After weeks of delay in the House, the majority’s education bill started moving again this week. It was first altered in the rules committee and then subject to some drama on the House floor on Thursday morning. House Finance subcommittees are wrapping up their closeouts. The Legislative Budget & Audit Committee heard a presentation from Permanent Fund about issues they say stem from the fund’s two separate accounts. President Donald Trump mentioned the Alaska gasline during his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. And ballots for the upcoming Anchorage municipal election on Tuesday (3/12/2025). 

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Education bill advances to House floor 

House Bill 69, an education bill from Representative Rebecca Himschoot (I – Sitka) that aims to increase per student funding, started moving again this week in the House. The bill had been stuck in the education committee for weeks due to the absence of Representative Maxine Dibert (D – Fairbanks), who was hospitalized for a respiratory infection. It was eventually discharged from the education committee two weeks ago on the House floor after a big fight between the majority and minority. 

The bill then went to the finance committee. But Representative Will Stapp (R – Fairbanks), a member of the minority who was frustrated about the cost of the bill with no corresponding cuts or revenues, motioned to move the bill out of the committee less than an hour into its first hearing. This is highly irregular as normally there is time made for amendments and public testimony. But the majority, eager to have the bill advance, agreed to pass the bill out of the committee. 

Since, the House Republican minority has attempted to discharge the bill from the rules committee to the House floor. They did not have the votes to do it but kept trying, seemingly to annoy the majority. On Wednesday, the rules committee held a hearing on the bill. This rules committee does not normally amend bills but it occasionally happens.

The rules committee lowered the proposed increase of the Base Student Allocation (BSA) from $1,800 over three years to $1,000, and removed the inflation adjuster. They also included a cell phone ban in schools, allowed students to attend public schools outside their district if there is space, added a task force to review education funding, and added some new requirements for the correspondence program. Some of these additions are some of the reforms that Governor Mike Dunleavy (R – Alaska) wants. 

The bill went to the House floor on Thursday morning. What was supposed to be a normal and brief floor session turned into bedlam as the House Republican minority started getting extremely loose (see more on that in this week’s Loose Unit section). They started introducing their staff as guests in order to delay the end of the floor session. This is likely because Speaker Bryce Edgmon (I – Dillingham) and other majority members were on the 1 pm flight out of Juneau, and they wanted to prevent them from catching their plane. 

Then, the Republicans got big mad that the majority set an amendment deadline for Monday. I am not sure if they were more angry they need to to work over the weekend or that they cannot stop the bill. Don’t forget they have been trying to get it on the House floor for weeks!

Also, Representative Dibert is back in Juneau and the majority now has the 21 votes they need to advance the bill. And an amendment deadline for bills is nothing new. The Republican majority did it to the minority last year with the budget. It’s been a standard practice for many years, mostly thanks to former Republican Representative David Eastman.  

The bill will be on the House floor tomorrow. Look for things to get extremely loose. And keep in mind, even if the House passes the bill this week, the Senate majority has different ideas of how much money we can afford to spend on increasing education funding. They have made it clear they do not want to dip into the Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR) – which requires a 3/4 vote of both bodies – and that they want at least a 25/75 dividend. Without big cuts or new revenues, it won’t be possible to increase education funding by the amount the House wants, or even lower than that, and pay a 25/75 dividend without a deficit.    

Governor Dunleavy also has a bunch of education reforms he wants, which cost an additional nearly $200 million a year. So if he’s not on board with whatever comes out of the Legislature, all bets could be off with a veto. This bill is a long way from the finish line or even a conference committee. 

Other Happenings 

The House Finance subcommittees finished their closeouts and have been presenting them to the full finance committee. The finance subcommittees look into the budget of each department, the University of Alaska, the Legislature, and Office of the Governor. Then each subcommittee report is presented to the full committee. I think they are a waste of time as the full committee hears from all the departments anyway, and the committee puts out its own committee substitute for the budget. The committee also hears budget amendments. The House Finance Committee should start debating the budget and hearing amendments soon.

This was an interesting presentation. The Permanent Fund says there is a nearly 50% chance that, depending on returns, there will not be enough money in the Earnings Reserve account in the future to pay the yearly 5% draw to the state. Some want to combine the principal account and Earnings Reserve Account into one, making it more like an endowment. Some, including me, also feel the 5% draw is too high and that it should be close to 4%. Related, check out Brad Keithley’s column this week. He calculated that if the Permanent Fund were instead invested in an S&P index fund since 2020 opposed to their active management (high fee) approach, it would be worth $118 billion! That is nearly $40 billion than what it is worth now. Think about that. 

Former Representative Mary Peltola and her former chief of staff Anton McParland are now working for Holland & Hart, a lobbying and law firm.

President Trump mentioned the proposed LNG line in his speech before Congress, and said his administration is working on it. I am still skeptical for many reasons, but damn I hope we can get this baby built!

It looks like Arctic Encounter is a victim of DOGE. Their annual conference is heavily attended by federal bureaucrats.  

This Week’s Loose Unit 

This week was REALLY easy. This week’s Loose Unit is Representative Dan Saddler (R – Eagle River) with an honorable mention for the entire House Republican minority. As mentioned above, House Republicans attempted to delay the end of the floor session by introducing their staff as guests. That alone was very loose. Especially considering there were some actual guests in the gallery who were not able to be introduced due to the loose behavior of the Republicans. 

After that nonsense was over, Speaker Edgmon attempted to adjourn the House until Monday morning. Dan Saddler, who seemed to be drawing inspiration from Representative Al Green (D – Texas), stood up in the middle of the vote and tried to stop it! This is a big no-no during a vote. It was classic Loose Unit behavior. Edgmon actually told him to “stand down!” It was very loose. Edgmon was very annoyed and visibly angry. 

After a second attempt to vote on adjournment, Representative Jamie Allard (R – Eagle River) weighed in then and Representatives Justin Ruffridge (R – Soldotna) and Frank Tomaszewski (R – Fairbanks) refused to vote! Very loose. Edgmon, then really mad, called an at ease. They were eventually able to adjourn, but not before some maximum loose behavior by the Republicans. 

You can watch it here: 

If you have a nomination for this week’s Loose Unit, or if you have any political news, stories or gossip (or any old pics of politicians or public officials) please email me at jeff@alaskalandmine.com.