Alcatraz is back as a budget fight, not history 🏝️🔒 The White House is asking Congress for $152 million in fiscal 2027 to begin rebuilding Alcatraz as a modern federal prison. That reopens a debate over a site that shut down in 1963 because it cost three times as much to run as other federal prisons and now draws 1.2 million visitors a year. That tension is the real story. A prison once closed for brutal logistics is being pitched again as a national symbol, even though the island still needs everything ferried in. When policy leans this hard on symbolism, the real test is whether the system can justify the bill. #Politics #PublicPolicy #FederalBudget #Prisons #Alcatraz