Murkowski steers massive Alaska-focused funding package through Congress — Native programs take center stage

By SUZANNE DOWNING

US Sen. Lisa Murkowski has used her powerful perch as chair of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee to drive one of the most Alaska-specific federal spending packages in years across the finish line, and a striking portion of it is targeted directly at Alaska Native governments, corporations, and tribal systems.

The Fiscal Year 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill, folded into HR 6938 and now headed to the president’s desk, includes funding for land, wildlife, fire, health care, water, law enforcement, and subsistence, but with a policy architecture that increasingly runs through tribal and Native channels rather than state or municipal governments.

The bill funds Interior agencies including Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fish and Wildlife, National Park Service, Forest Service, Indian Health Service, and US Geological Survey.

Murkowski’s office describes the package as strengthening wildfire response, protecting subsistence access, improving infrastructure, and advancing public safety. But embedded in the fine print is a major structural reality: Alaska Native institutions are becoming the primary delivery system for large portions of Alaska’s federal government.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs alone receives $570 million for Public Safety and Justice, including $21 million for Public Law 280 tribal courts, the controversial Native justice system. It’s $14.5 million more than last year’s final number.

The bill also directs funding to:

• Tribal law enforcement
• Wellness courts
• Remote village public safety facilities
• Alaska Native foster care programs
• Native language preservation
• Shelters such as Emmonak Women’s Shelter
• Subsistence pilot programs
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women initiatives

These represent a parallel justice and social services system for Alaska Native communities that rivals or exceeds the state’s own rural justice footprint.

Murkowski also locked in several programs that benefit Alaska Native corporations and tribal landholders directly:

These funds address the backlog of Native land transfers created by ANCSA, some of which have been unresolved for over 50 years.

The bill sends new money straight to Alaska’s tribal health system:

• $8 million for maternal health
• $31 million for staffing packages at Alaska facilities, including:
– Chugachmiut Health Center (Seward)
  – Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center (Sitka)

Those facilities operate under Alaska’s tribal health consortia.

The bill includes targeted funding for organizations that exist specifically to represent Alaska Native subsistence users:

• Alaska Nannut Co-Management Council
• Eskimo Walrus Commission
• Yukon River Salmon Agreement
• Pacific Salmon Treaty programs
• Subsistence snowmachine access
• Traditional knowledge consultation
• Polar bear safety programs

Of the 19 Alaska projects Murkowski secured, some are explicitly Native:

In addition, many of the wastewater, landfill, and drinking water projects are in majority-Native communities such as Teller, Yakutat, Hoonah, King Cove, and Bristol Bay villages.

Direct Native-specific funding identified

That alone puts Native-targeted funding above $667 million, before counting fisheries co-management, subsistence programs, shelters, or village infrastructure.

By contrast, the Alaska-wide municipal infrastructure earmarks (wastewater, drinking water, landfill upgrades, natural gas lines, etc.) total roughly $62 million.

Murkowski’s bill hard-codes who controls Alaska’s future.

Health care: Tribal system.
Justice: Tribal courts.
Land: Native corporations.
Wildlife: Co-management boards.
Child welfare: Tribal authorities.
Language and culture: Federally funded Native institutions.

State government: Increasingly bypassed.

Whether Alaskans agree or disagree with that direction, the numbers show Native institutions are now the dominant recipients of Alaska-specific federal funding in Interior Department appropriations.

Local government and other organizational programs awarded dollars include:

• Bristol Bay: $3.86 million for the collection, processing, staging, and backhaul of scrap metal waste to prevent environmental contamination and protect subsistence resources.
• Fairbanks: $3 million to expand natural gas infrastructure in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, supporting cleaner energy use and improved air quality.
• Homer: $937,868 to update a drinking water facility.
• Hoonah: $5.121 million to upgrade the Icy Strait Point force main sewer system, supporting the community’s wastewater treatment capacity amid increased use.
• Ketchikan: $6 million to upgrade the Charcoal Point wastewater treatment plant, improving reliability and long-term wastewater management for the community.
• King Cove: $2 million to upgrade the city’s solid waste processing facility as the existing landfill nears the end of its useful life.
• Petersburg: $8 million to complete planning and engineering for a new wastewater treatment facility to replace outdated infrastructure.
• Prince William Sound: $250,000 for beach rehabilitation to repurpose high-density polyethylene pipe and remove debris impacting coastal habitats.
• Sitka: $10 million for the design and construction of a new wastewater effluent disinfection system to modernize Sitka’s wastewater treatment facility and improve water quality.
• Teller: $700,000 to purchase new landfill processing equipment to increase capacity and improve waste management operations.
• Unalaska: $3.4 million to replace the Captains Bay drinking water line, improving reliability and water delivery for the community.
• Wasilla: $1.93 million for the design of the Wasilla–Palmer water system interconnect to increase redundancy and strengthen regional water security.
• Whittier: $1.59 million to replace aging and near-failing wastewater lift stations that pose risks to public health and environmental safety.
• Wrangell: $10 million to upgrade the municipal wastewater treatment plant to ensure continued compliance with water quality standards and support community health.
• Yakutat: $1.504 million to construct water and sewer infrastructure for the Forest Highway Subdivision, improving basic services for residents. 
• Statewide (Tribal Communities): $500,000 for the Cook Inlet Tribal Council to support dissemination of the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children’s report, “The Way Forward,” and to develop a toolkit to assist with implementation of its recommendations.
• Statewide (North Slope and Northwest Alaska): $241,000 for the Robert Aqqaluk Newlin Sr. Memorial Trust’s Uqapiaqta Iñupiatun Adult Fluency Program to support adult Inupiaq language learners through elder gatherings, staffing, and curriculum development.
• Statewide: $1.5 million for the Alaska Trails Initiative to construct the Grant Creek Bridge and extend the Iditarod National Historic Trail between Moose Pass and Grant Creek, expanding recreational and historic trail access.
• Statewide: $3.5 million for the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection to carry out fuels reduction projects aligned with Community Wildfire Protection Plans, helping protect communities from wildfire risk.