HFLR-20260514-1600

私はあなたを愛しています。私はあなたを愛しています。

Will the House please come to order?

Will members please indicate their presence by voting?

Has any member failed to vote?

Will the clerk please tell the board? 34 Members present. With 34 members present, we have a quorum present to conduct business. Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, there are no previous excused absences today.

Leading the invocation, I will not say this morning, although we're closer to morning than we are further away from it. Representative Dybert, will members please rise?

With the deepest respect for the religious beliefs of all Alaskans, I offer the following prayer. Praise the Rain by Joy Harjo. Praise the rain, the seagull dive, the curl of plant, the raven talk. Praise the hurt, the house slack, the stand of trees, the dignity. Praise the dark, the moon cradle, the sky fall, the bear sleep.

Praise the mist, the warrior name, the earth eclipse, the fired leap. Praise the backwards upward sky, the baby cry, the spirit food. Praise canoe, The fish rush. The hole for frog. The upside down.

Praise the day. The cloud cup. The mind flat. Forget it all. Praise crazy.

Praise sad. Praise the path on which we're led. Praise the roads on earth and water. Praise the eater and the eaten. Praise beginnings.

Praise the end. Praise the song and praise the singer. Praise the rain. It brings more rain. Praise the rain.

It brings more rain. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Ruffridge, 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. Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you for that lovely prayer, Representative Story. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move and ask unanimous consent that the prayer be 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 days?

I certify as to the correctness of the journal for the 114th legislative day, as well as House Journal Supplement Number 16 and Senate and House Joint Journal Supplement Number 19. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the journal of the previous day be approved as certified by the chief clerk.

Are there guests for introduction this morning? Seeing none. Madam Clerk, are there any messages from the governor? I have no messages from the governor this afternoon or evening, Mr. Speaker. Any messages from the other body?

Messages dated May 13 stating the Senate has passed and is returning the following: House Joint Resolution number 39 amended, waive visa fees for teachers. And the Senate has passed and is transmitting the following for consideration: Committee substitute for Senate Joint Resolution Number 25, Labor and Commerce, by the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, supporting efforts to modernize and improve the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and supporting simplified border crossings and free trade with Canada and Mexico.

State Affairs Committee.

Committee substitute for Senate Bill Number 178, Finance, by the Senate Finance Committee, entitled an Act Relating to Early Intervention Services for Certain Children, Relating to Optional Services Under the Medical Assistance Program, and Providing for an Effective Date. Health and Social Services and Finance Committees.

Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Number 208, Resources, by the Senate Resources Committee, entitled An Act Relating to the Sale and Lease of State Land for Agricultural Uses and Providing for an Effective Date. Resources Committee. I have no further messages from the other body. Are there any communications? There are no communications.

Any reports of standing committees?

The Judiciary Committee considered House Bill number 325, Industrial Hemp, recommends it be replaced with committee substitute for House Bill 325, Labor and Commerce, with the same title. Attached 1 previously published 0 fiscal note. Signing the report, do pass. Representatives Vance, Eichide, Costello, Mena, and Chair Gray. The bill has no further referral.

The Finance Committee considered committee substitute for Senate Bill Number 130, Finance, Fisheries Production Development Tax Credit. Attached 1 new indeterminate fiscal note. Signing the report, do pass. Representatives Jimmy, Galvin, Hannon, Stapp, Bynum, Schraggi— excuse me, co-chair Schraggi. No recommendation.

Tomaszewski, co-chairs Josephson and Foster, amend Allard and Moore. The bill has no further referral. The Labor and Commerce Committee considered committee substitute for Senate Bill number 180, Labor and Commerce LNG Import Facilities. Recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 180, Labor and Commerce, with.

Forthcoming concurrent resolution. Attached 1 previously published zero fiscal note. Signing the report: do pass, Representatives Carrick and Co-Chair Fields. No recommendation: Nelson, Colon, and Co-Chair Hall. Amend: Freer.

The bill has no further referral.

The Community and Regional Affairs Committee considered committee substitute for Senate Bill number 200, Resources, amended. Farm and Agricultural Land Assessments. Recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Number 200, Community and Regional Affairs. Attached one new zero fiscal note. Signing the report: do pass.

Representatives Hall, Holland, G. Nelson. Co-chairs: Hempschulte and Mears. No recommendation. Prox, Amend, St. Clair. The bill has no further referral.

The Labor and Commerce Committee considered a committee substitute for Senate Bill 249, Judiciary, amended virtual currency kiosks. Recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 249, Labor and Commerce, with the same title. Attached one previously published zero fiscal note. Signing the report do pass, Representatives Freer, Calombe, Carrick, and Co-Chairs Fields and Hall. Amend Senate Bill Stadler.

The bill has no further referral, and I have no further reports of standing committees. Are there any reports of special committees? There are no reports of special committees. Are there any citations or resolutions for introduction? Honoring Liz Clark by Senators Keele, Wilkowski, and Giesel.

Honoring Juno Douglas High School Yatta Kalei 2025-2026 Battle of the Books team by Senator Keele and Representatives Hannon and Story. Honoring Juneau Douglas High School Yada Kalei 2026 cheer team by Senator Keel and Representatives Hannon and Storey. In memoriam Dr. Carolyn B. Brown by Senator Keel and Representatives Hannon and Storey. House Concurrent Resolution Number 19 by the House Rules Committee suspending Rules 24C, 35, 41B, and 42E, Uniform Rules of the Alaska State Legislature concerning Senate Bill Number 143 relating to the terms of the office of municipal school board members, and relating to the size of the city council and second-class cities.

House Concurrent Resolution Number 20 by the House Labor and Commerce Committee, suspending Rules 24C, 35, 41B, and 42E, Uniform Rules of the Alaska State Legislature, concerning Senate Bill Number 180, relating to the regulation of liquefied natural gas import facilities by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. And House Joint Resolution number 46 by the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee, recognizing the sovereign decisions of the communities of Kipnup and Kwuglukt—. Kwuglukt—. To relocate in the wake of the devastation caused by Typhoon Halong, affirming the right of Alaska Native communities to self-determination, and urging full state and federal support for relocation of those communities. Communities.

Community and Regional Affairs. I have no further citations or resolutions for introduction. Thank you, Madam Chair. We'll get everything synced here properly.

Are there any bills for introduction? There are no bills for introduction this afternoon. This brings us to the consideration of the daily calendar. I'd like to ask the clerk to read the first item before the body, I would like to essentially bring the capital budget before the body so it comes first in a long line of bills that are before us today. And it is my intent to move the remainder of the calendar essentially to the bottom of today's calendar.

And once again, have Senate Bill 214 in second reading, and I believe it was amendment number 23, that we were— that we left before us, before the body. So, Madam Clerk, with that being said, Amendment #23 by Representative Schwanke, beginning page 8, line 12. Representative Schwanke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment #23.

There's an objection. So this is a very simple amendment. We have currently appropriated $500,000 in the Code Blue program, and I am asking that we move that amount to $1 million. The specific reason that I'm trying to bring this forward is the incredible need, specifically through our volunteer EMS operations around the state. The Code Blue program provides grants with just a small local match for capital equipment costs.

Alaska has roughly 130 to 150 certified EMS agencies, and approximately 80 to 90% of those are either entirely volunteer-staffed or they're run by a very small paid staff with a majority or a large volunteer base. I have many volunteer EMS entities in my house district, from the smallest of villages all the way through China and Goldstream. So some of the other ones of note, you guys are all familiar with several of these: Chugiak, Girdwood, Capital City, Sitka. So we, in particular, some of the things I just wanted to kind of outline, some of the costs of some of the items and how much inflation has kind of hit some of the the items that usually get granted under the Code Blue program. So ambulances are one of the most common items that get requested and granted through the Code Blue program, but in a remote area, the average cost of an ambulance is $180,000.

Cardiac monitors, defibrillators— oh, it's too late— defibrillators, Right? Yeah, we're on it. Average cost, $35,000 apiece. Communication equipment is a very significant need across many of our EMS programs. I think I mentioned one of those yesterday through our volunteer fire requests.

Some of those radios are $4,000 and up just to keep in contact with other emergency personnel. Other items oftentimes requested through the Code Blue program can be snow machines, ATVs, or boats. With patient sleds or carts that are outfitted with first responder gear. Smaller items, oxygen delivery systems, specialty pediatric equipment, patient care tools, mannequins for CPR courses. We've had a lot of discussion about those in recent weeks here in the Capitol.

So with that, I ask for your support. Representative Schraghi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The representative that spoke prior did a great job of highlighting the Code Blue program and the importance of it. I don't deny any of that. It is a very important program. I would just note that originally the budget did not have Code Blue in it.

We worked hard to get $500,000 into the budget, into the capital budget for the Code Blue program, recognizing its importance. I would note that that $500,000 level is the level that Code Blue has historically been funded at. So what is in the budget today is in line with our normal funding of Code Blue. I'm going to oppose this amendment increasing the amount to $1 million, as I don't believe that there's support within this body or outside of this body for that increased amount. Although if our revenue situation continues to maintain itself at this higher level, I think this is something we could look at next year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Additional discussion?

Brief at ease.

With House, please come back to order on our debate on Amendment Number 23. Not seeing any additional discussion. Any wrap-up comments? Representative Schwanke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'll just be short. I appreciate the indulgence of the body to consider this particular change. And I do appreciate the fact that this program has been funded in the past at $500,000 a year. It's not enough, and there are tremendous needs outside of this body that I am confident would be very appreciative of an additional appropriation to the program. One specific reason I wanted to bring this forward is a little explanation.

In my district, we saw our EMS, our volunteer EMS programs upended by COVID. The COVID funds that came in, grant funds, really kind of, I'm just gonna say they upended our volunteer EMS programs and they moved into paid programs for a very short period of time. And now we're rewinding and unwinding that because those grant dollars are gone. So we're going fully back to EMS run by volunteers, and it's a painful process for some of the communities.

One of the things that I see coming is a lot of change with the Rural Health Transformation Program. One of the biggest things that we talk about with the rural health program is an increased use of technology to increase access to patient care in rural areas. And one of the things that we're going to have to do implementing some of these programs is really increase the amount of technology that that our volunteer EMS have to implement. And I foresee iPads, I foresee different types of technology coming into our ambulance services just to be able to really extend that care. So I felt like the Code Blue program really is a good place for us to do that.

If there is not the support today, then maybe we'll talk about it next year. Thanks. Are we ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 23 pass the body? Members may proceed.

I will 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? 18 Yeas, 22 nays.

With a vote of 18 yeas to 22 nays, Amendment 23 has failed to pass. Madam Clerk. Amendment 24 by Representative Stapp. Beginning page 4, line 19. Representative Stapp.

Brief it ease. Brief it ease.

To order, Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment Number 24. There's an objection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Amendment Number 24 rights what I would argue is a great wrong. It fully funds the second item on the major maintenance list. Which is the Galena School District in their Sidney Huntington School. It increases the allocation from $5 million, which is currently in the budget, $17.8 million, Mr. Speaker. That's a $12.8 million increase.

The reason I offer this amendment is because we have a major maintenance list for a reason. We shouldn't intentionally defund items on the major maintenance list to skip projects on the list. So adding this funding would restore the fully funding number 2 item on the list, and I ask the members to say yes. Thank you. Representative Schrag.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize there is a lot of need out there at their school, as has been outlined by all the discussion that we've had through our prior discussion on the capital budget and this school. I just would go back to the remarks that have already been given, which is that the school, while having legitimate need, there are many schools that have legitimate need, and this is the first year that school has shown up on the list at such a high position. I think it would be unfair to many of the schools and school districts that have been waiting for years and years and years to see their projects funded for this project to get such a large appropriation at this time. So while I do acknowledge there's some legitimate need there and that this money would serve students well, I cannot support it at this time because it would take too much from other schools and just hog a lot of the money, frankly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Tomaszewski.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this amendment. I'm going to be consistent with my votes when it comes to the major— the school major maintenance list. This project was skipped so that other projects could be funded, and I think that's wrong, and I think we need to follow that list because that's why we have the list, Mr. Speaker. This is a school that desperately needs it, and I believe that we should be supporting this amendment and putting this into the capital budget as is necessary.

Thank you. Representative Schwocke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of the amendment. I just wanted to kind of reference the comments by the finance co-chair.

There is a process in place right now for districts to get their projects on the major maintenance list. I want to point out that some of these projects made it on the list with funding that went into site surveys and engineering works that cost somewhere in the range of $10,000 to $30,000, some that cost $60,000 to $100,000. And then there are some really significant projects that ended up on this list, like the Sidney C. Huntington Elementary and High School, where over $500,000 was spent over several years in order to get all of the paperwork in order so that they could submit their application and be as, thorough as they possibly could. So that is the reason this school ended up number 2 on the major maintenance list when it did. I do not believe that this body or our finance team should be changing the process.

If it's broken, which I think we have discussed in a few different committees this year, then I think we should address that process. But for us to change how we operate, which schools we choose to fund, is really an unfortunate way of going about this business. So I just wanted to point out that I recognize some years we can only fund down a few schools on the list when financing allows. And initially we're thinking, you know, 2, 3, 4 projects. And I recognize the number 2 fully funded request for this school is the state share would be $34 million.

So the $17 million is just half of the project that could actually get, could get contractors and construction moving on the project.

In our budget currently, these funded projects go down to number 33. On the list. There are several projects in here that are over $5 million, some that are over $10 million. Then there's also a project on the list that's ranked number 61. I think it's an unfortunate reality of the decisions that were made, um, on this list, but I would ask that you consider moving this project up to a point where we can get some construction on the ground because this is a school that is in dire need of structural and safety upgrades.

Thanks.

In wrap-up, Representative Stepp. Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this amendment is more about principal in need than anything else, Mr. Speaker. I've kind of made this argument a few times. It'll be my closing argument on this amendment.

I don't expect this amendment to pass, Mr. Speaker, which I think is sad, but I just want everyone in this body to consider what they are doing and what precedent they are setting by intentionally skipping a school in total value of funding on the major maintenance list, Mr. Speaker. So I've been to Galena many times. I've been there for years. I know the mayor, I know the city manager, I know the superintendent. I've been to the schools, I've been to Gila, I've been to the Air Force Base.

I know the Cleavers, I know the Georges, I know the Huntingtons. I know a lot of folks out there, Mr. Speaker. But I don't offer this amendment because I've been to this place for a dozen years, I know all these people out there. I offer this amendment because the major maintenance list has a rigorous ranking of school maintenance projects. Last year, my school in Fairbanks was ranked 7 off the list.

The executive vetoed the money down so it didn't get funded. And this year it's ranked lower on the list, Mr. Speaker, so it's also not funded on the, um, major maintenance list. Now, why does that happen is because every year the department rigorously checks applications against other applications in a ranking system. And the objective of the Major Maintenance List has been to take legislative will out of the funding order. Okay?

That's really critical to this amendment. Because when the Major Maintenance List was founded, the folks in the Major Maintenance List did not want people in power in the legislature to constantly pick winners and losers by schools they have been to and schools they have not been to, Mr. Speaker. And I would implore you, you should vote for this amendment because today it's Galena, tomorrow would be Manokotak, the next year it'd be Togiak or Twin Hills or Pilot Station, Mr. Speaker. And like, if we decide to set this precedent today where we can just willfully decide that despite a rigorous application process, despite an obvious need, despite the amount of money spent by a school district, that we can say, well, You know, there's all these other schools that I think are more valuable than the one that's ranked number 2 on the list, and we'll just skip them. That is a precedent that future folks and finance co-chairs will set over and over again, and it will render the major maintenance list useless.

So I understand that this is an appropriation of $12 million, Mr. Speaker, but I would implore the members to vote yes just because the future will be unkind to a school.

In your district when somebody else holds the gavel in the capital budget, co-chair? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 24 pass the House? 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? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. With a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, Amendment No.

24 Has failed to pass. Madam Clerk. Amendment No. 25 By Representative Stepp, beginning page 15, line 6. Representative Stepp, could you please do this properly?

Brief it is. Brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order. Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move amendment number 25. There's an objection.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Amendment 25 restores the full federal funding for the West Osceola Access Road. There was an earlier amendment that restored 50% of what was in the current allocation for the budget. Mr. Speaker, I asked for the brief at ease to ask the clerk if I needed to amend that amendment. I've been told that that is not needed because of uniform changes that Ledge Legal would make.

Basically, there was $94 million in federal funding allocated for the West Sioux Access Project. That is a critical project, Mr. Speaker, and moving Alaska and the future of Alaskans forward. And I'll be happy to wait for members' questions and responses, and I hope that there'll be a robust debate in support. Thank you. Representative McCabe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This project, of course, is near and dear to my heart. I spoke a little bit about it when we did the previous amendment from the finance co-chair, but if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to flesh a few things out. It might take a bit, and I'd like to correct the record from some of the things that were said last— yesterday, actually. So Phase 1 funding, as I mentioned, was already secured and spent last year.

Funding for Stage 2 this year will drive— or failing to fund Stage 2 this year will drive up the final cost, and it will add timing to finishing the Road. This road is approximately 22 miles of public gravel road. It will open access to more than 6 million acres west of the— west of the Susitna River, dramatically increasing recreational opportunities for all south-central residents, unlocking another road to responsible resource development, as well as providing access to a whole bunch of land that was previously auctioned off at state auction just north of the crossing at Susitna Station. This will, the second road will directly support Nova Minerals' Estelle Project, which received a $43.4 million U.S. Department of Defense grant for antimony, military-grade antimony. Phase 2 of that project requires reliable road access through this project, Mr. Speaker.

The road will also unlock access to a 1.25-gigawatt Terra Energy Center clean coal plant. According to a U.S. Department of Interior fact sheet, the proposed Terra Energy Center project in the west of Sitna-Beluga region has reportedly secured a $1 billion agreement in principle with Hyundai Heavy Industries for utility-scale coal boilers and a $500 million equity investment from South Korea-based Korit. If developed, it could become the first new coal-fired plant in the United States in more than a decade, underscoring the long-term strategic access.

But the West Sioux Access is more than a project about recreation or mining. It creates the first opportunity for reliable year-round overland access to the Beluga and Tyonek, Tyonek Energy Corridor, an area critical to Alaska's long-term energy strategy and security. Companies operating in the region currently depend on barges, aircraft, and ice roads and weather-dependent access. A permanent road system would reduce costs, especially in the winter, improve reliability, and strengthen emergency response capability, and allow industrial operations to function year-round in that area. Mr. Speaker, permission to read, if you don't mind.

This one's— I don't want to get it wrong. Permission granted. Thank you. This project is going through a full Section 106 review. Okay, I heard that yesterday, something about a 106 review.

It is going through and has gone through a full Section 106 review. SHPO and the Office of History and Archaeology are directly involved. The K'nik tribe is a formal project partner with tribal transportation agreement. Archaeological surveys are already underway before construction, and there is a specific human remains protocol if anything is discovered. This is exactly why the SHPO process exists— to identify, avoid, minimize, and, and properly treat cultural resources before construction proceeds.

Mr. Speaker, just kind of as a little bunny trail, the DOT spent $25 million on the SHPO project for the Cooper Landing bypass. They have already completed 70 visits to SHPO sites with tribal members and via helicopter. Finally, Mr. Speaker, the Matsu Borough Assembly unanimously adopted Resolution 24-084, which specifically supports the West Sisseton Access Road with an eastern terminus in the Point McKenzie area. The resolution notes that this alignment better utilizes existing transportation infrastructure, including Point Mack and the K'nik'guspeh Roads, and positions potential resource development activity in closer proximity to tidewater via Port McKenzie, while at the same time providing expanded recreational opportunities. Mr. Speaker, this is a shovel-ready project with strong local, tribal, corporate, and federal backing.

It delivers jobs, national defense benefits, energy security, and recreation for our state. This is all on state land, Mr. Speaker. 1% Of it is wetlands. I heard something about NEPA the other day. The NEPA surveys and the department— or the Army Corps of Engineers surveys that needed to be done have already been done.

I heard something about fish culverts and fish bridges and crossing rivers. Every single culvert is planned to be a fish culvert that won't be a problem. This is not a road to nowhere, Mr. Speaker. There are hundreds of parcels just north of the Sisitna Station that are owned by people that could now access those parcels without having to hike in or snowmobile in or charter an airplane. I also heard something about being these undeveloped mines, Mr. Speaker.

The Nova Minerals Estelle Project employs 100 people every summer. The camp is in a little bit of a caretaker status during the winter, but there are still people up there. They have an ice road right now that goes from Willow on up to Nova, up to the Estelle Project on snowcats. Anybody that has been snowmachining up there in the Trapper Lake area likely has crossed that. So, Mr. Speaker, I took a long time.

I apologize. But this, this project is more than about the Susitna, the Matsu. This project is important to Alaska. And not only that, but it's important to the United States. It's important for unlocking our resource potential.

In Alaska, and it's the nexus of so many things right now, Mr. Speaker, that I can't imagine we would not want to unlock these federal funds completely and build this road. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Schraggi. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'll try to keep this brief. I know we've kind of debated this one into the ground.

I think— I mean, we can argue back and forth about the facts of the project. It is controversial. In my correspondence with the department, I do not see that the prior STIP funds appropriated for Phase 1 have been fully expended. My communications with the department do not indicate that, and I would just again note that there are limited federal funds available for all the STIP projects that are out there. We should not be putting forward such a large project at such a large amount that it will consume so much of the federal funds.

I know there's some disagreement on whether or not that's true. It's been said before that instead, if we were to keep this at the reduced rate, that it would go towards— those federal funds would go towards advanced construction. That's not a bad thing. We've been spending down advanced construction, uh, pretty precipitously, and that is going to be a major challenge in the near future. So I think there's a lot of reasons to oppose this.

I don't want to.

—Going to all those again. We've debated this over and over again. I would encourage members to please vote no. We've got a compromise amount in this budget that allows the project to continue moving forward while attempting to alleviate some of the concerns on regional equity and being able to make sure that we're funding projects across the state, not just in this one region. Thank you, Mr.

Speaker. Representative Holland. Great. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just briefly, I think I'll leave my comments from yesterday on the record as far as the project. I just would ask the maker of the amendment, my understanding is that this project has a state match requirement of, if I can refer to my notes, $9,427,230. I'm just curious, the amendment as I understand it does identify the federal receipt authority needed, but it does not appear to identify the general funds, approximately $9.4 million needed for this project. So the maker of the amendment could just clarify where that's coming from and if it's coming from another project, what project it's coming from. Thanks.

Representative Tom Scheske.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be brief on this subject. I am in full support of the West Susitna Access Road. I'm going to agree 100% with the member from District 30, and this is something that really is going to push Alaska into the future. Create a lot of great opportunities for a lot of folks for access to millions of acres.

And I think we need to make this happen. So would appreciate your support. Thank you. Representative Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to place call on the House.

Call has been placed in the House, I believe. We have the call satisfied.

And the call, as I understand it, will be in place until we essentially get done tonight. Until we get done with the amendment. Okay. So the call will be in place for the duration of Amendment No. 25.

Mr. Majority Leader. Yeah, Mr. Speaker, similar to the amendment yesterday, I rise to declare a conflict of interest and ask to be excused from the vote as my business business represents one of the entities that would benefit from access by this road. There is an objection.

Representative Allard, please wait until we finish the business at hand and then I will recognize your at ease. Representative Kopp, there was an objection, so you would be required to vote on underlying amendment to the at ease.

Will the House please come back to order. Representative Josephson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be very brief. So yesterday we passed half or adopted half of the federal receipts by a vote, I think, of 28 to 12 with broad bipartisan support. And I just wanted to note or remind members that the amount funded under this amendment would tend to crowd out so many other things. So for example, the bill as written does not— by the way, This is the governor— sorry, the executive's ask.

I don't mean the co-chair's work. The executive branch's ask does not itemize several major Alaska transportation priorities programmed in the federal highway approved STIP for FY27, including $115 million for ferry service for rural communities operating assistance, $69.4 million for Wasilla to Fishhook Main Street reconstruction and $62.5 million for the Sterling Highway safety corridor. The information I've reviewed also indicates that at $94 million under the amendment, this single phase ranks as the fourth largest item in Alaska's entire $1.17 billion surface transportation program. It's 2.6 times larger than the K'nik Goose Bay Road Reconstruction Project that Matsu residents have been requesting for over a decade, and 5.2 times larger than the entire statewide Dalton Highway Preservation Program, 20 times larger than the statewide Bridge Inspection Program. So I, I think that the body came to a broad consensus, supported the amount that's been amended into the bill, at 28 to 12.

And I think we also have to ask about what you want on the west side of Susitna. So now you have recreation, you have duck hunting, you have fishing, you have lodges. And what we're told we can have instead is a clean coal plant built by Hyundai of South Korea. So I ask you to choose which of those you want. Thank you.

Representative Nelson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this amendment and to reference the previous speaker's comments. It is not an either or. Just because we're going to be unlocking billions of dollars of resources doesn't mean that people are not going to be able to recreate or hunt ducks out there.

So I think that is a false dichotomy, um, that is fearmongering, and I rise in support of Amendment 25. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order? I believe we have the soon-to-be Introduced amendment to the amendment, passed out to all members. Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment 1 to Amendment 25.

Hearing no objection, so adopted. Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In wrap-up to the amendment as amended, the amendment as amendment is relatively simple. I appreciate the comments from the co-chair of Finance.

So first, I'll address the question from the member from South Anchorage. So the only thing that was deleted in the House Finance Committee was the federal matching funds. So all the general fund dollars are still in the budget for the appropriate match for the STIP funding, Mr. Speaker. So it does not require any additional general fund match. So that's the first answer to the question, uh, Mr. Speaker.

I will say, uh, similar to my comments in House Finance— so one of my favorite speeches in the history of speeches is a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1965. It was called A Time for Choosing. Ronald Reagan said some issues are not about left or right, they're about up or down. And Mr. Speaker, funding— restoring the entirety of the funding for the West Sioux Access Road is an issue that's not a left or right issue, it is an up or down issue. I.e., do you want to move Alaska forward or up, or do you not, Mr. Speaker?

So the entirety of the project of the West Sioux Access Road is to open up not only resource development development, but recreation for all Alaskans. And it's imperative, based on the nature of Alaska being a resource development state, that we decide that when we have the opportunity to further resource development in Alaska, we should take that opportunity. And Mr. Speaker, one of the biggest advocates of the West Soot Access Road is the K'nik Tribe. I just— I had to talk to folks. A friend of mine is the government affairs director for the K'nik Tribe, and they are in wholehearted of the project because they know that resource development is the future of not only Alaska as a whole, but all the indigenous peoples who represent different areas of the state.

They want this project because they know that it's transformative in the lives of the folks that they represent, as well as the folks in Manchot who wanted the mine in their area knew that that project was transformative in their lives. And the reason is, Mr. Speaker, is resource development gives opportunities for individuals in different communities and Native groups across Alaska to be able to be given an ability to improve their life and circumstances. The West Sioux Access Road provides one of the greatest opportunities in the future of the state of Alaska in terms of resource development, not in terms of just the, the nature of state take on taxation from this types of project, but jobs, local opportunity, and helping individuals. Mr. Speaker, in the words of Jerry Maguire, I ask that you help me help you. Mr. Speaker, help me help you move the state forward.

Let's take action to make a positive decision for the future of all Alaskans by restoring the funding for the West Zoo Access Roads. That way, when we leave here shortly, Mr. Speaker, we can tell all Alaskans that we actually took a positive decision to move the state forward, and we can say Hey, if you want to stay in Alaska, there is actually a brighter future. There's resource development that's going to come in a short amount of time, Mr. Speaker. There's parts of the state that are.

Up for recreation use that's going to uplift communities out of poverty all over the state. And I just ask the members, vote yes so we can send a positive message to Alaskans that, hey, we work as a unified body, not a left or right, but an up or down, fighting for you every day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 25, as amended, 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? 20 Yeas, 20 nays. With a vote of 20 yeas to 20 nays, Amendment Number 25 has failed to pass the body.

Madam Clerk. Amendment Number 26 will not be offered. Amendment Number 27 by Representative Bynum, beginning page 34, following line 11. Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move Amendment 27. There's an objection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What Amendment 27 does is that it provides funding to the Alaska Energy Authority, specifically for the purpose of updating analysis and feasibility work related to the Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project. This funding would allow the authority to evaluate the project's current economics, the engineering, the environmental permitting, and the energy-related necessities to move the project forward.

Uh, and this is in light of our ever-evolving energy needs in Alaska and our current market conditions. This review would identify a few very important things. It would maximize federal participation, including federal investment tax credits, Mr. Speaker, elective pay, and other federal incentives that are worth at least $5 billion, maybe much more. This would materially reduce the state's long-term project cost and improve the overall project feasibility by a lot. So I support— I would ask for your support for the amendment.

One other item, Mr. Speaker, is that this is set up as a waterfall provision in the budget and would only be funded if we see oil prices over $80.

Representative Schraggi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in reluctant opposition to this amendment. I actually strongly support us considering or taking another look at the Susitna-Wontana hydroelectric project in correspondence with the Alaska Energy Authority and other members of the energy community. There's a real sense that we missed an opportunity back in 2015 when this project was shelved. If we had gone forward with that, today we would have our rail belt 70% renewable with all the electrical generation that we need, and we would have no natural gas shortage on the rail belt because we would be able to lessen our usage for power generation to do so.

That said, I do not support adding additional waterfall at this time. You'll see that I have an amendment later on that actually would have done a waterfall for for this project, but in conversations with the other body, I don't know that there's alignment on this. And so out of respect for our work with the other body, I'm a no on this amendment, but it's a reluctant no because it is a very valid project that I think could move our state forward in a really big way. So sadly, today I'll be a no and look forward to maybe addressing this in the future year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Representative Sadler. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this. Our old friend, our old friend, Susitnoitana. Mr. Speaker, I have two riddles for you, and they're both pretty easy.

First one is, when is the best time to advance a project that would provide 100 years of 10-cent-per-kilowatt energy to the rail belt? Answer is 20 years ago. Give me 10 years ago. Okay, what's the second riddle? Is when's the second best time to advance such a project?

The answer is clear. That's today. This amendment for us gives us the opportunity to make progress in that direction. You know, we have made tremendous investments in Sisseton Wahpeton over the years. And for background and the context for that, I recommend everyone read Gwen Holdeman's piece in the Alaska Dispatch of last week laying out that project, what the benefits would be, what the objections were, and why we are where we are today in regard to that important project.

Frankly, I suspect that many of those who raised objections to that are experiencing buyer's remorse or opponent's remorse. The speaker before me indicated he would support— I think we should all support the advancement of that project. Especially at a time when the federal administration is willing to provide political and social and more importantly financial support for this. This is $5 million, but it maintains the possibility for the state to maintain and obtain the benefits of this tremendously beneficial energy infrastructure, not instead of a gas line, but in complement and supplement to a gas line. Please vote yes.

Representative Tomaszewski.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this amendment. When it comes to energy, I am in all in favor of all of it, and that includes hydropower. Hydropower is clean, it is consistent, and Mr. Speaker, it's cheap. I get my electric bill here in Juneau in the time I'm here, and I'm surprised at how cheap the electric bill is here.

When I look at the cost of my electric in Fairbanks, well, it's a sad, sad moment when I see that bill, Mr. Speaker, because it's very expensive. What we have with this project, what we should have done 30 years ago, is built it. We would all be enjoying that clean, reliable energy, and we would be enjoying that at a much reduced price than we are paying today. And with that, Mr. Speaker, I am in full support of this, and I hope everyone else is also.

Representative Vance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this. In my district, we have Bradley Lake, and it is touted as one of the best investments the state ever made. It is, uh, it's, it's clean, it's beautiful. Most people don't even realize that it's right across Kachemak Bay.

It's non-invasive. It's a highly impressive system altogether that has been providing great renewable energy for several decades. And when I was a freshman legislator, you know, coming and learning about PCE, I said, "What's PCE? Why are we subsidizing energy?" And it's— I found out it's because we had other great projects that we shelved and we needed to provide the same energy for rural Alaska. And I said, well, why aren't we actually developing projects for energy in rural Alaska rather than subsidizing all the time?

Couldn't we, shouldn't we be making more investments in great energy and more hydro?

And I think, It's long overdue for that. We've looked into little projects here and there, and there are some areas that we know does work, and hydro is one of them. And it's been proving to be a success for, you know, a long period of time. And I think it's, you know, it's frustrating that we have to put millions into looking at the feasibility of a project rather than just investing into a project, but that, that's just how the cookie crumbles to make sure that we can get everything in alignment. And we need to be doing that.

I think Alaskans are expecting us to do that. We call ourselves a resource state, a resource development state, but we haven't been seeing it. And it's time that we start investing and getting serious about that with every dollar, every dollar that we can. And I know that we're kind of in that place that we have a few extra dollars And I'm hoping that we can be moving towards that direction because by investing into this, it lowers the cost. It makes the economic opportunity more viable.

Part of the reason that we don't have industry here is because we don't have affordable energy. And the more that we focus on that in whatever form, the more that we're going to have great economic opportunity, make it affordable to live here, and people won't be moving out. And I think that's one of the The larger reasons that people leave the state is because of the cost of living. And so whatever we can do to support these projects, I'm all in.

Wrap-up comments. Representative McCabe, you want to do the wrap-up comments? Missed me again, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, Sneddisham down here in Southeast Terra Lake in Kodiak, Klutna outside of Anchorage, Bradley Lake. Um, we have a number of successful hydro projects which are essentially green projects.

The issue with this one, and, uh, the reason we are in the Cook Inlet gas crisis now and having to look at spending billions of dollars on a, a natural gas line, is because.

We didn't finish Susitna-Watana when we should have. Instead, we let outside interests— the Salmon State, Save Our Salmon, Susitna River Coalition, New Venture Fund, mostly from out of state— provide money to convince people to be afraid, to be afraid of engineering that we frankly can do very easily here in Alaska. And with our modern engineering techniques, we can make a dam that is safe. We do resource development and engineering in Alaska better than anybody else on the planet, Mr. Speaker. We could have done this.

We should have done this. We would have sub-10 cents a kilowatt hour electricity even today, and we wouldn't be worried about Cook Inlet gas. So I did some flying on both on Terror Lake and, and on this one, hauling in geologists and hauling in, uh, folks to the camp to study the great horned owl, snail darter, horny toad, whatever they were looking for, but also to study the salmon and also to study the geology. And it was— they were convinced that this was a good project. And this was in the very early stages.

So I'm a little frustrated that— I'm not sure where it got shut down, but I'm a little frustrated that it did get shut down. And I think we need to push this forward and see what we can see. See if it's a possibility. We need to think about diversity now, Mr. Speaker, not when the oil on the North Slope runs out, not when the gas on the North Slope or in Cook Inlet runs out and we're in this extremist situation and then have to import diesel from Canada again. Thank you.

Shoo!

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Will the House please come back to order? We left off under debate on Amendment Number 27, sponsored by the member from Ketchikan. I'm not sure— I do see one mic raised before we go to wrap up. Representative Schwanke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move Amendment Number 1 to Amendment Number 27.

I do not believe— do we have Amendment Number 1 to Amendment Number 27? A clerk has distributed, so we are now going to go and wait for the amendment to arrive. At ease.

Will the House please come back to order. Representative Schwocke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really appreciate what, what members on the floor are trying to do with Amendment Number 27. We have a lot of energy needs in the state.

We really need to figure out how to reduce the cost of energy. And unfortunately, the Susitna-Watana Hydro Project has been around for a very long time. They started talking about it in the '60s. The state has actually invested almost $200 million studying that project up through now. I'm offering Amendment Number 1 because if we are going to be putting $5 million towards a hydroelectric project, I would like us to put it towards an existing hydroelectric project that has zero environmental impact.

Solomon Lake, Zimbaldeez, it is on the grid system for Copper Valley Electric. It was built in 1982. They have actually already undertaken a study in 2020 to raise the dam level anywhere between 2, 4, and 8 feet. This is the same amount of money that they need to actually raise the dam and increase power generation to fully serve the entire Valdez and Copper River Basin area. I'm really not excited about putting partial funds into a project.

I think we've hashed that out already on the floor today. So this is an opportunity for us to put good money into a good project that has a good outcome. Thanks. Amendment number 1 to amendment number 27 has been moved. I don't believe I heard an objection.

There was an objection. Okay, Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the member for bringing the amendment forward. I do have a question for the maker of the amendment.

I just want clarification if the maker of the amendment knows if this is currently part of the Renewable Energy Fund Round 18. I believe that it may be, but I've not had the opportunity to really go research that. But I do believe that this is— that there are funding requests in for this, potentially for this project, but I just wanted clarification if the member knows. Thank you.

Not seeing additional discussion in wrap-up. Representative Twakey. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't believe that this particular project falls within the current project list. So I think the last— is it on there?

Well, if it's on there, then I will withdraw my amendment.

The amendment Number 1 to Amendment Number 27 has been withdrawn.

This brings Amendment Number 27 back before the body unamended.

Representative Bynum, in wrap-up. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for all the members considering a yes vote on this. I believe that This is a really important project for Alaska, and yes, it has been a long ongoing project. We have spent millions and millions of dollars to get to the point where the project is now.

And what I'm asking this body to do is to say, let's take some money to finish evaluation of where we currently sit today in light of the federal investment dollars that are available. This is billions of dollars, billions. By voting yes today, you're not saying that we're building Wotana. What you are saying is that we are going to get the most updated information available so that we can make appropriate decisions in the next legislative session. So I appreciate a yes vote.

You ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 27 pass the House? Members may proceed to vote.

Will the clerk please lock the roll?

Does any member desire to change his or her vote? Will the clerk please announce the vote? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. By a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, Amendment No. 27 Has failed to pass.

Madam Clerk, Amendment number 28 by Representative Bynum, beginning page 11, following line 10.

Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will not offer this at this time, but reserve the right to bring it up at the end. Amendment number 28 will not be offered at this time. Madam Clerk.

Amendment number 29 will not be offered.

Amendment number 30 by Representative Ruffridge, beginning page 3, following line 26. Representative Ruffridge. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment 30. Second.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Amendment 30 is for the city of Sultana wastewater treatment plant, some needed upgrades there. Thank you. The amendment has been moved. Representative Schrag, pardon me.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I oppose this amendment. We've avoided doing general district projects out of the budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Representative Ruffridge, any comments in wrap-up? Are you ready for the question? Question being, shall Amendment No. 30 Pass the House? 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? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. By a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, Amendment No.

30 Has failed to pass. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 31 by Representative Ruffridge, beginning page 3, following line 26. Representative Ruffridge. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move Amendment 31. There's an objection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just additional $100,000 for some improvements in a roadway in Kenai. Thank you.

Representative Shraggi, any comments? Just, I object again. Budget is fully subscribed according to our agreement with the other body. Thank you.

Not seeing any comments until I say that. Representative Klobuchar. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I support this amendment and it's really difficult when I see energy projects, water, a lot of important projects that have been denied because there's been some kind of agreement with the Senate. We are our own body.

We were not privy to this agreement. And I hope you consider the amendment. Representative Vance. I think I was about to make the same remarks, Mr. Speaker. We know that, that we have to have a lid on budgets.

We have to have fiscal restraint. But it does feel insulting when it's said out loud that this body doesn't get full consideration when an agreement is reached before we even get through the process. You know, uh, we like to have respect, um, among both houses, and we've been fighting that battle for a long time. And I hope that, um, I think you will find unity across this floor to assert our legislative authority to have an equal say in this process, Mr. Speaker.

Any closing comments, Representative Ruffridge? Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 31 pass the House? 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? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. I vote 19 yeas to 21 nays.

Amendment number 31 has failed to pass the House. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 32 by Representative Ruffridge, beginning page 3, following line 26. Representative Ruffridge. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move amendment number 32. There's an objection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another small amendment for some wastewater treatment facility, also probably not in the agreement, but I'm offering it here for your consideration. Thank you.

Representative Sharagi. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand it can be frustrating when we have an agreement with the other body. I can assure you that they also wanted to add many, many, many projects to their districts, but in order to have a coordinated process, we come to some bans on what is acceptable. Not having a funding source this comes from, this would violate the agreement and allow the thing to unravel upon itself.

So I continue to oppose these amendments. Thank you. Representative Stapp. Oh, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the member from Anchorage's comments.

I would.

To say those bans didn't seem like they were in effect when we tried to rob the Galena City School of their project, Mr. Speaker. So I ask the members vote yes on this Keene Eye wastewater treatment 'cause it's very valuable. Thank you.

Any closing comments, Representative Ruffridge? Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 33 pass the House? Members may proceed to vote.

Mr. Speaker, I ask your apologies. Brief at ease.

House, please come back to order. Thank you for noticing that. Once again, the motion before the body is to approve Amendment No. 32. 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? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. With a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, Amendment No.

32 Has failed to pass. Madam Clerk. Amendment No. 33 By Representative Allard, beginning page 3, following line 23. Representative Ballard.

Thank you. I move Amendment 33. There's an objection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment 1 to Amendment 33.

There is no objection. Thank you.

May I speak on it or—. We have before the body—. I know we're all dead tired, but we have— I'd like to speak on the cemetery. We have, and I think the board is just reflecting it now. We have before the body Amendment number 33 as As amended.

Representative Ballard, the floor is yours. Oh, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I appreciate this, and I want to talk a little bit about the significance of this amendment. So the first thing I want to say is I'm going to go ahead and read a little bit about what's going on here. So in making this amendment, I'm hoping—.

Permission granted. Thank you. In making this amendment, I'm hoping to find compromise between the critical, important items in our state, all to benefit the youth. We have heard that $5 million is insufficient to fully engage contractors in Sydney C. Huntington Elementary School and High School project. However, there are a few reasons why we should be leaving some of these funds in the school major maintenance project.

The school major maintenance list is the way of Alaska's schools officially put forth necessary funding requests to keep our facilities safe and structurally sound. If we skip highly rated projects altogether, This could discourage districts through the capital improvement process. It's also important to note that we recognize the school districts for their time, their efforts, and their use of educational dollars put into their major maintenance application, upwards of $500,000. This is a very large, complex, much-needed school renovation project. Leaving some funding in this appropriation will effectively allow the district to recoup their funds spent to date and allow them to fully complete their project plans.

Next year, this project should be number 1 on the list, and hopefully we'll have the finances to do it. So I wanted to talk a little bit, Mr. Speaker, on what this is doing. So we have no cemetery that will allow anybody to be buried in Anchorage right now, and this amendment will allow us to have— I have my notes somewhere around here.

Here we are. Okay, so Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery is completely full. So right now, I've heard of people even in this building— her grandmother, a friend of hers' grandmother died and they had to bury her in Palmer. We've been working on the cemetery for close to 20 years in the state of Alaska, or in the municipality. The land that we're going to have, we can either use the land, uh, Heritage Land Bank Trust, or I spoke to the executive branch, and if something falls through with the Heritage Land Bank, we are able to use some of our funds with the Mental Health Trust to have that property.

We know that through the cemetery, for 50 years they'll have 7,700 plots, which will last up to 2075. And as the phase goes on later on, we'll have 9,900 burial plots, which will last 65 years until 2140. Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to hit on the, um, Performance Arts Center in Anchorage. Everybody across across the state goes to this performing arts center. It's very important.

It, it is in dilapidating modes, and I think that we can put some money forth and then the municipality of Anchorage might step up and doing what we're actually doing here as a body because they're not carrying the weight, which they should be doing. Also, the dome allows every athlete across the state to participate. It's falling, it's having a shambles is happening with it, and actually there's a donor that said whatever we put forth, they're going to match. Then we also have, um, the Wonderland— the Wonderland project out in Wasilla, and these are in kids of need. And so I feel like this amendment brings everybody together as Alaska citizens.

And, and yes, these major projects are in Anchorage, but we're also the largest city in the state, and it stands to reason why some of these projects are there. So I hope everybody pushes the green button. Representative Shwaggy. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a rare moment for me.

I didn't think that I'd ever be in alignment with the representative from Eagle River on something, but here we are. I am going to note that I've spoken quite a bit with the representative from Eagle River. She has worked hard to find a funding source that will provide funding for these projects, and I've talked with her substantially about the projects. I think she's spoken to the statewide nature of them, or at least the broad nature of them. And because she has a funding source and these are statewide projects, this falls within the bounds of our agreement.

And I think I'm able to support this amendment today. So thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the work that Representative from Eagle River has put into this amendment. Thank you. At ease.

At ease.

Will the House please come back to order. The House will stand at ease for 15 minutes.

ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ្ទ� ប្រាន់។ ប្រាន់។ ប្រាន់។ ប្រាន់។ ប្រាន់។ ទ្ទ្ទ្ අපි ස්තූතියි ස්තූතියි ස්තූතියි.

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Cheers!

Will the House please come to order?

We have before the body Amendment Number 33. 3 As amended to the FY27 capital budget, otherwise known as Senate Bill 214. Mr. Majority Leader.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Over our break we just had, uh, heard from the, uh, member from the other body from District R and the superintendent of the Galena School District that the elementary school that will have the money reappropriated from under this amendment has a failing roof and a rotting foundation and a desperately need the funds. This is a brick-and-mortar school, not part of the homeschool system of Galena. So thank you. Representative Costello.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, I want to talk about one portion of this amendment, which is, uh, the dome, which we've been hearing about, um, throughout this process. It's located at 6501 Center Point Drive. I'm sure many of you are familiar with it. Um, The dome is the largest facility of its kind in the entire world, and what this money will do in this amendment is to replace the fabric on the dome.

So without this replacement funding, the dome is actually— would no longer be an asset to our community. So it serves countless Alaskans. It opened in 2007. Um, the Anchorage School District high school and middle school sports have been using the dome for practices and events for over a decade. And high school boys and girls soccer practices and has competitions there, high school baseball, and high school and middle school track and field.

And a multitude of organizations use, use the facility. It's used for football, football, soccer, track and field, ultimate frisbee, badminton, ping pong, pickleball, spikeball, weightlifting, and wrestling camps and softball. The summer camp serves over 400 kids, and the dome flag football serves over 700 kids. Over 20 nonprofits use the facility. The Abbott O'Rabbit Baseball, The Cook Inlet Soccer Club and Alaska Rush Soccer, Alaska Crush Softball, Alaska Endurance Project, the Anchorage Sports Association, the Anchorage Young Soccer Club, the Arctic Foxes Rugby Club, the Russ Edwards Big Sea Relays.

The Girl Scouts of Alaska use the dome. The Girls on the Run, the Junior Sockeyes Baseball, the RBI Alaska, Soccer Alaska, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center also uses the dome, including— and the USA Track and Field, the United States Soccer League, and Alaska Running Academy. Something that many people may not know about the dome is that it's used as a testing facility for the Anchorage Police Department, the Alaska State Troopers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Police, the Central Intelligence Agency, and various military branches use the Dome for their testing that they do for their, for their members. The Dome also sponsors a unique program called the Dome Community Health Initiative and it provides free access to individuals who are prescribed exercise by their healthcare providers. This accounts for more than 20,000 visits a year, saving $280,000 in access fees.

So we, we, we all know that exercise is really important for our health and that many of the fastest health problems in our state are literally preventable diseases. And exercise is one, is one way that you can prevent that. So this amendment will go a long way to allowing that program to continue. The Municipality of Anchorage, the Rasmussen Foundation, there are individual donors and commercial loans are part of the financing plan. And we do know that there is a $1 million match that is all ready to go depending on the outcome of this of this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, the project has many letters of support from many organizations, and I will go ahead and read them off. The Anchorage Police Department—. Representative Castillo, I'm going to ask you to, as I hold everyone else to the same standard, and I apologize for interrupting you, but you're reading, and I generally ask members to ask permission, as the custom has been in this body for many, many years. I only have 100 more on my list, but permission to read. Okay.

Permission granted. So the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Athletics provided a letter of support. The Alaska Native Heritage Center, Anchorage Youth Soccer Club, the Drillers Baseball Club, and the Alaska Behavioral Health Association, the Cook Inlet Soccer Club, and the United Youth Soccer League. Mr. Speaker, permission to read from a letter.

So this—. Rep. Castello, permission granted with a slight admonition. The hour is fairly late. So please continue. So this is from the Alaska Native Heritage Center president and CEO.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is the only living statewide cultural center in Alaska that represents all Alaska Native peoples. Our mission is to preserve and strengthen the arts, cultures, traditions, and languages of all Native— Alaska Native peoples throughout— through statewide collaboration, celebration, and education. We've maintained an effective partnership with the D.O.M.E. Through our program, which affords Alaska Native youth with funds to access educational services. The D.O.M.E.

Is a vital partner in ensuring the health and academic success of Alaska Native youth. So Mr. Speaker, just in closing, and I appreciate the allowance for me to refer to my notes, you know, the dome,.

Is so many things to so many people, and it really serves our entire state. Sports and youth activities are really integral to youth mental health, physical fitness, academic success, and really a lifetime of, you know, physical activity, which we know is so important for, for long-term health of our community. So I want to thank the, the member who offered this amendment and urge everyone to support this amendment. Thank you. Representative Jimmy.

Hoi ana, Mr. Speaker. There are so many schools in rural that are in need of repair. I do not understand why you want to take funds away from a school that is critical where many students go to transfer, get training, prepare for adulthood. They'll get extracurricular activities such as, you know, hairdressing skills, carpentry skills. Taking away from rule.

It's— we need to stop taking away from rules. That's my point. Go ahead, please. No.

Representative Stapp, I thought you might have disappeared for a second. Just a moment, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to rise in opposition to this amendment. So I appreciate everyone who's making it again for the fifth time in this capital budget process, Mr. Speaker. Um, there was a member earlier who talked about Alaska Native youth culture.

Mr. Speaker, this is a school that people with the last name Malamute, Huntington, Cleaver, George, Demoski, and Sam go to all the time. Mr. Speaker, if you want to talk about Alaska Native culture for Athabascan folks, this is the place that gave the greatest song in Alaska history called Indian Rock and Roll, written by Louie Damaski. Mr. Speaker, there is no school in no region on the Yukon that is better represented by folks than the Galena City School District. Mr. Speaker, this school is the second school funded on the major maintenance list. Although I have no doubt that a performing arts center in Anchorage is a worthy investment, I have no doubt that folks who live there in South Central want to fix a leaky roof, Mr. Speaker.

But at the expense of what? Of what, Mr. Speaker? Of a school that is in dire need in dire need of repair and renovation, Mr. Speaker. And this just isn't a place that serves folks and kids from the Yukon River. It's not just a place that serves Athabascan kids from Galena.

It is a place that sends kids from all over the state, Mr. Speaker. Kids from rural Alaska come to Galena. If you talk to parents in Unakleet and Stebbins and Shishmaref and Point Hope or Point Lay, the parents of these places send their kids to go to the boarding school in Galena. And Mr. Speaker, if you talk to these parents, they will tell you it's on the prowess of Mount Edgecumbe in Sitka. Mr. Speaker, Galena has a proud heritage.

The city does an amazing job about working with the community, and this just isn't a place that I don't have the privilege to represent. Mr. Speaker, I have been going to this community for 15 years. This school is second on the major maintenance list for a reason. For a reason, Mr. Speaker, because it's a worthy investment, it's a worthy cause, and I ask the members to, for the fifth time, not to take this money. Don't take this money, Mr. Speaker.

To quote 2 Timothy, I fought the good fight, I kept the faith. And I finished the race, Mr. Speaker. I urge the members to vote no. Representative Fields. Uh, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I just want to provide a little clarity here. Um, it is true that this school was second on the major maintenance list after it was inserted there, bumping down every other school that had been on the list, many schools for years on the list. That was a political decision made by DEED That is why the other body reduced the amount of funding for this particular school, because it jumped the list ahead of every other school. And as most members are aware, most schools on that list are rural. So yes, this district jumped the list.

I want to provide a little details about this district. I looked at a 20— the most recent data I could find quickly was 2024. Students in Galena were 186 students compared to over 7,000 homeschool students. Here's the interesting thing about the Galena City School District. It includes the Sidney Huntington School, again about 200 kids, and about 7,000 kids, most of whom are spread throughout the state.

All those kids are important, but the number of kids at this actual school is very small. Fund balance from 2025 for Galena City School District, $27 million. Um, I believe the fund balance is now over $30 million. They actually have almost enough in fund balance to just outright build a new school right now. They definitely have enough to repair the roof.

The fund balance at about 200 kids, $27 million, about $135,000 per student in fund balance. That is more money per child in fund balance than any other school district in the state. Again, because a tiny minority of these students are actually rural students. Now they are all important, but this is literally the least stressed school district in the state. So I think we have to look at the balance of the relative good.

And again, this is the school district that's in a letter saying we can't use $5 million. Dollars, and we know they have enough on hand to fix the roof. So, um, you know, again, this amendment is within the rules. It is funded. It is geographically balanced.

It funds major statewide priorities, and it leverages matching funding for a very important facility that serves students, seniors, and many other people throughout our state. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I'm not so sure that it's a political decision when, uh, when you move a school with critical needs up the list because it has, oh, critical needs. And I don't think it matters the number of kids that actually go to the school or not if there's no roof over their head or if the roof is leaking or it's creating black mold or the foundation is failing.

So not so sure those are cogent arguments. But Mr. Speaker, what concerns me the most is something I heard yesterday, something that we should all be concerned about because obviously the co-chair of finance is concerned about robbing Peter to pay Paul about this very thing, Mr. Speaker. We cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.

I don't understand the, uh, the byplay. I don't understand why we can't do it yesterday but we can do it today. Is it just because we added a cemetery for dead people? We're talking about kids here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Representative Schwacke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think what we're hearing here is that there's a lot of really good needs in this state that aren't in this capital budget. We wouldn't be in this situation if we actually put out a legitimate capital budget every year and we didn't have to struggle and thieve from different sources to cover really good projects that need to get funded.

The money that is in this particular project, if it stays there, it's less that we have to fund next year, because we do have to fund this school, because it's splitting in half. The foundation has serious structural problems, and the superintendent is worried the school will legitimately fall down, which is why it's number 2 on the list. For anybody to suggest that it was a political decision to move it up on the list, I think is disingenuous to the process, and I take offense to that.

This is an amendment that very interestingly got approval from the other body really quickly, and I— Really wonder how that came about, but I hope we leave the money where it's at. Thanks.

Brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order. Under discussion on Amendment Number 33 as amended, Representative Hannon.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to Amendment 33, and I'm going to just make sure and remind everyone that the good thing about a capital budget appropriation is it doesn't have to be all used in one year. So although the $5 million for Galena School is not enough to do the repairs that are necessary for them, they may find some use for it this year, but they could also hold on to it. And if we got them another $10 million next year or $15 million, now they're able to do the major repairs. But they are number 2 on the maintenance projects list, and, um, I will not support taking away money that they deserve and they need, and I wish it was more.

Represent Galvin. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that the body is well aware that there is a very well-vetted process. The Berger Committee puts together all of these applications. There is no one political.

I think there's one person from each of the bodies who sits there. There, but they are architects, they are people from the state, they are not political in the ranking of these projects. So I just wanted to make sure that we're aware of that. I do appreciate that the other body chose to do this a little differently, like they wanted to make sure to get more projects, they've said, and I'm not— I don't— I can't comment on that, but I do want to make sure that we're aware that that body works really hard. They, they meet for days and days looking at all of these applications.

It—. Could the process be better? Absolutely. But really, the biggest problem is not enough money. It's just not enough money, and that's statewide for rural and urban.

And so I am very conflicted with this, of course, because many of these projects are so positive for my district and for my town. And I think Anchorage has certainly been sorely missing a lot of infrastructure, whether it's roads or other things. But for this amendment, I just want to honor that this work that's being done has not been, in my opinion, political as far as Berger goes. Thank you. In wrap-up, Representative Allard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the spirited conversation. I want to say this is the $3.3 million. It's not the entire $5 million, and I know that might not make some people feel better, but I want to say that I am part of the Anchorage delegation, and there are a lot of things that I've been missing in the last few years. That my cemetery has been vetoed twice, and it's open for everybody. The bottom line is with the cemetery We absolutely have nowhere to bury the bodies.

We have nowhere. If there's a pandemic tomorrow, we have nowhere to bury those who die in the municipality in Anchorage. They will absolutely have to be moved to Palmer and maybe the Kenai, or they have to be cremated. So this is, this is a serious situation we have at hand. All these other projects, as far as the, the PAC, the dome, and Wonderland.

This is all have to do with children. And, um, that's it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 33, as amended, 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? Mr. Speaker. Representative Vila. Miai to nay.

Representative Moore, from yay to nay. Are there any others? Representative Gray, from yay to nay. Representative Mina, from yay to nay.

Representative Underwood. Mina. Mina. Mina. Mina.

Mina. Mina. Mina.

Mina, I think we have you accommodated. Representative Underwood.

Are there any others? Representative Johnson. Representative Johnson from Mina.

I'm going to do one final sweep. Representative Mears, from yay to nay.

Are there any others? Not seeing any others, Madam Clerk, please announce the vote. 11 Yays, 29 nays. With a vote of 11 yays and 29 nays, Amendment Number 33 as amended has failed to pass the body. Madam Clerk.

Please come back to order, Madam Clerk. Amendment number 34 by Representative Costello, beginning page 40, following line 10. Representative Costello, I move Amendment 34. There's an objection. Mr. Speaker, we've been over this.

This is an amendment that's solely about the dome, and I spoke about it earlier. If you look at the bottom of the amendment, the $1 million that would go towards replacement of the fabric for the dome is contingent upon a $1 million private donation, and I encourage the members to vote yes on this amendment. Thank you.

Representative Schraggy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now that we're back on track, this amendment does not have a funding source and would violate the bans of our agreement. So I'm going to be in opposition to this amendment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Representative Gray. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just rise to a question because it's my first time with a $1 million private donation. In the capital budget. And I was just wondering if we could have some more information about that.

Thank you.

In wrap-up, Representative Castillo. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding plan for this project involves— it's actually a total of $7 million, but this particular amendment is contingent upon a $1 million contribution from John Rubini, whose name is listed in the materials that I have here as the individual who would be providing that contribution.

Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 34 pass the body? Members may proceed to vote.

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

The vote: 19 yeas, 21 nays. With a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, Amendment Number 34 has failed to pass. Madam Clerk, Amendment Number 35 by Representative Costello, beginning page 3, following line 19. Representative, Representative, at ease.

Will the House please come to order. Madam Clerk, amendment number 35 by Representative Costello, beginning page 3, following line 19. Representative Costello. I move Amendment 35. There's an objection.

So Amendment 35 is $6.5 million, and it has to do with expansion of the YMCA, which is on Lake Otis in Anchorage. Permission to refer to my notes, Mr. Speaker? Please do. Thank you. So it's a 20,400-square-foot expansion Expansion of the YMCA facility in Anchorage would include a full-size high school gym and an elevated indoor walking track, expanded fitness and wellness space, and include the capacity— expanding capacity for year-round programs.

Mr. Speaker, I think the rationale for a type of project like this is similar to what we've been hearing about the value of mental health opportunities, opportunities for seniors, opportunities for youth. And Mr. Speaker, with that, I will be withdrawing Amendment 35. Amendment 35 is withdrawn. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 36 by Representative Costello, beginning page 3, following line 19.

Representative Costello. I move Amendment 36. There's an objection. Um, Mr. Speaker, this amendment has to do with a child care facility and programs statewide. It would offer 100 new licensed child care slots statewide and 15 to 20 Early childhood workforce positions.

Mr. Speaker, permission to refer to my notes? Permission granted. Okay. As we know, our Alaska licensed child care capacity does not meet the current workforce demand, and in many communities, families cannot secure reliable before and after school care, particularly in rural and coastal regions where provider options are very limited. Mr. Speaker, the YMCA of Alaska will expand its proven licensed afterschool child care model to— for up to 5 additional Alaska communities using a successful framework that they have— that they have been using.

And with that, Mr. Speaker, I will withdraw Amendment 36. Amendment number 36 is withdrawn. Madam Clerk.

Amendment number 37 by Representative Costello, beginning page 3, following line 19. Representative Costello. Mr. Speaker, I move Amendment 37. There is an objection.

Permission to refer to my notes.

Mr. Speaker, this is $550,000 that the YMCA of Alaska will use to expand its Senior Dignity and Aging in Place initiative across Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, and the Matsu Borough. The expansion will include 2 senior support coordinators, 2 ADA-accessible wheelchair vans, and expand in-home stabilization services. Um, Mr. Speaker, the program will provide individualized support for vulnerable seniors across the service area spanning up to 200 miles from Anchorage. It would, um, serve 30 seniors annually. And allow for 600 or more visits and up to 200 medical transports to strengthen our community-based aging support across Southcentral Alaska.

Mr. Speaker, I will withdraw Amendment 37. Amendment number 37 has been withdrawn. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 38 by Representative Castello, beginning page 3, following line 19. Representative Castello.

Mr. Speaker, I move Amendment 38. There's an objection. Mr. Speaker, permission to refer to my notes. Permission granted. So this amendment is $1.5 million related to a statewide aquatics workforce initiative, which would deploy a 5-member mobile certification team to 6 to 10 communities in the very first year.

It would help certify approximately 240 new lifeguards and provide CPR, first aid, and life-saving credentials. It would establish Alaska's first coordinated in-state certification system and build sustainable aquatic workforce infrastructure. And Mr. Speaker, I do want to just mention that when I had worked previously for the municipality of Anchorage, every staff meeting we had, the Parks and Rec Director would talk about the lifeguard shortage we have in Anchorage specifically. Mr. Speaker, I actually went back and became a certified lifeguard so that the Diamond High School swimming and diving team could practice together as opposed to busing the divers to a different location because there weren't enough lifeguards. And Mr. Speaker, I think that with the importance of being able to swim and being safe around water, that having an innovative program like this that travels around the state to train lifeguards so that communities do have lifeguards is something that's really vital.

And I encourage support for this at some time in the future, but now I will be withdrawing the amendment. Amendment number 3. Amendment number 38 will be withdrawn.

I want to take a moment of personal privilege here and thank the member from District 15, the only Alaskan to be part of the Harvard Sports Hall of Fame as a swimmer, which is an incredible accomplishment. So thanks for your advocacy. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 39 by Representative Johnson, beginning page 34, line 5. Representative Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, let me try it one more time. This is an amendment that again appropriates money for the Palmer Courthouse. Could you move the amendment, please? I'm sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your indulgence. I move amendment number 39. There's an objection. There's an objection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, this is about the Palmer Courthouse again, and probably everyone knows by now that it's the busiest courthouse per capita in the state, that we're one judge under— we're one judge understaffed. But even that, by adding one judge this year, we're still one judge understaffed. We're actually two, three courtrooms underserved. Mr. Speaker, this expansion— and if you look at any of the statistics, you will see that Matsu is the fastest growing region in the state. Matsu is not projected to slow down at all.

Most of the new housing starts are in Matsu, and our population is just expanding. People are moving there from all over the country, but they're also moving there from all over the state, Mr. Speaker. Uh, with that, uh, we have our major highways that run from Anchorage to Fairbanks from Anchorage out of the state.

Those all go through Mat-Su. All those crimes, all those people that get picked up for different types of offenses, they end up at the Palmer Courthouse. This isn't about me. This isn't a personal project. This is really about the court system, and this is our number one priority.

Mr. Speaker, I, you know, I'm almost reluctant to make the— to continue to make this motion because I think it's damaging actually to the courthouse after— at the court system at some point because I believe that this has gotten so tied to me and it's become.

Politicized that I don't think I'm doing any favors by bringing this amendment forward and advocating for this project. So I will, I will not be advocating for the project. I will allow the court system continue to do that because I know this is their number one priority. This is their project and their statewide situation that they are dealing with. With that, Mr. Speaker, I will be withdrawing Amendment Number 39.

Amendment number 39 has been withdrawn. Thank you for those comments, Representative Johnson. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 40 by Representative Schwanke, beginning page 2, following line 25. Representative Schwanke.

I move amendment number 40. There's an objection. So this particular amendment is fairly small. It was, um, Something that I think has been bothering me for a really long time. We have very few arts and theater programs throughout our schools, but where we do, each of us is experienced with the, the particular educator that has stepped up to offer these programs.

These are incredibly dedicated instructors who generally help bring their own funding and their own props and own everything in to make these productions successful. And so I know that several of our small schools have struggled with how to improve their theater equipment, often operating with equipment that is 30, 40, and 50 years old. And so I am asking for a small appropriation here through the general fund. I recognize that, Probably not in the cards, but I did wanna talk a little bit about the importance of theater. When our students have something like music, arts, and theater, science shows that they have much higher academic achievement.

Math, science, critical thinking skills. Very important for their social emotional growth. It keeps kids coming to school when they otherwise might not, and they always have incredible community and economic impact when we do have these small arts and theater programs. So, um, with that, um, I would like to ask for your support. Representative Schraggy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No doubt that the, uh, lessons learned are valuable and that there's a need for this, but it falls without, uh, outside of the bounds of the agreement and there's not room in the budget for this. So I would encourage members to vote no. Thank you.

Any closing comments, Representative Schwanke?

Yeah, Mr. Speaker, I guess it would have been nice to know what was out of bounds with the other body. I'll withdraw my amendment. Amendment number 40 has been withdrawn. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 41 by Representative Ruffridge, beginning page 3, following line 12.

Representative Ruffridge. Uh, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will not be offering Amendment 41. Thank you. Amendment number 41 will not be offered.

Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise and offer Amendment number 28.

There is an objection. Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Amendment 28 is an attempt to make sure that we are continuing investment in Alaska's coastal communities. Mr. Speaker, my first amendment I offered tonight was about building reliable energy for the state of Alaska and making sure that we have that for generations to come.

The amendment I'm offering now is for us to make investment in our Alaska Municipal Harbor Facility grant program. Uh, this program, Mr. Speaker, is established in 2006, and it provides critical infrastructure for our coastal communities to support commercial fishing and marine transportation and subsistence access. This program services and is available for the for the whole state, Mr. Speaker. It is a competitive program. It is a 50/50 match program, so the communities have to bring their own money in order to qualify.

There is a $5 million cap on this program, Mr. Speaker, and I think that one of the things we'll probably hear is, is that we are outside of the bounds of the availability for funding for this program, Mr. Speaker. Permission to read. Permission granted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I reached out to the Department of Revenue and I wanted to ask them a little bit about some intended intent in the legislation in that back in 2006 about what we might do to fund this program.

And they sent me some additional information. In Alaska Statute 2960.800, it says that we may appropriate from the water fuel tax account and from the fisheries business tax revenues. So, Mr. Speaker, I asked him, how much money is in that? What do we expect? So for FY27, Department of Revenue told us, told me that there would be $19, approximately $19.3 million from the fisheries business tax left over after we provide additional revenues to municipalities according to the statute.

They also told me that in the water fuels tax account that we would receive more than $5 million. And so then I asked him, Mr. Speaker, well, what happens to this money? Because it hasn't been put toward this program since FY24.

The 3 previous funding opportunities we had for the Harbor Facilities Grant Program, Mr. Speaker, was FY19 when $3 million was appropriated FY22 when $23 million was appropriated, and in FY24 when $5 million was appropriated— correction, $5.5 million. And then through a supplemental that year, they added an additional $7 million. So I asked, Mr. Speaker, what about the $24+ million that is available in FY27? And they told me, Mr. Speaker, that the water fuel tax has typically been taken for DOT road projects, not put toward this program, not toward our coastal communities, not to support our harbors. Then I asked, well, what happens to the $19.3 million, Mr. Speaker?

And they told me, well, it just goes into the general fund and it is spent for all the other things that are in this budget. So I am asking for your support on this. Representative Schrag. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I note that the member's companion in the other body is the capital budget co-chair and could have addressed this, but given that it has not been, those funds are already—.

Point of order. Point of order, Representative Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would request that we do not refer to the other body to influence a vote on the various amendments. We are not here to take up or act according to what the other body may have put forward.

So could we combine our argument into what the House may find the best interests of Alaska? Representative Shraggi, point well taken. Yeah, I'm not sure what rule I violated, but I'll take the point. I'll just note that the funds have been fully subscribed and there's not room in the budget for this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Further discussion? Any closing comments? Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With that, I move Amendment 2 to Amendment 28.

There's an objection. Mr. Speaker, I'm offering Amendment 2 because the amendments that I offered in the packet are out of order. What Amendment 2 does is that it provides the funding source to be part of the waterfall provision. What that waterfall provision would do is, is if oil reaches $80 on average for the barrel over the next 6 months for the first part of the fiscal year, that these projects in that section of the budget would be funded. And so as far as what I have in front of us, it would be funding the CAKE project, it would be funding Unalaska, and it would also be funding the Wrangell project.

Representative Schragg. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. While in theory you could make room for this by adding it to the waterfall, that would reduce any possible surplus for next year, or even worse, if oil prices decline, could exacerbate any supplemental that's required next year. And for those reasons and that concern, there's an agreement between the bodies that we're not going to add additional funds spending to the waterfall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Greek it is.

Will the House please come back to order. We are under discussion on Amendment No. 2 To Amendment No. 28. Representative McCabe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as I understand it, the waterfall provision was if oil prices are above a certain amount, then this would be funded, but if they're below that amount, that it wouldn't be funded. So I'm a little confused, I guess, about the comment about if oil prices went down from the previous speaker. I'm not real sure where he's going with that. Brief it is.

Brief it is. Will the House please come back to order? Continuing on. Is there any further debate? If not, Representative Bynum, I will turn to you for wrap-up comments.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just would hope that you would be able to support the idea that if we move forward with the amendment at all, that we have a funding source that is not pulling directly from the budget as it is, that we would be putting it under the waterfall provision. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is, is that there still is gap in this budget from where the operating budget landed and where this capital budget waterfall is. And so I think that there's some room here for this opportunity at the end of the budget with the waterfall. So I appreciate a yes.

Well, let me clarify, Mr. Speaker, the vote— was the waterfall still under objection, or am I under the Under the amendment as amended. We are speaking to Amendment 2 to Amendment Number 28. Thank you. So just to be clear to the body, we're not voting on the underlying amendment. We're voting on Amendment Number 2 to Amendment Number 28.

So the objection has been withdrawn to Amendment Number 2. Not hearing any additional objected, so Amendment 28 stands before us as amended. Representative Bynum, closing comments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the co-chair for withdrawing his amendment that we could put the funding source as the waterfall.

And with that, Mr. Speaker, I will be offering Amendment 1 to Amendment 28.

I do not hear any objections. So you have Amendment 1 and member number 2. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My attempt here is to make sure we're building infrastructure in our coastal communities. And communities throughout Alaska.

Amendment that just passed without objection added to this project the full list for the Harbor Grants program, and that is the Anchorage facility for Ship Creek, the Kodiak facility for $5 million, and the Peter— Petersburg facility. So in total, we would be including those to CAKE Wrangle, and Unalaska. Mr. Speaker, my attempt here is to take care of our communities in the coastal regions, to make sure we're supporting our commercial fisheries, marine transportation, subsistence access. With the most coastline in the United States for any one state, making these investments is good for Alaska. I urge a yes vote.

Are you ready for the question? Question before the body is show amendment number 28. It's As amended, passed the House. Members may proceed to vote.

The clerk, please lock the roll. Does any member wish to change his or her vote? Will the clerk please announce the vote? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. With a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, Amendment No.

28 As amended has failed to pass. Madam Clerk, amendment number 42 by Representative Schragg beginning page 40 following line 10.

Number 40— amendment number 42 will not be offered. Okay.

Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move to rescind action on amendment 25.

There is an objection. Yeah, just for the record, Mr. Speaker, Amendment 25 is the Save Alaska, Fund the West Sioux Amendment.

So the motion before the body is to rescind previous action on failing Amendment number 25. Are you ready for the That's the question. 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? 20 Yeas, 20 nays. Motion to rescind previous action on Amendment 25 has failed to pass.

Madam Clerk, before I turn to you, Representative McCabe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment 10. Amendment number 10 has been moved. There is an objection.

Representative McCabe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This amendment provides $58 million in general funds to support the Matsu Port McKenzie Rail Extension non-federal match. This amount would be the full amount needed in match funds for the completion of this project, and it would match the $295 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement Act grant, which is imminent, Mr. Speaker. This is exactly the type of targeted capital investment that the pair of state dollars with major major federal leverage and something I've offered before.

I have no illusions that this is going to pass. I realize it's a large amount of money, but hey, we took $45 million out of the West Susitna Access and stuffed it somewhere. So maybe we could find it for this.

Representative Schraggi. Just to clarify, money was not taken out of West Susitna. Federal receipt authority was reduced. I oppose this amendment. We do not have the funds available for a $58 million expenditure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Any closing comments? Representative McCabe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate just taking a vote on this. I— it's probably the fastest path forward.

I'd just like to see where everybody stands on it. Thank you. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment Number 10 pass the House? 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? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. By a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, Amendment Number 10 has failed to pass.

Representative McCabe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment Number 11. There's an objection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So this is a different path forward. This amendment appropriates $1 million from the general fund as a non-federal match for the Alaska Railroad's pending federal CRISI grant for the Port Mack rail extension. This modest state match leverages those federal dollars and finishes the critical rail connection from the mainline to Tidewater.

The big thing about this amendment, it also includes clear legislative intent language that the Alaska Railroad can use its existing statutory bonding authority to cover any remaining match should this CRISI grant happen during the interim, Mr. Speaker. Without that, we'll get the CRISI grant, there will be no, uh, not necessarily any match or any bonding authority for them to match if they want, similar to the to what they did, or the issue we had with the sewer dock last session. Actually, this is a high-return, low-cost investment in Alaska's freight infrastructure that supports resource development and economic growth with almost no new state spending required. I urge a yes vote. Thank you.

Representative Schragg. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the risk of being redundant, we just don't have the funds available for this, and so I oppose it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Sadler.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to support this amendment. I'm actually, frankly, even at this late hour, I'm excited to hear the efforts from the upper right-hand corner of the room to get some things built, get some infrastructure built, and move Alaska forward. Rail extensions, roads, access trails, railroad bonding. This is the Alaska I came to, and this is the Alaska I hope to see in the future.

So we should support a couple of these, a lot of these, but we have this one in front of us. Let's support this one.

Any closing comments, Representative McCabe? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a bit of a creative idea, creative way of doing things. I didn't want to leave us over the interim without a way for the path forward. There will likely be more contributors to the non-federal match for this.

Grant, but I wanted to make sure that the railroad had the authority if they needed to from us through this legislative intent language to issue a bond to complete whatever it needed. It could be $10 million, it could be $3 million. The $1 million that I had to put in there was just seed money, sort of. It was a way to get us into this deal. I, I had no idea that we would be this short on the checkbook with oil as high as it is and Apparently the agreement that was made between the bodies that nobody else knew about has impacted that.

But point being is at least you should vote yes for my creativity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment No. 11 Pass the body? Members may proceed to vote.

The clerk, please lock the roll. Does any member wish to change his or her vote? Will the clerk please announce the vote? 20 Yeas, 20 nays. We voted 20 yeas to 20 nays.

Amendment number 11 has failed to pass.

Madam Clerk, before I turn to you again, Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment 17. Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Amendment 17, I think, is a great amendment. It funds the Nome Deep Port water with a waterfall. And I noticed that in the capital budget, we're funding the Anchorage Port, Mr. Speaker. And I just hope the members vote yet for parity. Years ago, when the funding for the Anchorage Port of Alaska, the Don Young Port of Alaska, was put in the budget, It was done so with funding for the Nome Port, and I think that if we're going to do this, Mr. Speaker, we should continue to fund the Nome Port project as well.

Thank you. Brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order right now.

Representative Foster. Representative Foster.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the efforts of our friend from Fairbanks and his creativity, but I believe that this is to be ruled out of order, in my understanding, in which case I would withdraw the amendment. Amendment number 17 has been withdrawn. Representative Johnson. Mr. Speaker, I rise to a point of personal privilege. Representative Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've heard at least 3 times, if not many more— I can remember the exact 3— a reference to an agreement with the other body that is constrained, this confining actions on our amendments, or have been referred to. So my request would be from the co-chair, the Capitol co-chair, if we could get a copy of that agreement, it would be much appreciated.

Representative Johnson, you were part of an agreement once not that long ago. We never made that public.

I will leave that matter between your request and the capital budget chair. And we do have other members who wish to be addressed. Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to Mason's 250, I rise for a point of inquiry.

Mr. Speaker, we had Amendment 17 that was moved by the member from Fairbanks. That amendment was at the control of the body. And I'm just was wanting a, clarification that the member from 39 then stood up and he withdrew the amendment. My understanding, Mr. Speaker, that the amendment was made by the member from Fairbanks and controlled the amendment. I just wanted clarification for the purposes of understanding what happened.

Representative Bynum, the short answer is, is that since we were past the amendment deadline and the only name on the amendment was Representative Foster. Amendment was still in possession of the prime sponsor, and therefore it was his prerogative or his— at his discretion to withdraw the amendment. Representative Tomaszewski. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment Number 21.

21 Has been offered. There's objection. Representative Tomaszewski.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the indulgence of the body at this late hour and offer this amendment, this small amendment. Mr. Speaker, I know we have many needs in the state and And Mr. Speaker, there is no greater need than taking care of our elders. This amendment would replace the Pioneer Home in Fairbanks. I know it says House District 31, Mr. Speaker, which the building is in, but it really is for the greater area of Fairbanks.

It is used by all House districts. In Fairbanks. And, um, this building was built over 60 years ago. It is in dire need of replacement. And Mr. Speaker, I, I think, um, the body would, uh, love to discuss this.

So thank you. Representative Fields. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the magnitude of this amendment, I move to table. There's a motion to table for the body.

Motion to table is non-debatable.

Are we ready for the question? The question being, shall motion— shall Amendment No. 21 Be tabled? Members may proceed to vote.

The clerk, please lock the roll. Does any member wish to change his or her vote? Will the clerk please announce the vote? 21 Yeas, 19 nays. With a vote of 21 yeas to 19 nays, Amendment Number 21 has been tabled.

Representative Stapp. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move and ask you to ask consent to take Amendment 21 from the table.

Motion before the body is to take Amendment 21 from the table. 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? 19 Yeas, 21 nays. By a vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, the motion to take 21 from the table has failed.

Madam Clerk.

Amendment number 3 by Representative McCabe, beginning page 15, line 6. Representative McCabe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we have well discussed Amendment 3, and I don't think that it's necessary to offer it again. Okay, Amendment number 3 is being withdrawn.

Madam Clerk, Amendment number 4 by Representative Moore, beginning page 3, line 30. Representative Moore. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be offering Amendment number 4. Number 4 will not be offered.

Madam Clerk.

I have no further amendments at the bottom of the pile. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, we are at the hour. I move and ask unanimous consent that the House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 214 Finance, as amended, be considered engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage.

There is an objection. This bill be held to the next day's calendar.

Madam Clerk, please read the next item on today's calendar.

Senate Bill Number 41, amended House by Senators Gray-Jackson, Clayman, Giesel, Dunbar, Tobin, Kawasaki, Hoffman, Cronk, entitled an Act Relating to Mental Health Education. The bill is in third reading, final passage. Representative Gelvin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to speak for and in support of Senate Bill 41. I'd also like to thank the member from District G in the other body for being such a fierce advocate for mental health education in Alaska. Do I need to move the— I feel like maybe I've made a mistake. I'm okay.

Okay, thank you. Alaska's youth faces the highest suicide rate in the nation. In 2023, the suicide rate among Alaskans ages 15 to 24 in 2004 was 42.3 deaths per 100,000, and Alaska's overall rate is nearly double the national average. The challenge is even greater in rural communities where suicide rates are significantly higher than in urban areas. These realities highlight the importance of providing students with early education and support around mental health throughout the state.

Sen. Bill 41 is a meaningful step towards strengthening mental health support for Alaska students and recognizing that mental health is just as important as physical health. This bill adds the integration of mental health education, um, into our K-12 system by directing the development of an age-appropriate, uh, set of guidelines in collaboration with the state and national health experts as well as tribal health organizations. Then as District Districts themselves can determine their own needs. Schools will choose whether or not to use the curriculum. Senate Bill 41 also holds— upholds parental rights by requiring schools to notify parents at least 2 weeks before any mental health instruction is provided to their children.

Furthermore, it gives local school boards and districts the choice to tailor mental health education to the local community. To foster transparency and accountability, the boards will submit a report to the legislature within 2 years outlining the guidelines and how they were developed. This ensures that mental health education truly works for our Alaskan youth. Ensuring students understand and care for their mental health is an investment in their well-being and future success. By strengthening mental health education, Senate Bill 41 helps equip students with the tools they need to both— to thrive both in and outside the classroom.

I respectfully ask for your support for Senate Bill 41. I'm also grateful to the members.

From Anchorage for strengthening this bill. And I look forward to your support and your vote for this bill. Thank you. Senator Sadler. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, it's been some time since we heard this bill up before us, but I rise in opposition to Senate Bill 41. You know, I've heard the arguments that we heard a little bit earlier in the week that this is simply an optional thing, that this allows the State Department of Education to develop a curriculum which districts may, if they want to, to implement. Well, Mr. Speaker, clearly the intent is to have a mental health curriculum available. You don't buy a car unless you want to go on a road trip. You don't buy a hammer unless you want to build a house, pound some nails.

So, you know, we are asking— here's the essential point I want to make, is we ask our school system to do too much, Mr. Speaker. I think we all kind of acknowledge that in the heart of hearts here. You know, we ask schools to teach ethics and culture and relationship and dating behavior, Alaska history, financial literacy, citizenship, physical health, English as a second language, behavioral science, in addition to, oh yeah, math and science and English and history. You know, we also expect our public system, school system, to provide medical care and nutrition, food benefits, daycare, pre- and post-school. You know, there's only so many days in the year, there's so many hours in the day.

We just— it's too much. We hear teachers talk to us about how they are overwhelmed and cannot do the job that we expect of them. And we hear alternately that it's because they don't have a pension at the end of 30 years, or we hear that they don't have enough money in the BSA. And maybe, just maybe, Mr. Speaker, it's because we're asking teachers to do too darn much. You know, we're just loading them up.

A point I want to make is that society exists outside the purview of government. It's a small part, but it's not the main part. You know, family, our churches, our community groups, our social clubs, fish camps, social interaction, culture camps, church camps, Boy Scout camps. This, Mr. Speaker, is where society models and teaches healthy behavior and inculcates mental health. If, despite all this support for healthy children, mental health individuals have significant mental health problems, there exists a well-funded and extensive network of counselors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, peer advisors who are oriented, funded, and motivated and driven to address these kind of problems.

The job's being taken care of, Mr. Speaker. We don't need to add more to our school system. I share the concerns of those who thought that maybe this is just too much for our schools to do. This is getting into personhood and identity and purpose of life. I share that concern.

I've seen some of the stuff that is being proposed to be included in mental health curriculum, and I don't like it. I don't think a lot of parents like it either. Not every aspect of human existence, Mr. Speaker, is an appropriate addition to our public school curriculum. Where does it end? This is not appropriate.

It is not necessary. Don't do it. Representative St. Clair. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just trying to kind of caveat off of what the member in front of me stated.

We have failing schools. Math, reading, writing. And now we're going to put those same teachers— we're going to put our kids' mental health in their hands? I don't think so.

Representative Chimney.

Booyah, Mr. Speaker. Permission to read? Permission granted. Booyah. Kids from my rural Alaska came to this building and they told us that they are struggling.

They ask for help, and that takes courage.

They asked us this year, they asked me last year. I know that they have been asking even before I began working in this building. In my district, there are no therapists down the road, no crisis counselor in every school. When something breaks in a child in rural Alaska, it usually breaks quietly. And we always see how that ends up.

We always find out too late. We are losing kids. This bill puts mental health alongside physical health in every K-12 classroom. Classroom in this state, developed with tribal health organizations at the table, so rural Alaska is not written as a footnote. The kids already did their part.

They showed up. They spoke up. Now we do our part. Vote yes. Representative Josephson.

Well, I'm not going to be able to top the previous speaker, and I had a great experience with the Suicide Prevention Council, I think largely hosted by the previous speaker. When I taught in a Yup'ik village between '91 and '94, I recall that I was told to teach about the founding fathers Now imagine that. It's, it's a challenge. It's not wholly relatable to the students, and I tried my best to make it relatable. I was then told to teach a psychology class.

Now that's not directly mental health, but the students I taught in Lower Kalskag and Upper Kalskag, they latched on to that thing like nobody's business. The whole thing was relatable to them. They were passionate about the subject of psychology and human psychology. And I think that the previous speaker is spot on, that we're just, um, our children, many of them are in crisis. And, um, I think this is— this curriculum is mostly going to be designed to say You're okay.

You're okay. You're not alone.

I support this bill.

Representative Prox.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly don't want to disparage the intent of anyone who is working on teaching or developing a particular curriculum. Um, I don't know, the distinction between religion and mental health is a little bit murky.

Several decades ago, all the social and health debates that were going on in the public education system at the time prompted my wife and I to just choose to homeschool. And not just avoid those debates. And I don't know if that was the best thing to do or not, but that's what we chose to do. And I'm— as I interact with people in District 33 specifically, and a lot of people in other districts, I think that the effort to what is interpreted as engineering someone's mental health, our worldview is the primary reason that so many people are bailing out of the public school system and opting for correspondence programs and charter schools and et cetera. And I think that, I appreciate the effort, I really do, but I just don't think that that is doing our, public schools any good and that we should focus on just the, you know, if you will, the hard sciences rather than the soft sciences.

And I think our public schools would be doing a better service and let families decide how to help their kids with mental health. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Mina. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand in very strong support for Senate Bill 41.

I don't know how many members have read the paper, the sociological paper, a few decades ago about Bowling for One, but with every generation we are continually finding our youth becoming more isolated. And right now in this time period, we're also seeing that tens of thousands of Alaskans are losing their health insurance. There's so many different barriers for people to just access mental health care. Nevertheless, our youth. Mental health is treated like a taboo because we treat it like a taboo.

And when we normalize talking about our mental health, especially talking about it with our youth and doing it intentionally so we're all on the same page where we know what it means when we talk about mental health, and it truly is about making sure that a kid who is feeling some strong feelings who doesn't feel good about themselves knows that that's okay and it's okay to feel okay. And it's important to have this curricula and, and these guidelines because this is for those kids who don't have families that are there for them, who don't have that support system, who don't have communities, who don't have friends. And it is so crucial that there's at least something that we're doing for these kids who might not have that support system that so many of us were.

We're so, so fortunate to have. I think this is a really great opportunity to also expose families and parents who also feel alienated talking about mental health to start normalizing that. It is so, so important that we talk about it and we normalize it and truly addressing these mental health issues in terms of this more broader level of approach gets at preventing all of these huge detriments of depression and high suicide rates that we're seeing in the state. So I think this is a great step. Thank you.

Representative Carrick. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to stand in strong support for Senate Bill 41. Mr. Speaker, a couple of arguments I frequently hear recurring on this debate is, first of all, that this is another unfunded mandate on school schools. And I'm really sensitive to those arguments, Mr. Speaker.

It took me a long time to feel fully comfortable with this bill because it seemed at first like maybe we were just adding yet another thing to teachers' plates. But then, Mr. Speaker, I thought about myself and the education that my peers received, and I remember going to my teacher, Ms. Palmquist's class. She was my science teacher in high school. And when I could talk to no one else, and when my friend and I could talk to no one else, we could talk to Ms. Palmquist. Mr. Speaker, the reality is teachers are providing mental health services whether we realize it or not.

Teachers are talking to students about how to cope with really complicated, really difficult, often what we would think of as really adult problems, and they're doing it without any mandate. They're doing it without anything in statute, but they're doing it. But when I think about the students who have talked to me and I think about my own experiences, I think it would have been beneficial if, Mr. Speaker, at some point, uh, my teacher or other teachers had been able to talk about healthy coping mechanisms for really rough moments. If they had been able to help walk through what resources exist that youth can access. All of those are good examples.

The other frequent argument I hear, Mr. Speaker, against Senate Bill 41 is that really students should be involved in a lot of other activities to insulate them from some of these challenges, and that parents should be involved in their kids' lives. And I agree. I think there is nothing wrong with that statement. Parents should be a lot more involved in kids' lives in so much as they can. Kids should not be on screens as much as they are.

Kids should be in activities things like Boy Scouts or going to church groups or doing those kinds of activities outside of school. Those are healthy, productive things for young people to be doing. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I know so many people, and I have heard from so many youth who don't have access to those kinds of programs. They don't have healthy peer relationships outside of perhaps just the classroom. That's just a reality.

And many parents are struggling in ways that they've never struggled. And despite their best efforts to invest in their kids' lives and mental health, they don't necessarily always have the resources to help that child feel fully insulated. And Mr. Speaker, I, I agree those are grim realities, those are tough things, but they do exist. What I like about this legislation is this legislation acts upon what students have told us for more than a decade in this body. This is my 10th session working in this legislature, and every one of those 10 sessions, students from urban Alaska and students from rural Alaska have come into our office or my office, and they have said, please help better provide for mental health.

And what this bill says is, it says, if you look at Section 2, um, Part 2, that we are still recognizing the authority of a parent and allowing a parent to object to and withdraw the child from an activity, class, or program. And then we are just simply adding in Section 3 mental health right next to physical health as part of the curriculum. And further, Mr. Speaker, we're going to have data on how this bill implemented will work because on page 3 and line 17, we provide a report back to the legislature in 2 years to help us understand what the real impact is. So, Mr. Speaker, I haven't talked all day, and I, I know it's very late, but I can't say enough how much this bill has the potential to positively impact youth. And because it was mentioned earlier about high rates of really devastating consequences for unaddressed mental health issues, I just want to also point out, as our member from Anchorage always does, 988 is a free service Youth can call it.

Anyone can call it. Adults who are impacted by any part of any of our conversations today, as well as youth, are able to call that number. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Hempschulte.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am going to speak to the body. Tonight as a teacher, I dream and have always dreamed throughout my career of every child having the opportunities that the member from District 24 talked about. Many children do, by far not all. And I agree, those are great opportunities, whether it's church, camp, any kind of organization that can help a child develop. Into who they're going to be.

It's a yes and opportunity for kids who have those opportunities.

I want folks to know that when anyone in this body talks about failing schools, you are talking about me. And you may not think you are, but you are. I am so deeply ingrained in the system that you call failing that it is insulting to me to hear people talk about our schools as failing. And if you would like me to filibuster for the next 3 hours, I can tell you how our schools are not failing. But I will not do that tonight.

If anybody wants to have that 3-hour conversation, I'll buy them the beverage or beverages of their choice and we'll go there.

I have dream legislation that I may file if I'm lucky enough to be back in this body next year, and that's to require every single person in this body to spend a week in a school. And I'm not talking about volunteering. And I'm not talking about dropping in, I'm talking about substitute teaching. Please accept my challenge or I'm gonna file a bill to make you do it. Go and be the person in the classroom for a week.

Do it. They'll even pay you to do it. Not much, but they'll pay ya. And they'll be glad you're there. When you spend that week in the school, I guarantee you it will not even take one full day for some kid to have a situation that you don't know how to handle.

It happens every day. And what you don't know how to handle is not the academics— teachers are pretty good at that. It's gonna be an emotional situation. Something that happened on the playground for a second grader. Something that happened on a cell phone during lunch for a sophomore.

There's gonna be something and you may be the person the kid goes to. In elementary school, you're guaranteed the person who's gonna be dealing with that. So the decision the body gets to make tonight is, for all the mistrust you guys have in the people who do what I do, we can give them the guidelines and the guardrails of a curriculum, or we can continue as doing exactly what we're doing right now, which is every teacher, Godspeed and good luck. Let's hope you know what to do every single day when at least one child comes to you with a situation about their mental health. So could we please come together and say, if teachers are doing this already, let's give them the opportunity to know how best to do it.

That's what this bill does. Thank you. Representative Bynum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wasn't sure what to say about this because this is a tough topic to have.

You know, I want to try to ask my colleagues, if you're thinking about voting no on this tonight, to take a minute and reconsider that vote. And even if you do vote no, take this conversation away with you and think about it and think about how it might change your life. Mr. Speaker, we're not doing anything here that is new.

This has already been done in Texas. Florida, Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana, and about half of the states. These are Republican states because they recognize that this is an important issue. Mr. Speaker, when I worked with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Army Corps of Engineers in the Army found that this was such an important issue that they made it mandatory training twice a year. Not only for soldiers, they made it mandatory for civilians.

They offered it to family members. They offered it in their schools. Master Resilience Training, MTR, is a very important part of saying, let's do something about a topic that's hard to talk about.

We learned ACE. You need to ask, care, and escort. And I got to tell you, Mr. Speaker, the first time I went into that class with my colleagues looking at across the table, it's a bit embarrassing to talk a little bit about this topic. People didn't want to be there.

They're very uncomfortable. Imagine being a kid, not knowing who to go talk to, not knowing what to do. This provides teachers an opportunity with parental approval to think about these things. How can I be the one? Mr. Speaker, this is such an important topic that over the last couple years, the American Legion started a campaign, national campaign of be the one.

Be the one.

If this helps one kid in my school district, if this would have helped one kid in my school district, because if we would have done it, it's worth doing. I urge you to change your mind if you were going to vote no. Vote yes. Vote for our future. Representative Hall.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Permission to refer to my notes? Permission granted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong, strong support of SB 41.

And the reason why? Well, there are many reasons why, but I have one anecdote that I want to share with the body, and that is last year a high school student who's a constituent of mine came to my office, and it was during one of those many fly-ins when it came to education funding and the fierce debate that we were having about our public education system and funding our schools. She comes to my office, and I was fully expecting her to say what many others have been saying to me in my office, and that is, please, please, please fund my school. Because in fact, earlier that day, she was in one of our committee meetings making that plea. But instead, when she came into my office, sat down, I shut the door, and she tells me— she asks me What are you doing about mental health?

That was her number one issue that she brought up to me. She didn't want to talk to me about education funding. She wanted to talk about her mental health, her friend's mental health, and the severe crisis that they are experiencing in their schools right now. And that really stood with me. It has stuck with me, and that is why I have made supporting mental health and making sure that people know the resources that are available.

I share it in my newsletter almost every week, and as everybody in this body knows, I talk about it regularly during special orders. And you know, Mr. Speaker, a very dear friend of mine, his daughter lost one of her friends to suicide. She died by suicide not that long ago, it was only about 2 months ago. And so this is a severe issue. That our students, that our youth are experiencing, and it's up to us to do something about this.

We need to do better.

I am incredibly grateful to the member from District 14 and for the member of the other body to be working on this legislation. And Mr. Speaker, I really wish that this form of legislation or mental health education was something that I grew up with, especially because about 25 years ago One of my immediate family members attempted to die by suicide, and thankfully that did— it did not follow through. But it makes me wish that we had this kind of mental health education support in our system so that maybe she wouldn't have even gotten to that point. And lastly, Mr. Speaker, I can't think of a better time than now to pass SB 41 because May is Mental Health Awareness Month. As the National Alliance on Mental Illness states, Stigma grows in silence.

Healing begins in community. So, Mr. Speaker, if you or someone you know is struggling, call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline because you are not alone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Representative Kahlom. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I find some of the conversations a little patronizing. Because I'm a no vote on this bill, I don't care about kids' mental health. I have 4 children.

They've all had mental health issues, 2 of them pretty severely. One of them, I know it's hard to believe because I live in Anchorage, we couldn't find therapists for him. This 2-week, 3-week wait. We tried to get addiction help, couldn't find it, couldn't find a space.

I've, I've dealt with this. And guess what? I was a TA for a whole year in a public school. I understand what schools are going through. It's not easy, and I'm not saying it is easy for teachers, and I'm not saying kids don't need help.

My issue is that we're saying the government should fix this problem. We all know the communities are broken. That's the the problem. I dealt with a lot of mental health issues with kids in schools, and you can talk to them and get them through the moment, but if they don't have a connection with an adult in their life, the problem isn't fixed. People are alone, they're lonely, they don't have community.

My contention is this doesn't fix it. This is kind of like the same thing I say about the mental health budget. Are the things we're doing effective? Is it going to be fixed? So, okay, we're going to have a bunch of government departments and health organizations try to put some guidelines together.

That's going to take a couple of years. Then we're going to have a nice big report. And in all that time, the, the districts still have to adopt it because it was clear it's not mandatory. So some might adopt a mental health curriculum and some might not. Might take a while.

My, my only issue with the bill is that I just don't think it's going to do what you think it's going to do. We have to fix our communities. My two sons that struggled with this, and they have family, they have siblings, they had their mom and dad. There was still a lot of issues around them that were making them in desperate straits. And it's scary.

It's really scary. It's really scary to raise a child and think you're doing the right thing and they're still struggling. But the fix was community. The fix was different groups that we found. For the kids, the church, and we got over those rough spots.

So then, you know, people go, well, there's kids that don't have that kind of parents that care, or, um, they don't have those stops. And I agree, and I feel for those kids because I adopted one of those kids. Um, but I think at least my one little year in public school It wasn't— I didn't need more training. They need a listening ear. They need a hug.

They need connection. And so all I'm saying, and it's— I'm sure most people disagree with me that I'm voting no for the bill, but please don't say I don't understand, and please don't say I don't have a heart for kids. I know there's a mental health problem. I've walked through it myself. Just because I disagree on what the solution is does not mean I don't care about kids in rural Alaska or urban Alaska.

I appreciate the efforts made to try to address the problems in this way. I guess I just— I disagree that— I don't think it's going to help or do what we think it's going to do. Thank you. Representative Schwanke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I too am in opposition to this bill for many of the same reasons that my colleague from District 11 just spoke about. I read a book a couple years ago called Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up. I would recommend that every individual in this body read it. If you get a chance. I think every person in this room right now knows somebody that has battled through hard times, depression, or even attempted or was successful in committing suicide.

I too have very serious concerns about this particular piece of legislation not being the panacea people think it will be.

Having looked at school curriculum and state standards, there's already an opportunity for schools to address mental health through health education. Many districts do.

What you teach a child about mental health is what parents are concerned about, because we don't know what will be taught to our child. I'd like to read a couple lines. If you—. Russian, um, Alan Francis, psychiatrist: There are no objective tests in psychiatry, no x-ray, laboratory, or exam findings that say definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.

From Joanna Moncrieff, Professor of Psychiatry, University College London: Depression is a complex emotional state usually arising from life difficulties rather than a biological.

Biologically determined condition.

This is a very difficult issue. There is no easy fix for it. But every parent in here knows that dealing with a child that is struggling is a complex issue and a problem. And having some dedicated mental health education in their school classroom is not necessarily the fix. Um, there's a short list of disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5-TR.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder. This turns childhood rebelliousness into a clinical disorder. Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder. When a child has frequent temper tantrums. Intermittent Explosive Disorder.

Much like the above, but can be also diagnosed in adults. Road rage. Binge Eating Disorder. Medicalizes gluttony, hoarding disorder, pathologizes sentimental attachment, mild neurocognitive disorder, normal forgetfulness such as senior moments. Mental health is very complex.

We can bring together all of the professionals that we want that might be able to come up with the best possible mental health curriculum out there. But I want to repeat what my colleague from District 7 said the other day. Mental health is about how our children see themselves. It's a how they see themselves in the world. The power of suggestion is very strong.

There's a reason why my colleague from District 11 brought so many amendments the other day to really force transparency, public meetings, put the curriculum on the websites, really allow parents, encourage parents to read it first. All those amendments were turned down. This is why parents don't trust public schools. I will be voting no. Representative Nelson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also rise in opposition, and the previous two speakers took a lot of my points. The— you look at what the DSM has done and the continually changing definitions The reality is that parents don't trust what schools are doing. So if we slap this on them as well, it's just going to— mental health is such a broad term right now, uh, that I just don't think it's our place to be handling it. So I will be in opposition to Senate Bill 41.

Representative Ruffridge.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, well, I'm going to say first of all, I'm not entirely certain this is my favorite bill that I've ever seen for a couple of reasons that we've already discussed here. I think we're going to ask a lot of our schools to do more than what they're capable of doing at the moment. I think we have a lot of other issues to discuss when it comes to schools. So we have here before us a thing that we're going to create and then ask to implement.

Um, that's concerning to me, but I think more concerning to me, uh, is hearing from my constituents, uh, that we've lost 2 students at the Sultana High School this year to suicide. That's really quite a bit more than, um, than zero, which is probably what the number should be. And so I, I'm, I'm torn. I agree with many, many of the members that say I'm not certain that this bill is going to do enough. I don't think this bill is going to change much.

That's probably the pessimism of the end of session speaking, or maybe just me being pessimistic in general. I'm not certain that this bill does a whole lot. I feel like there is a lot of energy and emotion tied up inside of mental health right now. I think more than ever people are aware of it. But maybe, maybe, I think to the speaker from Ketchikan, if we could help somebody understand that there is, as the co-chair of the operating budget said, hey, everything's gonna be okay, and here is a place where maybe everything will be okay.

And here's how to get there, maybe it's worth it.

I guess I'm skeptical. I'm gonna support it, see where it goes, but I'm interested to see the curriculum. I'd like to see how that's rolled out. I think parents are gonna want to know what's happening inside their schools. I do wish that the amendments would've passed, but we are losing too many of our kids.

We're losing too many of our kids, and for a whole host of reasons. Our communities are struggling. We're losing access to things that used to bring people together in a healthy way. Um, we got to start addressing some of those things. I hope the curriculum addresses that.

That's not mentioned in the Senate bill. I hope the state school board takes a look at that as well. Um, and I really do think, Mr. Speaker, that some of the things that are going on inside of our schools and why parents are choosing to leave the brick-and-mortar schools is oftentimes because the things that really keep kids excited about, uh, the day-to-day things— music, art, theater, dance, sports— they're going away. Um, and that's some of my concern with the bill as well, is maybe we're replacing it with just talking about mental health and not doing some of the things that maybe actually bring our mental health into a healthier and better place. But I guess we'll see what happens.

I'm going to be in skeptical support, we'll call it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Hannon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You and I are of similar age and probably remember a time when you'd go to the doctor and they'd take your blood pressure and then ask you about your diet.

And how much sodium you were consuming. I know now that when my doctor takes my blood pressure, he asks, "Are you in session? Is it the end of session? We're not gonna adjust your meds right now for blood pressure because I think that it'll probably be lower in another month. But let's make sure we're monitoring it closely 'cause it's pretty high today." When you add mental health into an existing requirement for schools to address physical health, We are acknowledging things that have modernized in our knowledge about medicine, that our physical health and our mental health are integrated.

When little Johnny has a chronic stomach ache and they are searching, long before they do a full GI exam for little Johnny, they start to ask about things. And when he says, "Mommy and Daddy are fighting all the time," The doctor may take a different turn as to what they're doing instead of a full GI analysis for that child, because our mental and physical health are completely integrated. Schools have long been required to teach physical health. This bill says we should add mental health into it. That's not going to be psychiatric treatment or diagnosis at schools.

I remember when I taught Advanced Placement History and Government. Those kind of kids are pretty wound tight in the first couple of years that I taught it because Advanced Placement classes are based around a specific national exam at the end of the course to decide whether you get a score and a college is going to accept it for credit. And these are kids who are pretty focused on being in the very top tier and cramming massive amounts of reading material all the way up to the scheduled exam and not achieving the best scores. And a couple years into teaching Advanced Placement, we started doing test prep that was not focused on had you read every one of the Federalist Papers of the 13 that are gonna be tested on this year. But breathing exercises, reading the instructions, and the kind of things where I'd write goofy instructions for a practice test to say, "You gotta read the instructions." Their scores went up.

Not because I was teaching better. Not because the material was more— easier to digest the next year. But because their mental state in preparation for a high-stakes test was different.

That wasn't mental health education, but it was me evolving as an educator to understand and remember that our mental state and our physical state are very integrated. And we need to make sure that our kids understand these are normal things in life. If your blood pressure's up tonight, you shouldn't have a lot of sodium, but remember, it'll probably be down in about 10 days. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Dybert.

Good evening, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. I stand in full support for Senate Bill 41, and I do thank the members from District 14 and the member from the other body for doing all the years of work on this. I'm very happy to be able to stand and speak on it.

For me, and I appreciate the member from Tuksook Bay and her comments in rural Alaska, I myself have lost family members in rural Alaska, young, and there's lots of layers to that, but something to this, something like this maybe could have helped. I could help my cousins, my family members in some little way. And in my time serving, I'm reminded of this— these youth that came into my office, much like the member from Anchorage. They came to my office and I thought they were going to be like, please fund education, but what they really wanted was, can you please fund education and give us a counselor? And because we are— they were young girls and they're like, we're struggling and we're trying to help each other.

We have access to a counselor online. So they were trying to do this by Zoom with Shadi. Internet speed, and the counselor changed every week. And these are the options that our youth have across the state, and we're doing a disservice to them. And what we should be doing is— and I know, I'm a teacher.

When I was teaching, I was— the biggest thing that I was looking for help with from my colleagues was like, ah, How do I help with this student? This student is upset. This student is crying. This student is mad. Something's going on.

And I would be asking my colleagues, how can I help them? And that's what teachers are doing. This, this bill will help in some way, and it'll give teachers who are in front of students in rural Alaska some tools to teach, to help their youth in their communities so that there we— so that we don't have suicides and people who are struggling much like my cousins. If it saves one student, let's adopt this. And I, and I just hope that everyone— that we light up the, the screen green.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Representative Vance.

These are some brave conversations tonight, and they're hard conversations because these are the issues that we hear about impacting our district, and it's not easy. But what I find often overtakes us is what I refer to as the savior syndrome.

We want to help and we want to solve every problem, but not every problem is ours to solve. And I look at this statute and parents would have to— would be notified of this education.

I don't find that sufficient to build trust. Mr. Speaker, I also read in Section 3 of where it talks— adds mental and physical health into the statute. And for clarification, this is the area of statute that districts are encouraged to initiate certain education. Permission to read, Mr. Speaker?

Each district in the state public school system shall be encouraged to initiate and conduct a program in health education for kindergarten through 12. The program should include instruction in health and personal safety, including alcohol and drug abuse education, CPR, early cancer prevention and detection, dental health, family health including infant care, environmental health. Now we're adding mental health, physical health, the identification and prevention of child abuse, child abduction, neglect, sex abuse, and domestic violence, and appropriate use of health services.

And I ask myself, since the legislature has added each of these items one right after the other, have we reduced the number of abuses and physical health and drug addiction?

Cancer. Have we reduced those numbers in our students and those students who then become adults? Because when I look at the numbers in Alaska, we're still number 1 in the nation for all of these terrible things.

Our kids are obese. Our kids are abused. Our kids are on drugs. And we— the conversation that I'm hearing is if we can just add this to the curriculum. I wish it were true, but I'm not seeing the evidence of, of all of these things that we previously added.

I hope it's turned the dial, and maybe I just don't see it as clearly as some of the rest of you, but I myself have wanted to add human trafficking awareness to this exact statute with the same parental notifications. So that we can teach kids about exploitation that is happening.

But I have to remind myself, I fundamentally believe that this is the job of parents and family and grandparents. And then I hear the arguments from, from teachers saying, well, not every child has that.

I understand every, every child that's in our schools has a guardian. They have a parent of some form, and why do we keep exempting them from this responsibility by saying, we'll do it in the school system?

We want them to do their job and be partners, and what are we doing to help these parents have the tools? I feel like we're approaching this from the wrong way.

I absolutely want to help our kids with the struggles of suicide and abuse and everything else.

But this— the conversations that I've heard on the floor is that— is counseling, teacher training, um, and really the solution to not just an instruction material I remember having some of these health classes.

They didn't change my life. I hope that maybe they were transformative for some other kids, but what, what health class invited in was Planned Parenthood that taught that abortion was healthcare. And I tell you, there's a lot of people in our state who highly disagree with that. And so when we're talking about mental health education, without transparency on the website, without transparency of a public meeting of exactly what that's going to look like. It scares parents to death that the school is taking it upon their, uh, upon them to teach kids about how they should think about themselves and how they should view the world.

And I know there's a lot of disagreement with, with that perspective in this room, but we can't discount The reality that that broken trust exists and parents are walking their kids out of the brick-and-mortar schools for these very issues.

We need to understand and respect that. That's— we're trying to solve a problem from the wrong direction, Mr. Speaker. I too have taught classes in the classroom, and I'm not just talking about my own living room with my kids.

I wish this was going to solve all the problems. I've been that friend with a friend who has attempted suicide in high school. We even went to his pastor. The pastor gave him such terrible advice. I had to get him out of there because he had family problems.

Gave him answers that wasn't uplifting to him. The teachers, the school, he was trying to find a connection. And we can't think that an instruction from a book or a teacher teaching something.

Classroom is suddenly going to solve these issues that people are having.

The mother from Anchorage who shared her personal story was brave, and I appreciate sharing that. We need to, we need to recognize that this is a multi-layered approach, and I know that this is controversial, but Parents just don't want this in the classroom. They want the classroom to focus on academics and leave all of this that has to do with the wellbeing of their child to them and not exempt the other parents from that same responsibility. So I will be a no vote on this tonight, Mr. Speaker. Representative Gray.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Permission to read from the bill.

The previous speaker highlighted page 2, line 17, that policies must include procedures providing for parent notification not less than 2 weeks before any class or program that provides instruction in mental health. And what I heard was it's just not sufficient. No one's going to trust that. So I'd like to read more from the bill. I'm going to start on page 1 and say that A local school board shall adopt policies to promote the involvement of parents in the school district's education program.

The policies must include procedures recognizing the authority of a parent and allowing a parent to object and withdraw the child from any activity, class, or program. Is that sufficient? I— to me, that, that is like, like, how could it be more sufficient We— the law says you must recognize the authority of parents, and the parent has the right to withdraw their, their child from any activity they disagree with. That's the law in the state of Alaska. I think I hear a lot of people talking about how they just— we just don't trust schools.

We can't send our kids to schools because we have no idea what's going to happen. Well, you know what? It is the law that you are recognized as the authority as a parent, and you could take your kid out. I actually think there are people in this body who've taken their kids out. I, I think when we talk about providing some mental health instruction, I think it's— I, I don't know what people are imagining or how is happening.

I'll tell you what I imagine is happening is that we have some kids who will learn the vocabulary to know that when they're very, very sad, when they're having emotions that they can't understand, that they might have the insight to think that there's something, that they're having something wrong with their mental health. They might develop the vocabulary to think that there might be something wrong with their mental health and might be able to articulate that in some way. And I don't believe that this is something that's going to take up enormous amounts of time. I think it's something that will happen, you know, it'll be integrated into the curriculum in an age-appropriate way, as the bill says, And I think telling the parents 2 weeks before, recognizing the authority of a parent to withdraw their child from any activity or class, that telling them this is gonna happen in 2 weeks, you can withdraw your— if you're like, I don't want my kid to have that mental health vocabulary, withdraw them. They don't have to go.

It's very clear in the statute that they're not gonna even be marked for an unexcused absence. So to me, Do I think— I, you know, we heard a lot of talk about is this going to solve all of our problems? No, it's one simple tool. It's one small thing. It's not that big of a deal.

It'll probably help a few kids. If your kids aren't in public school, it's not going to help them, but some kids at public school will be helped. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think we are at wrap-up. Representative McCabe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just going to say it'd be— I'm not to take—. Make light of this very serious subject, but it would be really great for my mental health if we could just vote and wrap up.

Representative Galvin. Thank you, and I'll try to make this as brief as possible for the sake of all of our mental health. First of all, I'd like to thank you for the very robust discussion. It's great that people are interested in talking about mental health. That's a first start.

Um, we certainly need to destigmatize, uh, talking about mental health for sure. Um, and I want to apologize. I apologize to all of you, um, for having to go through this. This is a really hard discussion for all of us. I think each of us has a story, some of us more recent than others, some of us closer than others.

And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that some of you felt like you, you know, had to relive that. I also thank you for that, because it helped us better understand, perhaps, and maybe it led to some— a little bit more of the destigmatization— destigmatizing of talking about this.

I would like to thank, again, the senator who has been working on this for years and years. I believe she may even be here tonight. This is— this matters so much.

I also want to recognize that many of you have mentioned that this is just such a small part of the apple. Perhaps it's not even doing anything. Well, It is $216,000 to put together a tool for a district to choose whether or not they want to use it. That's what this is, folks.

And in statute, it also says, by the way, you must recognize families, there's— you must recognize parents. All of that is true.

I don't think it's appropriate for me to go too deeply into other things that we could be doing, but believe you me, my office has been thinking about it a lot. It's also very expensive, but I can't wait to work with each of you over the interim and really do something about mental health. This is one step. This is one step.

We could have healthcare for every family, especially young families. We can make sure that children are fed. We can make sure that we have infant learning programs so that everyone gets an opportunity when they see that there— when families recognize that there might be some areas where there's more need for support. There's so many things we can do to strengthen families. And I think you've heard me talk about this till I'm blue in the face about how important it is that we better recognize the family unit and how we can better support them so that children, uh, have some grounding.

That's different though than talking about mental health and understanding the vocabulary and all of the things that I can't even get into. But that's not what's happening in school. Schools is not diagnosing, it's not getting into the depth, it's just giving a little bit of tools if the districts choose to use them. So that's what this bill is. And again, I want to thank each person for speaking about this, whether you spoke for it or against it.

I'm grateful for you talking about mental health. That's not easy. And I will share that by spreading mental health education and awareness alongside physical health, we can foster a healthier and happier community of youth right here in Alaska. This is one step. At least we'll go home saying we did something.

I ask for your support. Are you ready for the question?

The question being: Shall Senate Bill 41, amended, pass the House? 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? 27 Yeas, 13 nays. By a vote of 27 yeas to 13 nays, Senate Bill 41 has passed the House.

I would like to take up Senate Bill 187 next and then call it a night afterwards.

With the indulgence of the body, I would ask the Majority Leader, once we are through Senate Bill 187, to adjourn and we'll come back tomorrow. Madam Clerk. Committee substitute for Senate Bill 187, Education, by the Senate Education Committee, entitled an Act Prohibiting Certain Food Additives in Public School Meals and Providing for an Effective Date. The Education Committee considered the bill, attached one previously published zero fiscal note, Signing the report do pass: Representatives Aishai, Dibert, and co-chairs Hemmschulte and Story. No recommendation: Schwanke and Underwood.

I have no House committee substitutes. Madam Clerk, are there any amendments? I have no amendments, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that committee substitute for Senate Bill 187, Education, be considered engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage. There is an objection. This bill be held to the next day's calendar. Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent.

I move to consent that this House stand at adjournment until Friday, May 15th at 10:30 AM. There being no objection, the House will stand adjourned until Friday, May 15th at 10:30 AM.