Latest news with #AlaskaHouseofRepresentatives
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Gov. Dunleavy asks some lawmakers to stay away from special session he called
Gov. Mike Dunleavy discusses proposed education legislation at a news conference on Jan. 31, 2025. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon) In a meeting with Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives on Wednesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy had what he called an 'unorthodox' request. He asked that the 19 members of the House's Republican minority caucus stay away from the first five days of a special legislative session he called for Aug. 2 in Juneau. Under the Alaska Constitution, the Legislature must vote to override or sustain a governor's vetoes in the first regular or special session following the vetoes. If those Republicans are absent, it increases the odds that his vetoes will be sustained. An absence is as good as a 'no' vote when it comes to getting the 45 votes needed to override a veto of line items in a budget bill or the 40 votes needed to override a veto of a policy bill. In May, lawmakers voted 46-14 to override Dunleavy's veto of a policy bill that permanently increases the state's public-school funding formula. Eight of the 19 House minority members voted for the override. Now, they're being asked whether to override the governor's decision to only partially fund that formula. The governor's opponents will have a difficult task. Some lawmakers, including Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, are expected to be unavailable for the special session. Dunbar has been deployed with the National Guard in Poland. Others may have family commitments that are obstacles to attending. If minority-caucus legislators heed the governor's request and avoid the special session, they will be largely immune to last-minute lobbying by their colleagues or members of the public. 'If you want the veto override to fail, when we're talking about less than $50 million here on a multibillion-dollar budget, I guess you pull out every stop, and this is a stop that I've not seen pulled out by any governor,' said Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham and a supporter of the override. Reporters were not invited to the meeting between the governor and the House minority, but Jeff Turner, the governor's communications director, confirmed the details, first reported by KTUU-TV. 'Governor Dunleavy asked house minority members to not show up for the first five days of session because like any governor, he does not want his vetoes overturned,' he said by email. Dunleavy has designated education policy and the creation of a Department of Agriculture as the subjects of the special session. Turner said the governor planned to introduce an education bill for lawmakers to consider during the session. 'Arriving on the sixth day also means legislators begin the session with a clean slate for conversations on public education reform policies. The Governor is also willing to reinstate the $200 BSA increase, if he and lawmakers can reach an agreement on the education bill he will introduce next month,' Turner said. House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, did not return a call seeking comment, but other members of the minority spoke freely about the governor's request. 'I will use the governor's exact word: Unorthodox. It was definitely an unorthodox request that took me by surprise,' said Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna. While the governor's official special session proclamation lists education and a proposed Alaska Department of Agriculture on its agenda, 'he was very clear that a big portion of the strategy for him was, he did not want to be overridden on anything: bills, budget, all of it.' Ruffridge voted in favor of the prior override and indicated that he's willing to vote the same way in a special session. 'I've taken the approach sort of since day one, that if I vote yes on something, that my yes means something, I know that probably doesn't always align with the political winds that might blow, but I think that's something that my constituents at least respect,' he said. Ruffridge said he absolutely intends to show up at the special session. 'If a special session is called, I think all representatives and senators have an obligation to attempt to be there, if at all possible,' Ruffridge said. 'I think that's part of what we signed up for when we signed up to do the job. And I mean, if you're not going to show up, I think essentially, you're just afraid of taking hard votes at that point.' Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, has a different perspective. 'I think that's fine,' she said of the governor's request. 'It costs a lot of money. It's $300 per diem per day. You have to pay for flights and hotels. I think it's a good idea. Those who do want to continue to override, they could go ahead and go down there, and those of us who don't, it's an automatic no vote for us when we don't go there to vote.' 'My job is to make sure we save as much money as possible,' she said. 'And again, if we're not in Juneau, it's an automatic no vote. If you show up in Juneau, then I believe those individuals are going to be voting yes or wasting taxpayer dime.' Jeremy Bynum, the Republican representative from Ketchikan, said he intends to show up in Juneau on Aug. 2, even though it means missing Ketchikan's largest annual celebration, the blueberry festival. He's interested in attending the special session because he hopes that legislators will take up education policy, even though he doubts that will happen. The multipartisan House majority caucus controls the legislative agenda, and it isn't clear that there is sufficient common ground between the majority and the governor to enable progress. Rep. DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, said she's still considering her options and is undecided about whether to travel to Juneau. Before the House minority's meeting with the governor, Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, said he doesn't see the governor's call for a special session as significantly different from legislative committees' attempts to advance or derail legislation by using legislative procedures or schedules. He pointed to the way that the Senate Finance Committee has used take-it-or-leave-it tactics with regard to the state budget. Rep. Elexie Moore of Wasilla said she's likely to attend in order to vote against an override and to sustain the governor's veto. Earlier this year, she was absent from the Capitol on a day that unexpectedly brought a key vote on the Permanent Fund dividend. She was dragged on social media for three weeks afterward, she said by phone. People expect their legislators to be in the Capitol, she said, and most people aren't able to follow the maneuvering that might explain an absence. 'I think that's the perspective of somebody who doesn't understand what it means not to go,' Allard said when told about Moore's thinking. '(Not attending the session) means that you're a no vote. But if she wants to go and spend, you know, $5,000 to $10,000 in taxpayer money, that's fine. I understand she was dragged on social media, but those were some bad decisions that were made — not necessarily by her — but on information about what she was doing. But I would recommend that she stay with the caucus and don't go down there.' 'I think it's a good idea,' said Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole, about the governor's request. Prax supports the governor's position and said he believes the special session is a good idea, because it settles the school funding issue early. Without a special session, lawmakers would have to wait until January to decide whether to override or sustain the governor's decisions. The Fairbanks North Star Borough school board voted in June to finalize a budget that expects lawmakers to override the governor. If an override fails, Prax said, it's better that it fails early, so the district can change its budget before school begins. While members of the House and Senate majority caucuses have indicated that they intend to take up only the veto overrides during the special session, Prax said he hopes lawmakers will stay and consider education policy. While lawmakers have convened an education task force to discuss future changes, he doubts the effectiveness of that group, given the Legislature's failure to adopt the recommendations of a prior fiscal policy working group. The task force deadline to make recommendations is January 2027, after the next election. 'I am not at all optimistic that there's even any intention, frankly, of the task force coming up with something,' he said. Edgmon, the House speaker, said that his recommendation 'to any legislator, is to show up to Juneau, get their work done and make the tough vote whether they are a yea or a nay.' Legislative rules allow any lawmaker to issue a 'call on the House' that compels legislators to attend. Edgmon said that might be deemed dilatory and out of order in this case. In the end, will absences even matter? Lawmakers who stay away are likely to be those most likely to support the governor. 'That could be the case for sure,' Edgmon said, 'and it'll be the voters in their districts that will judge whether or not they're doing the right thing.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New bill would prohibit hard-rock metals mining in Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed
Braided wetlands and tundra in the Bristol Bay watershed are seen from the air on July 26, 2010. Seen here is Upper Talarik Creek, which flows into Lake Iliamna and then the Kvichak River before emptying into Bristol Bay. A new bill introduced on the last day of the Alaska Legislature's 2025 session would bar hard-rock metals mining in the Bristol Bay watershed. (Photo provided by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Mere hours before he banged his gavel to adjourn this year's session of the Alaska House of Representatives, Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, introduced a bill to bar metals mining from the Bristol Bay watershed. The measure, House Bill 233, would expand on the Environmental Protection Agency's 2023 decision prohibiting permitting of the controversial Pebble Project in the region. The Biden administration action, which followed up on a process started in the Obama administration, invoked a rarely used provision on the Clean Water Act to prevent development of the huge open-pit copper and gold mine planned for the region upstream from salmon-rich Bristol Bay. Edgmon's bill would ban all metallic sulfide mining in the area designated as the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve, which encompasses state land in the Bristol Bay watershed. Metallic sulfide mining, also known as hard-rock mining, is the type of mining that extracts elements like gold and copper from acid-generating rocks classified as sulfides. When these sulfides are processed, they commonly cause acid to drain out. It is a method distinct from placer mining, which sifts out metals from loose sediments. The copper and gold that would be produced at the Pebble project is held in sulfide ore and would be extracted through hard-rock mining. The Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve was established by the Legislature in 1972 to prevent oil and gas development in the region. The effort was led by Jay Hammond, who was president of the state Senate at the time. He later became governor. Under House Bill 223, the Hammond-championed prohibitions on petroleum development would be expanded to mining. The justifications for the 1972 action 'also warrant new protections to prevent hardrock mining activities that would risk polluting the region's river systems, ground water, aquifer systems,' as well as any drainages that connect to Bristol Bay's surface water, the bill's text says. Edgmon is from the Bristol Bay region. The bill will be considered next year, along with other measures still pending in the 34th Legislature. Alannah Hurley, executive director of a consortium of Native tribal governments in the Bristol Bay region, said the bill would provide extra protection for EPA's action. That protection is needed because of 'the uncertainty that we're continuing to face' from litigation pressed by Pebble's sponsors, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and the Pebble Limited Partnership it owns, said Hurley, who is with United Tribes of Bristol Bay, an organization that has long opposed the Pebble project. Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Limited Partnership have sued to overturn the 2023 EPA determination, and the case remains active. The state of Alaska, at the direction of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, has also sued the federal government over the action. Hurley said that beyond upholding the EPA determination, the bill would prevent the development of other metals mines in the region, Hurley said. There are about 20 active claims that could be developed into large metals mines, though not as large as the proposed Pebble project, she said. If the bill passes, 'we wouldn't have to face 20 other mining claims piecemeal over who knows how many decades,' she said. While the bill is new, the effort behind it goes back a long time, Hurley said. 'This is something the tribes have been talking about for years. We need the EPA protection, but we also need legislation to really protect the watershed,' she said. A legislative effort similar to House Bill 233 was mounted on the federal level by former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska. She introduced the Bristol Bay Protection Act a year ago to codify the EPA's Clean Water Act determination barring a Pebble-type mine from being permitted in the Bristol Bay watershed. The act died in committee, and Peltola lost her seat in November to current Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska. The tribes and other Pebble opponents have thus turned their attention to the Legislature now that Peltola is no longer in the U.S. House, Hurley said. 'The fact that she wasn't reelected has frustrated expectations that we can make any progress with Congress,' Hurley said. There have been previous efforts in the Alaska Legislature, as well. In 2015, Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, introduced a measure, House Bill 119, that would require legislative approval for any large-scale metallic sulfide mine in the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve. It failed to reach the House floor. Josephson introduced a similar bill, House Bill 14, in 2017. It also died in committee. Josephson is a co-sponsor of Edgmon's new bill. Representatives of Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Limited Partnership were not available to comment on the new bill. Dunleavy, who has been supportive of the Pebble project, has not taken a position, said his spokesperson, Jeff Turner. The bill was just introduced, so the governor has not had time to review it, Turner said. 'As a general rule, the Governor's office does not comment on legislation until it has passed and been transmitted to his office,' he said by email. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After federal funding cut, Alaska Legislature asks Congress to help rural schools
Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan, speaks Feb. 21, 2025, on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) A group of Alaska's rural school districts are asking for help after the federal government failed to renew a program that sends grant money to logging-dependent areas. On Monday, the Alaska Legislature joined the call for help by passing House Joint Resolution 5, which asks Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. That act sent $12.6 million to Alaska schools in federal fiscal year 2023, but Congress has thus far failed to reauthorize the program. The state Senate passed HJR 5 by a 19-1 vote on May 9 after modifying a version originally written by Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan. The House agreed with the changes, 37-3, on Monday. The votes against the resolution came from conservative Republicans who generally oppose federal spending. The Secure Rural Schools Act, as it is commonly known, was designed to compensate rural school districts for tax revenue lost as the federal government began to restrict logging in the 1990s. In 2023, the law provided more than $250 million to districts nationwide, with about 5% of the funding coming to Alaska. For some of Southeast Alaska's rural school districts, the money was a big part of the local budget. Yakutat, for example, received more than $6,500 per student. Wrangell had almost $3,500, and the money was worth $584 for each of Ketchikan's 2,045 students. HJR 5, which will be sent to every member of Congress, asks for retroactive funding and for a permanent funding source to pay for the bill. It also encourages Congress to open more federal land to timber cutting 'in a manner that supports rural economic revitalization, conserves habitat, and promotes forest health.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
In unusual move, Alaska House declines to honor conservative political writer
The Alaska House of Representatives is seen in action on Monday, May 5, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska House of Representatives has issued messages honoring high school sports teams, Olympic gold medalists, farmers, anniversaries, and even notable animals. In an unusual move on Friday, it declined to bestow honors on conservative political commentator Suzanne Downing. In a 21-17 vote, the House tabled a citation from Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River that praised Downing. Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, led the vote to turn down the citation. 'I have not objected to dozens of citations for people who had views strongly opposed to mine … I objected to this citation because there is a long record of outright dishonesty with this particular person, and it's caustic in our discourse,' he said on the House floor. When it became clear that there were enough votes to vote down the citation altogether, members who supported Downing asked that it be tabled out of courtesy. Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, was the lone member of the House's Republican minority who voted for the tabling motion. 'I think that was the way to go, to not go down the road of rejecting a citation,' he said. Downing, who has a background in journalism and Republican politics, founded the website Must Read Alaska in 2016 to spread conservative news and commentary, mostly in support of conservative members of the Alaska Republican Party. In 2023, she sold the website to Jon Faulkner, a prominent Republican donor and owner of the Land's End Resort in Homer. Allard said in a text that Downing deserved the recognition. 'There's an entire page in the U.S. Congressional Record dedicated to Suzanne Downing and her many extraordinary contributions to the state of Alaska,' Allard said. 'She has obviously moved the needle, much to the irritation of a few Democrats. Zack Fields has been the target of some of her criticism over the years, and so naturally he is taking this quite personally. Sad!' Legislators present on the House floor Friday said they couldn't recall the last time the House failed to approve a citation for someone. In 1994, as an April Fool's Day joke, a lawmaker submitted a citation praising conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, entitled 'Honoring Excellence in Broadcasting.' Several House members, including multiple Democrats, cosponsored the citation before realizing it was about Limbaugh, then voted it down. 'I'd rather see his very ample butt flossed with barbed wire,' said then-Rep. Joe Sitton, D-Fairbanks, before voting against it. After Limbaugh's death, the House did eventually vote to honor him with a citation. On Monday, Fields noted that he voted for that citation as well as another posthumous honor for conservative radio talk show host Dan Fagan. 'Someone who's willfully and repeatedly dishonest, I just I'm not going to vote for that, and I don't think it's appropriate for the Legislature to commend them for being willfully dishonest,' he said. While individual legislators have occasionally voted against particular citations, it is extraordinarily unusual for a legislative body to vote them down collectively, even when the person being honored has been convicted of crimes. In 1994, legislators censured Sen. George Jacko for sexually harassing a legislative page. On Jacko's last day in office, they passed a citation that praised Jacko for having 'a great sense of humor as well as the esteem of his staff and colleagues.' Former state Rep. Tom Anderson was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the VECO corruption scandal. Last year, after Anderson's death, the Legislature unanimously passed a citation honoring his life. Legislative citations have occasionally drawn ire, too. In 2008, legislators issued a citation praising attorney Wayne Anthony Ross. The following year, they rejected Gov. Sarah Palin's decision to name him attorney general, marking the first time the Legislature had ever turned down a cabinet appointment. 'The hypocrisy there is quite glaring. I believe they need to be called out on that,' Palin said at the time. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska House urges local and state agencies to prepare for a bad wildfire season
Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, speaks to the Alaska House of Representatives on Friday, April 25, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Alaska's wildfire season is shaping up to be especially dangerous this year, and the Alaska House of Representatives is asking local, state and federal officials to prepare ahead of time. On April 25, the House voted 37-0 to approve a resolution calling for readiness. House Joint Resolution 15, by Rep. Ky Holland, I-Anchorage, is slated for a hearing on Friday in the Senate Resources Committee. 'House Joint Resolution 15 came about from an early awareness this winter about the very dry conditions that we were witnessing in Southcentral Alaska,' said Holland, speaking to the House. 'A really key part of this resolution is a recognition of how important it is that we do the outreach and we encourage the preparation by residents to be able to be more aware of what they can do to protect their own homes through the Firewise program,' he said. He added that it's particularly important for Alaskans to be aware that many of the state's residential areas have a single way in and out. 'That single route is all that's going to be available for both our fire response apparatus to get in, as well as for anyone who's trying to evacuate to get out,' he said. 'And we only have to look back at some very tragic, large fires we've seen in the last five years that have been exacerbated by these problems of the limited ingress and egress routes to realize how important it is for us to assess those areas.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
