Email from Alaska Senate Majority Independence Day Edition! Independence Day Edition! July 3, 2025 Dear Friends and Neighbors, Dear Friends and Neighbors, Happy Fourth of July! Do take some time with family and friends to celebrate. (Lots of details on Independence Day festivities in the events section below.) I'm sorry it's been a minute since the last newsletter. A lot has happened. Read on for the saga of school funding (passed, vetoed, overriden, line-item vetoed, and soon to be a special session topic.) Plus some more help for commercial fisherman, cutting health care red tape, and upcoming town halls! I was honored to present a legislative citation to Anna Brown Ehlers. She is an extraordinary Chilkat weaver who has shared her craft with countless students. The Comment Section Thank you to everyone who came out to the Juneau Town Hall! Rep. Hannan, Rep. Story & I appreciated your thoughts and questions. Rep. Story & I have upcoming town halls and open office hours. We hope to see you there! Skagway Town Hall: July 6, 6-8pm, AB Hall Open Office Hours: July 7, 11am-1pm, Library Haines Town Hall: July 7, 6:30-8pm, Chilkat Center for the Arts Open Office Hours: July 8, 12-2pm, Library Klukwan Town Hall: July 8, 9-11am, Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center Gustavus Town Hall: July 10, 5-7pm, Community Center Open Office Hours: July 11, 11am-1pm, Fireweed As always, you can come by my office in Rm. 514 of the Capitol, call me at 907-465-4947, or email me at [email protected] any time. Rep. Story and I got to congratulate Sioux Douglas on her well-deserved Meritious Service Award for service to our University! Third Session's the Charm? Veto overrides are pretty uncommon in Alaska. The thresholds are high, so it doesn’t happen that often. We saw one at the end of this last session, though. As a result, we made a long-overdue education bill law. You've likely heard the governor vetoed part of the $700-per-student boost in education funding. No Alaska governor has ever reduced school funding below the number in the law before this. It robs kids of education resources and denies school boards the chance to budget efficiently. Knocking that down to a mere $500 increase—a full $180 less than last year’s funding level—is bad for Alaska kids, families, and our future economy. It's also weird, because it's even less money than the governor himself proposed during session. Some folks claim the bill we passed is only funding; that it does nothing to reform education. That's not so. Among other things, it: Makes it easier both to start and renew charter schools, and makes it tougher for a local school board to close them. Keeps track of Alaska kids after graduation to give us a better idea of where we can improve opportunities in the state. Sets target class sizes for school districts. Requires school districts to address cell phone use in schools—with the default being a near-total ban for students. Adds resources to help K-3 kids reach the reading standards, with a specific new source of revenue to pay for it. Increases vo-tech funding—also tied to the revenues that will fund it. Establishes a task force to look at how we fund education and whether we should change other policies, including open enrollment among school districts. All that policy aside, the governor used his line-item veto to reduce the money. After much work, legislative leaders concluded we would have a hard time getting 45 votes in the same room to override the governor's budget veto before the next legislative session in January. The governor may have done the same math, but he went ahead and called a special session for early August anyway. Convening a special starts a 5-day clock by the end of which we must vote on whether to override him or not. Some of my colleagues have suggested the call is a tactical move to prevent his veto from being overridden. The constitution requires 45 votes to override a spending veto, no matter how many legislators are absent. If the vote fails there isn't a second shot. But they miss the next step: the legislature can pass a fresh bill in January to appropriate the money and send it to the governor's desk. If he re-vetoes it, the legislature can hold an override vote during the regular session with everyone present. Apart from three weeks of legislative process, the effect would be the same as if he hadn't called an August special session at all. My goal is to get 45 'yes' votes in the room all at once next month so school districts get the money to teach Alaska kids a little earlier in the year. It can do the most good that way. I don't know if we can pull it off or if it will wait until February. But doing the most good? That's what this governing stuff is supposed to be all about. Thanks to everyone who came out to the No Kings rally in June. There are dramatic shifts of power to the executive branch coming out of Washington DC lately and I'm deeply concerned about what may happen to our republic form of government. An Apple a Day Keeps the Insurance Denial Away If you already know all about prior authorizations—you have my sympathy. They're a time consuming, bureaucratic process of jumping through hoops to get your insurance company to pay for the care your doctor says you need. I wouldn’t mind getting rid of prior authorizations altogether. I also know insurance companies say they’re important to control the cost of healthcare. My colleague, Sen. Bjorkman, worked hard to wrangle insurers, doctors, patient advocates, and regulators. They found a middle ground to keep prior authorizations and also make life easier and less time consuming for patients. The bill sets hard deadlines for insurance companies to decide on prior authorizations. Companies get 72 hours for a standard request. For expedited requests where delay could jeopardize a patient’s life or limb (or leave them in severe pain) the company gets 24 hours. If the insurance company misses the deadline to respond, that counts as an automatic approval. Companies will need to base their standards for prior authorization on real science and provide the standards to both doctors and patients. If the company gives conflicting information, they’ll have to use the standard most favorable to the patient. Importantly, the doctor making the decision at the insurance company needs to be trained in the relevant field. That way a podiatrist isn’t deciding if you need brain surgery. The bill also requires prior authorizations to be valid for 90 days or for the time your doctor says you need the treatment, whichever is longer. For chronic conditions, the prior authorization must be valid for a full year. There will be new guardrails on “step therapy” too. Step therapy is where an insurance company requires a patient to try drugs in a specific order. The bill doesn’t let insurance companies make patients retry failed drugs just because the patient switched insurers. It also bans step therapy altogether for stage 4 cancer or any time it would endanger the life of the patient. The bill’s got real teeth. In addition to the automatic approvals for missed deadlines, the Division of Insurance will act as the watch dog. The Division can fine companies each time they violate a provision of the bill. The bill also lets the Division suspend or revoke the right to operate in Alaska for bad actors. No compromise is perfect. This bill is a real step up for patients though. It’s got important safeguards and real enforcement mechanisms to make sure everyone plays by the new rules. The legislature passed the bill unanimously. We almost never do that. It's on the governor's desk now and I hope it becomes law this summer. Rep. Hannan and I presented SEARHC with a legislative citation honoring Ethel Lund. Two Birds With One Loan Following the fisheries task force last interim, I carried a bill to help Alaska's small commercial fishing businesses. It passed and sits on the governor's desk as I type. You may remember in the winter of 2024 the fishing industry was near crisis. The Dunleavy administration came to legislators with an idea to help: for the next three years, lower the rate on loans from the Commercial Fishing Revolving Loan Fund at the Department of Commerce. They'd run the numbers and it was clear the fund could stay healthy with a 5.25% rate and slightly larger limits on refinanced loans. I carried that proposal and I'm pleased to say it worked. Small boat fishing families around the state started saving money as the fund got a flood of applications for the roughly $35 million it had on hand. But there was an unintended consequence. The Commercial Fishing & Agriculture Bank is a co-op created by state law, but it's not a state agency. It's the only entity besides the revolving loan fund that can use an Alaska limited entry permit as loan collateral. And its borrowers were leaving in droves for the new rates at the Department of Commerce. They estimated it would take $9 million to make them whole. And without at least some help, there was a serious threat they'd have to close up shop and go away. CFAB plays an important role in helping commercial fishing businesses in our state. The task force recommended helping out. With a lot of hard work, we came up with a plan to put a one-time cash infusion into CFAB, which they'll pay back to the general fund. It works like a zero-interest loan so they can match the terms available from the state. In these tight budget times there was no way to find $9 million, but my office identified $3.7 million from an old state loan fund that had sunset, but the money hadn't lapsed to the general fund yet. CFAB won't escape unscathed, but they won't have to close. The bill has safeguards to make sure the money gets used as intended, including only making loans against a limited entry permit. That means it won't compete with commercial banks. It's a narrow, carefully written follow-up to make sure our good work with the state revolving loan fund doesn't take away another good financing option down the road. SB 156 is due back from the governor by the middle of this month. All my best, Did someone forward you this newsletter and you want your very own copy? Did you fall into it through the series of tubes and now want it sent straight to you? SUBSCRIBE Events & Happenings Around District B Juneau Garden Tours On July 5, join the Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners Association for the annual garden tours! Juneau Capital Killers On July 11, learn about famous Juneau murders in this walking tour led by local historians Ed Schoenfeld and Betsy Longenbaugh! Juneau Master’s Faire Time to break out your armor! Join the fun at the annual medieval faire on July 26. Juneau Moms Unhinged Have a night of laughs with this touring comedy show coming to Juneau on July 19. Juneau Marching Band Get in the holiday spirit with the Juneau Volunteer Marching Band Independence Day Concert on July 3! Listen to great music, then pick out your spot for the fireworks show! Juneau Drop-In Chess Starting July 5, drop in at the downtown library on Saturdays for a community chess event. You can even come to learn if you haven’t played before! Juneau STARLAB Bring the kids to the Valley Library on July 12 to explore the night sky in the Planetarium’s portable STARLAB! Gustavus Greg Streveler Symposium From July 17-20, come explore connections through science, art, and community! Gustavus Everybody Welcome Library Band Come to the library on July 10 to join the fun with the Everybody Welcome Band! You can learn the banjo and other instruments at 4:30pm and play with the band at 5:30pm. Gustavus Summer Story Time On July 9 (and other summer Wednesdays) brink the kids for outdoors story time with a Librarian and a Glacier Bay Park Ranger! Gustavus Travel Series On July 13, hear a captivating travelogue about a cycling journey around Ghana! Gustavus Fourth of July First priority: pie for breakfast. Plus more games and fun for a great Independence Day! Haines Southeast State Fair The fun starts July 31st for the Southeast State Fair! Come for the music, the rides, the crafts, and so much more. This year’s theme: We got a good thing growing! Haines Dalton City Limits Come to the fairgrounds for a summer concert series! On July 9, you can see local talent with an original alt sound. Then on July 23 you can dance to upbeat string band music. Haines Independence Day Get ready for an action packed Fourth of July! There’s the Ripinsky Run, the Legion breakfast, the parade, and so much more! Haines Puppet Show Bring the kids for a puppet rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears on July 7! Skagway Climbing Club On Thursdays, join the fun with the Skagway Climbing Club! Whether you’re brand new or an experienced climber, you can join the trips to outdoor crags, learn about belaying and climbing, and more! Skagway Ultimate Frisbee On July 13, come out for Ultimate Frisbee fun! No experience needed and all gear provided. Skagway Blues, Brews, & BBQ Join the fun on July 19 with Blues music, food, bear, wine, and games on the Dedman Stage! Skagway Junior Ranger Day On July 31, the whole family can join in the fun of Junior Ranger Day, including old-fashioned ice cream making! Skagway Fourth of July Have a fun filled Independence Day! There are parades, games, food, car shows, and so much more! Skagway Jeopardy Kids ages 6-12 can test their knowledge with jeopardy at the library on July 17! Is there an event in our district I should know about? Please call or email! Want to Send Snail Mail? Alaska State Capitol Room 514 Juneau, AK 99801 You Can Call: 800 550 4947 907 465 4947 Or Email Me! Contact My Staff, the people who power the work: Aurora Hauke 907 465 5051 [email protected] Ella Adkison 907 465 6419 [email protected] Cathy Schlingheyde 907 465 6827 [email protected] Senator Jesse Kiehl | Alaska State Capitol Rm. 514, 4th Avenue & Main Street | Juneau, AK 99801 US Unsubscribe | Constant Contact Data Notice