By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
As part of a whirlwind trip across Alaska prior to Tuesday’s primary election, Sen. Lisa Murkowski visited Sitka on Friday and voiced support for measures aimed at preserving abortion access across the country.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski chats with Sitka American Legion Post 13’s Vince Winter Friday at the Legion Hall. Murkowski traveled to Sitka from Washington, D.C., with the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, pictured wearing fatigues in background. Murkowski and Fagan presented proclamations and an American flag that was flown at the Capitol to Peter Karras, nephew of the late WWII code talkers Harvey and Mark Jacobs, at an informal ceremony. Sunday, August 14, was National Code Talkers Day. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
In a sprawling, joint interview with the Sentinel and Raven Radio, the incumbent senator also spelled out her disagreements with the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act and spoke on the need to address climate change.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned two longstanding court cases that protected abortion rights. Since then, a number of states have placed significant limits on abortions.
“We cannot roll back the clock on women’s reproductive healthcare and the choices that women have or that women should have over their own bodies… Abortion is a matter that is deeply personal to each individual,” Murkowski said in the Friday interview. “And that very difficult decision should be made available and legal.”
Earlier this year, the long-time Republican senator and her colleague Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced legislation that would protect a degree of abortion access in federal law. The bill stipulates that states “may not impose an undue burden on the ability of a woman to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy before fetal viability.”
Though the bill was introduced to the Senate in February, it has yet to move to a vote.
With the Senate currently divided 50-50 between the parties, Murkowski acknowledged that any effort to pass legislation to codify the protections once afforded by Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood faces an uphill battle.
“In order to advance it, we need more support. We need more support on the Republican side,” she said. “And I acknowledge that, and so our effort now is to remind people in this country, that again, when you’re talking about women’s reproductive health, and the access that women have had protected for decades, that we can’t go backwards on that. So we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
While abortion rights are currently protected in Alaska’s constitution, Murkowski worried that if voters opt in favor of a constitutional convention in November’s general election, abortion access could be cut.
“Right now, Alaska can’t put in place a trigger law that would ban abortion,” Murkowski said. “But we are only protected so long as that constitution is as it is, and we know that on the ballot in November will be an opportunity for Alaskans to weigh in and say whether or not they want to proceed with a constitutional convention… That is something that quite honestly I’m concerned about – that we could in fact lose that protection if Alaskans were to determine that the provision that has been in place in our constitution should no longer stand.”
Although she has co-sponsored a bill to codify abortion rights, Murkowski voted in May against the Women’s Health Protection Act. The bill, which failed in the Senate, sought “to protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services.”
As well as discussing access to reproductive healthcare, Murkowski told the Sentinel she supports action on climate change but reaffirmed her opposition to the climate control measures in the Inflation Reduction Act now on its way to be signed by the president. When compared to the Build Back Better Act that stalled out in Congress over the winter, significant provisions on climate change were stripped from the massive spending bill before it was passed by the Senate August 7. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed by the House on Friday.
Murkowski voted against the bill when it was passed 51-50 in the Senate, bypassing a potential Republican filibuster by moving through the budget reconciliation process.
Over the years, Murkowski said, she’s worked alongside her Democratic colleague Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, on legislation, but that didn’t come to fruition on this bill.
“Senator Manchin kind of broke off the bipartisan discussions and went the way of reconciliation, working with just the Democrats to advance what they call the Inflation Reduction Act,” Murkowski said. “I wish, I truly wish that this was a measure that did as its name says, I wish that it was actually working to reduce inflation, but it is a measure that is increasing spending, increasing taxes and adding more regulation and that’s not the way to reduce inflation.”
While she offered support for some aspects of the bill, she said she opposed it on financial grounds.
“There are many aspects of it that I am supportive of. There are some provisions in there that relate to, for instance, advanced nuclear (power) and some of the headway that we were making with that. There’s a provision in the air that specifically relates to Alaska as it ties in to Cook Inlet leasing,” she said. “So there are provisions in there that I think absolutely stand to benefit our state but I have to weigh and balance with everything else that is contained within it.
“You have tax increases that I think are not going to be contributing to how we work to address our basic issue of supply and demand and how we get increased production up in this country when you are taxing those who are the job creators, those that are producing what Americans are needing right now.”
The law provides $369 billion meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through tax credits for clean electricity, clean manufacturing and more. The law also provides additional subsidies for Americans’ healthcare under the Affordable Care Act and aims to lower prescription drug costs.
The Congressional Budget Office has said the bill will decrease the federal deficit by $305 billion by 2031. The law increases federal revenue by instituting a 15 percent corporate minimum tax, funding tax enforcement for the IRS and instituting a methane fee, among other items.
While Murkowski – and every other Republican senator – voted against passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, she touted her support for the Energy Act of 2020, which authorized $7 billion for carbon management.
She underscored the impact climate change is already having in Alaska.
“Here in Alaska, we perhaps feel it and see it more notably than in other parts of the country, although we’re certainly seeing extreme weather throughout all parts of the United States,” the senator said. “We see that in wildfires, we see this in flooding, extreme temperatures. Climate change is real. It is with us. So the question is what do we do to address it?”
She said discussions on the possibility of carbon pricing are ongoing in Congress.
“There’s been a lot of discussion, believe it or not, on pricing carbon. Well OK, if you’re going to put a price on carbon, how do you address a place like Alaska, where so many of our communities are diesel powered, right? We’re paying some of the highest energy costs in the country throughout Alaska,” she said. “You’re blessed down here to have hydro. But you’re not so blessed if you’re in Angoon because you’re not tied into everybody. So how do we make sure that those who are truly energy vulnerable, how do we make sure that they are not paying even higher prices if you’re going to assess a price on carbon?... These are the kinds of conversations that are going on with lawmakers.”
Speaking more broadly, Murkowski argued against the budget reconciliation process that’s been used by both parties to pass legislation. With reconciliation the Senate can pass a bill with a simple majority vote, and not the super-majority required to pass most legislation through a potential filibuster.
“I really don’t like reconciliation, the process itself, the process and the result,” she said. “And I’ll tell you why I don’t like the result. Because after the 2017 Tax Act – it was passed by Republicans – (and) when the Democrats got into power, what have they been trying to do? They’ve been trying to erode and undercut what was put in place… When the Republicans get in power, what do you think they’re going to do? They’re going to try to unravel what the Democrats have put into law.”
Murkowski voted in favor of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which passed the Senate without any Democratic support via budget reconciliation. The law made deep cuts in corporate taxes.
On Tuesday, Alaskans vote in the primary election to determine the candidates who will advance to the November general election for governor, state legislators, U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator.
Also on the ballot will be the special general election for the Alaska representative replacing the late Rep. Don Young in the U.S. House until Jan. 3, 2023.
