“Senator Mark Begich has worked tirelessly for Alaska’s children and the employees that work in Alaska’s schools”, stated President Ron Fuhrer. “NEA-Alaska’s PACE members endorsed Begich in 2008, and were proud to do so again. Senator Begich is accessible to all Alaskans and we stand ready to work hard to ensure he will continue to be in the Senate to protect Alaska’s interests.”
Three reasons the committee stated for endorsing Begich included:
1. His deep understanding of the unfunded mandates and problems with ESEA (NCLB).
2. He co-sponsored the repeal of Social Security’s GPO (Government Pension Offset) and WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision).
3. He stays in touch with Alaska’s teachers and education support professionals.
During the holidays the Food and Drug Administration issued its environmental assessment concluding that the fish, tweaked to grow at least three times faster than normal, will not have any significant impacts on the human environment and is unlikely to harm wild stocks. The FDA’s environmental green light is the last step before AquaBounty, the creators of so called Frankenfish, can send the mutant to markets. The public has until Feb. 26 to send comments to the FDA.
Alaska Sens. Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski have written to the FDA asking for a 60 day extension to the comment deadline, citing the holiday timing and new transitions in Congress. Senators from Washington, Oregon and Maryland also signed on to the comment extension request. No word yet on if the request has been granted.
Alaskan U.S. Senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski are asking the FDA for an extension on the public comment period for the FDA’s Environmental Assessment (EA) of so-called “frankenfish”.
The fish in question are genetically modified, farm-raised salmon engineered by AquaBounty Technologies. They are designed to reach marketable size considerably faster than natural salmon through manipulation of the fish’s genes.
The FDA’s assessment resulted in a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) by the fish on the environment or human health.
On December 28th, the Senate voted heavily in favor of a five-year extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act, known as FISA. That’s quite a mouthful, but the most familiar aspect of the legislation is well-known to any American who follows Washington politics, warrantless wiretaps. The Senate voted 73 to 23 in favor of the extension. Among the 23 opposed were senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Begich was joined by sixteen other Democrats in voting against extension, while Murkowski was accompanied by only Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah in rejecting the five-year extension among Republicans. KTNA contacted Senator Murkowski’s office to gain an understanding of why the senator joined the heavily Democratic opposition to FISA extension.
Alaska’s U.S. senators say they oppose an executive order that would give members of Congress a pay raise.
Sen. Mark Begich said on his Facebook page Sunday that the American people don’t get an automatic pay raise, and neither should members of Congress. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she supported the congressional pay freeze that has been in effect and will work to keep this raise from taking effect in 2013. In an interview Monday, she said she was “stunned” to learn of the executive order, and said she would ask President Barack Obama to rescind it.
