HMLV-260505-1015

This meeting of the House Special Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs will now come to order. It is 10:21 AM on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. We are in Capitol Room 124. Members present today include Representative Gray, Representative David Nelson, Representative Hall, Representative Sadler, Representative Allard, Representative Fields, and myself, Representative Aishai. Chair, let the record reflect that we do have a quorum to conduct business.

Please remember to silence your cell phones for the meeting. I'd like to extend thank yous to the staff who are supporting us today: Kayl Brown from House Records and Emily Mesh from the Juneau LIO, along with my committee aide, Erin Callahan. We have 3 items on the agenda today. The first item is House Bill 382, an act related to the Joint Armed Services Committee and providing for an effective date, by the House Judiciary Committee. We voted recently to move House Bill 382, but there were not yet fiscal notes.

There is now— fiscal note has been distributed to the committee, and I would accept a motion to adopt this fiscal note. Mr. Chair, I move to adopt the fiscal note on House Bill 382. [SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Do I hear any objections?

Hearing no objections, the fiscal note for House Bill 382 is adopted. The second item is Senate Joint Resolution 30, expressing gratitude for the United States military and supporting increased defense readiness Through Infrastructure Development and Public-Military Partnerships. Sponsored by the Senate State Affairs Committee. We received no amendments to SJR 30. Here to review that resolution is staff to Senator Scott Kawasaki, Aide Matty Hall.

Mr. Hall, please approach the dais, put yourself on the record, and summarize SJR 30. And I'd like to hold questions until after the invited testimony on SJR 30.

Go ahead, Mr. Hall, when you're ready.

Matty Hall, for the records, staff to Senator Scott Kawasaki. I would like to thank the chair as well as the committee members for the second hearing for this bill, or this Senate Joint Resolution, SGR 30.

As stated before, The military community members is an essential part of the Alaska economy and culture of Alaska. I, I can't think of a single community in Alaska that hasn't been positively impacted by our armed servicemen and women. However, there does appear to be a lack of infrastructure, as we've heard from community members, hence this resolution. And this resolution asks Legislature to support infrastructure to meet the growing needs for our servicemen and women. Thank you.

Thank you. Can we hold off on questions until we resolve this invited testimony? Mr. Haw, I had in my notes here that we are going to have Jason Hoak and Robert Venables give invited testimony. I do not see anybody online for that.

Yes, go ahead, Mr. Chair. Um, Adi Hulver, for the record, yes, uh, an invite has been given to both of them, and I believe communication has went out to both of them, um, but I do not at this current time know why they are not online. Okay, so that's online. Robert Venables is online.

Okay. That is not on my list. But Mr. Venables, you are online, so thank you for being here to provide invited testimony on SJR 30. Can you go ahead and put yourself on the record again, provide your invited testimony, and please try to limit that to 5 minutes or less.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] I will be very brief, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony. My name is Robert Vanables. I'm the executive director for Southeast Conference, which is the state's regional and economic development organization.

I'm also Department of Energy Arctic Energy Ambassador for our part of the state as well. So I just wanted to thank the committee for the opportunity to express express support for this joint resolution and join you in expressing gratitude to the military and focusing on the infrastructure needs that the state has. In Southeast here, we have long appreciated the Coast Guard personnel, and that presence is expanding in Sitka and Ketchikan and Juneau. And as you know, the region here is the gateway for our Arctic state, so we stand together with you to support the nation's military and the role that they play for the state and providing national security. The evolution of the committee's work has produced a good final resolution and especially the expansion of the description of dual use.

You know, our challenge now is to show that this resolution is not just words of appreciation, but is also recognition of the responsibility and resolve to address sufficient quality housing, good schools, sufficient and affordable utilities, infrastructure and services that make Alaska the host it should be as home to the military and not just an assignment. So, SouthEast Conference and our state auditors are committed to this cause and join you in embracing and implementing Senate Joint Resolution 30 and respectfully urge unanimous support. So, just want to thank you for your work on this and the opportunity to provide testimony today. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Mr. Venable.

And I just want to hold questions till we get to our second testifier.

Mr. Jason Hoak, I see you online now. Can you unmute, put yourself on record, and provide your invited testimony for SJR 30? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Jason Hoak.

I'm the executive director of Copper Valley Development Association. We are the regional order through DCRA and DCCED. I also am a regional energy ambassador for the U.S. Department of Energy, and I'm also spearheading the RRR project with the Denali Commission to offer up a report to the Department of War for all of the infrastructure needs and buildup that could possibly be done by region in the state. I'm wholeheartedly in support of SJ 30, and, and thank you for taking this up. I hope you all will support it.

It has a great significance. As some of you may know from my earlier emails and possibly even meeting with me when I was on the Hill back in March, there's going to be about $23 billion being brought into the state to help build up infrastructure. In the state that will help the military. I think by showing that the state is a good partner and collaborative with the military will help expedite this money. I've also just recently been told by Senator Sullivan's office that states with, with supportive legislative and government bodies take top priority on the federal spending of dollars here.

So, you know, form follows function. If we have a good codified plan, if we are good partners, I can see a whole lot of things getting done here in the state, especially in the rural parts of Alaska. I'm off to D.C. next week where hopefully we'll have some good news of SJR 30 being ratified. I thank you all for your time and I hope you would support this bill— this resolution, excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Houck.

Yes, and just a comment on your email. I found it to be persuasive, so thank you for sending that in. Are there any questions for the two invited testifiers?

Seeing none, are there any questions for the resolution sponsor, staffer Maddie Hall?

Seeing no questions, can I have a motion to move SJR 30 out of committee? Mr. Chair, I move to move SJR 30, Work Order 34-LS1598/G, as in golf, out of committee with attached fiscal note and individual recommendations.

Are there any objections? I object. Representative Ellert, can you speak to your objection? Yeah, I apologize. I'm not objecting about it going forward.

I'm objecting about something I just read, and I think that we need to— we might need to tidy it up. I'm more than happy to bring a tiny amendment forward, but it said that the state is honored to be home to over 59,000 veterans, the highest percentage in any other state per capita. And I think that's a very important difference. Because there are other states that have more veterans than us. So if we can fine-tune it, and I'd love to work with Senator Kawasaki on that and just fine-tune that line and move forward.

That's it. Um, thank you, Representative Allard. Um, just so you know, the next committee referral is State Affairs, and I believe they've noticed, uh, that they're going to hear this on Thursday. So that might be a proper place to do an amendment if that's amenable to to you. May I, Chair?

Yes. I'm more than happy to bring it on the floor too. I think it's a great resolution and it does send a really strong message that we're here, we want to protect our country and other countries frankly, like our little buddies up north or east, however you want to look at it, because we are the— what, we have a Kevlar around us, so our Canadian friends are very protected. So yeah, I'll work with the Senator on it. Thank you so much.

Okay, so any other comments on the objection? I withdraw my objection. Okay, the objection has been withdrawn. Is there any further objection?

Okay, seeing none, SJR 30, work order 34-LS1598/Gas and Golf is reported out of committee with attached fiscal note in individual recommendations, we will take an at ease to sign the bill report. At ease.

The House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee is back on the record. The final item on the agenda was House Bill 343, Right to 10 school military transfer. However, the sponsor has asked that the bill be taken off the agenda today. I did want to invite Representative Eller to make a statement on that as courtesy. Thank you.

I appreciate that, Chair. So the bill that I was bringing forward was a correspondence bill, but it was also for children that were in kindergarten and also those who transfer up from the lower 48. Simple bill, actually. There are just a few things that I wanted to work work on to make it a better bill. One of them is that the timeframe we gave for the school districts to notify DEED that the military child is in the school was a 1 day, and I just didn't catch that.

That is just not going to work. And then there was like a 3-week period as well for another area on the bill. Some people said 3 weeks was too short. Some people said that 6 weeks was too long. So I wanted to work on that as well.

The other one is repealing an entire section in Section 6. And I wanted to discuss that later. So I think that it's better that I work on and tweak a little bit about the bill before we waste everybody's time. So next year will be a great time to introduce it. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Coach. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, Representative Allard. Okay, well, with no further business, this meeting of the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee is adjourned at 10:37 AM.