advocacy, on the menu

On the Menu 5.16.2025

By Rachel Lord, Advocacy and Policy Director, AFPC

This is the time of session that can feel a little extra chaotic and frustrating. The rules change and notice requirements disappear, bill language can get moved from one bill into another, and there’s a lot happening behind the scenes. Meanwhile in Washington DC, Congress is moving through massive cuts to SNAP that would dramatically impact not only Alaskan’s trying to put food on the table but also the state’s budget, our retail grocers, farmers markets, and those along the food supply chain that benefits from the $281 million in SNAP that comes into our state. Yikes. Read a sign-on letter for our Congressional Delegation, signed by Alaskan organizations across the state opposing these cuts. Learn more and take action here. 

The Alaska Legislature must gavel out by next Wednesday, May 21, per the Alaska Constitution. They must pass the state budget, but otherwise any bills not passed through both chambers will be picked back up in January for the second year of the session. Without a financial plan to pay for state services, any bills with fiscal notes (i.e. they will cost money) are a challenge to get through. You can read some of the impacts of that reality in this Alaska Beacon article that focuses on child services, including nutrition and school meals, from earlier this week. 

We send OTM only to those specifically signed up for OTM! Please sign up here if you haven’t already done so! 

The bills below are ones that are food systems-related. AFPC doesn’t have a position on most legislation, but if we do we will be sure to note that whenever we talk about the bill. Also, our hearing summaries are just that – summaries. For the full scoop, check out the linked videos! As always, please let us know if we’ve missed or misrepresented something, or if there’s an issue you think we should be tracking – email Rachel (advocacy@alaskafoodpolicycouncil.org).

Remember, you will be able to see all the bills we’re watching and read AFPC policy briefs as they are posted on our website. In our session preview, you can read brief summaries of most of the bills below. Hearings can be watched on Gavel/KTOO, and you can check out our calendar of hearings for bills we are watching here. Finally, if you’re interested in testifying but don’t know where to start, you can check out our simple “Tips for Testifying” document here. 

Updates:

HB 125 – Membership on the Board of Fisheries

HB 125 was introduced on March 5 by Representative Jimmie. It has picked up a bunch of co-sponsors: Reps. Foster, Kopp, Burke, Dibert, Story, and Galvin. Rep. Allard was and then removed herself as a co-sponsor. It amends the membership of the Board of Fisheries to specify sector representation from Board members. It is referred to House Fisheries and then Resources. It was heard in House Fisheries on March 18, March 25, and on April 8 when it was amended and moved out of committee. You can read AFPC’s letter of support for HB 125 here. 

HB 125 was heard for the first time in House Resources on April 28, and again on May 5. You MIGHT have noticed that I ran a week behind in last week’s OTM and missed the hearings on May 5 when HB 125 was amended and moved out of committee – my bad! I will briefly cover this hearing, where several amendments were brought forward, all of which took different approaches to defining the seats for the Board of Fish. The first two amendments, in response to a slug of testimony from personal use fishery users, were efforts to specify seats representing personal use fisheries. After those both failed, Rep. Coulombe offered another unsuccessful amendment that would further define the expertise sought for each type of Board seat. Amendment 6, also brought forward by Rep. Coulombe, was the only successful amendment of the hearing. This amendment amended the definition of “subsistence fishing” and “subsistence uses” to delete the reference to rural residents. The amendment was accompanied by a legal memo from the Legislature’s Legal Services which references the Madison decision and supports the amendment to remove the rural qualifier. The amendment was adopted unanimously, and after that the bill as amended was passed from the committee with its next stop the House Floor. You can watch the hearing here.  

HB 125 was first taken up on the House Floor on May 13. The Resource Committee substitute was brought forward, and there was a question as to the difference between the different committee versions. Rep. Coulombe brought forward the same amendment that she had offered unsuccessfully in Resources, adding specifics on the qualifications for each of the designated seats. Sponsor Rep. Jimmie opposed the further restrictions on the designated seats. Debate continued on strict caucus lines, with supporters from the minority speaking to the benefits of further clarifying and increasing the qualification requirements for serving on the Board of Fish. Opponents from the majority said it was too restrictive, and would eliminate good people otherwise. The bill was then held until the following day. You can watch the first Floor session here.  

The House came back to Rep. Coulombe’s amendment on May 14, and it failed on caucus lines. Rep. Kopp then moved to ‘rescind action’ on adopting the Resources version of the bill, which would take back the subsistence definition amendments provided by legislative legal. The majority had clearly decided to move back to the Fisheries version of the bill, however no majority members spoke to their reasoning. Speaker Edgmon did note his intention to hold the bill for additional amendments following reversal to the Fisheries version. Objections were removed and the Fisheries version was held to another Floor session.  Watch the May 14 floor session here. 

SJR 12– NOAA Buoy Outages

Senate Joint Resolution 12 was introduced by Senator Dunbar in late-February. Reviewing the sponsor statement, this was catalyzed by chronic outages of Seal Rocks Buoy in Prince William Sound. The resolution has a letter of support from the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council, highlighting the critical importance of weather buoy data in ensuring navigational safety of oil tankers through the Sound. AFPC recognizes that our coastal communities rely on weather data for safe transportation and access to marine food resources. Similar to our support for improving the aviation weather systems, we strongly support the stable operations of our marine weather systems. 

After moving successfully through the Senate, and through the House committee process, SJR 12 was passed by the House on May 9 and transmitted back to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate gave a thumbs up, and the joint resolution is awaiting transmittal to the Governor.  

HB 30 – Office of Entrepreneurship

HB 30 was introduced on January 22 by Rep. Holland. It was originally referred to the House State Affairs and Labor & Commerce committees, and had a referral for House Finance added. HB 30 was first heard on Feb. 22, and moved out of State Affairs on March 11. HB 30 was heard in House Labor & Commerce on March 17, and moved out of committee on March 23. House Finance was added as a committee of referral to HB 30, and it was heard on April 24. Rep. Foster joined the bill as a co-sponsor.

With no notice given (because that’s how things can roll at the end of session!), House Finance heard both HB 30 and HB 34 on Monday morning, May 12, with public testimony. They began with an overview of the bill from the sponsor. There was no one for public testimony (which isn’t surprising, given it wasn’t noticed). Jacqueline Summers, Executive Director for Health Testbed for Innovative Enterprises, was online at the request of the sponsor to speak to the importance of supporting both entrepreneurs and start-up enterprises. Public testimony was closed, and the chair gave direction for submitting written testimony to house.finance@akleg.gov. The committee went to questions from a number of members on different aspects of the bill. An amendment deadline was set for Thursday, May 15. I ran out of capacity to cover this hearing this week but you can watch it here.

HB 34 – Alaska Innovation Council

HB 34 was introduced on January 22 by Rep. Holland. It is referred to the House State Affairs and Labor & Commerce committees. AFPC doesn’t have a position on this bill, but we are lightly tracking it and thinking about possible impacts on new food systems businesses.

HB 34 was first heard in the House Labor & Commerce Committee on Monday, February 10, and again on February 14 and February 24. The committee substitute (CS) for HB 34 was moved out of committee on February 24. HB 34 was heard on April 24 in House Finance, and again on Monday May 12 alongside HB 30 (see the hearing link above).

No Changes From Last Week:

HB 135 / SB 131 – Duties of ASMI board/Meaning of seafood

HB 135 and SB 131 were introduced Friday, March 14 by the Governor. HB 135 is referred to House Fisheries and then Resources. SB 131 is referred to Senate Resources and then Finance. The bill has two sections, and adds ‘aquatic farm products as defined in AS 16.40.199’ to the definition of seafood as it relates to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. It also clarifies, to be consistent with this expanded definition of seafood, that their work covers the handling of seafood from the moment of capture or harvest (that’s the added language!) to final distribution. HB 135 was heard with invited and public testimony on March 27. SB 131 was heard on April 9 and May 2 in Senate Resources where it was moved out of committee and now awaits scheduling in Senate Finance.

HB 12 – School Food for All Alaskan Kids (AFPC Supports)

Read our policy brief here.  Introduced on January 22 by Rep. Dibert, HB 12 is referred to the House Education and then Finance committees. Thanks to Representative Edgmon, Burke, Galvin, and Himschoot for signing on to HB12 as co-sponsors. HB 12 was heard for the first time in House Education on Monday, February 24 and again on April 28. There is terrific public support for the bill, and also a lot of critical details and finances to figure out. HB 12 was held for further discussion.

HB 140 /SB 128 – Department of Agriculture (AFPC Supports)

HB 140 and SB 128 were introduced after the Governor’s Executive Order 136 failed (you can review the rundown in the OTM from March 21, and read an Alaska Beacon article here). They started pretty much identical to one another, and substantively identical to the Governor’s EO (with a handful of conforming changes that don’t change the substance of the proposal). Both bills were referred to their respective Resources and Finance Committees, and their first hearings took place the last week of March. You can read our overview and AFPC’s position here. HB 140 had its first hearing in House Resources on March 26. SB 128 was first heard on March 28 and was heard again in Senate Resources April 11 where the committee passed amendments to include a Division of Mariculture, a Division of Food Security, and to clarify the role of the commissioner. 

HB 60 / SB 67 – Procurement Preference for Agricultural and Fisheries Products.

These bills were introduced by the Governor in January. You can read our Policy Brief here. SB 67 was last heard on Feb. 7 in Senate Resources. The House Fisheries Committee heard HB 60 on February 6 and for the second time Tuesday, February 11 where it was passed out of committee with no amendments. The bill was heard in the House Labor & Commerce on February 21, and again on April 4.

SB 13/HB 154 – Summer EBT

SB 13 was introduced on January 22 by Senator Dunbar. It is referred to the Senate Education and then Finance committees. HB 154 was introduced by Rep. Mears on March 24 and is co-sponsored by Rep. Fields and Dibert. It is referred to House Social Services and then Finance. It hasn’t yet been scheduled for a hearing. SB 13 was heard in Senate Education on March 5 and on April 9, when it was moved out of committee with one amendment. It now awaits scheduling in Senate Finance. Read our policy brief here. 

HB 111/SB 108 – Finfish Farms and Products

These bills were introduced by the governor on Friday, February 21, and February 24. HB 111 was referred to House Fisheries and Resources committees. SB 108 was referred to Senate Resources and then Finance. Significant opposition has been voiced from across the legislature, as well as from Alaskans around the state. Meanwhile, others have expressed interest in further exploring fish farming opportunities to support Alaska’s food security and independence. Alaska has a rich seafood industry and a growing mariculture industry. We have a long history of protecting wild fish harvest, with a strong international brand. You can read our policy brief here. We have also received a copy of the 1990 Alaska Finfish Farming Task Force Report, which you can find here.

SB 108 was heard for the first time with invited and public testimony on Monday, March 10 in Senate Resources. The bill was set aside with public testimony open. HB 108 was heard on April 10 for the first, and probably last time in House Fisheries.

HB 25 – Disposable container ban for restaurants

HB 25 was introduced on January 22 by Rep. Josephson, and is co-sponsored by Reps. Hall, Burke, and Hannan. It was referred to the House State Affairs and Labor & Commerce committees. HB 25 was heard in House State Affairs on Tuesday, February 18, February 20, and February 25, where it was moved out of committee. HB 25 was then heard in House Labor & Commerce (L&C), first on March 5 and again on March 14.

Budget:

Capital Budget Updates (SB 57): The capital budget discussions on the House Floor were stark indicators of the awful financial situation we are in as a state. The Alaska Beacon has an article providing an overview, with a quote from Sen. Stedman that sums it up, “Everybody got nothing.”

Operating Budget Updates (HB 53):  As expected, the House and Senate have appointed a conference committee (CC) to hash out the differences between their operating budgets and propose a compromise. Committee members are Sen. Hoffman, Sen. Stedman, Sen. Kaufman, Rep. Schrage, Rep. Josephson, and Rep. Johnson. According to an article in the ADN, they plan to have a balanced budget on the last night of session – next Wednesday, May 21. You can follow along with the CC decisions here (negotiations are not public, so we only get to see what is decided).

The supplemental budget (HB 56), for additional funds requested through the rest of this fiscal year, is still waiting to be heard in Senate Finance. 

Alaska’s financial footing has been tenuous for a long time, with competing expectations and understandings of the role of the state government, what to pay for, and how to do it. 

More state budget resources:

Upcoming Public Testimony:

There are no public testimony opportunities published for next week at this time.

Remember – things can change quickly as we near the end of session!

Remember these can change quickly!

Keep an eye on all public testimony opportunities here.

There are 3 ways you can testify:

Email committee: Spreadsheet of Committee email addresses

Testify from your local LIO: https://akleg.gov/lios.php

Call in from your phone: 1-844-586-9085