House Floor Session, 5/17/26, 11am

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 tally the board? 40 Members present. With 40 members present, we have a quorum present to conduct business. Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, there are no previous excused absences today. Thank you. Leading the invocation today is our very own Representative Aishide. Will members please rise?

With the deepest respect for all faith traditions, here's a prayer from my tradition. It's a prayer of love called Carry You. By Walt Zentek.

When I brought you home, I carried you. I held you close and made a promise that day. As I breathed in that sweet, soft, clean smell, I promised to carry you and keep you safe and well. I laughed and spoke so quietly to you. I taught you your name.

You showed me your heart, and I showed you mine. As I carried you that day.

When I take you home, I'll carry you, I'll hold you close as I promised that day. I'll breathe in that old familiar smell and keep my promise to keep you safe and well. I'll cry as I speak so quietly to you. I'll say your name, your show me your heart, And I will lose mine when I carry you that day.

Amen. Thank you. Representative Schwanke, will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Representative Story. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move and ask unanimous consent that the.

Prayer be spread 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 117th legislative day. 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. Hearing no objection, the journal stands approved. Seeing no guests for introduction, Madam Clerk, are there any messages— are there messages from the governor? I have no messages from the governor this morning.

Any messages from the other body? Messages dated May 16th stating the Senate has passed and is returning the following: House Concurrent Resolution number 16, suspending rules for Senate Bill number 230.

The Senate passed House Bill number 36 with the following amendments: Senate committee substitute for House Bill number 36, Finance, Foster Children, Psychiatric Treatment, with a title change, SCR 10, and it is returned for consideration. The Senate passed House Bill number 93 with the following amendment: Senate committee substitute for House Bill number 93, Judiciary, Residency Requirements, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, and it is returned for consideration. The Senate passed committee substitute for House Bill number 117 with Resources with the following amendments: Senate CS for CS for House Bill number 117, Resources, Commercial Fishing, Set Gillnet Cooperative, title change SCR 29, and it is returned for consideration. The Senate concurred in the House amendments to Senate Bill number 230, thus adopting House Committee Substitute for Senate Bill number 230, Resources, Jonesville Public Use Area, title change HCR 16. The Senate has passed and is transmitting the following for consideration: Senate Concurrent Resolution Number 10, suspend uniform rules for House Bill 36.

The Senate has passed and is transmitting the following for consideration: Senate Concurrent Resolution Number 29, suspend uniform rules for House Bill 17. And committee substitute for Senate Bill Number 25, Community and Regional Affairs, Committee—. Did you mean Senate Bill 250? 250, Community and Regional Affairs, by the Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee, entitled an Act Relating to Data Centers and Relating to Utility Service for Data Centers. That will be referred to Community and Regional Affairs.

I have no further messages from the other body. Are there any communications? There are no communications. Are there any reports of standing committees? The Finance Committee considered committee substitute for Senate Bill Number 21, Finance, Alaska Work and Save Program.

Recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 21, Labor and Commerce. Attached one new fiscal note and one new zero fiscal note. Signing the report do pass: Representatives Jimmy, Galvin, Hannon, Moore, and Co-Chair Foster. No recommendation: Tomaszewski, Allard, and Bynum. The bill has no further referral.

The Finance Committee considered committee substitute for Senate Bill number 211, Labor and Commerce, extend occupational licensing boards. Attached one previously published fiscal note. Signing the report: do pass, Representatives Jimmy, Galvin, Hannon, and co-chair Foster. No recommendation: Tomaszewski, Allard, Moore. Amend: Bynum.

The bill has no further referral, and I have no further reports of standing committees. Madam Clerk, are there any reports of special committees? There are no reports of special committees. Are there any citations or resolutions for introduction? In memoriam Dima Kalmanovsky by Senators Kawasaki and Cronk and Representative Carrick.

In memoriam June Weinstock by Senator Kawasaki and Representatives Carrick and Dybert. In memoriam Keith Brian Michael Gianni by Senator Kawasaki, Representatives Dybert and Stapp. House Concurrent Resolution Number 26 by the House State Affairs Committee, suspending Rules 24C, 35, 41B, and 42E, Uniform Rules of the Alaska State Legislature, concerning Senate Bill Number 208, relating to the sale and lease of state land for agricultural uses. I have no further citations or resolutions for introduction. Are there any bills for introduction?

There are no bills for introduction this week. Good morning. As we move into consideration of the daily calendar, at this time I'm moving Senate Bill 23, Civics Education, to the bottom of the calendar today.

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

Senate Bill Number 29 by Senator Bjorkman entitled an Act Relating to an Executive Administrator for the Big Game Commercial Services Board.

The Resources Committee considered the bill, attached one previously published fiscal note, signing the report do pass Representatives Fields, Hall, Mears, and co-chairs Co-chairs and no recommendation, Elam and Rauscher. The Finance Committee considered the bill, recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Number 29 Finance with a new title, HCR 23, attached one new fiscal note. Signing the report, do pass: Representatives Galvin, Tomaszewski, Hannon, and co-chairs Schraggy, Josephson, and Foster. No recommendation. Moore, Bynum, Stapp amend.

Allard, there is one House committee substitute. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the House bill committee substitute for Senate Bill 29 with a new title be adopted in lieu of the original bill. Representative Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I object to the adoption of the CS in regards to having a Summary of changes. Representative Tomaszewski. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Summary of changes.

The Finance Committee added the Board of Dental Examiners to the bill, and that is the only change. Thank you. Objection maintained. Representative Johnson, I'm going to assume that objection is removed. Hearing no further objection, the committee substitute for Senate Bill 29 has been adopted.

Madam Clerk, are there any amendments? I have no amendments, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Majority Leader. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the House committee substitute for Senate Bill 29 Finance be considered engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage.

Hearing no objection, so ordered. Madam Clerk, please read the title for the third and final time. House Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 29, Finance, by the House Finance Committee, entitled An Act Establishing an Executive Administrator Position for the Board of Dental Examiners and Relating to an Executive Administrator for the Big Game Commercial Services Board. Representative Tomaszewski. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Permission to read. Permission granted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 29 codifies executive administrator positions for the Big Game Commercial Services Board and the Board of Dental examiners. These positions are paid for by designated general funds from licensing fees of the boards.

And I'd be happy to answer any questions. Is there any debate on Senate Bill 29? Seeing none and presuming there's no wrap-up comments, are you ready for the question? The question being, shall House Committee substitute for Senate Bill 29 Finance 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? 40 Yeas, 0 nays. With a vote of 40 yeas to 0 nays, Senate Bill 29 has passed the body.

Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that House Concurrent Resolution 23, the title change resolution for Senate Bill 29, be taken up as a special order of business. Are you ready for the question? Question being, shall HCR 23 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? 40 Yeas, 0 nays.

With a vote of 40 yeas to 0 nays, HCR 23 has passed. The body. Madam Clerk.

Committee substitute for Senate Bill Number 130, Finance, by the Senate Finance Committee, entitled An Act Relating to the Fisheries Product Development Tax Credit, Providing for an Effective Date by Amending the Effective Date of Section 2, Chapter 31, SLA 2022, and Providing for an Effective Date The Finance Committee considered the bill attached one new indeterminate fiscal note signing the report do pass. Representatives Jimmy, Galvin, Hannon, Stapp, Bynum, Co-Chair Schrag, no recommendation. Tomaszewski, Co-Chairs Josephson and Foster, amend, Allard and Moore. 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 the committee substitute for Senate Bill 130 Finance.

Be considered a grossed, advanced to 3rd reading, and placed on final passage. Hearing no objection, so ordered. Madam Clerk, please read the title for the 3rd and final time. Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Number 130, Finance, by the Senate Finance Committee, entitled An Act Relating to the Fisheries Product Development Tax Credit, Providing for an Effective Date by Amending the Effective Date of Section 2, Chapter 31, SLA 2022, and providing for an effective date. Representative Stutes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good morning. It's a pleasure to bring Senate Bill 130 before the body today. Uh, permission to read from my notes, Mr. Speaker? Permission granted. Thank you.

Before you is Senate Bill 130, an act relating to the fisheries product development tax credit. This bill is sponsored by the Senate Rules Committee by the request of the task force evaluating the Alaska seafood industry. This legislation extends and expands the Fisheries Product Development Tax Credit, which has been highly successful in, in incentivizing Alaska's fish processors to adopt new technologies and develop new value-added products. As of 2020, the tax credit directly contributed to an additional $114 million in new revenue to the general fund due to increases in fisheries product value. This credit program has morphed over the years.

It started as the Salmon Product Development Tax Credit in 2003 through House Bill 90. Herring was added in 2014, and it was expanded again into the current form through SB 33 in 2022. The current credit allows a processor to deduct from its fishery business tax liability up to 50% of the cost of purchasing equipment used to make value-added products from salmon, herring, pollock, sablefish, and Pacific cod. This includes products from waste streams. Persuadent to Recommendations 7A and 7B of the Joint Seafood Task Force, um, Senate Bill 130 expands the credit to include all species of fish and shellfish and adds new qualifications for the credit, adds icing technologies to the list qualified equipment, and requires a quicker determination of credit eligibility from the Department of Revenue.

The bill also extends the sunset date of the credit by 10 years. During a time of historically poor market conditions and low value for Alaska's Seafood, Senate Bill 130 will support our ailing processing industry and incentivize processors to get more out of each fish, which in turn provides a better bottom line for our Alaska fishermen. There are support letters in members' packets from numerous organizations including Pacific Seafood Processors Association, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, Canfisco Group USA, Copper River Seafoods, the Resource Development Council, United Fishermen of Alaska, Silver Bay Seafoods, Lynden Inc., Southwest Municipal Conference, Trident Seafoods, East Sea Phillips, and the fishing vessel Savage. With that, Mr. Speaker, I encourage members to support this sound piece of legislation supporting Alaska's fishermen and enhancing Alaska's value-added seafood processing. And Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to answer any potential questions.

Thank you. Any debate on Senate Bill 130? Representative Vance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of this legislation. Under the Seafood Task Force, we learned a lot of the issues that a lot of the fishermen in the industry has been facing the past several years. We've seen the market conditions just hit all of the species at the same time. In prior years, there would be highs and lows different— with different species, and that's why the previous legislation was targeted to salmon and Pacific cod and things like that.

But for the first time, we saw all species be hit in the market in a detrimental way, and our fishermen were struggling to compete in the market. We also saw for the first time, I believe it was a year or two ago, that farmed fish and aquaculture outpaced wild stocks. And that to me was really the canary in the coal mine about our Alaskan fisheries. And so this bill not only helps the processors, but it helps our small fishermen like mine who have become direct marketers who pay this tax to be able to invest into the new technology such as the ice slurry. It's modeled after what they've been doing in Iceland, and they are able to have totes full of this ice slurry that they put the fish in immediately that keeps that temperature low.

We know that as soon as the fish come out of the water, their temperature increases, and that's when the quality of the fish begin to diminish at a very rapid rate. By them investing into this newer technology that Iceland's been using and been successful at, my fishermen has been able to sell their fish at a much higher profit margin than they were previously. And so this is empowering our fishermen with small boats to be able to become direct marketers make these investments and employ others and really keep the fishery going in these small communities. So I just want the public to know this isn't just about the big processors. This is also our smaller fishermen who are direct marketing and really making an effort to look at how they can continue keeping this great fishery alive.

One of the success stories is last summer when I was back in Illinois where my husband's family is, middle of the farmland there, my sister-in-law was saying that she buys Alaskan fish from a certain company that she goes online, and I said, well, I know who that— I know those guys, and I'm almost willing to tell you that it's my fishermen who produced that, who harvested that fish for you. And it really shows that what they're doing is working. It's reaching people in Middle America through their efforts, but they're producing a great product by investing into this equipment that can help retain the great quality of fish in our Alaskan waters. So I encourage strong support of this bill.

Seeing no further debate and presuming no wrap-up comments, Representative Stutes, unless you tell me otherwise. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to tell you otherwise. I'm going to ask everyone to please press the green button in support of our Alaskan fishermen and the great Alaskan seafood product that we provide to the world. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 130 Finance 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? 40 Yeas, 0 nays. With a vote of 40 yeas to 0 nays, Senate Bill 130 has passed the body.

Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the roll call vote on the passage of the bill be considered the roll call vote on the effective date clause. Hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted. At this time, I'm rolling simple 180 to the bottom of the calendar.

Madam Clerk, please read the next item. Can I—. Brief, please.

Will the House please come back to order. Madam Clerk, please read the next item on today's calendar.

Senate Bill Number 181 by the Senate Rules Committee by request of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska's Seafood Industry, entitled an Act Relating to Disclosure of Information Obtained by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to Other Agencies. The Education Committee considered the bill attached 1 previously published zero fiscal note. Signing the report, do pass, Representatives Dybert, Eichide, and co-chairs Hempschulte and Story. No recommendation, Schwanke, Elam, and Underwood. The Labor and Commerce Committee also considered the bill.

Attached 1 previously published zero fiscal note. Signing the report, do pass, Representatives Freer, Carrick, and co-chair Hall and Fields. No recommendations, Sadler. 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 Senate Bill 181 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.

Brief it ease.

Will the House please come back to order? Senate Bill 208 before the body. I believe Amendment Number 1. It's been copied and distributed, should be on members' desks. We need to adopt the CS.

We are all working through sleep deprivation up here. Madam Clerk. Committee substitute for Senate Bill 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. The Resources Committee considered the bill, recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 208 Resources with the same title, attached 1 previously published zero fiscal note. Signing the report: do pass, Representatives Fields, Mears, and Co-Chairs Dybert and Freer.

No recommendation: Colon, Hall, Sadler, Elam. There is 1 House Committee Substitute. Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that committee substitute for Senate Bill 208 Resources be considered engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage. There is an objection for purposes of clarification on the committee substitute.

Representative Mears.

Will the House please come back to order? I'm going to go back to you, Mr. Majority Leader. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the committee substitute for Senate Bill 208 be adopted. Representative Mears, do you want to explain the changes in the committee substitute?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, the House made no changes to what came over from the other body. There is an explanation of changes of what happened in there in your packet. Very broadly, they reflect department and stakeholder feedback with conforming language and effective dates. Um, there was an optional merit-based process for sales of state land included, as well as establishing civil penalty authority for the Department of Natural Resources to enforce agricultural covenants.

There's more details in your packet. Not hearing any additional objections, the committee substitute has been adopted. Madam Clerk, are there any amendments? Amendment number 1 by Representative McCabe, beginning page 1, line 1. Representative McCabe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment 1. There's an objection. Thanks, Mr. Speaker. The amendment before the body incorporates provisions of HB 325 into SB 208.

It's appropriate because 2.8 is fundamentally about Alaska farming, agriculture use, and strengthening Alaska's agriculture economy. The underlying bill addresses farm use, agriculture activity, and policies intended to support Alaska producers and agricultural development. Industrial hemp fits squarely within the framework because hemp is by definition and by Alaska statute an agricultural crop. It is farmed by Alaska producers. It's regulated through DNR and Department of Agriculture, and it's treated under both federal and state laws as an agricultural commodity.

Simply, Mr. Speaker, hemp is farmed, harvested, regulated, and sold as an agricultural product. It grows in Alaska fields under agricultural oversight, and it belongs in this bill. I would appreciate a yes vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The objection has been removed.

Is there additional objection? Not hearing any. Amendment number 1 to Senate Bill 208, which should be on the board here momentarily.

Do we have Amendment number 1 on the board, the voting board? Amendment number 1. Amendment number 1 has been adopted.

I'm going to take it at ease because I believe we've got at least a couple more amendments, perhaps 3 amendments or so trailing Amendment Number 1. So at ease.

Will the House please come back to order in terms to— in terms of fully utilizing our time. My microphone is really hot here.

So in order to fully utilize our time, what I'd like to do is to roll Senate Bill 208 to the bottom of the calendar. It will of course still be in second reading. We're awaiting some amendments. If we could do that. No objection.

And then next up, Madam Clerk, would be a bill that we can attend to immediately. Committee substitute for Senate Bill 208. Senate Bill number 282, State Affairs, by the Senate State Affairs Committee, entitled an Act Relating to the Joint Armed Services Committee and Providing for an Effective Date. The State Affairs Committee considered the bill, recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 282, State Affairs, with the same title. Attached one previously published fiscal note.

Signing the report, do pass: Representatives Vance, McCabe, Hemmschulte, Holland, Story, Chair Carrick, Amend St. Clair. There is one House committee substitute. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the House State Affairs Committee substitute for committee substitute for Senate Bill 282, State Affairs, be adopted in lieu of the original bill.

Representative Gray, can you speak to the changes, please, in the committee substitute? At ease.

Will the House please come back to order. Representative Gray. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask the body for permission to read.

Permission denied. Permission granted. Thank you. Um, what the committee substitute does is it adds another member of the minority from the House and Senate to the Joint Armed Services Committee. Uh, with this change, there would be 4 minority members on JASC, and it requires JASC to host at least 1 meeting per year.

All subsequent sessions would be renumbered accordingly, and it adds the definition of Arctic security initiatives and national defense initiatives These terms are used in the bill as part of the new mission for JASC.

No hearing. Is there further objections to adopting the committee substitute? Representative Allard? Representative Sadler? Just a point of information, I guess.

Actually, the sponsor misspoke. It would actually create 2 minority members out of the 5 House and Senate members of the committee.

Representative Gray. Mr. Speaker, I rise to disagree with the member from House District 24. Currently there's one member from each body, serve one minority member serving in each body, and that's a total of two. This bill amends it to be two minority members from each body. That would be a total of four minority members serving on the JASC.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think we have an agreement on what the committee substitute actually proposes to do. And hearing no further objection, the committee substitute has been adopted. Madam Clerk, are there any amendments?

I have no amendments, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 282, State Affairs, be considered engrossed Advanced to 3rd read and placed on final passage. There is objection.

This bill be held to the next day's calendar.

Madam Clerk, I'm gonna ask that we continue on down the calendar here, please. Will you please read the next item before us?

House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Number 200, Community and Regional Affairs, amended House with Amendment Number 5 offered and pending. So Amendment Number 5, Representative Kwon, might you restate that please? Do I need to make a motion? No, could you just Just restate the amendment so the body's familiar with what the—. Yeah, so Amendment 5.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Amendment 5, uh, puts back language that was in the original bill that passed the Senate. Um, those, those changes, uh, included removing horses out of the list of livestock and, um, puts back some of the, the language that was taken out, uh, in Community Regional Affairs. Under debate on Amendment #5. Representative St. Clair.

Apologies, sir. Is there additional debate on Amendment #5? If not, I'm going to— unless did you want to make further comments, Representative Flohm, and wrap up? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. It kind of— I need to— I think I need to explain a couple things because went off the rails yesterday.

So if I had, with your indulgence, explain a little bit about the bill because it does connect with my amendment. So we were talking yesterday about the importance of horses as livestock. I made the point that manure is used a lot in gardening, community gardens. There is very important to food production. Another point too is though, is that horses are basically a mainstay for our hay farmers and We need hay to feed all sorts of livestock, and taking that out of the mix would be detrimental to the food supply.

We all know that ag is very interconnected. But what I wanted to explain was this is not a tax exemption for farm use. So the state mandates the municipalities have to offer a farm use assessment. And what farm use assessments do, they just lower your assessment of the property that's using for being used for agriculture.

You do not have to, if you have a farmland or if you have agriculture, you don't have to go through that process, but you can try to get your assessment lower and get some relief on the property taxes. The other part of this is that if you get that reduction, you are committed to keep that as agricultural land for 7 years. If you don't do that, you have to pay back everything that they had lowered. And so there's incentive to keep it as ag land. So let's say, so some of the questions were around horses were, well, what if you just have somebody who keeps horses and they like riding horses?

That's not agricultural land. That doesn't fit here. Because in the bill, you have to have at least $2,500 of revenue off that land. So just having a horse at your house or wherever, that doesn't qualify. Now if you have a horse barn and you board other people's horses, that could potentially receive that lower assessment.

But that's not, I mean, the only way they could do that is have revenue, right? So maybe they do riding lessons.

You know, other ways of using the horse, they could apply for a lower assessment and get the benefit. But again, they're committed for 7 years to stay there in that agricultural lane, or else they have to pay all that back. So I know in my community there are a couple of boarding places. You know what they do? They do summer camps for kids.

They do, um, uh, therapy, equine therapy for disabled children. They, they bring a lot to the community. My, my daughter was one of those kids who was— who needed some confidence, who needed a challenge, and rode in a little place right by the zoo. So I just wanted to clear up some of that. The, the, the language.

The amendment is actually language that the sponsor was trying to do to fix what had happened in 2023. He ran a bill in 2023 exempting farm structures and inadvertently left out hay, flora, and horses. And then there was a big issue with that because if I sell hay, I can only count the hay I sell to goats or other animals but not horses. And so it turned into a just kind of a bureaucratic nightmare. And so this just smooths it out.

It, it retains the fix that the sponsor is trying to do in the first place. If you take this out, it doesn't fix— it fixed one piece of it, which was around the tax submission, but it doesn't fix the other issues that farmers were having. And there's no I don't think there's any argument that horses are part of our food system. They bring a lot to our communities. And actually, this doesn't really apply in Anchorage, but in, in the valley and Fairbanks, grazing of horses helps the fields.

It gives natural firebreaks. They're really, really important in a lot of different ways. So I just think it's important for those— that language to be back into the bill. And it is a friendly amendment. The sponsor obviously I would like to see it back in the bill too.

So press a green button. Representative Johnson, we've just completed wrap-up comments. Did you want to be recognized to speak? I will recognize you if you have comments because of the—. No, I was going to speak to the amendment.

Well, we— this is a bit disjointed given that we had the amendment before us yesterday. We're bringing it back again today in midstreams. I'll offer you the floor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that.

I just wanted to say that we talk about agriculture a lot and we talk about various types of types of crops, but one of the things that people don't really know is that hay is our number one crop, our number one agricultural crop. And so this amendment actually speaks to that and puts that out there as something that— and so it just makes a lot of sense. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Are you ready for the question?

The question being, shall Amendment Number 5 be adopted? 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 No.

5 Has failed to be adopted. Madam Clerk, Amendment Number 6 by Representative Vance, beginning page 1, line 1.

I'll brief at ease.

Will the House please come back to order. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 6 will not be offered. Amendment number 7 will not be offered. Amendment number 6 and 7 will not be offered.

Amendment number 8 by Representative Schwanke beginning page 3, line 7. Representative Schwanke. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move amendment number 8.

Amendment number 8 has been moved. I'm not hearing any— there is an objection. Representative Wonky. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that this is a very small, very minute change, but it really does address the fact that we do have a significant number of diverse livestock opportunities, specifically to improve food security opportunities throughout the state.

In my district, we have a tremendous number of farmers and ag producers that produce things like yaks for meat, bison for meat, llama for fiber. So there are a lot of different diverse opportunities for our ag producers. And the language in this bill, particularly, it has a definition of livestock and it says including and it lists a number of species, but it's really not an inclusive, fully inclusive list of all the things that people are producing specifically for food security as well as other ag products. So I'm asking that we add just a couple words, includes but not limited to. And I have heard that there's some legal interpretation that the including language is not is specifically exclusive of these other animals, but my understanding is by just adding a couple words here that we can really clarify the opportunity so that we don't inadvertently exclude some of these diverse ag opportunities.

Thanks, Representative Mears. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The maker of the amendment is correct. The existing language is not exclusive. Therefore, this this amendment is moot.

Representative Moore. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a neutral amendment. Adding but not limited to doesn't change the effect of the statute, but it does add some more clarity. So yeah, thank you.

Is the objection maintained? Not hearing further objection, the objection is removed. So not hearing further objection, Amendment Number 7 is brief— brief it ease.

The House, please come back to order. If there was a further objection, I did not hear it. There is not a further objection, so Amendment number 8 has been adopted by acclamation. Madam Clerk. I have no further amendments, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 200, Community and Regional Affairs, as amended, be considered engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage. Objection. There is an objection. This bill be held to the next day's calendar. Brief at ease.

Will the House please come back to order. Senate Bill 200 will be held to the next day's calendar per objection. Madam Clerk, could you read the next item on today's calendar?

Committee substitute for Senate Bill number 237, Judiciary, amended House, data sharing, Social Security, is before the body in second reading with Amendment number 3 pending.

Representative Sinclair. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, due to technical confliction with previous amendments, I will withdraw Amendment Number 3 at this time. So Amendment Number 3 to Senate Bill 237 will be withdrawn. Madam Clerk, Amendment Number 4 by Representative Gray, beginning page 1, line 1.

Representative Gray. Mr. Speaker, I move Amendment 4.

Is there an objection? I am not— there is.

I think that's very valid. An objection for purposes of describing what the amendment is. Representative Gray. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What Amendment 4 does is allow for digital IDs and driver's license in the state of Alaska.

This is a bill that was introduced in 2025 by the administration, although it's been in existence for many years prior to my even joining the body. This amendment modernizes Alaska government services by enabling secure digital credentials that residents can carry on their phones. Bringing us in line with states already adopting digital driver's licenses recognized by TSA at airports nationwide. If this amendment passes, Alaska will join the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, and West Virginia, and allowing people to choose to use digital driver's licenses or IDs. No Alaskan is forced to opt into this program.

It simply gives people who want to use a digital driver's license or ID the option to use a digital driver's license or ID. Um, the bill— the amendment specifically spells out that the administration has the right to require physical driver's licenses in certain cases, and that could apply to law enforcement. Critically, this amendment makes clear that showing a digital ID on your phone does not give law enforcement the right to search the person's phone. This is a straightforward but important privacy protection. The amendment also establishes clear legal standards for officers and DPS personnel.

For the record, DPS supports this amendment, integrates with national verification databases, strengthens fraud prevention, and reduces the everyday risks of lost or damaged physical IDs. In short, this amendment allows Alaska to catch up to what many states have allowed for several years. Digital ID would be an option, not a requirement. Alaskans, particularly younger ones, have asked for this option. For anyone who lives their life on their phone, this would be a wonderful convenience that the administration would like to offer, and I am happy to present it on their behalf.

For the record, this bill had a zero fiscal note. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Bynum.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wasn't sure if the objection was going to be with Held. So the option— the objection has been removed. An additional objection registered. Representative Vance, are you ready for the question?

Representative Bynum, I will recognize you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to rise in support of this amendment. Right now in Alaska, you can go into your app store on your phone and you can download the app for this purpose, and you can opt in, and you can use that ID in some limited cases. I've actually used the app going through TSA, but it is not guaranteed that it is going to be accepted at every opportunity because it is not in law.

This is a good amendment. It's good for Alaskans, and it gives us additional opportunities. I would say the members should support it. Representative Sadler. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A couple years ago, I got a bill through to put fishing licenses on digital form, so I'm in sympathy with this. But what I have not yet heard in discussion on the floor is this is a great idea, that we appreciate the passion of the sponsor, but that it did not go through the committee process and it needs to be vetted. Still waiting to hear that.

Not seeing Representative Stapp. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just raised a quick question for the maker of the amendment. I don't— my only concern would be the kind of hackability and malware type of stuff if you have somebody's driver's license available electronically and identity theft. So I know nothing about that.

So if the sponsor could maybe clear that up for me, it'd be helpful. Thank you.

And wrap up, Representative Gray. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To answer the question from House District 24, we did have 3 hearings in House Judiciary and we moved the bill out in 2025. I don't know what happened after that, Mr. Speaker, and I apologize, but we did have some committee process on this bill. And as I mentioned, it has passed through in some form or another, has been through several other legislatures.

So this is not, um, new unvetted language. As far as the safeguards involved, I can't point to the exact lines in the bill. However, when the administration presented the bill, we did ask questions about that. There are, you know, the app that the member from Ketchikan spoke of does ensure that— I remember talking about in Judiciary that you have options as to how much of your information is actually shared on the screen. You can opt out of even having your home address displayed on the screen.

So the bottom line is, is I'm probably not going to be able to answer the member from Fort Wainwright's questions in detail. There are.

Safeguards in place, and, um, the administration is asking for this bill, and I ask for you to vote yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Brief it is.

Will the House please come to order? We have an outstanding question from the member from District 32 that I think we could provide at least some information from someone who actually works in this field ordinarily. Representative Elam. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was planning on supporting the amendment as well.

The reality is, is that The way that they're doing all of this to get it integrated into the application uses a form of multi-factor authentication. So it allows it to be secure. It's going to be just as secure as your PFD. It's going to be just as secure as your driver's license, DMV already has. It's probably going to be more secure than leaving it in your wallet though at the airport.

So with the question, I believe, addressed for now, wrap-up comments? Are not being offered.

Rep. Jimmy, and then we're going to go to a vote. Oianna, Mr. Speaker, I view this amendment as a friendly amendment. Press the green button. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall amendment number 4 pass 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? 38 Yeas, 2 nays. With a vote of 38 yeas to 2 nays, Amendment No. 4 Has been adopted. Madam Clerk, brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order. At this time we are going to take a 15-minute at ease, and I'm going to try to hold us to 15 minutes. At ease.

Will the House please come back to order?

We are under amendments with Senate Bill 237. I believe we just passed amendment number 4. And as members enter back in the chambers after our short break, I'm going to ask the clerk to read the next amendment, please. Amendment number 5 by Representative St. St. Clair, beginning page 1, line 1. Representative St. Clair.

Amendment number 5. There's an objection. Representative St. Clair. The reason that I had to pull amendment number 3 is because it conflicted with the member from District 8's previous amendment, and I didn't want to have him jump through hoops to try and get it to work. So I withdrew that amendment and had it redrafted.

All this does is allows a contract to continue. There's actually a contract between Clear and the airport right now. They just can't do anything or share data until, until we pass legislation saying that they can. CLEAR doesn't share people's data. In fact, they have some of the strictest security to make sure, and that once your data is used, it's not thrown away, but it's cleared.

The bottom line is CLEAR gets you to security and PreCheck gets you through security. In other words, you walk up to a kiosk, or they call it a, uh, pod. It looks at your face, it verifies your identity. Once your identity is verified, they escort you through the lines to the front of the body scanner and/or baggage scanner. That's it.

People are paying over $200 for this, uh, per year. There's over 10,000 Alaskans that already use it. There's over 60 locations in the United States, and that's not just airports. You're talking stadiums, other venues, uh, even medical. But it's just to confirm your identity.

You— the only way that you can do this is if you opt in. It's not automatic. It's opt-in. Thank you.

Representative Jimmy. Wayanda, Mr. Speaker, I see this as a friendly amendment to encourage members to press the green button. Representative Elam. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to rise in support of this.

This particular amendment. As the maker of the amendment has already pointed out, this actually really touches a lot of different areas, which is actually really good for helping the identity and verification of individuals, ranging again from medical all the way to transportation. So it's a very good thing. Thank you.

The objection has been removed to Amendment Number 5. Not hearing additional objection, Amendment Number 5 has been adopted. Madam Clerk. Amendment number 6 by Representatives Underwood and Gray, beginning page 1, line 2. Represent Underwood.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Permission to read? Permission granted. Thank you. This amendment ends the practice, what's often called orphan— oh, sorry.

I move amendment number 6.

There is an objection. Sorry about that. I should have caught that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have yet to do many amendments, so out of practice.

But this amendment ends a practice, what's often called the orphan tax, by ensuring that federal survivor independent benefits stay with foster children where they belong instead of being used to reimburse the state for foster care services. These benefits were created to support children who have lost a parent or whose parent became disabled, and they were never intended to become a revenue source for our government. What I'm told is that currently in Alaska, our department is actually already doing this, but it is just yet to be codified. There's about 13 other states right now that have actually codified this and is moving, and other states are now trying to implement this. So while the department maybe may choose not to take these funds today, policies can change under future administrations, and by placing this protection in statute, we are ensuring that these vulnerable children are protected permanently.

The fiscal impact of this is relatively small, except for a young person aging out of foster care. These funds can mean stable housing, education opportunity, transportation, or simply a better start into adulthood. States across the country, like I mentioned, are already moving into this direction because they recognize these benefits should follow the child and not bureaucracy. Let's make Alaska the next state to stand up for these kids and protect our future. I urge support on the amendment.

The objection has been removed. Representative Jimmy, do you still want to talk to the amendments? Uh, can I— Representative Gray, object to your own amendment. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank the member from House District 27 for bringing it forward.

I also want to thank the former commissioner of DFCS, Kim Koval, for her advocacy on this issue. I want to thank Amanda Mativier and Facing Foster Care in Alaska for their advocacy on this issue. But most of, most of all, we need to thank the foster kids who have suffered this injustice for far too long, who brought this forward and want this change. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The objection is removed.

I remove the objection. So not hearing additional objection, Amendment Number 6 is adopted. Madam Clerk. I have no further amendments, Mr. Speaker. Mr.

Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 237, Judiciary, as amended be considered engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage. Hearing no objection, so ordered. Madam Clerk, please read the title for the third and final time. An act relating to the powers of— excuse me— committee substitute for Senate Bill number 237, Judiciary, amended House by the Senate Judiciary Committee, entitled an act relating to the powers of the Commissioner of Administration with respect to voter motor vehicles relating to electronic identification cards, relating to data sharing by the Department of Administration, relating to federal benefits for children in need of aid, and providing for an effective date. Representative Jimmy.

Buenas tardes, Mr. Speaker. Permission to read? Permission granted. I want to thank the member from District 25 for her work on this issue, for recognizing that this bill needed a real voice on the floor. I'm glad to carry it.

I also want to thank the member from the other body, from District P, for his work Senate Bill 237 is straightforward. It fixes legal gaps so Alaskans can replace a lost Social Security card online. Right now, if you need a replacement, you have to visit a Social Security office— Juneau, Anchorage, or Fairbanks— or you mail in your documents and hope they arrive. For most of my constituents, neither of those is simple. To travel costs money, mail gets lost, and neither of those is simple.

Travel costs. Alaska was actually the first state in the country to allow online Social Security card replacement back in 2019. Then in 2021, a legal concern came up. The statute didn't explicitly authorize sharing driver's license data for— excuse me— identity verification. This bill creates that language.

The process is narrow by design. When someone enters their license information, it goes to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. They return a yes or no. They don't keep the data. They read it and delete it.

That's it. Alaska is currently the only state in the country that doesn't allow this. I urge your support. Under debate on Senate Bill 237.

Are you ready for— oh, I'm sorry, very difficult to see. Representative Elam. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I'll keep my comments brief. I just wanted to thank the sponsor of the bill from Tuksook Bay for carrying this and working collaboratively with all of us on making some better legislation here.

So thank you.

Tuksook Bay.

Additional comments, debate? Not seeing any. Any wrap-up comments, Representative Jimmy? Not seeing any. Are you ready for the question?

The question being, shall committee substitute for Senate Bill 237, Judiciary, amended House, 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? 40 Yeas, 0 nays. With a vote of 40 yeas to 0 nays, Senate Bill 237 has passed the body.

Mr. Majority. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the roll call vote on the passage of the bill be considered the roll call vote on the effective date clause. Hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted. Brief at ease.

Will the House please come back to order? We have a title change resolution before the body. Mr. Majority Leader. Mr.

Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that House Concurrent Resolution HCR 21, the title change resolution for Senate Bill 237, be taken up as a special order of business. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall HCR 21 pass the House? Members may proceed to vote.

Reps and their mirrors. Will the clerk please lock the roll? Does any member wish to change his or her vote? Will the clerk please announce the vote? 39 Yeas, 0 nays.

By a vote of 39 yeas to 0 nays, the title change resolution HCR 21 has passed the body. At this time, I would like to bring back Senate Bill 208 before the body. At ease. At ease.

Will the House please come back to order? We have once again before the body Senate Bill 208. In second reading. Madam Clerk.

Amendment number 2 will not be offered. Amendment number 3 by Representative Johnson, beginning page 1, line 1. Representative Johnson. Mr. Speaker, thank you. I think everyone is— I would like to move my amendment number 1.

3. 3. Amendment number 3. I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker. There we go.

I've got amendment number 3 in front of me. All right. Well, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this one. I'm just gonna call it the stuffed cabbage amendment and see if we can't get this one. And I think everyone's voted on it before.

So that's all I have to say on that one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The objection has been removed. Not hearing additional objection, amendment number 3 has been adopted.

Madam Clerk. Amendment number 4 by Representative Vance, beginning page 1, line 1. Representative Vance. I move amendment number 4. There's an objection.

So this amendment expands— it clarifies in statute agriculture purposes under the Alaska Land Act. Permission to read, Mr. Speaker? Permission granted. I just wanted to read for everyone listening that this agriculture purposes includes the commercial production of processed.

Of crops, livestock, or livestock products, dairying, the operation of greenhouses and hydroponic facilities for the production of agricultural crops, the production, cultivation, rotation, fertilization, growing, harvesting, storage, packaging, and preservation of an agriculture, floriculture, apiculture, or horticultural crop or commodity, soil and land improvements that enhance the agricultural productivity of the land, agricultural tourism activities including farm tours, educational programs, and on-site marketing of agricultural products. There's been some ambiguity in law about what is an agriculture purpose, and this lays it out clearly of what that is in statute so that it's clear for our Division of Agriculture as they're looking at the, you, land uses and the activities, the very clear of what it is that we're talking about and that we're including. We have, we've been trying to get agriculture and food security going in the state once again. We've wrecked it. We started out as 100 years ago as really growing our own.

And we've seen a down, you know, a shift in that. And we're trying to revitalize that. And so there's been some questions about, well, does hydroponics count? Does dairying, you know, things like that. This makes it very, very clear.

Also, the farm tours— a lot of people want to go and tour our, our beautiful peony farms and our, um, our special potatoes that we have. This allows for that to happen so that we can show that we are— we do grow the giant veg— uh, cabbages. And this allows in statute for that clarification. So I ask for your support. Representative Mears.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the intention of looking at what is our agricultural land use and what are those definitions. This language has not been vetted, and as we found out a couple of years ago when making some changes to the language and to these definitions, it caused some unintended consequences. We do not want to do that. We don't want to have a very inclusive list that excludes things that are really part of the industry.

Although I support the spirit of this, I will not be supporting the amendment. Representative Sadler. I generally support anything that's going to boost agriculture in the state. And as a representative of a district where agriculture is a growing business, I appreciate her bringing this forward. I'm going to support it, but I do rise to a question in line 19 that speaks of online— onsite marketing of agricultural products.

I would just like some assurance as to what agricultural products might include or how broadly that definition might apply. Not seeing additional debate. In wrap-up, Representative Patz. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To answer the question, agriculture products is referenced in another area of statute.

I don't have that full list on my head, top of my head, but this allows for on-site marketing so that you could have a farmer could have a farm stand to be able to sell their products right there and not be penalized for it. So I understand that not everyone has seen this language, but I'd like to ask, which part does they not consider an agriculture purpose? This isn't— there's no dark shadows in this. This is very explicit and about what makes agriculture. And so having that clarification in statute is going to make the job of the department a lot easier.

So I ask for your support. Are you ready for the question? The question being, shall Amendment No. 4 Pass 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. 4 Has failed to pass.

Madam Clerk. Amendment No. 5 By Representative Vance, beginning page 1, line 13. Representative Vance. I move Amendment No.

5. Amendment number 5 has been moved. There's an objection. This amendment allows the commissioner to sell acres, sell land, agriculture land, beginning at a 5-acre minimum. Currently in law, it is a 40-acre minimum, and this has been problematic for some homesteaders in my district.

They have agriculture homestead land and are wanting to divide it up amongst their children. However, that's become problematic because of the high threshold of 40 acres. By putting this in this statute with regarding land, this also allows for smaller farmers to be able to buy 5 acres and get a start. And maybe they could buy 5 acres again as they grow their, production. So this is just a common sense amendment that lowers the floor from 40 acres down to 5, and I ask for your support.

Representative Mears. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate again the thought for this, but this concept has not been vetted by either stakeholders in the agricultural industry nor the department. I look forward to further conversations. For this amendment, I'll be voting no.

Representative Tomaszewski. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of this amendment. This is something that affects many areas of the state, my own district included, and this offers an early and easier entry for young farmers to be able to purchase a smaller piece of property that they may not be able— they may not be able to afford a 40-acre parcel. This gives many young farmers the opportunity to buy a smaller farm and it helps in agricultural production.

There is absolutely— I'm absolutely 100% this amendment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Sadler. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, vetting has clearly not been the essential element of any consideration of amendments that we're letting into legislation today.

But I rise in strong support of this amendment to drop the minimum sales from 40 to 5 acres. You know, down in the lower 48, you need a lot of land. You might need a half section or a full section to grow corn or wheat or soybeans. But in Alaska, we don't have huge tracts of arable land. Farmers are innovative, they're smart, they're educated and ambitious.

They can microfarm, they can do intensive cultivation of the land available. We heard in Resources Committee there are agricultural concerns that would dearly love to access a small portion of land to extend their production.

I would say the side benefit of this is that it lowers the initial investment and the initial threshold to get people farming. You get a successful 5-acre farm going, you can buy or lease neighboring land and grow into a larger agricultural operation. This is, this is a very pro-agriculture, pro-agriculture amendment, and I hope we all support it.

Representative Schwake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I I wanna counter something that we heard from the representative from South Muldoon because some of our districts actually have significant amounts of agriculture in them. Unfortunately, ag land is quite expensive when you have to purchase it in 40-acre parcels. I've spent a significant amount of time engaging with different farmers in my district and from around the state through recent meetings with the Farm Bureau, and we heard over and over and over that young people are looking to get into the family business of ag, but they can't afford a 40-acre parcel. We have some tremendous new opportunities in agriculture that you can do on 5 acres, and I would really urge a yes vote on this amendment.

Thank you.

In wrap-up, Representative Vats. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the support on this. This has been through numerous bills. I think there was a large land bill a few years ago that included this. It's been included and requested many, many times over and over again, but unfortunately when we deal with land bills, they seem to become the Christmas tree, and this particular provision becomes a casualty of war.

And so it has been vetted, it has been requested for a very long time, and I— just because it hasn't come up recently in committee doesn't mean that it doesn't have support. This is a common sense thing. Most of our small farmers are small scale in Alaska. Part of it is because the available farmable land isn't a huge area, and so you take the small bits that you can. And I think this goes— aligns with the priority that a lot of us have of getting state land into the hands of the people to be able to strengthen our economy and produce food.

And this is one of those common sense amendments, and I ask for your support. Brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order. Before the body, we have Amendment Number 5.

Be ready for the question. The question being, shall Amendment No. 5 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. The vote of 19 yeas to 21 nays, amendment number 5 has failed to pass.

Madam Clerk. I have no further amendments, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent the committee substitute for Senate Bill 208 Resources as amended be considered engrossed, advanced to third reading, and placed on final passage. Hearing no objection, so ordered. Madam Clerk, please read the title for the third and final time. House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Number 208, Resources, amended House, by the House Resources Committee, entitled An Act Relating to Industrial Hemp, Relating to the Sale and Lease of State Land for Agricultural Uses, Designating the OC— OS Cross Cabbage, commonly known as Giant Green Cabbage, as the Official State Vegetable, and Providing for an Effective Date. Representative Meyers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I urge everyone's support today for the agricultural industry and food security by supporting this bill.

Senate Bill 296 makes it easier for farmers— pardon, Mr. Speaker, permission to read. Permission granted. This bill makes it easier for farmers to lease state land and for the Department of Natural Resources to ensure state land sold for agriculture purposes purposes remains in agricultural production. The bill allows the Department of Natural Resources to add a merit-based component in this of to the state sale of agricultural parcels rather than solely awarding these parcels to the highest bidder. Finally, the bill would make it easier for the department to encourage compliance with the regulations of agricultural covenants without having to use the extreme measures of repossessing the land.

We have also added additional measures. We have included hemp by modernizing portions of Alaska's industrial hemp program and updating remediation and enforcement provisions to better reflect practical agricultural operations. Mr. Speaker, we've also enhanced the profile of this bill by including the giant cabbage as our state vegetable, as we have been seeing great support for that. I also want to say, as we're concluding here, I appreciate everyone's interest in agriculture today, and I really look forward to a robust membership in next year's Food and Farm Caucus. Thank you.

Representative Klobuchar. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I support the bill. I just want to give attention to page 2. Of the bill, the end, top.

Permission to read. Permission granted. The commissioner shall ensure that the schedule serves the best interests of the state. The commissioner may set land sale prices below the market rate. I find that interesting because there's been so much conversation about, you know, giving tax breaks to ag land and how much money we're going to lose.

Now we're giving permission to the commissioner to reduce the sale of the land in the best interest of the state. And I agree with that. I just thought that was interesting that in this bill it's okay to lose money for the best interest of the state, but in other cases that's not okay. We need the revenue or we don't want to take taxes— bring taxes down to help for food production, but in this bill it's okay.

Additional debate? Any, uh, reps in advance before we get to wrap up? I'm going to rise in support of this bill today because it's been needed for a long time, but, um, I am going to pitch a fit that, that two common sense amendments clarifying in law, agriculture purposes that are clearly agricultural, and then supporting the small farmers and our homesteaders by reducing the minimum number down to 5 acres. Those were rejected simply because it wasn't brought up this last session in the Farm Club.

What are we doing?

We all have to go and have a group hug to get support on common sense things? Because I thought we were about supporting our small farmers. These were not complicated. These were not hard to understand amendments because one person didn't have it vetted through whatever group. Representative Vance, I'm going to ask you Very kindly, I apologize for interrupting your comments, but I have that authority in the rule 575.

I'm going to ask you to direct your comments to the legislation before the body. That's fair, Mr. Speaker, but unfortunately this bill isn't as fair to the small farmers.

Be ready for the question. The question being: shall House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 208, Resources, amended House, 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? 39 Yeas, 1 nay. By a vote of 39 yeas to 1 nay, Senate Bill 208 has passed the House.

Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the roll call vote on the passage of the bill be considered the roll call vote on the effective date clause. Hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted. I believe we have a title change resolution coming up here.

Mr. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that House Concurrent Resolution 26, the title change resolution for Senate Bill 208, be taken up as a special order of business.

Are you ready for the question? Question being, shall HCR 26 pass the House? Members may proceed to vote.

Representative Prox.

The clerk please lock the roll. Does any member wish to change his or her vote? Will the clerk please announce the vote? 40 Yeas, 0 nays. By a vote of 40 yeas to 0 nays, HCR 26 has passed the body.

Madam Clerk, will you please read the next item on today's calendar?

Committee substitute for Senate Bill 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. The bill is in third reading, final passage. Representative Story.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Uh, I am honored to present, uh, this bill to expand access to the Alaska Infant Learning Program for our young children experiencing significant developmental disabilities. Permission to read from my notes. Permission granted. Alaska currently has chosen to maintain one of the most restrictive eligibility standards for children to receive these early Early Intervention Services requiring their— our children to show a 50% delay before they qualify for services. That means families may have to wait months or even years before their child can receive help and miss this important window for improving their development.

This bill changes that. This bill lowers the eligibility threshold so children can qualify with a 25% delay in one developmental area or a 20% delay in two or more areas. This more closely aligns with the rest of the nation. Receiving these services are associated with improved health and academic and social outcomes and reduces some of the need to provide costs and services in kindergarten and beyond. Importantly, this bill allows for the state to pursue Medicaid reimbursement for early intervention services.

Helping shift costs from the state to the federal level. With those savings, this policy.

Could reach a break-even point in several years through the Medicaid plan. This legislation is a, a priority of the Governor's Council on Disabilities and Special Education, the Alaska's Children Caucus, and the Mental Health Trust. I respectfully ask for this body's support. Representative Sadler. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in support of this bill. Um, you know, my family's had experience with disability determinations and Medicaid qualifications, and And I think dropping this threshold so more, more young people can get the intervention services they need early on, which will make a world of difference in their lives, is a very appropriate policy. It's one of those things where we can be penny-wise and pound-wise too. If we just spend the money to intervene earlier to prevent minor disabilities from becoming major disabilities, we ironically will probably save overall our Medicaid expenses. This is a good policy.

Representative Ruffridge. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this bill as well as one of the co-chairs of the Children's Caucus. The member from Juneau said this is one of our high priority items, and I would like to align myself with the comments from the member from Eagle River. I believe that this will have great consequences for our savings long term in our school system, as well as preparing kids for entering into kindergarten with some of those services already started at an earlier age.

This is something that we have funded as one-time funds for a while. This aligns our statute finally with what we've been trying to do, but doing it sort of piecemeal, and I will be supporting this bill. Thank you. Representative Elam.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too rise to support this. It's kind of one of those bills where, you know, if somebody hasn't been necessarily personally involved with some of these early experiences, it's kind of an interesting topic. And so myself personally, two of my children actually needed to be in the ILP services, and we had early diagnosis. We knew there was issues, but we didn't meet the age requirements.

We could have actually gotten in and gotten things fixed earlier, but because of some of the changes that needed to be done in this particular bill, we were actually delayed, which— there's narrow windows in those first 5 years of life that make lifetime impacts and differences for, for your children. So I would, I strongly support it. Thank you.

Representative Klobuchar. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to a question. I just— I was hoping that maybe the sponsor could clarify the fiscal note. It looks like it's over— is $5.5 million, and I'm— I guess I'm a little confused on what the match— the state matches to the federal.

I don't think that it says the federal seats looks like half, but the department has another $500,000. So if you just clarify the fiscal notes, I'd appreciate it. Representative Galvin. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to add a couple of finer details on what we're learning about as far as the return on investment for this.

About 46% of children that receive early interventions do not require any special education services by the time they reach kindergarten. And by the way, that's a savings of about $34.9 million to the state of Alaska. Boy, is that important money to save. Um, thank you. I support this bill.

Representative Fields, respond to the question of the member from House District 11. The cost of this bill is already embedded in the conference report for the budget. Thank you. It's $5.7 million total.

Any wrap-up comments, Representative Story? Ah, yes. Uh, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for all the comments on the floor today. I just wanted to comment that the The amount of the $454,000 is for the department to pursue the addition of early intervention services. They need some additional full-time staff to help meet the Medicaid reimbursement requirements.

And then the other additions are to account for— and the— it is correct, it is in the budget already, so that's good— is to account for expanding eligibility from the 50% delay to the 25% delay. And there is a split in costs between federal and state.

Are you ready for the question? Brief it.

Will the House please come back to order?

We will get to the question here and then Representative Allard, I'll recognize your At ease. The question being, shall committee substitute for Senate Bill 178 Finance 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? 39 Yeas, 1 nay. With a vote of 39 yeas to 1 nay, Senate Bill 178 has passed the body.

Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the roll call vote on the passage of the bill be considered the roll call vote on the effective date clause. Hearing no objection, the effective date clause has been adopted.

Brief it is.

Will the House please come back to order.

Madam Clerk, I would like to bring Senate Bill 23 back before the body.

Hearing no objection, Senate Bill 23 is civics education.

Breathe at ease.

Will the House please come back to order.

Madam Clerk, to properly introduce Senate Bill 23, I will turn to you.

Committee substitute for Senate Bill number 23, finance, by the Senate Finance Committee. Entitled An Act Relating to Civics Education, Civics Assessments, and Secondary School Graduation Requirements and Providing for an Effective Date. The Education Committee considered the bill, recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 23 Education with the same title, attached one new fiscal note. Signing the report do pass: Representatives Schwonke, Elam, Dybert, Underwood, Eichide, and co-chairs Hemmschuh, Storrie. The Finance Committee also considered the bill, recommends it be replaced with House Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute.

Substitute for Senate Bill 23 Education with the same title, attached one previously published fiscal note. Signing the report: do pass. Representatives Galvin, co-chairs Schragg, Josephson, and Foster. No recommendation: Jimmy, Tomaszewski, Hannon, Moore, Bynum, Stapp, Amend, Allard. There is one House committee substitute.

Mr. Majority Leader. Mr. Speaker, I move and ask unanimous consent that the House Education Committee substitute Board Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 23 Finance be adopted in lieu of the original bill. Representative Eichide, could you explain the changes in the House Education Committee version, please? Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In the House Education Committee, there was substantial change was made to compel the board to make available online a list of educational resources relating to comparative government and civics assessments that school districts can use. Thank you.

I believe that satisfies the need for the committee substitute to be explained to the body. Thusly, hearing no objection, the House Education Committee substitute has been adopted. Madam Clerk, are there any amendments? Amendment number 1 will not be offered. Amendment number 2 by Representative Elam, beginning page 1, line 2.

Representative Elam. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move Amendment Number 2. Objection. There's an objection.

Thank you. So Amendment Number 2 is a version of House Bill 358, which I offered in House Education earlier this year. What Amendment Number 2 does is it establishes a CTE, career and technical education program, statewide that is a grant mobility program. And really what that does, we had a number of hearings in the Education Committee this year. We did a lot of work on it and it was really widely supported, ranging from the Superintendent's Association to various areas of the administration, indeed, and the labor group here.

I also had a lot of support from the unions, with the labor unions, because it addresses some of the pre-apprenticeship gaps that we have we have here in the state of Alaska, the CTE groups, Excel in Ed, you name it, all of them, they, they all really appreciated and supported what the, the work here does. So what the, the bill actually does is it creates a framework that allows our districts to be able to work district to district. And so let's say that you're in Western Alaska and you have, you know, 4 different school districts across the area, and they don't have the programs or services offered in, say, one of the larger districts like my school district on the Kenai Peninsula. We have a partnership with Yamaha Outboard Motors where you can do a workshop right there and learn how to get a certification to be an outboard repairman. And so if, you know, 5 different communities in western Alaska wanted to send their students to one of our workshops on the Kenai Peninsula to be able to do a boot camp they'd be able to do that and participate.

This was actually something that came about as kind of the ideas from a variety of conversations I had with CT administrators and directors across the state of Alaska through the interim. And a challenge that we were having, and this is a solution to these challenges, Girdwood, they were trying to figure out how to send some students down to our school district because our hospital there in Soldotna does an amazing partnership with the district to be able to do a CNA program, to be able to get certifications. And so what this does is it creates a framework. The, the students from Anchorage were not able to be able to come down to the Kenai Peninsula to take advantage of these great programs that we have where we've all invested so much, so heavily over the years to be able to do this. There's cohorts all across the state where, where they're doing some really, really good work.

And what this does is it gives them a framework to be able to do that. It also helps the Department of Labor to work with the Department of Education to be able to, to do really good work. So I really appreciate the work that we did in the Education Committee this year. Unfortunately, we were not able to get this all the way out to the floor and over to the other body, but we did put a lot of really work into it, and we have a lot of support, and a lot of good minds have looked at this and said this is really good and it would help our districts. Thank you.

At ease.

The House will stand at ease to call the chair.

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