Dan Sullivan
01/15/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/15/2025 16:46
Sullivan Receives Commitments from Duffy on Key Transportation, Aviation, and Infrastructure Priorities for Alaska
01.15.25
WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today received commitments from former Representative Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.), President Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Transportation, regarding transportation challenges faced in Alaska and the vital need to expand critical infrastructure. Specifically, Sen. Sullivan received commitments from Mr. Duffy to visit Alaska, continue to fund the Essential Air Service Program, support the FAA Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative, and work toward much-needed permitting reform.
A full transcript of Senator Sullivan's questioning is available below.
Click here or on the image above to watch.
Rep. Duffy Commits to Senator Sullivan to Visit Alaska and Fund the Essential Air Service Program
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Mr. Duffy, I believe you are very highly qualified to be the secretary. I certainly plan on supporting you. You are certainly as qualified as the current Secretary of Transportation, who I supported four years ago. I'm hoping all of my colleagues on this committee, everybody will support Mr. Duffy. I think your vision of a golden age for transportation is a great vision. I appreciated our meeting.
As I mentioned, my state has a lot of unique challenges on infrastructure. We're resource-rich, infrastructure-poor. Alaska is 120 times bigger than Connecticut and we have less road miles than Connecticut. No offense to Wisconsin, but we're over ten times bigger than you guys and we have less than one seventh the amount of roads that Wisconsin has. Much of the discussion on infrastructure and transportation in DC talks about rebuilding infrastructure or paving roads, but it doesn't often focus on the fact that, in some places, we don't even have infrastructure. Alaska wasn't even a state when the Eisenhower administration launched the big federal highway building program. I'm going to ask you the easiest question of the day. Will you commit to coming to Alaska in the summer? You can bring your family. You can do salmon fishing with me after we hit some infrastructure. Maybe you go after your trip to Hawaii. Will you come to my state and see these challenges? Because they're real challenges. You can hear about them, but unless you're on the ground, it's tough.
SEAN DUFFY: I would love to come to Alaska. I promise you, I will not sing any Hobo Jim for you. I sang to him in the office.
SULLIVAN: That was very good. Thank you. Let me talk about another one that you and I talked about that I just want to get your commitment on. We have 251 communities in Alaska that are not connected by roads. Most people in America think, "Wait, every community is connected by roads." Well, not in our state. So air service is essential. Essential Air Service is essential. Dozens of communities in Alaska are covered by the Essential Air Service program and would have no other way or means to get food or get people out of their communities. Will you commit to supporting ample funding for the Essential Air Service program in the DOT budget?
DUFFY: Senator, I was surprised. I think you indicated you have more than 60 Essential Air Service airports in Alaska, which-that's a big number. I have several in my old congressional district. I know how important it is to my communities which probably have closer access to airports than your communities. So, yes, I have been a supporter and will continue to support Essential Air Service.
SULLIVAN: Great. I'm really glad you highlighted aviation safety. Given our lack of roads and our isolated communities, we have more pilots per capita than any state in the country, but unfortunately, we have the highest rates of accidents, including fatalities, in aviation. The NTSB in February 2020 put out a big report dealing with Alaska aviation and listed these numbers, which are very troubling. Can you continue to work with me on the Alaska Safety Initiative? It was in the FAA bill this year. It's focused on better available weather data reporting, infrastructure for some of these small rural airports. This year's FAA bill authorizes up to $25 million annually for this safety initiative for Alaska, which is desperately needed given our very high rates of crashes and fatalities.
DUFFY: Sir, I wasn't aware until you pointed out how many fatalities you have in Alaska. I would welcome the opportunity to work with you on that issue.
SULLIVAN: Thank you. I'm a big fan of the air traffic controllers as well. They do incredible work in my state. I'm glad you did a shout-out to them at the beginning. One final question. It's a long, big topic, but it's so important. We talked about it. It's permitting reform. We need it. A lot of people say we need it. Then, when we try to get anything done, we can't get anything done. A lot of-in my view-the Lower 48 radical environmental groups use NEPA to block projects, not help projects. We're kind of the parade of horribles in Alaska. Secretary Chao helped break a NEPA logjam in the Cooper Landing bypass on the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. It took almost 40 years to get that EIS. This is madness. It took 20 years to permit a gold mine in Alaska. Senator Cantwell had this issue of a new runway at SeaTac airport. It took 15 years to get the permits just to build a new runway. What are your ideas on NEPA reform, and will you commit to making that a top priority? I've talked to President Trump about it. I know it's a really big focus of his. We have a great opportunity, but we need it. And enough talk on this. We got to do something.
DUFFY: We do. So, again, the length of time it takes to do projects, way too long. The NEPA process is complicated and time consuming. We don't have to trade in making sure we protect the environment to do projects. I would like to work with this committee, which obviously has a very large role in permitting reform. I commit to do what I can, at the department, to speed up the process.
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