HSTA-260518-0800

18Th, I think. I'd like to call this final meeting of the House State Affairs Committee to order. The time is— I am sure, Representative Himschuh, The time is 8:02 on Monday, May 18th, and we're here in Room 120. Members present are Representative St. Clair, Representative Holland, Representative Himschoot, and myself, Chair Carrick. We do have a quorum to conduct business.

Um, our record secretary, as always, is Cecilia Miller, and our moderator from the Juneau LIO is Renzo Moises. Our committee aide is my staff, Stuart Relay, and there is a card going around, and please say thank you for his work for the last 2 years at some point today, um, and for all of our staff. Thank you all very much. We have just one item on today's agenda, which is Senate Joint Resolution 25 from the Senate State Affairs Committee supporting the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. And we are going to keep this meeting relatively short.

The Senate Joint Resolution 25 was sent to committee members. I'm going to ask the bill sponsor, Senator Kawasaki, and his staff to just briefly tell us about the resolution. And then the intention today is to take public testimony, adopt a CS on this legislation, and then take action on it. Senator Kawasaki. Thank you.

For the record, Senator Kawasaki, Scott Kawasaki from District P, Fairbanks, Fort Wainwright, and Badger. And I appreciate the willingness to take this up so late in the season, so late in the session. The Senate Joint Resolution 25 is very simple. It is just for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The USMCA is the revised North American Free Trade Agreement.

Our closest trade partner in Alaska, and why it's so important that Alaskans support the USMCA, is that our greatest trade partner is our neighbor to the east, and that's Canada. And we— I think we've got some people who might testify in support from the Pacific Pacific Northwest Economic Region. And I'll leave the technical aspects of the resolution to my staff, Maddie Hall. Excellent. Thank you, Senator Kawasaki.

I'll just also note that Vice Chair Story has joined us here at 8:04 AM. We're— unless there are technical questions, we're going to jump right into opening public testimony on SJR 25. And I don't see anyone in the room or online to testify, so with that we are going to close public testimony on SJR 25. And, um, we did announce a preemptive amendment deadline to take up any amendments today in this committee. We did receive 2 amendments and we incorporated them into a committee substitute, and so at this time.

I'm going to put Vice Chair Story on the spot for adopting a committee substitute. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the House State Affairs Committee adopt House Committee Substitute for Senate Joint Resolution 25, also known as 34-LS1404/i, as our working document. And I'll object for discussion. Mr. Riley, can you tell us about the committee substitute?

Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair. For the record, Stewart Relay, staff to Representative Carrick in the State Affairs Committee. Madam Chair, this CS incorporates an amendment we received from Representative St. Clair. On page— the previous version of the resolution was version N, so I'm going to refer to the changes on version N. Page 2, line 24 replaces the word efficient with secure, and on page 3, lines 5 through 6, it replaces the phrase, the creation of a program that would simplify border crossings, with the phrase a secure border.

Madam Chair, those are the only changes. Okay, thank you, Mr. Relay. Do we have questions on the committee substitute? Representative Holland?

Um, I'll wait until we adopt it. Okay, um, I am going to remove my objection to adopting the committee substitute. Is there any further objection? Seeing and hearing none, the committee substitute version I has been adopted as the working document. And now we could take any general questions on the SJR 25.

Representative Holland. Thank you. Perhaps to the maker of the resolution, I was looking quickly. I don't see distribution of this resolution to— I'm not sure what the right title would be— the Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta as our primary trading partners. And it would seem like the distribution of this and the engagement that this represents and the message that it's conveying ought to be going to the leadership of those three provinces.

Perhaps you can clarify if that's intended or being done, or perhaps might be an addition and how this is conveyed so that it has the maximum impact for Alaska's benefit. I'll just, uh, welcome back, uh, Senator Kawasaki and staff, um, and I'll ask, uh, Maddie Hall, staff to Senator Kawasaki, do you want to take that question? For the record, Maddie Hall, staff to Senator Scott Kawasaki, uh, through the chair to Representative Holland, um, that language isn't and the resolution, then we're comfortable having that added. When we were working on this resolution, we worked closely with different leadership organizations across the border, and so I believe there's already been communication with these leadership. So if they're— oh, it does.

Page 3, line 11, it does distribute it.

Follow-up? Follow-up?

I guess I'm looking at version N. I see the distribution to the Minister of Canada. I was looking for specifically the provincial leadership.

Mr. Hall.

Through the record. Okay, through the chair, Senator Scott Kawasaki. Thank you for the question, uh, Representative Holland. We, we mainly targeted it to the federal delegation leaders, so that would be Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, and we also didn't mention Mexico because Mexico is not bordering Alaska, so Again, this is very specific to the Alaska-Canada relationship and not necessarily the individual provincial governments, which we would consider states in Alaska. Okay.

Thank you. I guess following up on Representative Holland's comment, if there was desire to distribute it to those provincial leaders, would that be considered a friendly amendment at a later floor? Curious session, probably, at this point. Through the chair, Chair Kerrek, I would take it as a friendly amendment. Sure, thanks.

I think, given the lateness of the committee process here, I would maybe suggest, Rep. Holland, if you want to work with Senator Kawasaki, that we could entertain that as a potential friendly amendment. Representative Himschoot. Thank you, Chair Kerrek. I just want to express some gratitude for this and I— it's on my list of things to learn more about, but I think Yukoners can come down and fish out of like Haines and Skagway as residents or something, or they, they access the ocean through Haines and Skagway for marine fishing. I don't know a whole lot more about it, but there's some sort of privilege they have as a— as our most direct neighbor.

Somebody might know more about that, but I'm— so I think this kind of thing supports supports those relationships, so I'm grateful for that. I just— I don't really know what I'm talking about. I just know there is a thing. Thanks. Thank you, Representative Himschoot.

Vice Chair Story? Yes, I just wanted to express my gratitude to you, Senator Kawasaki, and Mr. Hall for working on this. Haines and Skagway certainly value their deep relationships and long-term relationships they have had border communities, and so this is quite welcome. I do— it is— this is not something that is in the resolution, but we just— body just had a meeting about our, our international boundaries that we share with our healthy waterways and how we want to make sure that transboundary work is being done on that. And I realize that's not in the title or a part of this But certainly something that's critical, you know, to have between our two countries.

Thank you.

Great. Any additional comments from the committee? Any closing comments, Senator Kawasaki? No. Thank you for meeting this morning.

Thank you all for being here. I guess at this time And seeing no further discussion, Vice Chair Story, can I have a motion? Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the House Committee substitute SJR 25, also known as 34-LS1404/i, passed from the House State Affairs Committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. And hearing and seeing no objection, SJR 25 has advanced from the State Affairs Committee.

As we conclude today, I just again want to very sincerely thank all of the committee members here, and we're not at our full contingent this morning, but I'm just really grateful for all of our members, including Reps McCabe, Rep Vance, Rep St. Clair, Rep Holland, Rep Himschute, Rep Story, and thank you to all of our staff who have joined us over the last 2 years. Most, uh, consistently Renzo in the back and Cecilia up here at my right. And, uh, again, I'm going to ask members to sign this card for Stewart, who, um, without his work, this committee would not happen. So I'm really grateful. And with that, um, House State Affairs is adjourned for the 34th Legislature.