The Facts About "The Bridge To Nowhere"

Theodore Fulton Stevens (born November 18, 1923) is the senior United States Senator from Alaska, serving since December 24, 1968. As the longest serving Republican in the Senate, Stevens served as President pro tempore from January 3, 2003, to January 3, 2007.

Stevens has had a six-decade career in government, beginning with his service in World War II. In the 1950s, he held senior positions in the Eisenhower Interior Department. He has served continuously in the Senate since December 1968. He played key roles in legislation that shaped Alaska's economic and social development, including the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. He is also known for his sponsorship of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, which resulted in the establishment of the United States Olympic Committee.

Donald Edwin (Don) Young (born June 9, 1933) has been the sole Representative from Alaska in the United States House of Representatives since 1973. He is a Republican.

Young is the 7th-longest serving House member, and the 3rd most senior Republican. Due to his long tenure in the House and that of Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska is considered to have clout in national politics far beyond its small population. He is often called "Alaska's third senator."

Young chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2001 to 2007. He also chaired the Resources Committee from the 1995 Republican takeover of the House until 2001. Congressman Young is today the 3rd ranking Republican member and the 7th ranking overall member of the House of Representatives.

Members of the Alaskan congressional delegation, particularly Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, were the bridge's biggest advocates in Congress, and helped push for federal funding. "The Bridge to Nowhere" includes both the Gravina Island Bridge and the Knik Arm Bridge proposals submitted to Congress.

The Gravina Island Bridge, was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island. The bridge was projected to cost $398 million.

The Knik Arm Bridge, is for a proposed bridge to cross the Knik Arm portion of Cook Inlet, north of Anchorage, Alaska. The official name of the bridge would be "Don Young's Way," named for Alaskan Congressman Don Young who strongly supports it.

The bridge issue dates back several years. Former Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, who had been an Alaska senator, wanted it built. Stevens and Rep. Don Young, pushed the project through Congress, securing $452 million in a federal transportation bill for two bridges -- the one in Ketchikan and another in Anchorage.

Federal funds for the bridge were tacked into an appropriations bill as an earmark, the practice by which members of Congress get special funding for pet projects.

Two 'Bridges to Nowhere' Tumble Down in Congress

By CARL HULSE - New York Times
Published: November 17, 2005

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - Congressional Republicans decided Wednesday to take a legislative wrecking ball to two Alaskan bridge projects that had demolished the party's reputation for fiscal austerity.

Straining to show new dedication to lower spending, House and Senate negotiators took the rare step of eliminating a requirement that $442 million be spent to build the two bridges, spans that became cemented in the national consciousness as "bridges to nowhere" because of the remote territory and small populations involved.

As they finished up the bill covering 2006 spending for transportation, Treasury and housing programs, negotiators agreed that the provision requiring the money for the bridges - known as an earmark - had to go.

The change will not save the federal government any money. Instead, the $442 million will be turned over to the state with no strings attached, allowing lawmakers and the governor there to parcel it out for transportation projects as they see fit, including the bridges should they so choose.

"Frankly we just thought we could not approve the project in good faith," said Representative Joe Knollenberg, Republican of Michigan, who is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that controls transportation spending.

Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, and others said outrage over the highway spending in general and the bridges in particular was also complicating Republican efforts to advance a broad package of $50 billion in spending cuts over five years, with lawmakers anxious about cuts to Medicaid and food stamps saying it was hard to back those proposals if the bridges got money.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska-Gov. Sarah Palin was for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" before she was against it, a change of position the GOP vice presidential running mate ignored Saturday when she bragged about telling Congress "thanks but no thanks" to the pork barrel project.

Federal funds for the $398 million bridge were tacked into an appropriations bill as an earmark, the practice by which members of Congress get special funding for pet projects. Sen. John McCain opposes earmarks as an avenue for pork barrel and special interest spending.

After McCain introduced her as his choice for vice president on the Republican ticket, Palin talked about her reform credentials, and said she stopped the bridge project as part of an effort to end of earmarking in appropriations bills.

The Alaska bridge pushed by Sen. Ted Stevens became a symbol of congressional misuse of tax dollars. It would have connected the town of Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport on it. Ferries and water taxis serve the island now.

"I have championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress," Palin said in her vice presidential campaign debut in Dayton, Ohio. "In fact, I told Congress, I told Congress 'thanks but no thanks' on that Bridge to Nowhere."

"If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves," she said.

She didn't talk that way when she was running for governor. The Anchorage Daily News quoted her on Oct. 22, 2006, as saying yes, she would continue state funding for the bridge because she wanted swift action on infrastructure projects. "The window is now while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist," she said.

McCain has used the Alaska bridge as a case study in what's wrong with the way Congress spends money. After the Ketchikan bridge became an issue and an object of ridicule, Congress dropped the earmark.

Andrew Halcro ran against Palin in the 2006 governor's race, receiving the third most voters, and remains a critic. In his blog and Web site, Halcro raised the bridge issue, saying Palin changed her position for political purposes.

According to the Ketchikan Daily News, the bridge issue came up on Sept. 20, 2006, during an appearance the gubernatorial candidates made in Ketchikan.

"The money that's been appropriated for the project, it should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to evaluate the scope and just how best to just get this done," the newspaper quoted Palin as saying. "This link is a commitment to help Ketchikan expand its access, to help this community prosper."

The newspaper also reported that she said "I think we're going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project."

The bridge issue dates back several years. Former Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, who had been an Alaska senator, wanted it built. Stevens and Rep. Don Young, pushed the project through Congress, securing $452 million in a federal transportation bill for two bridges -- the one in Ketchikan and another in Anchorage.

With criticism over earmarks increasing, Congress stripped the provision from the bill, requiring instead that some of the money be used for an airport. Alaska eventually received about half the money. Murkowski and the Legislature redirected all of the money but $60 million in 2006, and Palin has left the remainder untouched to eventually be used to improve access to the island, Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Sunday.

Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, who campaigned for Palin's Democratic opponent, said he was there at the candidate forum when "she was asked about the bridge and she supported it."

In December 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Stevens had taken advantage of lax Senate rules to use his political influence to earn a large amount of his personal wealth.

According to the article, while Stevens was already a millionaire "thanks to investments with businessmen who received government contracts or other benefits with his help," the lawmaker who is in charge of $800 billion a year, writes "preferences he wrote into law" that he benefits from.

Stevens says he'll quit if bridge funds diverted

U.S. SENATE: Amendment to rescind money sends Alaska's senior senator into tirade.

By LIZ RUSKIN
Anchorage Daily News

Published: October 21, 2005
Last Modified: October 21, 2005 at 03:12 PM

WASHINGTON -- A freshman senator from Oklahoma, saying he was answering America's call to stop wasteful spending, tried Thursday to divert $452 million from two massive Alaska bridge projects and spend some of it on a hurricane-damaged bridge in New Orleans.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment to rescind federal money from the Knik and Gravina bridges won him the fury of Sen. Ted Stevens and only a smattering of votes.

His attempt failed 82-15 after fist-pounding arguments from Stevens, R-Alaska.

Stevens threatened to quit, to become a "wounded bull on the floor of this Senate," and he vowed that if his colleagues passed the bill, "I will be taken out of here on a stretcher."

"I will put the Senate on notice -- and I don't kid people -- if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state, to take money only from our state, I'll resign from this body," he said. "This is not the Senate I came to. This is not the Senate I've devoted 37 years to, if one senator can decide he'll take all the money from one state to solve a problem of another."

Editorial writers and talk-show guests around the country have ridiculed the spans proposed for Anchorage and Ketchikan as "bridges to nowhere." But Alaska's congressional delegation succeeded in getting nearly half a billion dollars for them in the national highway bill, which became law this summer. Then came Hurricane Katrina, and critics -- from the Heritage Foundation to the Sierra Club -- pointed to the bridge money as the epitome of pork, the kind of project America must do without.

Coburn wanted to remove all the money from the Gravina bridge and devote it to repairing the Twin Spans Bridge on Interstate 10, connecting New Orleans with Slidell, La.

With the nation's debt ballooning, with the war in Iraq and all the hurricane damage, the country has to set priorities, Coburn said.

Repairing a freeway span that hundreds of thousands of people travel over each year "should be a higher priority than constructing two massive and expensive bridges of dubious value and little merit," Coburn said.

Even Alaskans oppose the bridge spending, he argued, and read from letters Alaskans wrote to newspapers criticizing the projects.

Before the vote, he modified the proposal to say only $125 million of the Alaska bridge money would go to Louisiana. Alaska would have been able to keep the rest as long as it didn't spend any of it to plan, design or build the Knik or Gravina bridges.

Stevens said he fought for Alaska's statehood when he worked for the Eisenhower administration, and he protested what he said was discrimination against the state and an intrusion on its sovereignty.

"This amendment is an offense to me," he said. "It is not only an offense to me, it's a threat to every person in the state."

He demanded that Alaska be treated on an equal basis with other states. He reminded the Senate of the 1964 Alaska earthquake, which he said was America's largest disaster before Katrina.

"Alaskans have filled the newspapers with letters, signed petitions, and sent letters to Congress offering to sacrifice the less-than-necessary bridges," Ferry, who works for the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, said in a written statement after the vote. "It's unfortunate that the Senators from Alaska failed to reflect the compassion and common sense shown by Alaskans since Hurricane Katrina hit."

On December 21, 2005, Senator Stevens said that the vote to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge "has been the saddest day of my life." When he is discussing issues that are especially important to him (such as opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling), Stevens wears a necktie with The Incredible Hulk on it to show his seriousness. Marvel Comics has sent him free Hulk paraphernalia and has thrown a Hulk party for him.

In December 2006 a federal grand jury investigating political corruption in Alaska ordered Trident and other seafood companies to produce documents about ties to the senator's son, former Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board Chairman Ben Stevens.

Additionally, he received criticism for introducing a bill in January 2007 that would heavily restrict access to social networking sites from public schools and libraries. Sites falling under the language of this bill could include MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Wikipedia and Reddit.

The IRS and the FBI had searched Stevens' home in Alaska on July 30, 2007. On July 29, 2008 Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of falsely reporting gifts. On July 31, 2008 Stevens pleaded not guilty to the charges in a federal district court, and he requested that the trial be done before the 2008 election. Stevens is specifically charged with violating provisions of the Ethics in Government Act.

The charges relate to renovations to his home and to more than $250,000 worth of gifts he has allegedly received from VECO Corporation.

The indictment followed a lengthy investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for possible corruption based on his relationship with Bill Allen, an oil service company executive, who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaskan legislators, including Stevens' son, former State Senator Ben Stevens.

State of Alaska > Governor > News > News Archive

Gravina Access Project Redirected

September 21, 2007, Juneau, Alaska - Governor Sarah Palin today directed the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to look for the most fiscally responsible alternative for access to the Ketchikan airport and Gravina Island instead of proceeding any further with the proposed $398 million bridge.

"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer," said Governor Palin. "Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island," Governor Palin added. "Much of the public's attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened." The Department of Transportation has approximately $36 million in federal funds that will become available for other projects with the shutdown of the Gravina Island bridge project. Governor Palin has directed Commissioner Leo von Scheben to review transportation projects statewide to prepare a list of possible uses for the funds, while the department also looks for a more affordable answer for Gravina Island access.

"There is no question we desperately need to construct new roads in this state, including in Southeast Alaska, where skyrocketing costs for the Alaska Marine Highway System present an impediment to the state's budget and the region's economy," said von Scheben.

"The original purpose of this project was to improve access to Gravina Island, and we will continue to work with the community to help them attain that goal," von Scheben said.

The commissioner said his department would continue to work with local officials to discuss future plans for development of Gravina Island.

Without earmark, Ketchikan bridge project going nowhere
Residents continue to seek funding for Gravina Island span
STEVE QUINN The Associated Press

It's been dubbed the "Bridge to Nowhere," thanks a federal earmark that made Alaska the subject of national ridicule and a symbol of federal pork-barrel spending.

And now, two years of political fall out later, that's exactly where the bridge to connect Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island is going: Nowhere.

Republicans Sen. Ted Stevens and U.S. Rep. Don Young championed the project through Congress, securing more than $200 million in funds for the bridge between Ketchikan, on Revillagigedo Island, and Gravina Island.

Congress stripped the earmark - or stipulation - that the money be used for the airport, but still sent the money to the state for any use it deemed appropriate.

The state took about half for other projects around the state, and has set aside about $113 million for the Ketchikan bridge.

That has left the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of 13,000 residents looking for answers - and money - to build the bridge officials say is necessary for economic growth.

"Right now we are on hold," said Alaska's Department of Transportation Commissioner Leo von Scheben.

"We are not spending any money; we are not doing any analyses right now," he said. "We don't even know if more money is going to show up."

Stevens' office did not respond to request for an interview; Young's office said he was out of town and unreachable.

But Young and other Alaska leaders have long said this kind of funding is crucial to Alaska because it's a young state with little infrastructure in place. The argument is that the federal government built roads and bridges for years to help build other states, and Alaska should be treated no differently.

They also contend federal help is essential to Alaska because of it's remote, rugged and far-flung locations, most of which are well off the road system.

Those arguments aside, folks in Ketchikan are no longer counting on any further federal help with the bridge project, said borough Assemblyman Glen Thompson.

"They (Stevens and Young) have gone to bat for us as much as they can," Thompson said. "They put together a funding package that should have been enough."

That leaves locals making their case for a new, affordable bridge to the state DOT.

Of the $113 million set aside for the Ketchikan bridge, DOT officials said some already is earmarked for road work, right of way access and other site work.

Von Scheben, who wasn't with the state's DOT when the federal funding first was approved, says calling the project a "Bridge to Nowhere" is a misplaced characterization.

Access to Ketchikan, as with many towns in southeast Alaska, is limited to air and water transportation.

Every flight into Gravina Island requires a 15-minute ferry ride to reach the more densely populated Revillagigedo Island from the airport's site on Gravina Island.

"A lot times, bridges of this nature have the appearance of going nowhere," von Scheben said. "This bridge does go somewhere; it connects Ketchikan to an important airport."

But funding the project without anymore federal backing is easier said than done. Recent DOT cost estimates range from $224 million to nearly $400 million, depending on the scope of the project.

But the department's annual budget for all state projects is about $685 million, meaning Ketchikan officials are going to have to be patient and fiscally prudent in their design of a future bridge.

Backers say the bridge also can provide a potential economic development boost on Gravina Island, where the borough still has undeveloped land.

Ketchikan - Alaska's entry port for northbound cruise ships that bring more than 1 million visitors yearly - is literally out of room for expansion, state and local officials said.

The town is seven blocks wide and eight miles long, and is set against forest and mountains in the Tongass National Forest.

There's no place to go but across the channel to Gravina Island, which has population of 50 people, where the airport is located. It is relatively flat and prime real estate for development.

"Ketchikan is so tight with land right now that it can't grow at all without some influx of new land," von Scheben said. "It gives these people a chance to grow but you've got to give them access to the growth."

Longtime Gravina Island resident Mike Sallee, however, isn't convinced a bridge is necessary, calling the idea a "boondoggle."

"When you have bridge that is 200 some feet, that is going to be an obstruction, really," he said. "It's going to basically be in the way for air traffic and vessel traffic in a narrow channel."

While Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin basked Friday in the prospect that she might become the nation's first female vice president, an investigation into her was under way at home.

In a March 1, 2006, disciplinary report, Col. Julia Grimes, who oversees state troopers, called Wooten's conduct "unacceptable," and accused him of a "lapse in proper judgment," before suspending him for a series of conduct and ethics violations between December 2001 and November 2005.

In one violation, Wooten used a Taser against his 10-year-old stepson.

The commissioner, Walt Monegan, a gubernatorial appointee, said after he was let go in July that he felt pressured by the governor's office to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, a state trooper who had been locked in a messy divorce and child-custody battle with Palin's sister.

The state Legislative Council voted in July to spend $100,000 on the investigation, and hired Steve Branchflower, a retired assistant district attorney, as special counsel to lead it.

Earlier this month, Palin revealed a phone call made by her boards and commissions director, Frank Bailey, to a trooper lieutenant. In the call, Bailey complained about Wooten and said the Palin family didn't know he still had a job. Palin placed Bailey on paid leave until the investigation is over.

In explaining Monegan's termination, Palin said she wanted to take the Alaska Department of Public Safety in a "different, more energetic direction," according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin denied wrongdoing and said she would cooperate in the investigation.