Posts Tagged ‘lisa murkowski’

22
Apr

Alaska Sen. Murkowski defends Native federal contracts

   Posted by: admin    in Alaska Native Corporations

Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski says a bill seeking to end certain advantages given to Alaska Native Corporations seeking federal small business loans isn’t likely to pass the through Congress.

Murkowski told the Alaska Associated Press this week she doesn’t think the bill has enough support.

    The Alaska Republican told the AP that new, tighter oversight rules governing a Small Business Administration program should be allowed to work, rather than target the corporations, as the bill sponsored by Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, seeks to do.

    Murkowski acknowledged there was need for such reforms to the program, which has been blamed for creating a system ripe for abuse that led to federal audits and the overhaul of the rules.

    “Let’s see if these regulations that have been promulgated, how they provide for that level of accountability that we’re all looking for,” Murkowski said.

    McCaskill’s bill, among other changes, would strip Alaska Nati ve corporations of contracts with no monetary caps under the SBA’s 8(a) program, which is designed to help small disadvantaged firms, including those run by American Indian tribes and Hawaii Natives. The same legislation also has been introduced as an amendment in a bill dealing with small-business innovation.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: , , , ,

No Comments
26
Jan

Set your alarms: ’11 State of Indian Nations address tomorrow

   Posted by: admin    in Native journalists, Native leaders, native news, Native politics

The 2011 State of Indian Nations address will be delivered Thursday morning at at 10:30 a.m. EST (that’s 8:30 a.m. for those of us in MST) from the Newseum’s Knight Studio.

    The speech will reflect on the state of Indian Country going into 2011 and outline the key priorities for the federal government to consider when working to uphold the federal trust responsibility to tribal nations.

    The address will be broadcast live on NCAI.org. We encourage people all around the country to have viewing events at offices, schools, community centers, and in homes.

President of the National Congress of American Indians and Lt. Governor of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma Jefferson Keel will deliver the speech. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will deliver a congressional response after Keel speaks.

It shouldn’t be hard to catch the address, along with the live stream from NCAI, the speech will be broadcast to radio stations via the Native Voice One (NV1) network and the Native America Calling program.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: , , , , , , ,

1 Comment
26
Oct

Trahant reports: Native American will voters defy election predictions

   Posted by: admin    in Trahant Reports, Tribal Government

Mike Trahant

Mike Trahant


Mark Trahant is a writer, speaker and Twitter poet. He is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and lives in Fort Hall, Idaho. Trahant’s new book, “The Last Great Battle of the Indian Wars,” is the story of Sen. Henry Jackson and Forrest Gerard.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The election is nearly a week away and predictions are cheaper than a cup of bad coffee. “We see good news for Republicans,” says The New York Times in its blog, fivethirtyeight.com “Although not necessarily better news for them than is already implied by the polling.” So Democrats say they will do better than expected. And Republicans are all but promising they will run the next government. Of course every prediction is backed by the latest polls.

But here is one prediction you won’t read in the press: Not a single poll will capture what’s going on with Indian Country voters during this election cycle. The science of polling doesn’t work very well with small population groups living in rural or isolated locations.

That’s too bad because it would be interesting and useful to know what’s in the mind of American Indian and Alaska Native voters this cycle.

Consider the race for U.S. Senator from Alaska. The only way that Lisa Murkowski returns to that office is if Alaska Native voters turn out in large numbers and write her name on the ballot. (She lost the Republican primary but is continuing her candidacy as a write-in candidate.)

The Alaska Federation of Natives last week endorsed Murkowski by acclamation at its annual convention here in Fairbanks. This was after the senator gave a keynote talk where she listed at length many of the accomplishments in Congress related to Alaska Native issues.

This represents one antidote to the so-called enthusiasm gap. If the AFN delegates can translate their organizational support into community support on Election Day, then Sen. Murkowski will be re-elected. (The Republican nominee, Joe Miller, has also tried to woo AFN support at least from individual members and the Democrat Scott McAdams promised to shake 5,000 hands at the convention in his bid for native votes.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

No Comments
Back to top