“President Trump’s vast tax and spending bill has secured funds the U.S. Coast Guard has been searching for since the early 2010s. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” appropriates close to $9 billion for the expansion of the Coast Guard’s Arctic icebreaker fleet.”
The report provides a breakdown of the appropriations that includes money for Polar Security Cutters, Arctic Security Cutters, and infrastructure in Juneau to support USCGC Storis,
Interestingly it also states,
“Rounding out the Arctic package, the U.S. Navy will also receive $115 million for the exploration and development of existing Polar infrastructure.”
That sounds like improvements in Adak that the Coast Guard might also exploit. It might also refer to development of facilities at Nome but it is not nearly enough to fund plans for a deepwater port that had been shelved by the previous administration.
This rendering provided by the City of Nome shows how the Port of Nome, Alaska, will appear following an expansion project that will cost more than $600 million. Shipping lanes that were once clogged with ice for much of the year along Alaska’s western and northern coasts have relented thanks to global warming, and the nation’s first deep water Arctic port should be operational in Nome by the end of the decade. (PND Engineers Inc./City of Nome via AP)
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