No cellphones in schools, free meals for children, a state flood authority: Here are some of lawmakers’ first ideas ahead of the legislative session

An initial batch of proposed legislation was unveiled Friday, revealing some of lawmakers’ personal priorities ahead of a legislative session that will begin later this month.

The House and Senate are both expected to be led by bipartisan coalitions that bring together Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans all hoping to focus their efforts on a long-debated increase to public education funding and reform of the state’s struggling retirement system. They are also looking at solutions for a shortage of natural gas that powers much of the state.

But lawmakers can also bring forward their own personal agendas. For conservative Republicans in the minority, it’s an opportunity to lay out their priorities — even if they are unlikely to be considered. The 81 measures introduced so far are a first glimpse of the topics that lawmakers may focus on in the months to come, but many bills never get much more than a cursory glance. In the previous two-year legislative term, Alaska lawmakers collectively introduced 803 measures, including bills and resolutions. Of them, 167 — or around one in five — passed both the House and the Senate.

[Related: Retirement reform reintroduced ahead of legislative session, topping agendas in House and Senate]

This year’s legislation covers education policy, election reform, and health care policy, among many other topics, with more to come. Another batch of prefiled bills will be released next week, and once the session begins, lawmakers can introduce new legislation on a daily basis.

Another attempt to repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries

Sutton Republican Rep. George Rauscher is proposing a bill to repeal Alaska’s election system of ranked choice voting and open primaries, reverting the state to a partisan primary system and pick-one general elections.

Alaska’s election system was adopted through ballot measure in 2020 and preserved after a 2024 ballot measure seeking to repeal the system narrowly failed.

The incoming bipartisan House and Senate coalitions are not expected to support a reversion to Alaska’s former voting system, after the open primaries favored several of their members. However, the Alaska Republican Party has worked diligently to repeal the system, arguing that it disadvantages its favored candidates.

Coalition members instead say they want to focus on improving the state’s election laws, including by allowing voters to correct ballot errors after they vote.

Separately, two groups are already working on ballot measures to again try to repeal Alaska’s voting system through an initiative that could appear — if enough signatures are gathered — on the 2026 ballot.

Campaign contribution limits

Anchorage independent Rep. Calvin Schrage is proposing campaign contribution limits for Alaska elections, after the state has gone four years without.

Until 2021, Alaska had some of the strictest campaign contribution limits in the country, putting a ceiling on how much individual donors and groups could give to candidates. A judge struck them down, saying they were too low, but allowing for higher limits to put in place. Lawmakers, however, have not reached consensus on whether limits are needed.

In 2022 and 2024, with no limits in place, individuals both inside and outside Alaska spent massive sums on political campaigns. Opponents of new contribution limits say the lack of limits means the money goes directly to candidates, rather than to political action committees that are outside the candidates’ control.

A group of Alaskans are separately seeking to reestablish campaign contribution limits by ballot measure, but the initiative would not appear on the ballot if lawmakers preempted it by adopting their own set of limits.

No cellphones in schools

Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski proposed legislation that would push Alaska school districts to ban the use of cellphones by students in public schools. The Alaska Board of Education and education commissioner Deena Bishop have already indicated they would favor such a prohibition.

Alaska allows most education policy decisions to be made by school districts, and Wielechowski’s bill would give districts leeway in determining their approaches to cellphone use. Several states already require schools to limit cellphone use by students, including California, Indiana, and Virginia.

Free meals in public schools

Fairbanks Democrat Rep. Maxine Dibert introduced a bill that would ensure every public school student in the state gets access to free breakfast and lunch.

Multiple states have already begun offering free school meals to all students, regardless of income, including California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont. During the coronavirus pandemic, Congress made meals free for public school students, but many states — including Alaska — did not continue the subsidy once federal funding for it ran out.

According to Feeding America, a nonprofit tracking food insecurity, one in every six Alaska children face hunger. The Legislature last year considered funding free reduced-price meals this school year, but that was removed from the budget.

Dueling proposals on the length of legislative session

Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel proposed a bill to repeal the 90-day limit on legislative sessions in Alaska. The law is rarely adhered to. Lawmakers instead typically continue working until the constitutional limit on session length, which is set at 121 days. Anchorage Democratic Sen. Matt Claman has a dueling proposal that would instead put the 90-day session limit in the constitution, forcing lawmakers to abide by the three-month limit.

Alaskans adopted the 90-day limit in a 2006 ballot initiative. At the time, supporters of the initiative argued that shortening the sessions from 121 to 90 days would save the state money and encourage a greater number of people to run for office. Lawmakers often wait until the very last days of the session to pass legislation. Proponents of the shorter session say that productivity isn’t lost when lawmakers spend less time in Juneau.

However, opponents of the 2006 initiative said that a shorter session would increase the power of lobbyists and curtail discussions on complex problems facing the state and legislation to fix them. They also pointed to reality on the ground: lawmakers often can’t get their work done in 121 days, and special sessions have been called repeatedly in recent years to address a variety of issues.

“I don’t see a limit on the number of critical issues we’re going to have, and that’s why I think it’s absurd to have this 90-day session in statute books,” said Giessel.

Easing the path to override governor’s vetoes

Anchorage Democrat Sen. Matt Claman is proposing a constitutional amendment that would lower the threshold for repealing a governor’s veto of legislation.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has repeatedly used his veto pen to nix legislation and funding items, sometimes without providing a specific explanation for his actions. Lawmakers during his tenure have repeatedly failed to override his vetoes, or in many cases never bothered trying.

Under the Alaska Constitution, it takes three-quarters of lawmakers — the highest threshold in the nation — to overturn the governor’s veto of a budget-related item. The threshold for other bills is two-thirds.

Claman’s proposal — which would have to pass the Legislature and then go before voters to become law — would adopt a two-thirds threshold for veto-override votes, regardless of whether they relate to the budget.

Boosting access to flood insurance

Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman introduced legislation to create an Alaska Flood Authority, in an effort to ensure the availability of flood insurance to Alaska property owners. The bill comes after Juneau experienced catastrophic flooding that destroyed multiple homes last year after a glacial dam broke.

Many of the homeowners in the affected area did not carry flood insurance, part of what one local insurance agent called a “silent insurance crisis.”

Climate scientists warn that natural disasters affecting homes could increase in number and magnitude in the coming years amid global climate change.

Paying for groceries with gold and silver

Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe again introduced a bill he had originally brought forward in 2023 to allow gold and silver to be used as legal tender in the state. McCabe said in 2023 that the idea came from a constituent who doesn’t trust the national banking system. The Republican-controlled House passed the bill in 2023, but it was not taken up by the Senate.

Limiting the number of state holidays

Rep. Dan Saddler, an Eagle River Republican, has a proposal to limit the number of state holidays to 12, after the Alaska Legislature approved last year Juneteenth as Alaska’s newest state holiday. Current state holidays include New Year’s Day, MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, Seward’s Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Alaska Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. If Saddler’s proposal were to pass, lawmakers could only approve new holidays by getting rid of others.

Expanding safe surrender law to protect abandoned infants

North Pole Republican Sen. Robb Myers is proposing an expansion of Alaska’s safe surrender law, which allow parents to surrender their infants and remain immune from prosecution. The proposal comes after a dead infant was discovered outside an Anchorage church in November.

Myers’ proposal would allow parents to surrender infants in a “safety device” physically attached to exterior walls of medical facilities, law enforcement agencies, fire departments and other locations. Existing laws allow parents to surrender their infants directly to individuals in law enforcement agencies, fire departments, or medical establishments.

Alaska first adopted a law allowing parents to abandon their infants safely in 2008. But according to a Daily News review in 2013, the law was never used in the first five years of its existence. In 2013, a baby was abandoned in Eagle River. In 2022, a baby was found dead in a cardboard box in Fairbanks.