During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing today Congressman Don Young questioned Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on her commitment to provide emergency medical access to King Cove.
Jewell: “We don’t have specific money in the budget for that but we are pursuing and have had conversations with the Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard and we will continue to do that and I’m happy to work with you Congressman on suggestions that you have of looking at alternatives.”
Young quickly became heated with that answer to which he continued to voice his apprehension, asking Jewell if she had children, she answered “yes” and he followed with…
Rep. Young: “They’re in King Cove, and they get sick and there’s no way to get across there because you don’t have the road and the winds are blowing 80 mph, there’s no way to go because the Secretary of Interior, this one and the last one, said we couldn’t build a road this Congress passed the ability to build that road and your son is dying. I hope you feel good about that, I really do.”
The US Coast Guard estimates that creating a full time presence in King Cove would cost upwards of $160 million and $12 million a year to maintain.
