Editor's Note: This story was originally published by KTOO in Juneau and is republished here with permission.
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, which includes Rep. Nick Begich III is touring Alaska this week to take a closer look at the land they spend so much time talking about in Congress.
Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, was in Juneau with 10 other members of Congress on Monday.
“We set natural resources policy, and obviously, Alaska is a big natural resources state, so we’re here seeing things on the ground so that when we’re talking about it in Washington, D.C., it’s not just an academic exercise for us,” she said.
They toured the Hecla Greens Creek Mine on Admiralty Island and flew over parts of the Tongass National Forest.
The visit comes after the Trump administration’s tax and spending bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, was signed into law July 4. It boosted oil and gas leasing in Alaska, mandated the expansion of timber harvest on public lands, and allocated more than $7 billion dollars to grow the U.S. military’s mineral stockpile.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, is chairman of the committee. At a press briefing at Ward Air in Juneau, he said there is a growing demand for metals like silver that are used in AI data centers and military weapons.
“It’s imperative that Congress work with everyone who’s in the business to help figure out how to get more mining done here in the U.S., and not just mining, but also the refining of the metals, which is a huge issue,” he said.
Westerman sayid the committee could help Hecla further extend the lifetime of Greens Creek Mine, the most productive silver mine in the nation. Its mine life was recently extended by more than a decade.
Alaska’s Rep. Nick Begich said forestry is another big focus for the committee.
“In the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, there are provisions to unlock additional forestry resources for timber, particularly in the Tongass, but across the nation as well,” he said. “This is something I hear from folks from Ketchikan all the way up to Yakutat on a regular basis. How do we bring timber back?”
The U.S. Forest Service is currently revising the Tongass Management Plan, which is set to take effect in 2028 and will determine how logging is done.
The committee heads to the Kenai Peninsula tomorrow and will attend the Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference in Anchorage on Wednesday.
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