Congress Wraps New Fort Greely Missile Field With A Bow In Last Vote Of Year

Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a supplemental appropriations bill for disaster relief and a continuing resolution for funding government operations.

Tucked inside of language granting Military and Veterans funding was a provision for the necessary costs to detect, defeat and defend against the use of ballistic missiles as requested by Department Of Defense.

The measure allocates $200 million for a new missile field in Fort Greely.

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan R-AK: “That’s a lot of jobs, and it just shows how strategically important we are.”

Just over a month ago, the Trump administration asked Congress to appropriate $2.1 billion to expand the missile-defense base on Fort Greely.

The request included $200 million to pay for the construction of a fourth missile-silo field at the base. The remaining amount would be used to buy and emplace 20 interceptor missiles in the new field.

The three existing missile fields at the base on Greely now accommodate 40 of the nation’s 44 ground-based midcourse defense interceptors. The GMD system is designed to destroy an incoming enemy missile while it’s still above the atmosphere.

Fort Greely was selected as a site for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system after the United States announced that it would withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Over the last fifteen years,  the United States government has been developing the Greely missile defense installation, initially planning to deploy a total of 25 to 30 anti-ballistic missiles by 2010.

With the continued development of an intercontinental ballistic missile program by North Korea, Fort Greely has expanded. In early November, Boeing Company, the GMD system’s prime contractor, completed the installation of the 40th interceptor at the Greely missile-defense base.

That was the last of 14 additional interceptors that the Obama administration had ordered in 2013, after a previous confrontation with North Korea over its development of an offensive ballistic-missile system with nuclear warheads.

Fort Greely is near the Great circle line from North Korea to the continental United States.

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Small Vessels Get Break From Incidental Discharge Regulations

The Alaska Delegation announced Friday that it was able to Secure a temporary extension for vessel incidental discharge for fishermen and small boat operators.

The legislation was sent to President Donald Trump’s desk to extend an exemption for Alaska fishing and commercial vessels less than 79 feet in length from EPA incidental discharge regulations.

The temporary extension is effective until January 19, 2018, and replaces a moratorium on enforcement that expired Monday.

Congress is working on a permanent exemption to what lawmakers call a patchwork of burdensome federal and state regulations for vessel ballast water and incidental discharges.

Bill sponsor Senator Dan Sullivan R-AK says that without the stopgap measure, small vessel operators and fishermen would be forced to obtain EPA permits for even the most basic activities such as washing fish guts off decks and hosing out fish holds.

He says Congress should be forthcoming with a permanent solution in early in 2018.

Senator Lisa Murkowski R-AK, in the joint written statement, suggested the standard rule was nonsensical, which, according to the EPA itself, does not help regulate pollution discharges properly.

Thursday, the Senate unanimously approved legislation to extend the exempt period. Alaska Congressman Young ushered the legislation to quick and final passage in the House earlier Friday.

Senator Dan Sullivan, Chairman of the Senate Coast Guard Subcommittee, worked to pass the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act, which was most recently included in S. 1129, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017.

Sullivan says the legislation would provide all fishing vessels and small commercial vessels with a permanent exception to incidental vessel discharges and create a consistent, uniform regulatory structure that would restore efficient and cost-effective commerce while ensuring environmental protection of our nation’s ports and waterways.

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