SFLR-20260520-1730

Will the Senate please come back to order?

Madam Secretary.

Mr. President. Please come back to order, please. Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Senate roll back up the calendar to messages from the House. Thank you.

Messages dated May 20th stating the House concurred in the Senate amendments to CS for House Bill Number 16, State Affairs, thus adopting CS for House Bill Number 16, State Affairs, amended Senate, effective date Failed House campaign finance contribution limits APOC. Also, the House concurred in the Senate amendments to CS for House Bill number 28, finance amended, thus adopting Senate CS for CS for House Bill number 28, finance amended Senate. Teacher state employee student loan program. The House concurred in the Senate amendment to CS for House Bill number 126, tribal affairs amended, thus adopting Senate CS for CS for House Bill number 126, Labor and Commerce. Reinstatement: Native corporations, religious corporations.

The House also concurred in the Senate amendment to CS for House Bill 239, Judiciary, thus adopting Senate CS for CS for House Bill 239, Finance. Criminally negligent homicide, failure to assist. The House additionally concurred in the Senate amendments to CS for House Bill 278, State Affairs, thus adopting Senate CS for CS for House Bill 278, State Affairs. Economic Development, Alaska Ireland Trade Commission.

The House passed and returned CS for Senate Bill 163, Labor and Commerce, Repeal Certain Inactive Funds Accounts, and CS for Senate Bill 164, Labor and Commerce, Eliminate Tax Discounts, Senate Bill 252, UCC Secured Transmission Electronic Records. Those bills have been referred for enrollment. Concur message dated May 16th stating the House passed CS for Senate Bill 214 with the following amendments. House CS for CS for Senate Bill 214, amended House Appropriations Capital Funds Supplemental Reappropriations. Amend.

And it is returned for consideration. Thank you, Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur with the House amendments and recommend that the Senate vote yes. Thank you. Senator Steadman, would you please explain the changes?

Thank you, Mr. President. Well, this evening I'm very proud to stand before the Senate and give you a list of some updates on the capital budget for those watching at home. Dealing with university deferred maintenance, there was $15 million added for a total of $32.5 million. In deferred maintenance. That funds the top 18 projects listed in what we normally call the Red Book, which is the reference book that the Board of Regents put together, and they list their projects in priority order.

So we took the top 18, or the House had in total between the two. K-12 deferred maintenance, they added $48 million for a total of $93.6 million. That's $93.6 million going into K-12. Deferred maintenance, 33 projects from the major maintenance list. So that's the top 33 projects, and that is online at the Department of Education.

That lists school construction— there's $6 million added to begin the Deering School replacement. There's several more schools over the next couple years for us to work on, but that starts that one. Dealing with workforce development, because we, we're expecting to have major construction in the state the next several years dealing with gas line. There was $2 million added to the Teamsters Driving Range project in Wasilla. There was $2 million added to the Pipeline Training Center in Fairbanks.

There was $2.3 million added to AVTEC equipment modernization facilities, upgrades in Seward AVTEC. And then $3.3 million University of Alaska Anchorage welding program. Not going to build a pipeline without welders, Mr. President. Marketing, dealing with our businesses, there was $2 million added to ASMI, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, and $2 million added to the Alaska Travel Industry Association targeting independent travelers. Dealing with Mt.

Edgecumbe High School, the state boarding school, there was $5 million to replace academic building envelope and $5.2 million for the student housing upgrades. We dealt with renewable energy, the Renewable Energy Fund. We added— or they added $9.3 million. That gets to the top 9 projects on the Renewable Energy Fund list. And there was $15 million added to the Port of Alaska, located right out in Anchorage, which is about 80% of the shipping comes in the state to that facility.

There's smaller miscellaneous items. There's $500,000 to Code Blue grants for rural communities to replace the EMS equipment. There was $215,000 to the statewide library electronic doorway. It's a database, uh, for Alaska Information and Archives.

$100,000 To commission the USS Ted Stevens with respect to Senator Ted Stevens that served our state for so many years. $450,000 To the Alaska Municipal League for grant writing assistance. $500,000 For the Arctic Winter Games in Fairbanks. And we did, or they did add some to the waterfall. And for those watching at home, is when the oil prices are north of $80 per barrel between July 1st and December 31st, if oil, ANS West Coast is above $80 a barrel, these will trigger.

There'll be an additional $10 million to the Port of Alaska. That's an additional $10 million. There's $10.6 million to K-12 major maintenance. That's projects number 34 through 38 on the major maintenance list. An additional $2 million to the judicial branch for court security projects.

And an additional $3.2 million for two University of Alaska projects. There's the Lederer Archives at UAA Anchorage and the mariculture doc at the University of Alaska Southeast. And they were requested by the university and they were in their ranked system. That, Mr. President, is what was added by the other body. And they were in agreement, or we were in agreement with the capital budget and it's all in balance.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Senator Simon. If you are ready for the question. Question being, shall the Senate concur in the House amendments to CS for Senate Bill 214 Finance submitted in the House? Senators may proceed to vote.

The Secretary will lock the roll. Do any Senators wish to change their vote? The Secretary will announce the vote. 18 Yeas, 2 nays. So by a vote of 18 yeas to 2 nays, the Senate has occurred in the House amendment to CS for Senate Bill 214 Finance amended in the House.

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the vote on concurrence be considered the vote on the bill— the effective date clause, pardon me. Thank you. Hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted. Madam Secretary.

Concur message dated May 20 stating the House passed Senate Bill 79 with the following amendment. CS for Senate Bill 79, Finance Payment of Wages Payroll Card Account, and it is returned for consideration.

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur with the House amendments and recommend that the Senate vote yes. Thank you. Senator Bjorkman, would you please explain the changes? Absolutely, Mr. President.

The changes made in the other body added an effective date of July 1, 2026, I urge members to vote yes. Thank you. Thank you. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall the Senate concur in the House amendments to Senate Bill 79?

Senators may proceed to vote.

The secretary will lock the roll. Do any senators wish to change their vote? The secretary will announce the vote. 20 Yeas, 0 nays. And so by a vote of 20 yeas, 0 nays, the Senate has concurred in the House amendments to Senate Bill 79.

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the vote on concurrence be considered the vote on the effective date clause. Hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted. Madam Secretary. Concur message dated May 20 stating the House passed Senate Bill 258 with the following amendment: House CS for Senate Bill 258, Labor and Commerce, Contract Licensing Software applications and it is returned for consideration.

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur with the House amendments and recommend that the Senate vote yes. Thank you. Senator Keogh, would you please explain the changes? I'd be delighted, Mr. President.

Thank you. The first thing the House, the other body, did was they made it more readable. They took a frequently repeated phrase and they consolidated it down. With a reference at the back. So it means the same thing, but boy, is it easier to read.

Um, they also made explicit a few things that were implicit in the bill when it left this body. Uh, it doesn't make anybody run software anywhere. It doesn't run. You don't have to violate federal law or do anything that breaks security. That's just fine, Mr. President.

There were two substantive changes. The first, uh, was that it exempts contracts for software under the state's alternate procurement statutes, so very small procurements, sole source procurements. If it's eligible for sole source, it was never part of a competitive software environment anyway. Nevertheless, substantive change and no problem at all. They put in an escape— not an escape, a pressure release valve, Mr. President, if in fact for some reason that I can't foresee, it was necessary to tie software to a specific cloud or server environment in order to get a discount that was simply not available any other way, the state or subdivision could make a written best interest finding that that was necessary.

Mr. President, I expect that will never be used, but I have no objection. That request— that change was made at the request of the administration. It is in the bill. I recommend the members vote yes. Well, thank you, Senator Keele.

If you are ready for the question, question being is, shall the Senate concur in the House amendments to Senate Bill 258? Senators may proceed to vote.

The secretary will lock the roll. Do any senators wish to change their vote? The secretary will announce the vote. 20 Yeas, 0 nays. And so by a vote of 20 yeas and 0 nays, the Senate has concurred and the House amendments to Senate Bill 258.

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Senate roll down the calendar to special committee reports. With no objections, so ordered. Madam Secretary.

Conference committee report dated May 17th, received in the Senate May 17th, 3:31 p.m. Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, the Conference Committee with limited powers of free conference considering CS for House Bill 263 Finance amended and Senate CS for CS for House Bill 263 Finance amended Senate Appropriations Operating Budget Fund Supplemental recommends Conference Committee CS for House Bill 263 be adopted and attaches a fiscal note packet. Mr. President, signing the report, Senator Hoffman, Chair, Senators Steadman, Cronk, Representative Josephson, Chair, Representatives Schraggy, Stapp. Thank you. Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move that the Senate adopt the changes made in the conference committee substitute for House Bill 263, Operating Budget, and recommend that the members vote yes.

Thank you. Senator Hoffman, would you explain the changes? Yes, Mr. President. The conference committee process is always a process of compromise. No party gets everything they want.

It was with that spirit that we worked with the other body to agree on this committee substitute. I'm happy to report that after accommodating priorities from the other body over overall budget including the operating and mental health budgets, the capital budget, and new legislation, that we still have an FY27 surplus.

The proposed budget balances this spring revenue forecast of $75 a barrel with $44 million left in the supplemental for next year. And I anticipate that that will be substantially higher as a result of the price of oil hovering around $100 a barrel even today. In short, Mr. President, approving this budget does not require a constitutional reserve vote to fulfill the deficit because there is none in FY27 deficit to fill. This budget in front of you appropriates just over $5 billion in UGF to agency operations, $601 million in UGF to statewide items, and $674 million in UGF to the dividend for just over $6.27 billion for— in UGF for FY27.

The total funds for the bill appropriate just over $13.9 billion. And I would like to state that we organized in one day and the compromises were congenial and for the first time we were able to come to consensus in the second meeting in just under an hour, which is accomplishment in itself. Now, to some of the specific changes in FY26, uh, there was an increase in, uh, energy relief dividend from $150 to $200 per person. This increase in energy relief cost from $96 to $127.3 million, increase the outside of the BSA funding from $111 million to $115 million. There was $15 million in bulk fuel revolving loan fund in FY '27, which you— which we are required to accomplish.

The only thing we are required to accomplish in a legislative session. In the Department of Administration, $800,000 for the geographic differential pay study. We move the payroll function from the Department of Public Safety to DPS. In DCED, $800 million $800,000 for utility disruption emergency grants. $2.23 Million to AGCD operations was added.

In corrections, $2.79 million was added for regional and community jails. Indeed, $430,000 reduction in excessive— excess broadband assistance grants. $355,800 For Parents to Teachers. $1.75 Million increase to the Head Start program. $217,000 Increase to statewide library electronic doorway or SLED grants.

In DEC, There was a funding source swap of $1 million in Oil Hazardous Release Prevention and Response Fund to the UGF Fund. In Family and Community Services, $300,000 to the Office of Children Services for in-person staff training, $260,000 for frontline social worker retention bonuses. In the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Mr. President, $400,000 was added for the Port Moller test fisheries research. $400,000 In fund swap to increase in federal and decreases in UGF to the sports fish hatcheries. $521,800 Fund source swap of increase in UGF and a decrease in CFEC receipts.

Mr. President, in the Department of Health, $11 million to restart the Alaska Heating Assistance Program was added. $6.4 Million for child care recruitment and retention, $3 million in UGF match for public assistance virtual call center, $1.25 million for adult day services, $500,000 to support and stabilize senior centers, $403,000 for centers in independent living statewide grants, $382,000 to increase the daily rate for general relief temporary assisted living payments.

$4.275 Million UGF for Medicaid services to implement various guidehouse recommendations for the following.

Air and ambulance reimbursement rates, private duty nursing reimbursement rates, for Community First and personal care rates, for adolescent-specific behavioral and substance use health services rates, and finally for direct support professional and rate reimbursement. In the Department of Labor, $84.4 thousand in UGF reduction for a vacant deputy commissioner. $490 Thousand for the Alaska Council for School Administrators for education retention and recruitment center. In the Department of Military Veterans Affairs, $300 thousand for local emergency planning committees. In the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, $496.6 thousand in UGF reductions by accepting the governor's proposal for restructuring and realignment of department functions.

$250,000 In reductions in UGF program receipts for homeless camp abatement. In the University of Alaska, Anchorage campus, $307,000 for public safety support, $340,000 for mental health support. In Throth Udok campus, $131,000 for campus security, $300,000 for mental health support. $500,000 For critical material match funds. In the Juneau campus, Mr. President, $200,000 for campus, uh, safety, $146,000 for mental health support.

In the legislature, $195,000 for legislative staff stipend alignment. In fiscal notes, there was added a fiscal note packet for various fiscal notes for legislation that may become law.

That describes the changes in that the conference committee reports to this body, and I recommend a yes vote. Thank you, Senator Hoffman. Is there further discussion? If you are ready for the question, the question being: Shall the conference committee substitute for House Bill 263 passed the Senate. Senators may proceed to vote.

The Secretary will lock the roll. Do any Senators wish to change their vote? The Secretary will announce the vote. 17 Yeas, 3 nays. So by a vote of 17 yeas to 3 nays, the Conference Committee substitute for House Bill 263 has passed the Senate.

Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move adoption of the Constitutional Budget Reserve section of the bill. Thank you. Is there discussion? If you are ready for the question, the question being: Shall the Constitutional Budget Reserve section pass the Senate?

Senators may proceed to vote.

The Secretary will lock the roll. Do any Senators wish to change their vote? The Secretary will Announce the vote. 17 Yeas, 3 nays. And so by a vote of 17 yeas and 3 nays, the Constitutional Budget Reserve Section has passed the Senate.

Madam Majority Leader. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the vote on the Constitutional Budget Reserve Section be considered the vote on the effective date clause. Hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted.

Madam Majority Leader, on the HB 265. Mr. President, I move that the Senate adopt the changes made in the conference committee report— a conference committee substitute for House Bill 265, mental health budget, and recommend that the members vote yes. Thank you. Senator Hoffman, will you explain the changes? Yes, Mr. President.

There were only 5 changes to the mental health budget The first being $3.5 million increase to behavioral health treatment and recovery grants, $500,000 for crisis call center, $723,000 for behavioral health prevention and early intervention grants. Early intervention and infant learning program took the other body's funding level of $2.7 million, and expanded early intervention and infant learning program took the other body's level of funding of $3.02 million.

Thank you, Senator Hoffman. If you are ready for the question, the question being: Shall a conference committee substitute for House Bill 265 pass the Senate? Senators may proceed to vote. The Secretary will lock the roll. Do any Senators wish to change their vote?

The Secretary will announce the vote. 20 Yeas, 0 nays. And so by a vote of 20 yeas, 0 nays, the conference committee substitute for House Bill 265 has passed the Senate. Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the vote on the bill be considered the vote on the effective date clause.

Thank you, hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted. A brief adieu.

Will the Senate come back to order? We are now resuming the calendar. Senate Bill 195, House Bill 302, and House Bill 14.

Madam Secretary, please read the next item on today's calendar. CS for House Bill 195, Finance, an act changing the term physician assistant to physician associate, relating to physician associates, relating to collaborative practice agreements for pharmacists, relating to the prescription of opioid overdose drugs, relating to the prescription and administration of drugs and devices by pharmacists, relating to reciprocity for pharmacists, amending the definition of practitioner and providing for an effective date. Before the Senate in third reading on final passage, there was an amendment distributed to members' desks, that will not be offered. Thank you. Madam Majority Leader.

Mr. President, I move and ask unanimous consent that the bill be engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage. There has been an objection. Briefly. That brief it is.

Willis, can I come back to order, please? No.

I will listen. Please come back to order. In accordance with Uniform Rule 43B, I am waiving engrossment on all bills transmitted to the House today. Madam Majority Leader. Mr. President, I move the Senate recess to call of the chair.

Thank you. We will recess to call of the chair.