House advances bills on autonomous vehicles, nurse training, interior design

The Alaska House of Representatives advanced three bills through second reading Tuesday, including legislation regulating autonomous vehicles, certified nurse aide training requirements, and expanding the state's professional licensing board to include interior designers.

House Bill 217 establishes a regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles. The bill was amended to narrow its scope to commercial vehicles such as big rigs and large passenger carriers. Representative Ashley Carrick, the bill sponsor, said the Community and Regional Affairs Committee substitute clarified that the legislation does not apply to vehicles used for personal or non-commercial use, vehicles with a gross weight of 10,000 pounds or less, or vehicles designed to transport no more than 16 passengers.

"The definition of a commercial vehicle was added to this subsection just to clarify that the legislation does not apply to vehicles used for personal or non-commercial use, vehicles that have a gross weight of 10,000 pounds or less, and that are designed transport no more than 16 passengers," Carrick said.

The bill also excludes personal delivery devices, small autonomous vehicles used for deliveries in urban areas, from its regulatory scope. An amendment adopted during floor debate addressed commercial driver's license testing, aligning Alaska's requirements with federal standards to allow partial retests rather than requiring full retakes when a component is not met.

"I consider Amendment Number 1 a friendly amendment on this legislation," Carrick said. "It does address a known issue with commercial driver's license testing."

House Bill 244 addresses certified nurse aide training requirements. The bill passed through committee with bipartisan support. It focuses on dementia care training for direct care workers and received "Do Pass" recommendations from both the House Health and Social Services Committee and the House Labor and Commerce Committee.

House Bill 314 expands the state's professional licensing board to include interior designers. The bill was amended on the floor to adjust the board's composition. Representative Bynum's amendment changed the board structure to maintain five engineer positions instead of four, while reducing land surveyor representation from two positions to one.

"What Amendment Number 1 does is that it corrects what I believe is a deficiency in the bill, and that is that it changes the organization of the board from being 4 members that are engineers to 5, and reducing the amount of land surveyors from 2 to 1," Bynum said.

Bynum said engineers comprise 84 percent of members associated with the board, while land surveyors represent less than 6 percent of those in the field. The amendment was adopted without objection after initial discussion.