Service (IHS).

“I did not see this coming at all,” a senior executive at the Department of Health and Human Services told NPR. The executive asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the administration.

William “Chief Bill” Smith chairs an organization that advocates for the IHS on behalf of tribes, the National Indian Health Board. “Any major leadership changes within IHS should be made in full consultation with Tribal Nations, as required by law,” Smith wrote in a statement to NPR. “Tribal Consultation is not just a procedural step—it is a fundamental responsibility of the federal government.”

“Utmost disrespect”

The number of health leaders who got the emails and the reasons for who was picked remain unclear. The email doesn’t specify what will happen to those placed on administrative leave if they don’t accept the offer.

HHS did not respond to NPR’s questions about the scope of the reassignment offers. NPR has confirmed nine leaders got the reassignment email; there may be more.

“The move displays the utmost disrespect for public service. It is clearly designed to force talented scientists and health experts to leave government,” says Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy focused on health. “It is also an insult to those health care professionals in the Indian Health Service who dedicate their lives to providing health care services on tribal lands.”

It is unclear if anyone took the offer or plans to take it.

“I’m a career public servant. I’ve worked for Republicans and Democrats,” the HHS executive told NPR. “Public service is noble work and the ability to serve our country and impact entire populations just by coming to work is a gift. So there’s a sadness that comes with this.”

Connections to Fauci

At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), some sources who spoke to NPR suspect the targets were picked as retribution dating back to the pandemic.

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who took over as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases after Dr. Anthony Fauci departed, got the offer, according to an email obtained by NPR.

So did Fauci’s wife, Christine Grady, the top bioethicist at NIH, along with two others close to Fauci, according to a source who was not authorized to speak about the situation.

Fauci, who left the NIH in 2022, became a hero to many during the pandemic, but has also been vilified by critics of the government’s response. Dr. Francis Collins, who also worked closely with Fauci as NIH director, was recently forced out of the agency.

The offer appears to be “an opportunity to try and say they’re not being let go, they’re being offered a new opportunity,” said Susan Polan, associate executive director of the American Public Health Association. But that “does not seem to be the ultimate goal. The goal really does seem to be to undermine the leadership in these agencies.”

IHS used as “a pawn”

Polan spoke during a briefing last week by public health advocates and officials decrying cuts of about 10,000 workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the NIH and other agencies.

“IHS needs are not being met and it is being used as a pawn in the game of forcing HHS staff to resign instead of being fired,” Polan added later in an email to NPR.

“It’s a way to try to get people to quit,” added Dr. Phillip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, at the briefing.

The Indian Health Service provides crucial services and deserves to be adequately staffed with the most qualified workers, Huang and others at the briefing said.

The officials, who got the offer on Monday, March 31 or Tuesday, April 1 had until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2, to respond to the offer, according to the email obtained by NPR.

The email reads: “This underserved community deserves the highest quality of services, and HHS needs individuals like you to deliver that service.” It is from Thomas J. Nagy Jr., deputy assistant secretary for human resources at HHS.

Reassignment locations

Nagy’s email gives the officials the options of working in a variety of places that are a mix of states, cities and reservations. They appear to correspond to IHS areas, an official designation, with some exceptions. This is the list from the email:

• Alaska
• Albuquerque [New Mexico]
• Bemidji [Minnesota]
• Billings [Montana]
• Great Plains [South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa]
• Navajo [Arizona, New Mexico, Utah]
• Oklahoma

“We would like to understand your preference across these potential reassignment opportunities,” the email says.

“Specifically, we would like to know which regions you would accept a voluntary reassignment and the order of your preference, if any, across the regions,” it states.

Health leaders offered transfer

According to sources who shared information with NPR on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, officials in addition to Marrazzo and Grady who received the IHS reassignment offer include:

– Dr. H. Clifford Lane, deputy director for clinical research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who had long worked with Fauci.

– Dr. Emily Erbelding, director of the division of microbiology and infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

– Renate Myles, director of communications for NIH;

– Dr. Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities;

– Dr. Shannon Zenk, director of the National Institute of Nursing Research;

– Dr. Diana Bianchi, the director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

– Brian King, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products.

IHS is a priority for RFK Jr.

The Indian Health Service was an early target of Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts, when 950 employees were fired in February. But HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quickly intervened and said all of those staff should be rehired. “The Indian Health Service has always been treated as the redheaded stepchild at HHS,” Kennedy said at the time in a written statement to ICT, a nonprofit news organization that covers Indigenous people.

Kennedy announced he would be visiting the Navajo Nation in a western trip Monday through Wednesday. Kennedy dubbed it a “MAHA tour” — referring to his Make America Healthy Again slogan. He will also go to Arizona and Utah and meet with tribal leaders, though HHS did not share a precise itinerary in a press release on the trip.

Indian Health Service and all HHS divisions have been ordered to cut contract spending by 35%, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon confirmed to NPR.

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says broader cuts to federal health programs affect tribal communities, too. “When they cut grants or close down CDC programs they also directly and indirectly cut IHS programs,” he says.

Benjamin says he doesn’t think the intent of the NIH reassignment offers was to “hurt or demean” IHS, but to “take a person trained in clinical skills that has not been practicing clinically is usually not helpful if the job is a clinical one or even a clinical manager job.” He added: “The most cynical view is this is a way to get senior people to quit.”

Smith, who is from Valdez in Alaska and who chairs the National Indian Health Board, says tribal leaders need the chance to weigh in on any changes.

“We urge the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to uphold this obligation and engage in meaningful Tribal Consultation before moving forward with any reassignments,” Smith wrote in the statement.

Other top federal health officials who have been recently forced out include Dr. Peter Marks, who was the top vaccine regulator at the FDA.

The Alaska Permanent Fund, the No. 1 source of general-purpose revenue for state services and the Permanent Fund dividend, suffered a multibillion-dollar loss during last week’s stock market crash.

According to preliminary figures published by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., which manages the fund, the fund’s assets declined from $81.7 billion on Tuesday to $79.7 billion at the end of the day on Friday. Figures for Monday were not immediately available.

From Wednesday through Friday, the S&P 500, a leading American stock market, declined 10.5% as markets reacted to President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on most imported goods.

Paulyn Swanson, a spokesperson for the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., said the Permanent Fund’s value declined by 2.7% during the same period.

Speaking last Thursday, APFC executive director Deven Mitchell noted that the fund is invested in a variety of assets, including real estate, bonds, private equity and gold, as well as publicly traded stocks.

That means the Permanent Fund hasn’t performed as well as the S&P 500 in recent years, but during a downturn, it doesn’t suffer as much.

“In our public equity portfolio, we’ve had a tilt away from growth stocks and the S&P 500, which we’ve suffered under over the last two years, but now we’re benefiting from that tilt towards value. So in some ways … we’ll be making up ground relative to our benchmark,” he said, referring to a mix of investments that the corporation measures its performance against.

Since 2018, an annual transfer from the Permanent Fund to the state treasury has been largest source of general-purpose revenue for services and the dividend.

In the fiscal year that starts July 1, that transfer will be worth $3.9 billion. All of the state’s oil revenue combined is expected to be worth less than half that — $1.6 billion.

For the moment, money for the transfer is kept in the earnings reserve, a spendable account within the fund. As of Feb. 28, Swanson said, the earnings reserve contained $9.8 billion — enough for the upcoming transfer, an inflation-proofing payment, and part of the upcoming fiscal year 2027.

At that time, the earnings reserve also held $1.8 billion in unrealized gains — much of which may have been lost in the market slide.

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More than 1,300 people in Juneau joined nationwide protests through the Hands-off rally at the Alaska State Capitol on Saturday.

It was Juneau’s largest demonstration opposing the Trump administration’s actions so far this year, and many protestors used music as a way to voice their frustration.

Two days before artists were set to perform on the mainstage at the Alaska Folk Festival, hundreds of demonstrators of all ages took to the street in front of the capitol in opposition to the deluge of executive orders President Donald Trump has issued in his first two months in office.

Toddlers in rainsuits and young children on tricycles waved miniature American flags as an organized list of singers and speakers took turns at the microphone.

Claire Richardson, a volunteer with the group, ReSisters, that organized Juneau’s version of the nationwide rally, led the crowd in a chant.

“We are here to tell Donald Trump and Elon Musk, hands off our democracy,” she said, as the crowd shouted back. “Hands off our children’s education. Hands off our jobs. Hands off our veterans. Hands off our bodies and gender choice. Hands off our elections. Hands off Medicaid. Hands off our libraries and museums. Hands off Social Security. Hands off Greenland and hands off Canada.”

People carried signs with slogans like “No Kings,” “Fight Fascism,” “Save our democracy,” and “The only immigrant taking away American jobs is Elon Musk.”

Heidi Drygas, executive director of the Alaska State Employees Association, called for protestors to stand up against Trump’s executive order stripping the collective bargaining rights of federal workers.

“We say this in organized labor a lot: an injury to one is an injury to all,” Drygas said. “We have to stand in solidarity with our federal workers, and that means holding our congressional delegation to account.”

Odin Brudie sang a rendition of “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King, and early childhood educator Supanika Ordóñez encouraged the crowd to take three actions in their everyday lives.

“Number one: shop local. Do not support large companies who have shown they don’t support our democracy,” Ordóñez said. “Two: share your stories. Continue those letters and calls.”

And third, she said, is practicing self-care and finding joy amid the political turmoil.

The rally ended with local musician Colette Costa leading the crowd in a spirited rendition of “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes.

Organizers with ReSisters say they plan to hold another rally on Saturday, April 19.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Supanika Ordóñez’s name and the headline has been updated to more accurately reflect Saturday’s turnout. 

 

The Alaska Department of Health abruptly laid off 30 public health employees last week after the federal government canceled a series of grants unexpectedly early.

“Their last day of employment is today, and they found out — I believe — earlier this week. So it is very abrupt,” said Heidi Drygas, director of the Alaska State Employees Association, the union that represents 22 of the 30 laid-off employees.

The layoffs are believed to be the first round of significant Alaska state-government job losses caused by President Donald Trump and the arm of the White House named the “Department of Government Efficiency,” coordinated by Elon Musk.

Trump-ordered cuts have already had significant effects on federal government programs and nongovernmental organizations that rely on federal grants, but until now, state-government jobs had been relatively protected.

“I fear that there are more (layoffs) coming,” Drygas said. “I’m worried that this is the tip of the iceberg, and this rapidly evolving news story … is causing a lot of anxiety for our members, many of whom work under federal grants, or they work on a daily basis with their federal counterparts. It’s hugely disruptive.”

Alex Huseman, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Health, said the federal government brought an early end to two major COVID-19 response grants.

Those grants had been expected to expire no later than 2027. The state’s current operating budget and Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposal for the coming year list millions of dollars in expected grant spending.

“The amended notice of awards for the impacted grants now reflect an end date of March 24, 2025,” Huseman wrote by email. “The reductions in federal funding had an impact on 30 employees. The DOH is working with the Division of Personnel and the Rapid Response Team from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, in accordance with the respective union contracts and regulations, to assist affected employees.”

Drygas said the affected positions are spread across the state, and that as with any job losses, these cuts will have ripple effects in the local communities, since state salaries lead to local spending.

“In some of these smaller communities, there’s not that many jobs, and so it could have a huge impact, or a disproportionate impact,” she said.

Rather than target Alaska in its response to a new round of tariffs levied by President Donald Trump, the Yukon government plans to pick on Trump adviser Elon Musk.

The action stands in contrast to moves taken by other provinces, such as British Columbia, which is considering a bill that could result in tolls on Alaska-bound vehicles.

In a statement Thursday, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai said the territory will end its satellite Internet contracts with Starlink, a Musk-owned company.

The Yukon has about 90 Starlink contracts, serving isolated road maintenance stations, hospitals, and other facilities.

Electric vehicles and chargers manufactured by Tesla — another Musk-owned company — will no longer be eligible for the Yukon’s Good Energy Program, which offers incentives to residents who buy electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances.

The territory’s official communications will switch away from X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. That platform is also owned by Musk, who limits news content and uses it to spread pro-Trump positions.

“These measures build on our initial response, which included ending the sale of U.S. alcohol in government-run liquor stores and stopping any new wholesale orders for U.S. liquor,” Pillai said in a news conference.

Pillai said he spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and other provincial leaders early Thursday, and that those leaders intended to take additional actions.

He noted that Alaskans share a close relationship with the Yukon and thanked Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, for voting to end some tariffs that target Canada.

“We want Americans to keep coming here, keep spending money here, keep visiting your friends and family members in the Yukon and in Canada,” Pillai said. “Show your support for Canada by visiting Canada and by understanding why not as many of us may be in a hurry to come and visit you.”