advocacy, on the menu, state policy

On the Menu 05.22.26

May 22, 2026

By Rachel Lord, Advocacy and Policy Director, AFPC

The 34th Alaska Legislature gaveled out sine die on Wednesday night, ending the two-year legislative session (though coming back Thursday for the start of a special session focused only on the gas line bill). Amidst an incredible array of big, thorny issues (think LNG gas lines, pension for state workers, education funding, and more) and very long floor sessions, a number of food policy bills passed in the final days. 

A civics reminder! Under the checks and balances of our government system as provided in the Alaska Constitution, the Governor – as head of the Executive Branch – has three choices after the Legislature passes a bill. Within fifteen days (excluding Sundays, and he gets twenty days after the legislature adjourns!), he can actively sign it into law, he can passively do nothing and it will automatically go into law, or he can veto it. That clock starts ticking after a bill is transmitted to the Governor, which can take some time after the end of session flurry. The legislature needs a two-thirds majority to override a policy veto, and three-quarters majority to override a budget veto – some of the hardest veto override thresholds in the nation. So while the Legislature has passed these policy and budget items, there is still a waiting game to see what the Governor will do. 

This is a wrap on our weekly OTM! Thanks to everyone who read along, provided feedback, asked questions, and testified to the Legislature! We will move to monthly advocacy updates for the rest of the year, as well as voter and candidate education activities as we look ahead to big elections. You can find more information at akfoodvote.org. Happy Summer, All!

Updates

SB 208 – Ag Leasing + HB 202 – Cabbage as the State Vegetable (+ Industrial Hemp)

SB 208 picked up a few other bills last weekend, and passed both the House and Senate. As amended, the bill now heads to the Governor for signing and includes: a new and clear pathway for leasing and purchasing (with ag covenants) of state lands for agriculture, providing new pathways for enforcing state agricultural covenants, updated provisions for industrial hemp production (HB 325), AND establishing the giant cabbage as Alaska’s official state vegetable (HB 202). Whew! You can peruse the final 17-page bill here. 

Let’s go through the play-by-play of how we got to the finish line (at least from the outside looking in!). On Sunday, the House took up SB 208 and unanimously adopted an amendment from Rep. McCabe to include the provisions of HB 325 (industrial hemp). In the afternoon, Rep. Johnson amended the bill to include HB 202 (the cabbage bill) with unanimous support (and applause!). Rep. Vance proposed two amendments, the first outlining an extensive definition of agricultural use. Rep. Mears expressed concern about the tricky space of potential unintended consequences around the language of definitions, minority members rose in support, and the amendment failed on caucus lines 19Y-21N. Rep. Vance’s second amendment was to reduce agricultural sales acreage minimum from 40 to 5 acres. There was pushback about lack of vetting of the idea, with some strong support and some concern expressed. The amendment failed 19Y-21N. Rep. Mears provided wrap-up comments, overviewing the bill including how they had “enhanced the profile of the bill” by adding the cabbage provision. Rep. Coulombe stood in support of the bill, but expressed some frustration with provisions passed here but not in other places. Rep. Vance stood to support the bill but first to “pitch a fit” that her amendments weren’t approved by the “farm club” and asking why we all need to go “get a group hug” to support amendments. She was asked to keep her comments to the bill and not directed at other members. The final vote was 39-1, with Rep. Holland the sole no vote. Watch the Sunday House Floor Session: part 1 (adding HB 325), part 2 (adding HB 202, considering failed amendments, final passage). 

On Monday, the Senate took up SB 208 as amended by the House for a concurrence vote on the floor. There was no discussion, and the concurrence passed 17-3, with Senators Dunbar, Kawasaki, and Wielechowski voting no. It was short, but you can watch here. The bill now heads to the Governor. 

SB 187– Prohibiting Food Dyes in School Meals

Beginning January 1, 2028, Alaska’s school districts will be prohibited from serving foods with eight different artificial dyes in school meal programs. SB 187 unanimously passed the House last Friday, picking up Reps. Galvin and Schrage as co-sponsors and no amendments. Since it was the same version that came from the Senate, it didn’t need a concurrence vote and was directly transmitted to the Governor.

SB 130 – Fisheries Product Development Tax Credit

On Sunday morning, Rep. Stutes gave an overview of the bill, outlining the changes to the seafood product development tax credit program over the years, the recommendations from the Seafood Legislative Task Force, and the long list of letters of support for the bill. After some discussion of support of the bill and positive impacts on small scale fisheries, the bill unanimously passed the House. Watch here. The bill was the same as what came over from the Senate, and as such is now heading to the Governor.

SB 200 – Farm & Ag Land Assessments

There was an incredible amount of talking about horses through to the finish line of this bill passing the legislature, but eventually it did pass. 

On Saturday night, the House took up SB 200 and heard amendments. Rep. Vance moved an amendment one to include agricultural cooperatives specifically in the Ag Revolving Loan Fund (ARLF), and exempts cooperative members from workers comp requirements. Rep. Mears stood with concern that the concepts need more discussion, and Rep. Moore also stood in “reluctant opposition” as there needs to be more vetting of the ideas to move them forward (Rep. Moore sponsored a bill with similar provisions, HB 345, as did Rep. Vance, HB 355, which she noted never received a hearing). The amendment failed on a 16-24 vote. Rep. Carrick moved amendment number two, pulling in provisions from HB 379 – unrelated to agriculture but applicable to second class boroughs and service areas. Rep. Carrick noted the policy had been successfully vetted through several committees, and the amendment passed unanimously. Two amendments were withdrawn. Rep. Coulombe offered Amendment 5, which would return the farm use definition back to include horse businesses for inclusion. Rep. Mears talked about needing to draw a line, and opposed the amendment because she thought it went too far beyond food security. “What’s good for the horse is good for the bill,” noted Rep. Stapp in support of the amendment. There was debate around the economic privilege of horse ownership, the value of horse manure, horse-powered tools, therapeutic uses of horses. “Equality of justice for horses” was requested by Rep. Elam, in support of the amendment. Rep. Hannan asked about the ownership of livestock and potential regulations that may be developed by municipalities. After nearly 20 minutes of discussion of horses, after five hours of floor session, they pushed the bill to the next day. Watch the Saturday discussion here.     

During the Sunday House floor session, they returned to Rep. Coulombe’s amendment from Saturday night. She clarified how the underlying program works, including the seven year look back for the deferment, and the requirement of making money from farm use. The amendment failed on a 20-20 vote. Amendments 6 and 7 were not offered. Rep. Schwanke moved amendment 8, which added words to clarify that the livestock definition is inclusive but not limited to the list of livestock in statute. The amendment was passed unanimously. The amended bill was held. Watch the Sunday session here. On Tuesday evening, the House took the bill up again for a final vote. Rep. Moore gave a quick overview of the bill as amended, and with no further discussion the bill passed 39-1. Rep. Coulombe was the sole no vote. 

The Senate concurred with the changes on Wednesday afternoon, crossing SB 200 across the finish line just in the nick of time! We got to hear yet more talk about horses, with Sen. Kauffman asking how Anchorage Hillside horse facilities would be impacted. Sen. Bjorkman replied, “a horse is a horse, of course of course.” He noted that horse barns were removed as “farm use” in a 20-20 vote in the House, but hay was saved. Sen. Kawasaki noted this bill was amended to include provisions of HB 379, affecting second class boroughs altering or adopting new service areas. Sen. Meyers rose with concern about the service area provisions, and said he would have to vote no as a result. 

The bill passed on a vote of 15Y-5N, with Sens. Cronk, Kaufman, Kawasaki, Myers, and Stedman voting no. You can watch the final Senate vote here.    

Final Updates:

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

Budget

Capital budget (SB 214)

After the AFMA Market Match program funding was pulled into the Operating Budget, we stopped following the Capital budget closely. You can review the projects funded at Legislative Finance, noting that they all await consideration by the Governor.

Operating budget (HB 263)

The legislature concurred with the conference committee on the operating budget, and it is now off to the Governor. Of interest to us, the budget includes $2M of grant funding for food banks and food pantries to promote food security, $4.5M of increased receipt authority to accept additional federal funding for WIC to address rising food costs, $300,000 for the Alaska Farmers’ Market Association for SNAP/WIC/Senior Nutrition Market Match program, $8M for the SNAP administrative cost shift from the federal government, and $7.3M for the Division of Public Assistance’s Virtual Call Center ($4.3M of federal authority and $3M in state funding). For more details, head to the Legislative Finance webpage!

Alaska State Budget Resources