No BSA funding — Now what?

Unable to override the Veto

By now you all have heard of the Alaska Legislators vote to uphold the Governor’s veto of SB140. The fallout – closing schools, laying off teachers, increasing class sizes are  seen across the state. What next?

House News:  Public Testimony Wednesday, 8:00 am House Education.

The House Education Committee will hear testimony on the HB 392 Education Funding bill on Wednesday March 27th. They will take invited an public testimony at  8:00 am in Davis 106 or teleconferenced. It is sponsored by House Resources (Rep. McKay, R-Anchorage). There are many provisions in this bill, including some of the Governor’s priorities of teacher bonuses, and changes to correspondence school funding, student transportation, and charter schools. There will likely be amendments either in committee or in the House if it gets to the House floor. 

The House Education Committee will also finally hear testimony on  SB 29 Civics Education sponsored by Sen. Stevens (R-Kodiak) and many others. Invited and public testimony will be taken also on Wednesday, March 27th, at  8:00 am in Davis 106 or teleconferenced.

Should you want to email your comments on either bill to the Education Committee, here are the members:

Representative.Justin.Ruffridge@akleg.gov
Representative.Jamie.Allard@akleg.gov
Representative.Mike.Prax@akleg.gov
Representative.CJ.McCormick@akleg.gov
Representative.Tom.McKay@akleg.gov
Representative.Rebecca.Himschoot@akleg.gov
Representative.Andi.Story@akleg.gov

Other House News:

The House moved HB 193 – Internet for Schools quickly last week. The bill does essentially what SB40 proposed last year. It will provide increased internet funding to eligible school districts. After passing the House, It was heard in Senate Finance Committee on Monday, March 25th.  There was no discussion, bill was passed. It then went to the Senate floor for a vote. There was an attempt at an amendment which failed, and then the Senate voted 18-1 in favor. It now goes to the Governor for signature. Due to the tight timeline for the federal funding, there are only a few days left for him to sign to meet this years’ deadline.

The House Judiciary committee held another meeting discussing HB 358 Prohibit AI-Altered Representations. This continues to generate a lot of questions and much discussion around what are or are not ‘deep fakes’ and what would or would not be legal in political campaigning and election materials. This bill was heard and held.

On March 18th, the House Education committee heard and took testimony on SB99 Financial Literacy Program in Schools sponsored by Sen. Wielechowski (D-Anchorage). This was the second hearing on this bill. The bill passed the committee with Reps. Himschoot and Story as “Do Pass”, Rep. Prax as a “Do Not Pass”, and Reps. McKay, McCormick, Allard and Ruffridge as “No Recommendation”.

Senate News:

On March 20th, SB 17 Campaign Contributions sponsored by Sen. Kawasaki was heard in Senate Judiciary. A Committee Substitute ( SB 17B) was accepted and discussed the last meeting. There was no discussion, and it was moved out of committee.  It was referred to the Rules committee with the next step after to be the Senate floor.

Bills We Are Tracking

Elections/Campaigns

House Bill 129 – “Voter Registration”, Sponsored by by the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Vance (R-Homer) has passed the House and was heard in the Senate State Affairs committee on March 5th. No further action to date.

House Bill 4 – “Repeal Ranked Choice Voting”, no further action to date.

Gun Safety

SB 173  An Act Authorizing Handguns for School Employees/Volunteers, was introduced in January by Senator Hughes and co-sponsored by Senators Shower and Myers.  This bill was heard March 1st and no further action has been taken.

Reminder:  If you miss any of the hearings or testimony, follow the links to the bills and you can listen at any time. Also, if you wish to supply written testimony, here’s a link to the Senate  page and to the Representatives’ page. Committee members are listed here.

Legislative Calendar and Events 

  • April 14, 2024  – 90th day of the session (By law (AS 24.05.150))
  • May 15, 2024  – 121st day of the session (Per the Alaska Constitution)

Wrap Up/Links

How are we doing?

The League always needs volunteers!  Writing letters, talking to your legislators, and helping out by giving us your feedback – it doesn’t have to be a total commitment.  

We would LOVE to hear from you.  Please encourage  others to take action by sharing this Legislative Newsletter, Action Alerts, and Calendar Events.  Contact us at alaskalwv@alaskalwv.org, and/or work to get the word out with your local leagues. 

Expanding the League’s impact helps us to Empower Voters and Defend Democracy as a community!  We’ll keep these links accessible here for you.

You can see your LWV Alaska Board members and Officers and their contact information on the AlaskaLWV.org/Board/ site.

League of Women Voters of Alaska
PO Box 101345
Anchorage, AK 99510-1345

Email us at alaskalwv@alaskalwv.org
Website:  www.alaskalwv.org