Knowing that protecting citizens is one of the primary duties—if not the primary obligation—of a government, I’ve been devoting most of my waking hours to the criminal justice legislation currently before the Alaska House of Representatives.
The House devoted five days this week to consideration of floor amendments to the FY18 Operating Budget. When we finally finished this afternoon, we had considered 134 amendments to the bill.
Video of the Alaska House Majority Coalition’s March 16th, 2017 press availability.
The Alaska House of Representatives met from 11:00 am last Thursday until just after 3:30 in the morning on Friday to debate amendments to the state operating budget. The House Finance Committee had greatly reduced the budget from the original version proposed by Governor Walker and his Administration.
JUNEAU – Today, Representative Les Gara (D-Anchorage) submitted legislation to cut the cost of state government without voiding statutory cost of living pay increases for public employees. The Legislature is currently considering a rollback for pay increases in the proposed FY 2016 operating budget and individual bills in the House and Senate. Rep. Gara opposes these proposals.
JUNEAU – Today, the Alaska state House of Representatives accepted an amendment from House Democratic Leader Chris Tuck to help Alaska’s military families save time, money, and aggravation upon returning from a deployment. The amendment to SB 145 allows military families with special needs children who qualify for Home and Community Based Services under Medicaid to continue to receive those services when they return from a deployment without having to go through a lengthy re-application process.
The pace here in the Legislature has picked up considerably with only a little over a week to go. With the passage of the operating budget from both houses, and establishment of the operating budget Conference Committee, we are now under the 24 hour rule which means committees can schedule bill hearings with 24 hour notice. We have also started having floor sessions into the evening, working our way through bills and resolutions. Some major pieces of the “end game” are in play including the capital budget, the education bill and the natural gas pipleline bill. There is still some question about whether we will be able to complete our work before the statutory session deadline of April 20th.
This week, my colleagues and I in the Alaska House worked late into the night to provide opportunities to our children by offering fixes to House Bill 278, the omnibus education bill, the major legislation of the year pertaining to our public education system.
