advocacy, on the menu, state policy

On the Menu 02.27.26

February 27, 2026

By Rachel Lord, Advocacy and Policy Director, AFPC

Monday was the deadline for legislators to introduce personal bills, and we saw a flurry of activity – especially in the House. Several food systems related bills were included, and we’ve added those to our bill tracker. From here on out, any new bills will need to be introduced by a committee. We’re over a third of the way through the session, and looking at roughly 376 bills in the House, plus over 50 resolutions, and 375 bills in the Senate, with another 43 resolutions. A handful of these have been passed or withdrawn, but needless to say – the docket of potential legislation is massive. And this includes the state budget bills, which were up for public hearing this week in Senate Finance. 

There are brief overviews of the newly introduced bills below. I’m not going to cover House Joint Resolution 40 (HJR 40), a wide ranging resolution relating to resource development, and running through just about every major industry in the state. But in case you might be interested, I wanted to flag the inclusion of clauses on page 5 that are related to food security, sustainable wild foods, agriculture, mariculture, and commercial fishing. 

Check out our Food Security Week wrap-up blog, and the recap from our partners at the Alaska Food Coalition.

Updates

SB 187 – Prohibiting certain food dyes in school meals 

SB 187 was heard for the first time in Senate Education on Wednesday. Sen. Bill Wielechowski and his staff intern Phoebe Pepper presented the bill. They shared concerns about health impacts of artificial dyes, the movement of other states to take similar actions, and support from the schools they have contacted. They noted the effective date has been raised as a concern (it is currently July 1, 2025 and school meal ordering happens well before July in any given year), and they are willing to work with the committee to amend as necessary. The committee heard invited testimony from Kendal Kruse, registered dietician who works in the Mat-Su Borough, and Tamar Ben-Yosef, Executive Director of the All Alaska Pediatric Partnership. Both spoke to the challenges our schools are experiencing, and that small changes to support more nutritious foods will be a benefit. Heather Heineken, Director of Finance & Support Services at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) spoke to the zero dollar fiscal note, given that the state does not spend any money directly on school food purchases but those costs are paid by school districts. There was no public testimony, however there is written testimony on BASIS from Carlee Johnson McIntosh from the Petersburg School District and the Alaska Community Action on Toxics. You can send comments to the committee at senate.education@akleg.gov. Watch the 26 minute hearing here.

HJR 32 / SJR 27– Rural Health Transformation Program

SJR 27 is a companion bill to the House Joint Resolution introduced on Feb. 18. The Senate version was introduced on Feb. 25 and is also referred to the Health & Social Services Committee. HJR 32 was heard in Health & Social Services on Tuesday with invited and public testimony. Rep. Mina noted that this resolution is an effort to leverage opportunities for the state through necessary actions by the legislature, and ask for timeline extensions on the deadlines for adoption and implementation of needed legislation set by the federal government. There was a lot of discussion by the committee about the specifics of the proposed legislation, as well as the verbiage within the resolution. There was no public testimony. Watch the video here. HJR is scheduled for another hearing with invited & public testimony on Thursday, March 5 at 3:15 PM.

HB 323 – Farm & Ag Land Assessments

This bill was introduced Feb. 23 by Rep. Moore, and is a companion bill to SB 200 introduced by Senator Bjorkman in January. It is similarly referenced to Community & Regional Affairs then Resources. SB 200 was moved from CR&A in the Senate and is now awaiting a hearing in Resources.

HB 331 – Alaska Grown Logo

Introduced on Feb 23 by Rep. Moore, HB 331 primarily makes changes to how the Alaska Grown logo associated fees (from selling promotional merchandise, etc) are collected, including authorization within the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED). It is referred to the House Labor & Commerce Committee, then Finance.

HB 340 – Dietitian licensure compact

Introduced on Feb 23 by Rep. Moore, HB 331 primarily makes changes to how the Alaska Grown logo associated fees (from selling promotional merchandise, etc) are collected, including authorization within the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED). It is referred to the House Labor & Commerce Committee, then Finance.

HB 345 – Ag Cooperatives exemption from workers comp

Rep. Moore also introduced HB 345 on Feb. 23, which adds a subsection to state statutes that exempts certain employees from state workers’ compensation requirements. Currently, that list has 12 exemptions – this bill would add a 13th which specifies a person who is a member of an agricultural cooperative is exempt from workers’ comp requirements. An ag cooperative is further defined in the bill. This language is identical to that in HB 355. It is referred to Community & Regional Affairs, and Labor & Commerce.

HB 353 – Ag land lease and sales

Introduced by Rep. Vance on Feb. 23, this 10-page bill amends the Alaska Lands Act (Title 38, Chapter 5) in regards to the sale of agricultural land. It requires that land sold be between 5-320 acres, and must be used for agricultural purposes in accordance with the state’s agricultural covenants statute (AS 38.05.321). It defines agricultural purposes and creates language for agricultural leases, making amendments to several areas of the Lands Act. We will be working to analyze this bill and its similarities and differences from other similar bills in the legislature. It is referred to Community & Regional Affairs and Resources.

HB 355 – Ag cooperatives: Ag loan eligibility & exemption from workers comp

Introduced by Rep. Vance on Feb. 23, this bill adds “cooperatives” as a specific entity type eligible to apply for loans through the Board of Agriculture (Ag Revolving Loan Fund – ARLF). Also includes adding a subsection to state statutes that exempt certain employees from state workers compensation requirements. Currently that list has 12 exemptions – this bill would add a 13th which specifies a person who is a member of an agricultural cooperative is exempt from workers comp requirements. An ag cooperative is further defined in the bill. The workers comp language is identical to that in HB 345. It was referred to Community & Regional Affairs and Labor & Commerce.

HB 356 – Requirements and permits for certain commercial fishing vessels

Also introduced on Feb. 23 by Rep. Vance, this bill directs the Dept. of Environmental Conservation to exempt from certain health and sanitary requirements and allow for vessel-based packaging and freezing for certain vessels and fisheries, restricts the fees from DEC for those who harvest less than 10,000 pounds of fishery resources annually, and directs the DEC to work with the Dept. of Fish & Game to simplify and streamline regulations for commercial fishing businesses with a direct marketing fisheries business license and with vessels under 65′. It further puts a 30-day time limit on permit application response from the DEC, and requires the DEC to streamline associated regulations, prioritizing those applicable to “rural coastal communities.” It is referred to Fisheries and Labor & Commerce.

HB 359 – Pesticide regulation

Introduced by Rep. Elan on Feb. 23, this bill would reserve the right to regulate pesticides to the state only, specifying that a municipality may not regulate pesticide sale, use, application, disclosure, etc. of pesticides. It was referred to Community & Regional Affairs, then Labor & Commerce.

SB 269 – Restructuring the Board of Fisheries

Introduced by Senator Hoffman on Feb. 23, this bill would create three regional Boards of five members each, with the 15 members composing the full Board of Fisheries. There would be specific seats for commercial, sport, and subsistence or personal use fisheries and two members of the public on each. The regions would be the Southeast, the Central, and the Western Board of Fisheries. The bill was referred to Resources and Finance.

No Changes This Week:

Check out our bill tracker here to see all the food policy bills we are tracking, and where they are in the legislative process.

Budget

Senate Finance heard public testimony on the state’s budget bills on Thursday and Friday this week. Below are links to the videos from the hearings. There are also transcripts for each hearing, which you can search and review for a rough overview!

Thursday Morning video (Juneau, Southeast, Prince William Sound, Kodiak, Offnets)

Thursday Afternoon (Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue, Utqiagvik, Unalaska, Dillingham, Offnets)

Friday Morning (Fairbanks, Interior, Copper River Valley, Offnets)

Friday Afternoon (Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Kenai Peninsula)

As of this afternoon, there was one packet with 54 pages of written public testimony uploaded on BASIS – you can find it here. There should be more documents under each meeting as they are processed by staff.

Alaska State Budget Resources

Upcoming Public Testimony

HJR 22 – Rural Health Transformation Program

Thursday, March 5, House Health & Social Services, 3:15 PM

Remember – things can (and often will) change! If there is a bill you’re particularly interested in, text the bill number (ie. HB202) to 559-245-2529 and you’ll get text alerts when its status changes!

Hearings can be watched on Gavel/KTOO, and you can check out our calendar of hearings for bills we are watching here. If you’re interested in testifying but don’t know where to start, you can check out our simple “Tips for Testifying” document here.