HFIN-260512-0900

Okay, I'll call this meeting of the House Finance Committee to order and let the record reflect that the time is currently 9:08 AM on May 12th, 2026. And present today, we do have Representative Allard, Representative Stapp, Representative Moore, Representative Bynum, Representative Co-Chair Schragg, Representative Co-Chair Josephson, Representative Jimmy, Representative Galvin, Representative Tomaszewski, Representative Hannon, and myself, Co-Chair Foster. And folks can mute their cell phones. And we have two items on the agenda today. I believe they're both public testimony and then setting an amendment deadline.

And the first one is Senate Bill 140, that's the fire Fire Station Grant Program, and then the second is Senate Bill 23, Civics Education. And after we do public testimony, we will also be reviewing the fiscal notes. And so first up, Senate Bill 140, that's Fire Station Grant Program, and I'd like to invite up Senator Steadman's staff, Margo Youngberg. And if you could put yourself on the record and just give us a brief recap of the bill. Very, very brief, please.

And then we'll— we do, by the way, for the committee, we do have a hard stop at about 9:40. And so with that, if you could put yourself on the record. Thank you. Margo Youngberg, staff to Senator Steadman. SB 140 establishes a matching grant program with the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development which would provide funding for up to 50% of the total project cost for the construction or renovation of fire stations.

Although it does not currently allocate funds for fire station construction, the bill establishes the fire station grant fund as a separate fund within the department designed to receive future legislative appropriations. Perfect, thank you. I'm going to go ahead and open public testimony on Senate Bill 140.

And if anyone watching would like to email us with public testimony, they can do so by emailing us at [email protected]. And is there anyone in the room who would like to testify? Seeing none, is there anyone online who would like to testify? I don't see anyone, and so, um, I'll go ahead and close public testimony on Senate Bill 140. But folks are still welcome to submit written testimony by emailing us again at [email protected].

We'll review the fiscal notes and let's see, we should have Nicole Tom, I believe, if you could put yourself on the record.

Good morning. For the record, this is Nicole Pham, Operations Manager at the Division of Community and Regional Affairs. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can.

Good morning. I have a fiscal note with control code BIWK lowercase p, and it's a zero fiscal note indicating that if this legislation passes, the division, uh, will need to adopt regulations for the program, but these can be combined with other planned projects that we have or incorporated into the division's other planned work, and we don't anticipate fiscal impact from this legislation and can administer the grant program with existing resources. Great, thank you very much. Do we have any questions of the committee on the fiscal note? Seeing none, thank you very much.

Ms. Tam. And, uh, do we have any questions for the bill sponsor? Okay, seeing none, um, I will go ahead and set an amendment deadline, uh, and that will be for Thursday, May 14th at 5 PM. And if you can submit those to Ms. Helen Phillips or my staff, Mr. Brody Anderson, again, Thursday, May 14th at 5 PM. Thank you very much.

Ms. Youngberg. Next up we have Senate Bill 23. I don't see folks in the room, but we'll go ahead and jump right into public testimony. We have Senate Bill 23, is the civics education bill, and let's see, we'll go ahead and open public testimony on that.

And again, if folks would like to submit written testimony on the bill, they can email us at [email protected]. And let's see here, I don't believe there's anyone in the room wanting to testify. Is there anyone online who would like to testify? Okay, seeing none, um, let's see here. We also have a fiscal note for the civics bill, and Ms. Kelly Manning, if you can put yourself on the record and walk us through the fiscal notes.

Good morning. This is Kelly Manning, Deputy Director for the Division of Innovation and Education Excellence. Are you able to hear me? Yes, we can.

Great. Thank you. I am reviewing the fiscal note for SB 23 version T, control code EJZYO. We have a fiscal note of $58,000 for year 1 with $5,000 per year for annual costs. The combination of costs for year 1 is for the regulations to update in accordance with the new statute and then to combine— convene a working group of educators to develop a rubric for evaluating open source materials for the required posting to the DEED website.

Additionally, this group would help develop the regulations and requirements for the civic seal, and then there's a cost for design, printing, and shipping of a civic education seal. And then for annual costs, it is $5,000 annually for printing and shipping of the civic seal according to the guidelines determined by the working group. Those are the costs that we've identified for implementation of this bill, and I'm available if you have any questions. Okay, uh, we've got a question, Representative Hannon. Thank you, Co-chair Foster.

Good morning, Ms. Manning. Um, could you tell us what the Civic Seal is? Expand on that, please. Ms. Manning?

Uh, yes, through the chair to Representative Cannon, the Civic Seal is, uh, something that we've seen other states implement, and it's a recognition of what the individual students have accomplished, and there's a standard that is set for what that would encompass. There are some requirements within the bill, and that's part of what that working group would work on, is identifying what that process would be so that it's equitable for students across the state. So there's a sort of a standard for what meets the requirement in alignment with the— what's in the statute. Follow-up? And other states have applied, have developed this.

So in looking at what we would do We have looked to what some other states have identified and they identify some standard requirements of what a student would have to have accomplished in order to achieve the Civic Seal on their diploma. Representative Hannon. So thank you, Chair Foster. So Ms. Manning, this is the third option under how a district could comply with the law where if they didn't have a course or they didn't take the assessment, they've completed a sequence of civic engagement activities that would put the civic seal on their diploma, or would every student who has completed a civics course get a civic seal on their diploma? Ms. Manning.

Through the chair to Representative Hannan, my understanding from the language of the bill is that it would be available to any student, but it would be setting a standard of excellence. So depending on what that standard is and in alignment with what's in the bill, any student would have the opportunity to achieve the Civic Seal for their diploma regardless of which method was used for demonstrating their competence for the requirements of the bill. It's more of a seal of excellence in civic education.

Representative Hannan. So if— through Chair Foster, Ms. Manning— so if a student took, as you did at Juneau Douglas High School, took American Government, got an A in the course, you would still need to apply to get a Civic Seal? And if you got to say a D in the course, you wouldn't be eligible? Or is that separate from the grade of a course achievement? Ms.

Manning, uh, through the chair to Representative Hammond, it is my understanding that it would, uh, you know, that the standard would be set based off of how that, uh, based off of the regulations it's determined, but it would be available to any student that has completed certain requirements. Those are— there are some details within the bill, and I believe that the, um, that the bill sponsor could to the requirements that they've added. Our understanding at the department is that the expectation would be for the recognition of that high level of proficiency. So certainly depending on how the— what that performance looked like. So as we determine what the— what the resources are for districts, that would help determine what would fall within the different categories for excellence.

So in the language of the bill, it states the Department shall adopt regulations to recognize a student who has attained a high level of proficiency in civic knowledge, civic skills, a civic mindset, and civic experiences by affixing a seal of civic readiness on the student's school transcript and diploma. So that committee would help us to determine what are the— what are those metrics so that it's so the students can achieve that. And then a student wouldn't necessarily need to apply. The district would then submit, these are the students that have met that for our district, and then the department could, uh, provide the Civic Seal for those that achieve the requirements. Okay, thank you.

Any further questions regarding the fiscal notes? Seeing none, thank you very much, Ms. Manning. And, um, Mr. Lampkin, if you could come up in case the committee has any questions for the sponsor. Do we have any questions? I don't see any questions.

Representative Hannan? Thank you, Chair Foster. So, Mr. Lampkin, I believe you heard my question to Ms. Manning, and so I'm just trying to understand the intersect between the seal on a diploma and the competencies. Or so the student— because one of the ways to achieve the requirement is to just take a course or take it, do an assessment. And so I'm trying to figure out if it's an additional application, but does every student who gets an A in the American Government Civics class get a Civic Seal, but students who are below a 70% need to demonstrate an additional Civics project-based assessment or— so trying to understand what the Civics Seal is versus the graduation requirement compliance.

Mr. Lampkin, if you can put yourself on the record. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the record, Tim Lampkin, staff to Senator Stevens. Through the chair, Representative Hannan, so as I'll summarize the bill, it would Number one, require that the students either take a course in the comparative governments, U.S. government, so forth, take and pass a standard test, written test, traditional written test, or take a project-based assessment. Take any of those three to achieve the requirements of the bill.

But in the spirit of incentivizing continued work in civics and understanding of citizenry and so forth, I think the key word here on page 3, line 11 is to attain a high level of proficiency. So the spirit there is that perhaps they do all 3 of those things or they in some way demonstrate that they have proven excellence of understanding and compared to government's citizenry prepared for being a voter in our society and so forth. So the— where the bill doesn't mean to be prescriptive as to exactly how to achieve that, we leave it to the department, to the districts, to the educators to recognize those students who have gone above and beyond the simple requirement of doing one of those three things.

Liken it to say Advanced Placement or high achieving.

Follow up? I guess I'm still trying to figure out if it's through the chair— through Chair Foster, Mr. Lampkin, if it's an automatic. So if the student got an A —on their coursework and they did a civic project, do they now need to apply to get the Civic Seal or by the nature of they are at A+ in these things, it is administered? Because in the state of Alaska, diplomas are issued by school districts, not Department of Education. And so I'm trying to figure out if every registrar at every school district is going to now have an additional task to say this student has mastered this and they get the Civic Seal.

Advanced placement courses are national prescribed and it's an exam and they come from the College Board and the test arrives and there it is. Mr. Lumpkin. Through the chair, if I can. So I didn't mean to say that it would be just like the AP exam. Of course, it's a national program.

If that is a suggestion as to amendment to specify if a student apply for the thing or if it's automatic, I suppose the sponsor would be agreeable to such an amendment to specify if it's for the registrar to recognize or if it's the department. That's where the— there's a call for regulations to sort those type of prescriptive details out. Thank you. Okay, further questions for the sponsor? Yes.

Super fast. Representative Josephson. Yes, Mr. Lampkin, I don't see anything in this, and I like this, this is a positive feeling, that crowds out anything else in the— I mean, there is finite time, but you are not deleting a credit of something, world languages or something, for this. This is in addition to, correct? Mr. Lampkin.

Through the chair, Representative Josephson, that's correct. However, there are existing credit— minimum credit achievements that are required in social studies. And this is simply specifying that within that bucket of social studies that there be some codified work specifically in the area of civics. Follow-up? So presumably the districts are supposed to, if they believe in doing their other programs within social studies rubric, they just need to make room.

Is that the idea? Mr. Lampton. Through the Chair, Mr. Josephson, as far as I understand, I have been speaking with the superintendents across the state in a survey that was done and the understanding that we came to in the previous committee that this isn't creating anything new. It's just putting it codified, essentially what they're doing.

Okay, thank you. Representative Ballard. Thank you. And through the co-chair, thanks for being here, Mr. Lankin. I got a question for you.

Military kids travel all over the world. They see all sorts of things. They, they're differently and they're more well-rounded, in my opinion, than kids who just go to one school all the time. So my question is, would your— would the sponsor consider waiving the test for military children. Mr.

Lampkin. Through the chair, Representative Allard, we did consider that. If you refer to the exemptions section, I believe it's on page 3. If they enter— essentially, they come in from another district, another state, or if they've already completed grade 9 or 10, I believe it is, such that There are certainly allowances specifically for that. If they come into the system at a certain point and they have not— or rather, if they have already demonstrated having taken a course or similar test and so forth in some other location, that they would qualify for the exemption here.

May I do a quick follow-up? Representative Ballard. Okay. Thank you, Co-Chair. So when— sometimes when individuals commit a crime in their military, say like they— I don't know.

They have a speeding ticket, and then for some reason, it's over a certain mileage with military persons, the judge, I've seen often say, "You know what, we're gonna waive that because the person has to go to combat or overseas or something," and they might have to do community service, and I've seen it all over the place, especially down in Colorado, that they tell the individual, "You've already served your community service by going overseas," or whatever you're doing. So my question would go back to, would military children be able to be waived, period, without, if they hadn't taken in another school, just based on their travels alone? Mr. Lampkin. Through the chair, Representative Allard.

So it's my understanding that this type of language is, these exemption type language is in regulation and is used routinely for military considerations and that the districts when the local governing body establishes and allows students' families to apply for these exemptions, that they are fairly generous in allowing such waivers. I don't see any resistance or any problems with our military community with this bill as written. Okay, thank you. So thank you, Co-Chair. I have something that I would like to add.

I know that it is probably in regulation, but I want to quantify that in statute. So if you don't mind, I want to bring something to you, and maybe we can have a conversation about it on the side. Okay, thank you. Okay, and so with that, I will go ahead and set an amendment deadline for, um, SB 23, Civics Education, and that deadline will be for Friday, May 15th, at 5 PM. Again, Friday, May 15th at 5 PM.

And so with that, our next meeting is scheduled for this afternoon at 1:30, and at that meeting we'll be hearing two bills. That is House Bill 193, it's paid parental leave, and then House Bill 381, the gas line bill. So if there's nothing else to come for the committee, uh, we'll be adjourned at 9:28 AM.