Andrew M. VanderJack

Current representative matters include:

• Drafting and advocating for legislation that would create a statutory set aside within the New Markets Tax Credit program for Tribes and Native-owned and -controlled entities;
• Working with federal, state, local and tribal government stakeholders to develop support for, authorize and fund a large coastal erosion mitigation project;
• Advocating for federal funding to support port infrastructure;
• Drafting and advocating for legislation to resolve the outstanding aboriginal land entitlement of five Alaska Native communities;
• Drafting and advocating for legislation requiring the United States to fulfill certain Treaty obligations of the United States to a group of American Indian descendants;
• Drafting and advocating for Member-directed spending (i.e., earmarks) for a range of transportation, infrastructure, research and education projects;
• Advocating on behalf of rural communities in support of certain energy development projects and programs;
• Advocating on behalf of rural communities in support of certain timber development and forest conservation programs;
• Advocating for the conveyance of certain Native sacred sites into trust;
• Drafting and advocating for legislation that would create a package of federal tax incentives to support the return of sacred objects held by private collectors to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities;
• Drafting and advocating for legislation that would provide certain COVID-related economic assistance, including funding for participants in a loan guarantee program.

Past representative matters include:

• Advocated for an increase of more than $40 million annually in federal funding to support the implementation of an international fisheries treaty;
• Drafted and advocated for legislation to reinstate direct appropriations for the Department of Defense Indian Incentive Program;
• Advocated for federal legislation and administrative actions that provided temporary relief from the Passenger Vessel Services Act for large cruise ships serving Alaska;
• Advocated for legislation that identified 70,000 acres of federal land for conveyance to, and resolved the outstanding land entitlement of, an Alaska Native corporation;
• Advocated for legislation, a secretarial order, a presidential memorandum, and other federal legislative and administrative actions that have strengthened Alaska Native subsistence and related rights as established by international treaty and federal law;
• Advocated to stop the advance of federal legislation that would have undermined the interests of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian businesses;
• Drafted and advocated for legislation that required the Federal Government to study the impact of certain international treaty obligations on U.S. Arctic coastal communities;
• Advocated for legislation that authorizes certain resource leasing activities on federal lands;
• Advocated for legislation that requires the clean-up of certain contaminated sites on federal lands;
• Advocated for the authorization of and federal funding for a coastal erosion mitigation project for which funding had previously been denied;
• Drafted and advocated for legislation that resulted in the award of more than $5 million in federal grant funding to the client for Native education programs; and
• Advocated for administrative waivers for educational grant programs serving Native Americans, resulting, in one case, in the preservation of more than $7 million in grant funding for the client.