Listicle: Highlights of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ of interest to Alaskans

Some of the items of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which is the federal budget reconciliation package, that are of interest to Alaskans:

Reducing entitlement fraud

• Aligns SNAP with other state-administered entitlement programs by requiring states to shoulder a share of the benefit costs, incentivizing states like Alaska, where 15% of Alaskans are enrolled in SNAP, to administer SNAP more efficiently and effectively. The national overpayment rate of SNAP benefits is 10.03%.
• Prevents states from manipulating SNAP eligibility and benefit calculations to inflate enrollment. Alaska has a high error rate in benefit calculations with overpayment rates reported to be at 59.59%, compared to 11.7% nationally.
• Restores SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults without young dependents.
• Advances eligible reinvestments improvements to farm policy and other priorities in rural America.

Armed Services

• $9 billion for “Servicemember Quality of Life,” including increases in allowances and special pays, as well as improvements to housing, healthcare, and assistance to military families.
• $34 billion for Shipbuilding and the Maritime Industrial Base to expand the size and enhance the capability of our naval fleet.
• $12 billion to expand stocks of spares, improve infrastructure at military depots and shipyards, and enhance the capability of Special Forces.
• $5 billion to help carry out President Trump’s border, immigration, and counterdrug enforcement agenda.

Education

• Reduces deficit by $351 billion.
• Caps total amount of federal student aid to the “median cost of college,” which is $50,000 for undergraduate students, $100,000 for graduate students, and $150,000 for students in graduate professional programs, with a lifetime limit for every student capped at $200,000.
• Establishes a performance-based grant program for grants that will be awarded based on strong earning potential programs, low tuitions and other sideboards.
• Prevents future presidents from being able to forgive student loans that were made by the government or that are government-backed.

Energy and Commerce

• Reduces the deficit by $912 million.
• Unleashes American energy.
• Reforms Medicaid to establish work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents.
• Closes loopholes that allow illegal immigrants to enroll in Medicaid. Reduces funding to states that prioritize Medicaid coverage of illegal immigrants.
• Rescinds Green New Deal-style projects, streamlines process for developing American energy infrastructure.
• Reverses Biden EV mandates and CAFE standards for passenger cars and light trucks.
• Modernizes the Department of Commerce by updating IT systems and using beneficial artificial intelligence tools.

Homeland Security

• Provides $980 billion for border security, increases federal spending by $67 billion.
• Provides $5 billion of Customs and Border Protection facilities to support staffing and evolving security challenges.
• $4.1 billion for hiring and training 3,000 new Border Patrol agents, 5,000 new Office of Field Operations customs officers, and other personnel.
• $2 billion in sighing bonuses and annual retention.
• $1.076 billion for CPB’s non-intrusive inspection technology to detect and interdict illegal drugs like fentanyl.
• $2.7 billion for border technology, such as ground detection sensors that can detect tunnels.

Judiciary

• $110 billion for border security, increases spending by $4 billion.
• Reinforces Trump efforts to secure southern border
• Provides funding for at least one million removals annually of illegal immigants.

Natural Resources

• Reinstates quarterly onshore oil and gas leases and requires geothermal lease sales.
• Mandates at least 30 lease sales in Gulf of America over 15 years and six in Cook Inlet.
• Gives Alaska 90-10 split in oil royalties starting in 2035.
• Resumes energy production in NPRA and ANWR.
• Resumes coal leasing on federal lands.
• Increases timber sales on federal lands, requires long-term timber contracts.
• Rescinds slush funds created by Biden to advance radical environmental agenda and that lined the pockets of environmental litigation groups at the expense of taxpayers.

Epic win: Congressman Begich bags historic 90/10 oil revenue split for Alaska

Transportation and Infrastructure

• Reduces deficit by at least $10 billion.
• Historic investment of $212 billion to recapitalize the Coast Guard, including acquisition of cutters, aircraft, and icebreakers.
• Construction of facilities to secure the border.
• Invests $12.5 billion in overhaul and modernization of failing air traffic control systems.
• Increase federal revenues up to $38 billion by adding a $250 fee on electric vehicles, a $100 fee on hybrids. The money will go into the Highway Trust Fund and creates parity with gas-powered vehicles that already pay these fees at the pump.
• Rescinds nearly $4 billion from seven Green New Deal programs created by Democrats with the Inflation eduction Act.

Ways and Means

• Makes the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, protecting the average taxpayer rom a 22% tax hike.
• Delivers President Trump’s “no tax on tips, overtime pay,” and no tax on car interest loans.
• Provides addition tax relief for seniors.
• Holds woke universities accountable by increasing the tax on their university endowments and subjecting the largest endowments to the corporate tax rate.
• Ends over $500 billion in Inflation Reduction Act subsidies.
• Prevents taxpayer benefits from going to illegal immigrants by requiring a Social Security number for individuals claiming tax credits and deductions, closing the loophole that allow Obamacare premium tax credits and Medicare tax creates going to illegal immigrants.

What’s the status of the US House budget package that has longterm help for Alaska’s energy economy?

One hundred days of Nick Begich in Congress: Report on benchmarks and accomplishments