HFLR-20260521-1000

Will the House please come to order.

Brief at ease.

Will members please indicate their presence by voting?

Will the clerk please tally the board? 39 Members present. With 39 members present, we have a quorum present to conduct business. Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, the only member who had an excused absence today hit the green button, so no excuse absences today.

Leading the invocation this morning is our very own Zachary Kelly, the Assistant Sergeant of Arms. Will members please Mr. President, would you please rise? Good morning. On this first day of the second special session, I offer this prayer according to my faith, and I invite you to join me. Dear Jesus, please hear our prayer.

Lord, you are great and above all things, and everything is in your hands. I ask that you can help us in our efforts to do the jobs to which you've appointed each of us. You've placed, you've placed everyone here for a purpose, and I pray that we can fulfill that purpose according to your will. Please cover this legislature in a spirit of order and with a spirit of peace. Fill our hearts with a desire to honor you in all that we say and in all that we do.

And I ask for your strength and your courage to do these things. Jesus, I thank you for your great and unfailing faithfulness, and thank you for your forgiveness and for your everlasting truth. Amen. Representative Tomaszewski, will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Representative Story. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move and ask unanimous consent that the prayer be spread —spread across the journal. Hearing no objection, the prayer will be spread across the journal. Will the clerk please certify the journal for the previous legislative day?

There is no journal to be certified today.

In the spirit of a very compressed time schedule today, I'm seeing no guests for introduction.

Representative Mina. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Real briefly, I just wanted to introduce Eric Hewitt in the Peratovich Gallery behind me. He's friends with my chief of staff, Katie. He's from Boston.

They've known each other since high school, and he's been in Alaska for the first time since last night. So please welcome Eric.

I see no other guests. To be introduced. Madam Clerk, are there any messages from the governor?

A message dated May 19th, received at 3:51 PM, stating: Under the authority of Article 2, Section 9, and Article 3, Section 17, Constitution of the State of Alaska, and in the public interest, the governor calls the 34th Legislature of the State of Alaska into its second special session in Juneau, in the Alaska— in the legislative chambers on May 21 at 10:00 a.m. to consider passage of bills on subjects germane to the title of the following bill while the bill was under consideration by the 34th Legislature during the second regular session. House Bill 381, relating to the taxation of certain natural gas pipeline property, relating to municipal taxation limitations, establishing an alternative volumetric tax on natural gas throughput and relating to the allocation of revenue from the alternative volumetric tax. A message dated May 20 stating, under the authority vested in the governor by Article 2, Section 15 of the Alaska Constitution, the governor has vetoed the following bill, Senate Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for House Bill 26, Transportation Statewide Public and Community Transit Plan. I have no further messages from the governor this morning. And I want to, just for the body's awareness, so you all know what is about to transpire here, which hopefully will happen quite quickly, is we have two resolutions in front of us.

One is to grant the body the authority in conjunction with the other body the ability to recess or adjourn for periods longer than 3 days. And we'll discuss that when that measure comes before the body. The second concurrent resolution is providing— allowing us to suspend Rules 47 and 55 of the Uniform Rules in order to carry over the bills that are listed on the proclamation that describes the intent of the special session. So those are our 2 action items today. And let me gather my thoughts here really quickly.

Madam Clerk, we had just finished. Can you remind me? I have no further messages from the governor this morning. Brief it is.

Will the House please come to order.

Mr. Majority Leader. Yes, Mr. Speaker. Um, in consideration of Senate Concurrent Resolution 201 exempting the bodies from the 3-day meetings. This resolution allows the legislature to focus on committee work by not holding floor sessions every 3 days.

We can call floor sessions when they are needed, when legislation is passed out of committee, but we can keep members focused on what is going on in finance without being pulled out for floor sessions. Again, this is strictly dealing with the exemption from the 3-day meeting rule. We have a number of members actually trying to catch a flight out of town right now to get out for Memorial Day weekend. This would allow that to happen and come back this next week. We have a full week of Finance Committee hearings on this bill this next week.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We're missing one member. Brief at ease.

Will the House please come back to order. We are doing exactly what we did in August of last year, so the members are aware of that. I've asked the Chief Clerk to put the concurrent resolution on the voting board. If there's any discussion, we'll certainly entertain that and then we'll go to a vote. And the voting threshold is a majority of the body, which is a 21 threshold.

So, Madam Clerk, we have SCR 2001 on the voting board. I'm going to entertain discussion, keeping in mind that we have a number of members who are are really looking at their clock. Representative Prox. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to this resolution.

This issue that we're about to discuss is probably the most important thing we have to get done this year.

The I'm sure that everyone in the state is watching us and wanting us to get this done expeditiously. And frankly, unfortunately, I would bet that the vast majority of people in Alaska can't trust us to not pull more shenanigans to delay it, to delay this. And with this resolution would potentially endorse is one body or the other just sitting around showing up on the 29th day.

Yeah, I repeat, there is nothing more important right now than us coming to an agreement as— Please be seated.

Representative— or Madam Clerk, will you please read the measure before the body? Senate Concurrent Resolution number 2,201 by the Senate Rules Committee authorizing the Senate and the House of Representatives to recess for a period of more than 3 days.

Are you ready for the question? Representative Ruffridge.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't stand up and say I will be not supporting this. I think that my constituents would expect that, especially if they're listening today. If we have work to do, we should probably stay here and do it. For the most of the listening public, I think that they would be concerned about us doing exactly what the member from North Pole said.

I think in reference to August, that is exactly what happened. We were here for a day and then we never returned. So thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Senate Concurrent Resolution 201 pass the body?

Members may proceed to vote.

Will the clerk please lock the roll? Does any member wish to change his or her vote? Will the clerk please announce the vote? 22 Yeas, 18 nays. By a vote of 22 yeas to 18 nays, SCR 201 has passed the body.

Madam Clerk, I turn next to Mr. Majority Leader.

Will the House please come back to order. Madam Clerk. Senate concurrent resolution number 202 by the Senate Rules Committee suspending rules 47 and 54. 5 Uniform Rules of the Alaska State Legislature relating to the carryover of bills to a special session. Mr.

Majority Leader, can I get you to speak on this issue?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this resolution allows the legislation on the governor's special session call to pick up where it left off. I would point out to members the proclamation specifically mentioned House Bill 381. You see it in the resolution there. Our body has done substantial work on property tax legislation thus far.

It allows that work to keep the momentum going forward. Let's not lose this session's progress. Senate Bill 280 is the companion bill to 381 in the other body. This allows us to carry over legislation that is otherwise prohibited under the uniform rules. Thank you, Mr.

Speaker. Brief at ease. Brief at ease.

House, please come back to order. I'm going to ask the Majority Leader to maybe expand on his earlier comments. Yes, Mr. Speaker, once again, the only legislation being considered in this special session that's being carried over is the legislation listed on the proclamation by the governor. House Bill 381 is listed on the proclamation.

The companion bill is Senate Bill 280. Those are the bills that are being carried over. No other legislation is being carried over in the special session. Thank you.

Additional discussion? Representative Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I object to adding carryover bills to the to the special session.

The governor has the opportunity to call the special session, and he has brought a bill forward. We should be working on his bill. We should be working on the bill that the governor's put forward, to, uh, not bringing in additional bills and having now 3 bills that will be before us. So I will be objecting to this and encourage members to remember that we are being called in special session by the governor to work on the bill that he put before us. And we're also, by suspending the rules, which that requires a two-thirds vote, Mr.

Speaker. Well, I would remind members that we have a legacy project that we're about to enter in, in terms of discussion. The proclamation does spell out one bill in particular, House Bill 381, but it also, if you read the proclamation closely, talks about other legislation germane to the subject that's on the proclamation. The other body was working on their version, Senate Bill 280. The governor— we're about to read the governor's bill across so that can be part of the process.

That's all we're doing here today.

Brief at ease.

Will the House please come back to order.

Brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order. Madam Clerk, for a second time, would you please read the measure before the body? Senate Concurrent Resolution Number 202 by the Senate Rules Committee, suspending Rules 47 and 55, Uniform Rules of the Alaska State Legislature, relating to the carryover of bills to a special session. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Senate Concurrent Resolution 202 pass the body?

Members may proceed to vote.

Will the clerk please lock the roll? Does any member wish to change his or her vote?

Will the clerk please announce the vote? 28 Yeas, 10 nays. 2 People moves missing from this chamber. They need to be in here. Brief at ease.

Will the House please come back to order. Madam Clerk, will you please announce the vote? 28 Yeas, 10 nays. With a vote of 28 yeas to 10 nays, SCR 202 has been adopted.

Madam Clerk, I want— I would ask the indulgence of the body that we go down to introduction of bills, which would allow us to read the Governor's bill across and bring that into consideration. So at this time, hearing no objection, Madam Clerk, are there any bills for introduction? House Bill number 2001 by the House Rules Committee by request of the Governor, entitled an act relating to the taxation of certain natural gas project properties property and related facilities, relating to the determination of the value of taxable real and personal property for purposes of calculating local contributions for public school funding, relating to the municipal property taxes, relating to the Alaska Gas Line Development Corporation, relating to revenue from a North Slope natural gas project, relating to an alternative volumetric tax on natural gas throughput, relating to agreements and payments related to a natural Natural gas project relating to community impact grants relating to the regulation of liquefied natural gas import facilities by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska relating to an Alaska liquefied natural gas project mitigation fund and providing for an effective date. House Bill 2001 will be referred to the Finance Committee.

I have no further bills for introduction. I'm going to ask the indulgence of the body in the spirit of moving quickly if we can put on the calendar to unfinished business. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I have a list of excusals to read.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the following members be excused from a call of the House on the following dates and times: Representative Vance from Thursday, May 28th at 6 AM to Tuesday, June 9th at 10 PM. Representative Moore from Thursday, May 21st at 1 PM to Monday, June 1 at 5 PM. Representative Allard from Saturday, May 23 at 7 PM to Wednesday, July 1 at 7 PM. Representative Sadler from Tuesday, June 16 at 7:30 PM to Sunday, June 28 at 10 PM and from Sunday, May 31 at 6 AM to Thursday, June 4 at 7 PM. Representative David Nelson from Tuesday, June 2 at 7:30 PM to Sunday, June 7 at 6 PM.

Fiam. Brief at ease. Brief at ease.

Will the House please come back to order once again, Mr. Majority Leader?

Yes, Mr. Speaker. So the previous request stands with the exception that Representative Allard has requested to withdraw her excusal. So not hearing objection, the members are excused on the dates and times indicated by the Majority Leader.

Brief at ease.

Will the House please come to order? Before I turn to you, I want to take a moment of personal indulgence. I didn't, and I overlooked this last night. I want to thank I want to thank my staff very quickly for work well done. My Chief of Staff, Emery Le Lake, Tira McKinnon, who prepares so much behind the scenes, including the daily script and all the details that works with the Chief Clerk's Office.

So with that indulgence, I thank you. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the House stand in adjournment until Thursday, June 4th at 11 AM.

There being no objection, House Attendant German until June 4th at 11 AM.