Chill Sets In At Alaska-Based Federal Agency After One Boss Asks DC to Shut It Down

A tiny, federally-funded agency based in Anchorage is fighting for survival, and its biggest enemy may be within.

The Denali Commission, an economic development authority set up with earmarks obtained by the late Sen. Ted Stevens, came onto the radar of budget hawks in Washington when its own inspector general wrote lawmakers to tell them they were wasting taxpayers’ money.

“At this point, I recommend that Congress no longer send Denali an annual “base” appropriation,” Denali Inspector General Mike Marsh wrote in a a June 23 letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “This will give Denali an incentive to leave the federal nest and chart its own course as a federal entity.

“This will also give the State of Alaska an incentive to find and fund its own solutions for the residents of “bush” Alaska — as it should,” the letter went on to state.

But that stance came as a surprise to the men and women who work with Marsh at Denali, which seeks to promote rural development, power generation and other infrastructure needs in Alaska.Commission Co-Chair Joel Neimeyer told FoxNews.com his agency does important work, worthy of federal funding. The apparently did not know about Marsh’s lobbying efforts until contacted by the Washington Post this week.

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