Police calls for Saturday, July 5, 2025
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2025 11:40 am
After his Sunday morning panel discussing his experience with Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Act, and Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” Begich fielded questions from the Empire. Regarding public forums, he said he has held town halls in Fairbanks, including a February statewide virtual town hall. He said his office receives thousands of phone calls, and serving as Alaska’s lone representative in the House keeps him extremely busy.
“We’re limited by time and staff,” he said. “We have a certain congressional budget that limits how many people we can actually employ to take feedback from the public, but I’m on three committees and eight subcommittees. I have one of the highest workloads in the United States House, and I work 16- to 20-hour days, essentially seven days a week. So, I’m not sure that there’s any way that I know of that we could be more available to the public. I regularly engage in interviews like this. I regularly country email list engage in interviews that are national in scope, and so we are fully transparent.”
The weekend protesters expressed disappointment with the virtual town hall because a moderator screened questions. Some who signed up to ask a question never received the phone call promised by the office, so they were unable to ask their question. They added much has happened since the virtual forum in February, including Begich’s votes to cut Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and public broadcasting.
Begich said he would have been willing to talk with protesters in Juneau, but no one approached him or made a request for a meeting. He said he did not see anyone on his way inside the building, and after his scheduled speaking slot on Sunday morning, he checked outside three times over the course of 40 minutes and the group had left.
“We take meetings,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether someone is a supporter of mine or not a supporter — whether they support a position I support or they don’t. We listen to everybody, and we try to take as many meetings as possible, hear from as many constituents as possible.”
As a guest of the Bitcoin Alaska conference, Begich said he chose not to schedule a town hall during his weekend visit, and does not have an upcoming public forum. The last time Begich came to Juneau was to address the Alaska Legislature in February.
“We’re limited by time and staff,” he said. “We have a certain congressional budget that limits how many people we can actually employ to take feedback from the public, but I’m on three committees and eight subcommittees. I have one of the highest workloads in the United States House, and I work 16- to 20-hour days, essentially seven days a week. So, I’m not sure that there’s any way that I know of that we could be more available to the public. I regularly engage in interviews like this. I regularly country email list engage in interviews that are national in scope, and so we are fully transparent.”
The weekend protesters expressed disappointment with the virtual town hall because a moderator screened questions. Some who signed up to ask a question never received the phone call promised by the office, so they were unable to ask their question. They added much has happened since the virtual forum in February, including Begich’s votes to cut Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and public broadcasting.
Begich said he would have been willing to talk with protesters in Juneau, but no one approached him or made a request for a meeting. He said he did not see anyone on his way inside the building, and after his scheduled speaking slot on Sunday morning, he checked outside three times over the course of 40 minutes and the group had left.
“We take meetings,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether someone is a supporter of mine or not a supporter — whether they support a position I support or they don’t. We listen to everybody, and we try to take as many meetings as possible, hear from as many constituents as possible.”
As a guest of the Bitcoin Alaska conference, Begich said he chose not to schedule a town hall during his weekend visit, and does not have an upcoming public forum. The last time Begich came to Juneau was to address the Alaska Legislature in February.