It's been called The World's Most Exclusive Club, and after one year in office, Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she is learning how to work and play well together with the other members.
"It would be great if the rules were written down somewhere, or if there was some 'how-to' guide for negotiating through the Senate, but there is not," the Anchorage Republican told the Journal in a recent interview.
Murkowski was appointed to Senate in December 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, after he stepped down from the Senate and was elected governor of Alaska. She said the past 12 months seemed to fly by.
"It's really been an amazing year, in terms of the challenges, the opportunities and the frustrations. I've learned to be flexible," she observed. "And I've learned to not count on anything, because the concept of time in the Senate is a bizarre notion."
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The agenda has a way of changing suddenly, she said, with bills being stalled or pulled from the legislative calendar with no prior warning. Even something as simple as a constituent meeting is challenging to arrange, she said, because of the unpredictable nature of the deliberative body.
"There is a kind of mental juggling required, that I hadn't anticipated," she said. "You have to be ready to move on any issue at any time."
She said her biggest accomplishments and biggest disappointment last year came from the same source: Working on the pending national comprehensive energy bill. The letdown was the Senate not passing the bill last year , and not including provisions to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas development.
While the move to open ANWR failed to reach "critical mass" for a Senate vote, Murkowski said the bill brings other good news for Alaska in the form of rural electrification projects.
"We're talking $500 million, guaranteed, in the first 10 years," she asserted. "With as much as an additional $500 million in the second 10 years depending on (federal) revenues."
If approved by Congress, the funding would be allocated to communities through grants from the Denali Commission, she said.
Murkowski compared the effort to other major energy projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Bonneville Power Authority in the Northwest.
"Nothing's going to happen in this state unless we have reliable, affordable energy," she said. "We're not asking for anything they haven't done for the other states, this isn't just pork for Alaska."
She said she is hoping to see the energy bill come to floor vote in the Senate as soon as possible after Congress reconvenes Jan. 20. "What we've got to do is figure out how we can make enough people happy, how we can get 60 votes."
The "political timing" of pushing the bill to a vote is critical, Murkowski noted.
"We can only expect the partisan rancor is going to escalate as the months go on," she said.
"We've got a presidential election, the Democrats are trying to gain some headway in the Senate," she said. "There is not going to be a lot of high-priority stuff that the Democrats will allow to go through, if they can stop it in any way."
But the federal omnibus spending bill will be the first order of business, the senator said.
"It is huge for us in Alaska. It's a real laundry list of projects." she said. "There is everything from funding planning of the Knik Arm Crossing, to a loan guarantee for construction of the all-Alaska natural gas line."
The loan guarantee to spur development of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope is contingent upon passage of the energy bill, she said.
Murkowski said the first part of the coming session also will involve a lot of political wrangling over funding for the Highway Reauthorization bill. That too, will be influenced by the fact that it is an election year, and politicians all want a piece of the infrastructure pie for their home districts, she said.
The senator herself is looking ahead to another pressing matter this year.
She stands for election in November and will be seeking her first full six-year term in the Senate. She's expected to face former Alaska governor Tony Knowles on the Democratic ticket, and she said she is ready to run.
"I'm working hard to represent every Alaskan, and they'll determine in November to continue with me in this seat," she said. "The way to win a campaign is just hard work and doing the job that I have been asked to do."
