Legislature at one-third mark in 2022 session; quiet on surface, but things perking below the radar

Last weekend the state Legislature passed the 40th day of its 2022 session.

That’s one third of the way to mandated adjournment on the 120th day, or May 18 this year.

It seems like nothing much is getting done in Juneau so far. Last Friday the news was the state Senate’s passage Senate Bill 150, establishing Truck Driver’s Appreciation Day.

A few days prior the Senate passed SB 72, setting criteria for civics instruction in schools. Both SB 150 and SB 72 must still be approved the state House.

The House, for its part, has passed House Concurrent Resolution 10, which proclaims February, 2022 as American Heart Month.

It’s not unusual for things to seem slow in the early part of a legislative session because lawmakers are still involved in committee work on bills, and it is in committee that the technical details of legislation are honed, in the important details of lawmaking.

There are some heavy-lift issues being discussed in committees including an inflation-adjustment for state financial aid to school districts and a plan to expand and strengthen reading instruction for young children.

There are also proposals by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to encourage use of renewable energy like wind and hydro power, and to establish new financing mechanisms for energy conservation improvements and renewable energy in homes and private and public buildings.

The governor also has a proposal before the Legislature to streamline state approvals for siting of new-technology “micro” nuclear reactors that are now under development.

Even if the bill is approved the first microreactor for Alaska is years away because the technology has yet to be approved on the federal level by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Several hearings have been held on the governor’s micoreactor bills in the resources committees of the House and Senate, however.

Despite these issues the committee schedules still seem light. For example, the Senate Finance Committee, one of the Legislature’s most important panels, cancelled three meetings last week.

But again, cancelled meetings usually signal that informal – some call it back-room – negotiations are happening on key bills. In this case the senators are likely wrangling over two Permanent Fund Dividend, or PFD, bills, SB 199 and SB 200, although it’s not really known what’s happening behind the closed doors.

Both PFD bills were on the Senate Finance agenda last Monday for a hearing but subsequent hearings set for the week were cancelled.

The House Finance Committee and House budget subcommittees were working every day last week reviewing Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed operating budget for Fiscal Year 2023, with the subcommittees busy developing recommendations for state agencies they are responsible for.

Several subcommittees were to “close out,” or complete, recommendations last Friday, and most of the work will be finished next week.

The process is for the subcommittee reports to go to the full House Finance Committee, which will consider the recommendations and, after public hearings and more amendments, pass the operating budget to the Senate.

That usually comes in mid-to-late March, and this year will be no exception.

Meanwhile, it isn’t that nothing is happening in the Senate Finance Committee. The committee is engaged in reviewing the governor’s budget like the House and is also working on bills, because any legislation with a financial impact must go to the finance committees in both bodies.

But while the House customarily takes up the operating budget first and then passes it to the Senate, the Senate takes the lead in developing the capital budget, a separate budget bill for construction and spending for special projects.

Right now the capital budget is being discussed in the committee and although hearings have been held on proposals the details are being fleshed out informally among the senators.

The capital budget has outsized importance this year because much of the federal infrastructure spending this year, which the Legislature must formally approve, will be part of the capital budget.

Typically the first version of the capital budget is made available, to the public and other legislators, in April, although there are no set timelines.

Discussions and negotiations over both the capital and operating budgets usually continue right up to the closing day of the session in May, often in the final hours.

The governor is also part of the budget give-and-take because after adjournment he or she has the final say on spending items through the executive’s line-item veto authority.

While the Legislature can override governors’ vetoes it rarely happens, so the Legislature usually works with the governor to avoid a veto.

The process works both ways, however. Vetoes can only be done on additional spending, not reductions, so if lawmakers cut the governor’s proposed budget there is nothing he or she can do.

Meanwhile, one bit of drama has developed in the 2022 session. It is over criticism of a childrens’ early learning bill in the state House, and by a group of influential rural legislators including state Reps Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, a former House Speaker, and Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, who cochairs the House Finance Committee.

House Bill 164 has been worked on in the House Education Committee since last year and, through extensive hearings, over 50 amendments have been made to the bill.

But critics of the bill, including Edgmon and Foster, took the unusual step of publishing an Op-Ed in the Anchorage Daily News Feb. 4 with claims that the legislation was not sensitive to the needs of Alaska Native students in rural Alaska for whom English is a second language.

The Op-Ed appeared before the criticism had been voiced in hearings of the House committee, which were underway at the time, so it caught supporters of the bill by surprise.

Those include House Majority Leader Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anch., the prime cosponsor of the House reading bill, and Senate Minority leader Sen. Tom Begich, cosponsor of similar bills in the Senate, by surprise.

The Op-Ed did not delve into the objections in detail but it has had the effect of effectively stopping action on HB 164 in the House Education Committee.

Meanwhile, a new version of the Senate’s early learning bill, SB 111, is due to be presented in the Senate Finance Committee within the next few days in an effort to ease concerns voiced by rural lawmakers in the House.