After the last vote of the week at the U.S. Capitol, Congress members will stream to the airports and head home to campaign. Mary Peltola will be among them. 

It’s been a remarkably productive run for her since her swearing in just 16 days ago, and she didn’t do it alone.

This morning, she and the rest of the House Natural Resources Committee passed a bill to renew the Magnuson-Stevens Act, governing fishing in federal waters. It includes one of her big legislative goals: adding two seats to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to represent Alaska tribal members. And her Democratic colleagues are giving her partial credit for it. 

To be clear, she did not put those seats in the bill. They were already embedded in the draft when she was named to the committee. But she advocated for the change when she was a witness before the committee last year, as a tribal salmon advocate. 

It’s a win she can point to, and it fits beautifully with her pro-fish campaign theme, even if the bill has a long river yet to swim. (Maybe I didn’t choose the best metaphor here, since bills strive to become law, not to spawn and decompose, but what Alaskan doesn’t love salmon imagery? If you’re reading these words, the Alaska At-Large editor, Tegan Hanlon, is the bomb.)

A second win for Peltola: The House is on the verge of passing a bill aimed at improving food security for veterans, and she is its sponsor. It would establish an office of food security in the Veterans Affairs Department.  

Let’s be frank: She didn’t sketch this bill on a cocktail napkin on her way to being sworn in. Her spokesman says she and her staff “worked with Veterans Affairs Committee staff to draft the bill.” 

So it was teed up for her. Still, she embraced the issue and spoke credibly to it for all the world to see. The topic is “of vital importance to my state, where veterans comprise about 10% of the population,” she said on the House floor Wednesday. “And I know many veterans who face food insecurity.” 

Rep. Mary Peltola and Sen. Lisa Murkowski on a flight to the Western Alaska disaster zone. This image, which Murkowski posted on social media, is gold for lawmakers trying to show government working at its best. (Facebook)

The episode also shows that she's interested in passing bills of broad appeal, rather than making fiery speeches on the Capitol steps.

Peltola also got named to a second committee this week — Education and Labor. This creates the possibilities of good synergy with Lisa Murkowski, who sits on the Senate version of both of Peltola’s committees.

All this is to say that House leadership wants Peltola to look good and win re-election. I’m not diminishing Peltola’s success by saying she had help during these 16 days. It’s just worth noting that in Congress, as in life itself, it helps to have friends.

Peltola wasn’t just in Washington, D.C., this month. She had a major disaster back home to contend with. Disasters are an opportunity for governments and lawmakers to show their best side, and Peltola did not squander it. 

I spoke to Sen. Murkowski just now. She told of a moment she, Peltola and the FEMA administrator were on a beach outside of Nome, where subsistence fishing camps sustained heavy damage. Peltola found a piece of broken netting and held it up for the administrator, saying the replacement cost is probably $1,000.

“This was not just some talking point,” Murkowski told me by phone. “This was Mary, the Alaska Native fisherwoman, who was explaining what goes on in a fish camp, and I think that that was absolutely invaluable.”

Peltola will still be a member of Congress next week and next month. But her turn on the Capitol stage will be on pause while the theater goes dark until the House reconvenes in mid-November. You can expect to see her at smaller venues closer to you.

Don’t you go dark on me. I value your emails and questions. They help shape this newsletter.

- Liz Ruskin

lruskin@alaskapublic.org

Follow me on twitter: @lruskin

P.S. If you’re in Anchorage tonight, we’re co-hosting a debate about whether Alaska should hold another constitutional convention. It’s free and at the University of Alaska Anchorage, or you can stream it online. More details below.

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