Sebastian O’Kelly, a federal lobbyist, is a consultant with Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh. As a federal lobbyist he represents several communities across Southeast Alaska, working to ensure issues pertaining to the area reach the ears of the right people in Congress. O’Kelly was in Wrangell Tuesday evening to meet with the borough assembly and to discuss several issues pertaining to the region.
“I’m glad to be here,” he said to the assembly. “This is my last stop on a 12-day tour.”
The topics discussed by O’Kelly and the assembly
were wide and varied. One of the bigger topics O’Kelly brought up was federal aid that was coming to Alaska in response to the pink salmon disaster. He explained that, in 2016,
Alaska saw a dramatic decline in pink salmon populations in fisheries across the state. In some cases federal law,
he said, allows for relief to be brought to areas affected by a decline in fish populations when the decline is not related to
fishing. In FY 2019, Congress allocated $200 million for
fishery disasters across the country. Of that, $56 million is
coming to Alaska for the pink salmon disaster, and O’Kelly went into some detail about how that money would be further divided.
“Of the $56 million, $4 million is going to go towards research to look at the causes of the decline,” he said. “$32 million is going to go to fishermen, $2.4 million to municipalities and coastal communities that depend on the fish tax, and $17.7 million to processors.”
A hot issue related to the fishing industry is tariffs.
Due to the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, O’Kelly said, numerous tariffs have been put in place by both countries. One of these is a seafood tariff. China has installed a 25 percent tariff on seafood entering the country from the United States, and the U.S. has done the same for seafood coming from China. O’Kelly said that these tariffs are not likely to be lifted anytime soon, but he is working to make sure the government is aware of how it could affect Alaska’s economy as a whole.
Sea otter management was another topic brought up in the workshop. O’Kelly said that sea otter populations have undergone a population boom and, as fish are a common source of food for otters, this is affecting fisheries. Otters, however, are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which makes controlling their numbers a challenge. Provisions are allowed for native peoples to harvest sea otters, but O’Kelly said that so far this has been far below “sustainable levels.” He added that they are looking into ways to further incentivize otter harvests and other avenues of population control.
The assembly also brought to O’Kelly’s attention the Essential Air Service, a program guaranteeing that airlines serve rural and isolated communities such as Wrangell and other towns across Southeast Alaska. The assembly brought this up because, they said, they felt that the EAS was in danger of being discontinued every few years. They asked if writing a letter in support of the EAS would be something they could do to help protect the program.
O’Kelly said that the letter was a good idea, and could always be needed, but that the assembly did not have anything to worry about in the near future. He said that there were some people in Congress who wanted to see the EAS discontinued, seeing it as corporate welfare. However, he said there was strong pushback from other groups who saw it as necessary to help small communities stay connected to the world.
After the workshop was concluded and a brief recess was held, the assembly gathered again for a short, special meeting. There were only two agenda items, both of which were quickly adopted. One was approval of a sole source contract with SECON in the amount of $32,178.25 for a portion of an ADEC-funded water main replacement project affecting the ADOT Evergreen Avenue improvements and pedestrian access project. The other was approval of a letter of support for Trey Acteson to be appointed to a public advisory group for the state specific rulemaking for Roadless Management.
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