Sullivan Secures Army Corps Pledge to Fast-Track Juneau Flooding Solution

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, received commitments from Adam Telle, President Trump’s nominee to head the Army Corps of Engineers, to expedite efforts to protect homes and property from the recurring threat of glacial lake outburst flooding in Juneau, Alaska. Sen. Sullivan emphasized the unique challenges facing Alaska’s capital city, where seasonal glacial flooding has become an urgent concern, damaging hundreds of homes and causing millions of dollars in losses to personal property and infrastructure last year. Sen. Sullivan also received a commitment from Mr. Telle to implement President Trump’s Day One executive order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” declaring “the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works shall immediately review, revise or rescind any agency action that may in any way hinder, slow, or otherwise delay any critical project in the state of Alaska.”
Sen. Sullivan posed his questions to Mr. Telle during his confirmation hearing before the committee.

Below is a full transcript of Sen. Sullivan’s exchange with Mr. Telle.
Sen. Dan Sullivan:Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the witnesses and your families for your service. Mr. Telle, you're a glutton for punishment. A lot of folks don't know you had your Armed Services confirmation hearing yesterday, so you did a great job on that one. This should be a piece of cake.
Adam Telle:Thank you, Senator Sullivan.
DS:By the way, in my state—I'm going to focus a lot on Alaska. I appreciated our meetings, Mr. Telle and Mr. McMaster. It’s hard to build anything in Alaska. Right? You want to build a road, a sidewalk, you usually get 12 radical far-left environmental groups that sue to stop it. We have the King Cove Road. We've only been trying to get that done for 40 years. A nine-mile, single-lane gravel road that every Democrat in the country—including, God rest his soul, Jimmy Carter, writes op-eds [saying] you can't build a road in Alaska. Then it went so bad, we had the Biden administration's Last Frontier Lock Up. My great state suffered through 70 executive orders and executive actions from the Biden administration singularly focused on Alaska. I like ripping this up because that's not the issue anymore. We now have President Trump who issued his day-one executive order called, “Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential.” Mr. Telle, as you and I discussed, there's a lot of great provisions in here. This is all about getting things done in Alaska, not crushing us as the radical left wants to do. There's a really good provision about the Corps of Engineers. I'm going to read it to you: “The assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works”—that’s you—"shall immediately review, revise or rescind any agency action that may in any way hinder, slow, or otherwise delay any critical project in the state of Alaska.” That's from the President. Will you commit to abide by that very expansive provision to get things done in my great state after four years of being crushed by the previous administration?
AT:Senator Sullivan, absolutely. When I visited your office, I tattooed the executive order that the President issued on Alaska on my heart.
DS:By the way, that's a great answer.
AT:I will go ahead and read the second paragraph to you from memory, which essentially says that I shall, if confirmed, coordinate as closely with the Governor of Alaska as a human could possibly coordinate.
DS:Good. And the Senator from Alaska.
AT:Of course.
DS:Okay. Just double checking on that. We talked about the Juneau glacial lake outburst flooding. You want to talk about a unique issue in Alaska—we've had this flooding that pretty much happens now every summer. It's amazing it hasn't killed anybody. We need the Corps’ help, right? This is a unique challenge. The Corps is uniquely qualified to help us. You can't have flooding. I went and toured where this happened this past summer. Over 200 homes were flooded. We’ve got to fix it and the Corps initially said, “Well, Senator, we're going to work on this. We think it'll be ten years to study and fix this.” Say what? That is the wrong answer. Can you commit to me, and really importantly, the citizens of Juneau, Alaska, that the Corps is going to bring its best minds in a very rapid way to help address this unique challenge that we really need the Corps’ help on?
AT:Senator Sullivan, thank you for the question. I failed to mention as a part of my answer to your previous question that Alaska is home to greater than 60% of the U.S.’s wetlands. So it makes the work of the Corps of Engineers critically important. That's the need for the executive order. With regard to the glacial outburst issue, you rightly point out that this is an issue that is brand new, as far as I understand it to be, in terms of flood risk management, and it's going to require creativity.
DS:Yes, it is.
AT:The Corps of Engineers was made to solve tough problems. I look forward to working with you, with the surrounding communities, to try to solve this challenge.
DS:Great. Thank you. In an expedited manner, not ten years. That's just…
AT:In an expedited manner, Senator.
Below is a timeline of Senator Sullivan’s work to address the Juneau flooding challenge:
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