Health

The federal government notified the state that Alaska’s division of public health won’t receive millions of dollars in public health grants it was expecting over the next two years.

The state department of health, which oversees the division, did not agree to an interview for this story, but spokesperson Alex Huseman said by email that the grants were terminated March 24.

“The funds were meant to address the continued impact of COVID-19 on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses,” Huseman said. “The Department is actively assessing potential impacts and next steps for our staff, programs, and activities.”

Dr. Anne Zink, who led the state’s response to the COVID 19 pandemic as chief medical officer, said the money was also intended to reduce the impact of future disease outbreaks and pandemics.

“I worry that without letting [the projects] finish, we will be set back tremendously again,” Zink said. “It’s hard to know for sure, but it feels like decades of lessons learned are going backwards if we lose this.”

In a meeting last week, leaders in the division of public health announced the federal government had cut the funds because the COVID pandemic is over, according to a source who works in the division. The source, who did not want to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the media, said a major aim of the funding was to protect the state against future pandemics or public health emergencies.

The state did not give an estimate of the total amount of funding lost, but the source provided documents showing the grants amounted to $25 million in funds already allocated by Congress. An additional $18 million has already been awarded to state organizations and contractors, they say, and the future of those funds is uncertain and complicated legally.

Zink said stopping the funding partway through projects is a waste of money and effort.

“The money that was already spent may not be realized in its benefit to Alaskans, because we may not be able to finish the project, or we started something and can’t get it done,” Zink said.

One of the state projects that is losing funding is an electronic records sharing system, which is partially finished.

Zink said the system would allow for data sharing between public health and the broader healthcare system to help them communicate and work better together.

The division source said the COVID-era funding was also focused on reducing health disparities across the state, especially in rural Alaska, and such major cuts will have a devastating ripple effect throughout all Alaska public health programs.

“Everybody is going to feel this,” they said. “People who are trying to quit smoking, they are potentially going to call for that resource and it’s not going to be there anymore. People who are seeking to have extra Narcan doses through Project Hope might find that they can’t get the doses they need.”

Project Hope is an organization that distributes free opioid reversal treatments like Narcan.

The source said about fifty people, ten percent of the division’s staff, are employed fully with funds from the eliminated grants. They said the state aims to cover some of the missing grants with other federal funding sources.

The source said the division directs these grants to organizations working in communities, and on projects communities identify as important for public health reasons.

A majority of the funding, they said, has gone toward expanding rural health access, but the Anchorage Health Department has also received a big chunk of funding to reduce disparities in urban areas.

Michelle Fehribach, a spokesperson for the Anchorage Health Department, said they “don’t currently have enough information to ascertain how the [municipality of Anchorage] may be impacted by this decision.”

Zink said the grants were aimed at the biggest public health concerns in Alaska.

“These dollars were very tailored to what Alaskans need and want, and these were not federal dollars telling us how to practice or what to do,” Zink said. “Alaska got the opportunity to decide if we were going to apply for them or not, and apply for them, in ways that met the department’s goal of the health well being and self-sufficiency of Alaskans. And to have those dollars cut, which are Alaskan taxpayer dollars, is going to hurt Alaskans, and that is hard for me to watch.”

It’s unclear whether the state will be able to pay the contracts that have already been promised to organizations and communities across the state.

Editors note: Anne Zink is a host of the program Line One: Your Health Connection on Alaska Public Media.

After nearly four years, the sexual assault case against a former Juneau chiropractor is slated to go to trial April 21. 

Jeffrey Fultz is accused of assaulting more than a dozen women under the guise of medical care. Police arrested Fultz in 2021 based on initial accusations that he had assaulted three patients while he was a chiropractor for Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. 

More women have come forward since, and he now faces 18 felony sexual assault charges and one misdemeanor harassment charge. Some of the alleged crimes date back more than a decade.

According to Assistant District Attorney Jessalyn Gillum, several factors have delayed the trial over the years, including the case’s complexity, the number of witnesses and a backlog of criminal cases in Juneau leftover from the  pandemic, when in-person trials were put on hold. 

In the time the case has been awaiting trial, the first judge assigned to the case retired, the investigating Juneau police officer died and Fultz’s first attorney was deemed “mentally unable” to continue with the case. 

Fultz hired his current attorney, James Christie, in January of last year.

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica reported early this year that felony cases in Alaska often face years of delays requested by defense attorneys and approved by judges.

Fultz’s case was finally scheduled to begin trial in February, but was delayed yet again as the court continues to process and release outstanding records.

Due to new limitations established by the Alaska Supreme Court, cases filed before 2023 will have a limit of 270 days before they must go to trial starting in May. 

The order says the defense and prosecution are each allotted 90 days of delay requests, and a further 90 days is included for “other periods of delay for good cause.” If Fultz’s case is delayed further, it would be subject to that ruling. 

Fultz has been living in Colorado since he posted bail three years ago. He has made one in-person appearance in Juneau court since.

In early 2021, the Indian Health Services established a hotline for callers to report suspected sexual abuse by calling 1-855-SAFE-IHS (855-723-3447) or submitting a complaint online on the IHS.gov website. The hotline may be used to report any type of suspected child abuse within the IHS, or any type of sexual abuse regardless of the age of the victim. The person reporting by phone or online may remain anonymous.

Locally, people can call AWARE in Juneau at (907) 586-1090.

Senate Bill 93 would boost funding for school districts that are currently enrolled in early education programs under the Alaska Reads Act. The bill would increase per-student funding from half funding to the full amount for other students within the state’s public education funding formula.

The Alaska Reads Act program supports early literacy for pre-K through grade 3 with the aim of improving reading.

“The concept isn’t new,” said Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, the bill’s sponsor, citing a body of research supporting improved lifelong learning outcomes following pre-K programs. “For every dollar we invest in high quality early learning, we see a $32 return on investment in increased earning potential, higher graduation rates, higher engagement and post-secondary opportunities.”

She explained with the outmigration of families and children from Alaska, funding early learning programs would encourage young student enrollment. “Last year, the Legislative Finance Division indicated about 3,700 kids left our public education system in total,” she said. “So what our hope is, is not only to provide districts with full funding to maintain their pre-elementary programs, but also to help balance out that outmigration with incoming students.”

School districts can choose to offer prekindergarten in Alaska, and districts’ enrollment in early learning programs under the Alaska Reads Act is also voluntary. Currently the participating districts are Anchorage, Skagway and Valdez.

The Department of Education estimates the funding increase would cost roughly $7.6 million, already requested in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposal for next year, going towards funding the Alaska Reads Act, according to a fiscal note to the bill. 

State Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said that the governor’s budget includes roughly $4.7 million to sustain funding for existing early education programs and $3 million to expand the number of districts with these programs. The Alaska Reads Act planned for annual increases in funding and programs, Bishop said in a text statement through a spokesperson.

“We look forward to all Alaska school districts who desire to serve their communities with pre-schools, can do so,” she said. “The Alaska Reads Act was a transformational piece of legislation. The present bill builds on its success.”

Tobin said the increased funding could also help alleviate child care costs for families. “We know those pre-K kids are in their communities, their parents might be struggling to braid together support for child care, or for babysitting,” she said. “And by not only providing stability for districts to offer these programs, we also are helping them in stabilizing their school population, and also helping families that are looking for child care options that are high quality and available.”

The bill now is set to be heard in the Senate Finance Committee, where Tobin hopes lawmakers support the education investment. “We know it’s not going to have an impact on our budget. And we do know the fiscal notes of the Alaska Reads Act were adopted when the bill was passed in 2022, so it’s not going to have a discernible impact on our current budget projections.”

Correction: The ages affected by the legislation were incorrect in the headline and first paragraph in the initial version of this article. The legislation would affect 4- and 5-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds.

The Trump administration announced Thursday it would shrink U.S. Department of Health and Human Services staff by almost a quarter, and has suggested that it will dissolve the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division that focuses on HIV prevention. 

Amid the uncertainty, Alaska organizations aren’t sure if the federal funding they rely on will still exist. One of those organizations is the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association, or Four A’s. 

Its director, Robin Lutz, said losing federal funding could make the AIDS epidemic get much worse in Alaska — and more deadly. 

“We have the opportunity to end the epidemic,” Lutz said. “We will not be able to do that if this administration continues to act in the way it has.”

In her nearly 30 years working with HIV-positive people, Lutz has seen major improvements to awareness, prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS. But she says losing federal grant funding means the state would lose progress in fighting the disease. 

The nonprofit helps Alaskans who are HIV-positive with housing and access to life-saving medication. It also helps people get tested to know if they are HIV-positive, which helps curb the spread. Roughly 700 people are living with HIV in the state. Threats to Medicaid could further endanger Alaska’s HIV-positive population. 

The Trump administration plans to cut the federal health department by nearly 25 percent. Local organizations say there has been little to no information about the impact these changes will have on federal grants.

“Over a third of people living with HIV in the state don’t have the resources they need and deserve to manage their health without support, and it’s basically economic support,” she said. 

And Lutz said Alaska is a uniquely difficult place to access HIV testing and prevention medications. Accessing preventative care is already a challenge for Alaskans, due to misinformation and stigmatization of HIV. 

Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is yet again expanding its reach in Juneau. 

On Tuesday, the city’s Planning Commission approved the Alaska Native-run health care organization’s request to build a new dental clinic in Mendenhall Valley. 

The three-story building will be located at SEARHC’s medical campus near Safeway. The organization already has a dental clinic in Juneau at its medical campus in Lemon Creek. 

According to SEARHC spokesperson Matt Carle, developers on the project plan to break ground on construction this summer. The organization anticipates the clinic will be open to the public in the fall of 2027. 

Carle said the new facility is part of SEARHC’s efforts to meet the growing demand for dental services in the region, and is intended to “replace our existing, outdated dental clinic, which no longer adequately meets our needs.”

SEARHC has rapidly grown its services in Juneau and Southeast Alaska in recent years. In the past two years, it’s acquired Southeast Medical Clinic, Juneau Youth Services, Juneau Obstetrics and Gynecology and Juneau Physical Therapy – and many other clinics throughout the region.

Spring is a busy time at Tyonek Grown, a community farm on the west side of Cook Inlet. Local students come to plant seeds, water them and then harvest organic fruits and vegetables.

This summer, the farm managers had even bigger plans. They wanted to set up a community food forest that would include Indigenous plants and fruit trees.

But the forest – and many more of Tyonek Grown’s plans – are now up in the air. That’s due to federal staff and funding cuts, said Laurie Stuart, the executive director for Tyonek Tribal Conservation District, which manages the farm.

“The loss of those funds in the coming years is going to have a big impact on the growth that we were building,” Stuart said. “The future of the garden is having to be rethought.”

In Alaska, nearly all produce is imported, which makes the food supply vulnerable, especially in rural areas. Some support for local producers comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is one of many agencies that are cutting employees and programs in response to Trump’s executive orders.

In recent weeks, the agency reinstated some of its terminated employees but then put them on administrative leave.

That’s the case for Amanda Compton, who lives in Palmer and works in the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The program helps landowners – in Alaska, mainly tribes – to sustainably manage their natural resources. It’s helped villages set up fish passages, reindeer ranches and programs like Tyonek Grown.

That changed with the layoffs and disruptions, Compton said.

“We lost our entire team of people that are working to get Native communities greenhouses, our team that’s getting the Native entities fish passages,” Compton said. “We lost our entire team that communicates between the engineers and tribal entities.”

Tyonek, an off-the-road community of about 300 people, is about 40 miles southwest of Anchorage as the crow flies. Produce needs to be flown in, so fruits and vegetables grown at the Tyonek farm give locals a rare chance to enjoy affordable fresh food.

The USDA’s Forest Service, through the Arbor Day Foundation, awarded $900,000 to Tyonek Tribal Conservation District in December. The grant was meant to grow their team and set up a quarter-acre community food forest next to the farm that would promote food sovereignty and traditional ecological knowledge, Stuart said.

“It’s kind of a community, cultural harvesting space,” she said.

The Forest Service terminated the award, in an effort to comply with Trump’s objectives.

Another terminated USDA grant is the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. It’s meant to provide money to schools and food banks to buy produce from local farmers and fishermen, said Cayley Eller, Tyonek Grown’s programs manager.

“In Tyonek that meant that we were able to support our local farm operation and compensate the farm for the food that we’re growing and feed community members at low costs, as well as supporting local fishermen and supporting other tribal producers,” Eller said.

Overall, Tyonek Grown has funds to operate now, but the near future is uncertain.

“It’s a food security farm production space, and that means we’re not making a profit on our produce,” Eller said. “Our goal is to feed the community, and that means we’re heavily reliant on grant funds.”

Reindeer herders in limbo

Meanwhile, about 500 miles northwest, around Nome, reindeer herders are wondering about their future, too. Tribal liaisons used to help herders apply for grants and establish rotational grazing plans, said Nathan Baring, director of the Reindeer Herding Association, which provides technical assistance to herders in Bering Strait communities.

The Trump administration also halted a USDA grant meant to support Indigenous peoples’ animal harvests and help communities expand their meat processing, he said.

“Having all of that kind of just thrown either into the air or outright eliminated just simply means that we start over in terms of shopping those projects around again, which then further delays what I would describe as Alaska’s untapped potential in a pre-existing livestock industry,” Baring said.

Bonnie Suaŋa Scheele is an Iñupiaq reindeer herder at the Midnite Sun Reindeer Ranch near Nome. She said that for herders like her, interruptions in federal programs mean that it’s harder to find funds to build temporary housing for workers and corrals for holding animals.

Scheele said she should be at her ranch now, but she can’t be. She was counting on another frozen grant — this one from the Bureau of Indian Affairs — to help pay for upgrading her power source.

Despite the challenges, Scheele said herders will figure out a way to continue the practice, even if it means providing food for just their villages instead of expanding their operations.

“We’ll overcome it. We’ll figure it out,” she said. “It’s going to come back around, and we’re still, we’re still here, we’re still herding reindeer. We’re still providing for communities.”