Governor Signs Consolidated Crime Bill

Protecting Your Rights: Serving West Anchorage

July 19, 2024

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Last week, the governor signed House Bill 66, the consolidated crime bill, into law. I was pleased to attend and speak alongside other advocates and legislators. Today, Senate Bill 91, improvements for telehealth services, became law. Our office worked extensively on both of these bills, and we're proud to see them cross the finish line.

Sunday, July 21, is the last day to register to vote in the August 20 Primary Election.

Consolidated Crime Bill Signed into Law

Speaking at the bill signing ceremony for House Bill 66 at the Department of Public Safety hangar.

Last week, Governor Dunleavy signed House Bill 66 into law. HB 66 makes important progress in our work to improve public safety and make wise use of our public safety resources. It reflects collaborative work with the House, the Senate, the Courts, the Department of Law, and the Executive Branch.

What began as a measure intended to address the fentanyl crisis and overdose deaths grew into a consolidated crime package with elements from multiple pieces of legislation. The final version of the bill included Senate Bill 53, sponsored by our office.

SB 53 began with the shocking news in February 2022 that a man had stabbed Angela Harris in the back while she was returning books at the Loussac Library. The man who attacked Angela had attacked two women just weeks before, and they had dismissed the charges against the man because he was incompetent to stand trial. The attack on Angela Harris highlighted a gap in our justice system. We introduced SB 53 to close this gap.

With the governor signing this essential piece of legislation, dangerous individuals who are incompetent to stand trial will be held and evaluated for involuntary commitment. Victims of crime will now have the right to attend the involuntary commitment hearings of those who attacked them, and they will have the right to know the status of those involuntary commitment proceedings. This legislation will help protect all Alaskans.

HB 66 also makes important changes to our sex trafficking laws by adding a detailed definition of inducing and causing a person to engage in commercial sexual conduct and establishing a new offense of being a patron of a victim of sex trafficking. With this legislation, Alaska is taking important steps to address human and sex trafficking in our state.

HB 66 makes changes to the rules of criminal procedure to allow public safety officers to present hearsay statements of crime victims to the grand jury. The court rules in 37 of our sister states and the federal courts allow grand jury hearsay.

The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and other activist groups support this feature. They support helping victims of rape and child sexual abuse to avoid re-experiencing and re-living their trauma when they testify to a grand jury.

Advocates for House Bill 66 included our constituent Angela Harris, the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, elected officials, and others.

Other provisions in HB 66 include:

Provisions for tougher sentences for fentanyl and methamphetamine distributors. Knowing delivery of Class IA and Class IIA controlled substances are now included in the crime of Second-Degree Murder.
A correction to sex offender legislation from 2019 to now require that out-of-state sex offenders who move to Alaska must register in Alaska.
Provisions to change the term "child pornography" into "child sexual abuse material" throughout the Alaska Statutes.
Establishing the crime of assault in the presence of a child as a class A misdemeanor.
Recognizing that Alaska Natives are 14% of the general population, but 40% of the incarcerated population in Alaska, and requiring Department of Corrections to contract with an Alaska Native organization to study the reasons why Alaska Natives make up a large, disproportionate percentage of our state's prison population.
Requiring the Department of Corrections to commission a study and provide recommendations about why other minority groups are over-represented in the state's prison population.

To read more about HB 66, the Anchorage Daily News and the Alaska Beacon both covered this legislation in their publications.

Telehealth Legislation Becomes Law

Today, Senate Bill 91 became law. The Governor has 20 days following transmittal of legislation to sign, veto, or pass the legislation into law without taking action. We transmitted SB 91 to the Governor 20 days ago, and he took no action. Thus, SB 91 passed into law without action.

This legislation will allow members of out-of-state multidisciplinary care teams to provide telehealth care to Alaskans who suffer from life-threatening conditions like ALS. This type of multidisciplinary care is not reasonably available in-state. Current Alaska law only allows out-of-state physicians to provide care via telehealth, so patients seeking care from non-physician members of a multidisciplinary care team are often forced to travel to access care.

By closing this gap in telehealth availability, Alaskans with life-threatening conditions will be able to receive necessary healthcare while remaining at home in their local support networks.

Watch my Senate Bill 91 speech

Council of State Governments - West

Presenting at the Council of State Governments in Portland, Oregon.

This month, I had the pleasure of attending the annual conference of the Council of State Governments (CSG) West in Portland, Oregon.

I co-chair the Public Safety Committee with Senator David Brock Smith from Oregon. In our session, we talked about challenges and opportunities in the juvenile justice system and the variety of state legislative responses to the fentanyl crisis.

An important part of good government is sharing ideas and knowledge with other state lawmakers. CSG is a great place to learn from our shared challenges, and I'm grateful for many productive conference discussions.

Anchored Home Five-Year Strategic Plan

This month, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness released their five-year strategic plan. Compiled with input from service providers, government partners, community leaders, and unhoused individuals, the plan uses a "housing first" approach that recognizes that homelessness is, at its core, a crisis in affordable housing. The plan, which covers 2023 through 2028, contains several key recommendations, including:

Establishing a comprehensive database to track the number of unhoused people in Anchorage, including how many people find housing each year. The current estimate for unhoused people in Anchorage is around 3,000.
Construction of 150 housing units per year.
Increasing access to housing subsidies and vouchers for individuals in need of more affordable housing.
Improving access to health care and person-centered supportive services as part of housing to help more people stay housed.
Identifying and engaging historically underrepresented and underserved populations within the unhoused community, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals, LGBTQ+ individuals, disabled individuals, the elderly. The plan also recognizes that a disproportionate number of unhoused people in Anchorage are Alaska Native.
Increasing mentorship and professional development for individuals with lived experience seeking to participate in homelessness response planning and local leadership
Using diverse funding sources including local, state, and federal, as well as private and non-profit funding sources to achieve these goals, leverage available opportunities, and ensure fiscal stability.

As always, the homelessness and housing crisis remain one of our biggest challenges in Anchorage. Everyone deserves the safety, comfort, and dignity of a home. The five-year plan marks a positive step forward, with lots of work ahead as we move forward.

Read the Anchored Home Five-Year Strategic Plan

The primary election is on August 20th. The deadline to register to vote for the primary election is Sunday, July 21st. The Division of Elections will be open 10 AM - 4 PM on Saturday July 20th and 12 PM - 4 PM on Sunday July 21st.

Not sure if you're registered to vote? You can check your voter registration status by visiting this webpage.

You can register to vote online at this page.

Community Information & Events

2024-2027 STIP Public Review & Comment Period

The Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF)'s public review and comment period for the 2024-27 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Amendment #1 is open until Monday, August 5th.

To learn more about the STIP, DOTP&F, or to leave a public comment, please click here.

Celebrate Summer Learning Week!

This week (July 15- 19) is Summer Learning Week, a celebration of kids and youth staying active and engaged in learning throughout summertime, leading to knowledge retention, expansion, and fun! Summers full of quality learning opportunities reduce the risk of Alaska’s youth falling behind in core subjects like math and reading. In fact, students can lose up to two months’ worth of learning from the previous school year when their minds aren’t engaged during the summer vacation.

Although Summer Learning Week is coming to a close, there are still plenty of opportunities for children and youth to participate in summer camps and programs! You can learn more about and find activities by visiting akafterschool.org/summer-learning

Comment on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Plan!

The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) and the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) want your help updating Alaska’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Implementation Plan (The Plan). The draft plan, which can be viewed here, will be open for feedback until Thursday, August 1, 2024, at 5 p.m. Comments can be emailed to electricvehicles@akenergyauthority.org.

The evolving draft plan describes Alaska’s strategy, vision, and goals for spending Alaska’s $52 million share of federal funds over five years under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula (NEVI) Program. The NEVI Program was established through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund direct-current EV charging infrastructure along interstate and United States highway corridors over five years. Read the full press release here.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,