|
Alaska is a red state, and a lot of Alaskans probably concur with the Republican holdouts. The less government works, the better, in their view. But the effective way to rein in the government is to reform federal law. That takes a functioning Congress.
Peltola won her seat pledging to change federal fish management. It’s a gargantuan task, passing a re-write of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Prior bills have withered on the vine, year after year. To have any chance of success, she and her allies have to get a running start. And getting anything beyond the very basics passed in this Congress seems unlikely. The new speaker, whoever it is, is going to be in a weak position.
No one’s agenda advances if the House stalls at every decision point.
Maybe I’ll have Seat 83 forevermore. And, if it gets too dull, we can always hope for a more lively scene on the Senate side. They’re on break for the next two weeks. Or, as the Brits would say, a fortnight.
Which reminds me: We plan to send Alaska At-Large to your inbox every other week now. Think of it as your fortnightly peak under the Capitol dome.
That’s all for now. As always, I want to hear from you. What do you want to see covered and what questions do you have about Washington, D.C. politics? Reach me at lruskin@alaskapublic.org.
Thanks for reading,
-Liz Ruskin
Follow me on twitter: @lruskin
| 
