Alaska Beacon

The legislators have left, but the special session of the Alaska State Legislature will continue through at least Aug. 19 as House and Senate majority leaders seek to prevent Gov. Mike Dunleavy from repeatedly ordering lawmakers back into session.

Ordinarily, the Alaska Constitution prohibits legislators from recessing — stopping business — for more than three days. Taking a break for longer than that requires the consent of both the House and the Senate.

On Saturday, after voting to override two of Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes, legislators passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 101, which would allow the Legislature to take a break for more than three days.

Immediately after the House’s vote on that resolution, Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, called for “reconsideration” — a re-vote — on the issue.

He and all 18 other members of the House’s Republican minority caucus opposed the resolution and wanted to see lawmakers keep meeting in hopes that it would pressure them into discussing education policy changes that Dunleavy has proposed.

Ordinarily, reconsideration takes place on the next legislative day. But because lawmakers aren’t scheduled to meet again until the 19th, it becomes a moot point.

“It’s an interesting problem, right?” Stapp said on Monday. “The real key in the uniform rules (of the Legislature) is enforcement, and I guess the Senate could compel the House to come back,  but they’re not going to.”

Special sessions run for 30 days unless ended early; lawmakers are currently adjourned until Aug. 19 and would have to meet at least once in order to keep the session moving.

Dunleavy told reporters in a news conference on Saturday that he called the special session for lawmakers to address his policy ideas for public education. Some of the governor’s ideas were discussed and voted down during the spring regular session. Dunleavy introduced three bills on Saturday related to tribal education compacting, teacher bonuses and education tax credits, that were referred to committees.

Members of the House and Senate majority caucuses, which control the legislative agenda, have said they aren’t interested in following the governor’s schedule and will consider education policy via an out-of-session task force that’s scheduled to begin meeting Aug. 25.

Most legislators have already left Juneau, and some are traveling to the annual summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures, taking place in Boston this week.

Any education legislation would be taken up in the next regular session, which begins in January, members of the majority caucuses said.

If legislators had adjourned the special session on Saturday after voting to override Dunleavy’s vetoes, the governor could have called for a new special session, bringing lawmakers right back into session.

Speaking on the House floor on Saturday, Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, said the purpose of SCR 101 is to prevent Dunleavy from doing just that.

“It’s a maneuver,” he said. “I get it. And it’s something that I would probably do, maybe, if I were sitting in your seat, Mr. Speaker. We all know how politics works. Unfortunately, those of us outside this room don’t know how politics works.”

A large cash infusion to the U.S. Coast Guard’s budget and recent comments by President Donald Trump are stoking optimism that the country’s limited icebreaker fleet might soon greatly expand.

That’s according to shipbuilders, other businesspeople and some diplomats who spoke at the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage this week. Icebreakers are particularly important to Alaska, especially in the Bering Strait region where a narrow strip of water separates Alaska and Russia, a remote place where foreign vessels are often known to stray.

The United States has three polar-grade icebreakers capable of navigating the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean, a waterbody that is rapidly warming due to climate change and seeing  new shipping routes opening in the process. The U.S.’s modest fleet compares to Russia’s hefty arsenal of some 40 icebreakers, including the world’s only nuclear-powered ones.

As sea ice melts and vessel traffic increases in Alaska’s northern waters and elsewhere in the Arctic, fear of oil spills, vessel collisions and national security threats from foreign adversaries is on the rise. Against this backdrop, the U.S. and two allies, Canada and Finland, are trying to boost the production of icebreakers capable of navigating and protecting the Arctic. Their goal is to build between 70 and 90 icebreakers within the next decade, according to published reports.

The trilateral cooperation effort is spelled out in a guidance document called ICE Pact, which stands for Icebreaker Collaboration Effort. This memorandum of understanding was signed at a NATO summit in Washington last year.

During a Thursday panel discussion at the Arctic conference, Paul Barrett of the Canadian shipbuilding company Davie noted that the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” builds off of ICE Pact in that it contains some $8 billion for the Coast Guard to expand its icebreaker fleet.

Trump has said he wants the U.S. to build or acquire 40 new icebreakers to close the gap with Russia and to counter the growing influence of both Russia, and more recently China, in the Arctic.

Barrett said his company is committed to helping make that happen. He outlined a $1 billion investment Davie is making to start building icebreakers at shipyards in Galveston and Port Arthur, cities in Texas.

“This is about really equipping the U.S. shipbuilding sector for the decades ahead,” said Barrett, the company’s chief communications officer. “Our analysis is that we can help the Americans to build these ships that they need and we can create many thousands of jobs, good jobs, in America.”

The massive spending and tax bill that Trump signed on July 4 contains $4.3 billion for the Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter program, to pay for three heavy icebreakers. There’s also $3.5 billion in the bill for three or more medium-grade icebreakers and about $800 million for light icebreakers.

The Coast Guard currently has two polar-grade icebreakers, and is getting a third, the Storis, which is scheduled to be commissioned in Juneau later this month. The Storis is the first polar icebreaker to be acquired by the Coast Guard in more than 25 years.

During a question-and-answer period at Thursday’s session, Dennis Young, who heads the Alaska Division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, asked why shipyards in Texas were chosen — as opposed to Alaska — for icebreaker construction.

Building a generational workforce of shipbuilders in Seward, Ketchikan or another Alaska port town would be a “tremendous asset for our communities,” Young said.

William Henagan, U.S. strategy lead for Davie, said many factors played into the decision but an important one was that Texas has a much larger existing workforce of skilled shipbuilders.

“From my experience down in Galveston, they do a lot of fabrication work, so they’re already building steel for the existing contracts,” Henagan said.

That said, Davie is “open for business” in Alaska and elsewhere.

“Paul and I are up here looking for opportunities and ways to collaborate with Alaska shipyards,” he said.

Henagan noted that icebreakers are “50-year assets” that require a lot of ongoing maintenance. So even if the ships are built in Texas, there might be plenty of work for Alaska to capture once the icebreakers start operating in the Arctic.

There’s no doubt that Alaska and the U.S. need more icebreakers for security reasons, said former Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, a panelist. But he said the country needs to focus on the commercial aspects of the Arctic Ocean and step up its role in capturing rapidly emerging global commerce opportunities.

“Let’s move forward with the concept of a marine seaway in the Arctic and figure out what the U.S. role is in helping convene the players to make that happen,” said Treadwell, a businessperson and former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. 

There’s talk that the U.S. secretary of transportation may visit Alaska this summer.

“Let’s all talk to him about it,” Treadwell said. “The fact is, we did this with Canada with the Saint Lawrence.”

He was referring to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System, built as a binational partnership between the U.S. and Canada. Administered by both countries, the seaway allows vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.

During Friday’s session on ICE Pact, Ambassador David Balton, who served as U.S. deputy assistant secretary for oceans and fisheries during the Biden administration, said while there’s clearly a need for more U.S. icebreakers, he’s skeptical about the effectiveness of the trilateral partnership.

“Relations between the United States and Canada at the moment are not great,” Balton said.

The 35% U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods that went into effect on Friday have a chilling effect and have disrupted one of the largest and most successful trading relationships in the world, he said.

And it’s not just tariffs that are straining bilateral relations.

“Let’s not forget that President Trump has spoken multiple times about how Canada should be part of the United States, and it hasn’t gone down very well with our Canadian friends,” Balton said.

Arctic shipping represents a “paltry fraction” of oceangoing global trade, he noted, and Balton said he’s doubtful that’s going to radically change anytime soon.

Even under the most aggressive climate change models, the Arctic Ocean remains ice-covered for most of the year.

There’s little existing land-based infrastructure to support large-scale Arctic shipping. Balton said it’s not clear to him that major shipping companies are going to retrofit their fleets to handle Arctic conditions for just a portion of the year, especially in a forbidding ocean that is poorly charted.

“There’s also unknown environmental consequences to large-scale Arctic shipping that we might want to stop and think about before embracing this brave new world that you’re imagining,” Balton said.

On the last day of Alaska’s legislative session in May, Sen. Donny Olson made a mistake.

The longtime Democratic senator from Golovin, mishearing Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, voted to sustain Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bill that increases the state’s public school education formula.

Heads snapped to Olson, and his colleague, Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, elbowed him.

When Senate President Gary Stevens asked if any lawmakers wanted to change their votes. Olson stood, and without speaking, pointed at the voting board.

Stevens duly changed Olson’s vote, and for the first time in over two decades, the Legislature overrode a veto by a sitting governor.

Olson’s silent statement was emblematic of his session.

Since suffering a stroke-like medical emergency in January, Olson has been suffering from aphasia, a language disorder that has made it difficult for him to translate his thoughts into spoken words.

Now, he’s about to return to the Capitol for a special session called by Dunleavy. Again, education issues are on the calendar, and again, Olson will be asked to cast his vote.

Olson sat down for an interview on May 20, shortly after the Alaska Senate adjourned its regular session for the year. Since then, in a series of interviews, colleagues and those familiar with his work have described a man healing from a severe health condition but one still able to serve in the Legislature.

Olson isn’t up for election until 2028. Barring early retirement, he will become the most senior legislator in 2027, as several of his colleagues leave office.

“The thinking is still the same. The articulation, that’s what, uh, is,” Olson said, struggling to finish the sentence.

Can he still do his job as a senator?

He nodded.

Olson has an extensive career — he’s been a doctor, a reindeer herder, a commercial pilot, and earned a law degree. He graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a bachelor’s in chemistry before getting a medical degree from Oral Roberts University and, later, graduating from the University of Colorado School of Law.

As challenging as each of those degrees has been — plus family life and his legislative career — recovering from his stroke-like illness may be the toughest obstacle yet.

“It’s still pretty fresh. It’s like a tailspin,” he said.

“You know your feelings, but you can’t quite articulate what your feelings are,” he said.

When Olson left the Capitol in January, several of his colleagues weren’t sure whether he would be able to return. In private discussions, they debated who might fill his seat if he were to resign.

“I did hear a rumor that I am retiring,” he said by text message on July 10. “That is not true.”

Olson was absent from the Capitol for nearly a month and underwent an intensive language therapy program at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.

“My time in Chicago was incredibly beneficial, and I am grateful for the therapy I received. While I will continue participating in speech therapy as part of my recovery, I am feeling strong and energized to be back at work,” he said in a written statement on March 10, after returning to the Capitol.

He’s continued to undergo speech therapy here in Alaska.

Does he feel like things are improving?

“Oh, for sure. With the month down in intensive (therapy) in Chicago … when I was talking to the stroke people, (U.S. Sen. John Fetterman), the senator from Pennsylvania, I think he was a lot farther down than I am,” Olson said.

Fetterman suffered a stroke in 2022 while running for office and was hospitalized for weeks with depression after being sworn into the U.S. Senate. Afterward, he relied on transcription services and other technological tools to do his job.

In May, not long before Olson ended the Alaska Legislature’s regular session, New York Magazine published a lengthy examination of the way that Fetterman’s personality seemed to have changed since the stroke.

Olson’s colleagues say they’ve seen nothing like that from Olson.

“I think he’s got the same sense of humor. He’s got the same — I think he’s got the same cognitive ability. I think it’s just his ability to speak, but even that has improved,” said Rep. Robyn Burke, D-Utqiagvik and one of the two state representatives in Olson’s state Senate district.

Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, is the other and could not be reached for comment.

Since his illness, Olson has continued to meet with constituents, lobbyists and local government officials, who said they haven’t had problems communicating with him, even if he can’t speak clearly.

In a pair of interviews with the Nome Nugget — one in April and another after the end of the legislative session — Olson was able to make his positions clear through written responses. When speaking, his staff frequently finished his sentences.

Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, has worked as a registered nurse and an advanced nurse practitioner and is familiar with stroke-like symptoms.

She said she hasn’t observed any personality changes. Other lawmakers said the same.

Olson said he’s not 100%, but he is getting better.

“I’m still on the road to recovery … what’s important are the milestones,” Olson said in May.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said on Wednesday that he spoke with Olson a few days ago.

“He sounded a lot better,” Wielechowski said.

“It was a short conversation; he called me, and he sounded much better than he was. … There was definite progress there,” he said.

Burke is supportive.

“I think he’s still there. I think his speech will continue to improve and come back stronger,” she said, “and he’ll be here. He’ll be here for years to come.”

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced his policy priorities for the Alaska State Legislature for when they reconvene for a special session scheduled to start on Saturday.

On Monday, the governor called for legislators to address what he called “Alaska’s chronic education outcome crisis” and to reconsider his executive order they had previously voted down, creating a new Department of Agriculture that he said would strengthen food security in Alaska.

Separately, the Alaska State Legislature released a joint statement on Monday from leaders of the House and Senate majorities announcing their focus for the special session: two override votes. One would override Dunleavy’s budget veto of more than $50 million for Alaska schools, and the second vote would be on a bill to boost legislative oversight of oil and gas revenues. After the votes, they said they intend to adjourn.

Dunleavy called the session last month, then asked the 19 Republican members of the House minority caucus to stay away from the session for the first five days to boycott the override votes. This drew outrage and criticism from some members of the House and Senate majorities as they rally support for the overrides, particularly to restore funding for K-12 schools.

The Legislature is required to take up veto override votes within the first five days of the next session, and 45 votes of 60 members are needed to override the governor’s budget veto of school funding. A lower bar, of 40 votes, is needed to override non-budget bills.

Dunleavy’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Monday about whether he is still asking Republicans to stay away. In a statement posted on social media, Dunleavy said he would be in Juneau when the special session begins. “I invite all legislators to be there to focus on solutions that deliver real results for Alaskans,” he said.

Dunleavy released an agenda with eight items, including an executive order creating a Department of Agriculture to focus on food security for Alaska and growing the state’s agricultural sector.

The other seven items were focused on education policy:

• tribal compacting between the state Department of Education and Early Development and select tribes to create better performing schools;
• expand the corporate tax credit program for education;
• authorize the Department of Education as a charter school authorizer in addition to local districts;
• allow public school students to enroll in any public school that has room, including outside of a student’s resident district;
• support grants for reading improvement and for a new after school reading tutoring program;
• pass recruitment retention payments to classroom teachers to reduce turnover, especially in areas of the state that suffer from chronic teacher turnover; and
• establish long-term certainty in funding for K-12 schools if agreement is reached on policy.

“This is an opportunity to address Alaska’s performance issues and funding issues in K-12 education well into the future,” Dunleavy said in a statement released with the announcement. “By addressing this now, school districts, students, parents, teachers, and policymakers will have certainty and will not have to debate this issue during the regular session that begins in January.”

The Alaska House and Senate majorities have very different priorities for Saturday.

A statement from House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, on Monday said legislators will immediately go into a joint session at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday to take up two override votes: “restoring $51 million in public education funding and overriding the Governor’s veto of Senate Bill 183, which affirms the Legislature’s oversight of oil and gas tax revenues.”

“After which, the Legislature intends to adjourn later that day, having completed its work,” the statement said.

Stevens questioned the timing of the session, which is being held when legislators had previous commitments and plans. He emphasized both measures passed with broad bipartisan support.

“This special session was called under circumstances that raise serious concerns, not only about its timing but also its clear aim to complicate legislative participation. Nevertheless, I urge every lawmaker not formally excused to be present in Juneau to fulfill our constitutional duty,” Stevens said.

“These override votes are not just symbolic. They are about preparing Alaska’s students, restoring public trust in how we manage billions in state revenues, and maintaining the Legislature’s role as a co-equal branch of government. We owe it to our constituents and the future of this state to show up and do our jobs,” he said.

Edgmon also called on every legislator to appear in Juneau to participate in the override votes.

“Alaskans expect us to lead, not walk away from our responsibilities. Families, students, and teachers are counting on us to follow through on the commitments we made during the regular session,” Edgmon said. “This special session is not about partisanship, but about standing up for our students and preserving the checks and balances that keep government accountable. Every elected state lawmaker needs to uphold their constitutional duty, come to Juneau, and vote their conscience.”

Last year, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in a 4-1 decision that Eric Hafner, an imprisoned felon in New York state, could remain on Alaska’s U.S. House ballot despite a lawsuit challenging his eligibility.

On Friday, the court issued a 22-page opinion explaining that its decision came down to the definition of the word “fifth.”

When Alaskans approved 2020’s Ballot Measure 2, they installed an open primary election and a ranked choice general election. The top four vote-getters in the primary election, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

If one of those top four candidates withdraws after the primary, a section of that ballot measure says that the Alaska Division of Elections should replace the withdrawn candidate “with the candidate who received the fifth most votes in the primary election.”

But in 2024, two Republican candidates withdrew after the primary, seeking to consolidate support behind fellow Republican Nick Begich III, the eventual winner.

That meant the sixth-place candidate, Democrat Eric Hafner, was promoted to the top-four general election.

Hafner had never lived in Alaska at the time of his candidacy and, if elected, would have been ineligible to serve in office because he was not a resident of the state at the time of his election, something required by the U.S. Constitution.

Alaska Democrats, fearing a split vote between then-incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola and Hafner, sued, arguing that the ballot measure allowed the Division of Elections to promote the fifth finisher to the top four, but not anything beyond that.

The Division of Elections and the Alaska Republican Party disputed that interpretation. An Anchorage Superior Court judge and the Supreme Court sided with the division, preserving Hafner’s candidacy.

In the end, it didn’t matter — Peltola lost to Begich by a margin that was wider than the number of votes Hafner received. Even if every Hafner voter had gone with Peltola, she still would have lost.

Writing after that result, four of the Supreme Court’s justices concluded that the plain language of the Ballot Measure 2 law “is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation” and is “ambiguous” about what happens if more than one winning candidate withdraws after the primary.

Given that, the justices relied on logic, prior case law and their view of voters’ intent when Alaskans approved Ballot Measure 2 in 2020.

Historically, the justices noted, they have issued orders that favor candidates’ access to the ballot.

Additionally, the language and context of Ballot Measure 2 support the idea that voters wanted to have four options in the general election.

“The language and purpose of Ballot Measure 2 favor the division’s interpretation: Allowing successive replacements aligns with the ballot measure’s goal of furnishing greater candidate choices for voters,” wrote Justice Jude Pate, an appointee of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, for the majority.

Under the Alaska Democratic Party’s interpretation of the law, the justices wrote, there could be a situation where three candidates withdraw after the primary election, leaving the remaining candidate unopposed in the general election, even if there were more candidates in the primary.

“We doubt that voters and the drafters would have intended such results,” Pate wrote of that hypothetical.

Writing in dissent was Justice Susan Carney, who said that the other four justices were wrong and that the plain language of the law is clear.

“It is hard for me to imagine plainer language than this statute uses to describe the candidate who will fill a vacancy on the general election ballot,” she wrote.

Carney wrote that “Ballot Measure 2 greatly increased Alaskans’ choices for representation” but that the plain meaning of “fifth” is clear and unambiguous.

Because of that fact, “the lengths to which the court has reached to conclude otherwise are unnecessary and unreasonable.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy allowed three bills to become law last week without his signature, creating two fishing-related laws and one that updates the rules governing accountants in the state.

Under the Alaska constitution, a governor may sign a bill into law, veto it, or allow it to become law by taking no action on it after it is transmitted to him by the Legislature.

House Bill 31, from Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, eliminates a state law that required fishing boats to register with the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles every three years. Now, any boat that’s actively in use fishing and registered with the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard will not have to also register with the DMV.

In a written statement, Stutes said the DMV registration — passed by the Legislature in 2018 — turned out to be excessive, particularly in rural Alaska.

“A lot of these communities don’t even have a DMV. Alaska’s commercial fishing industry is facing historically challenging times, and I’m glad we could implement this small step to make getting started for the year a little easier,” she said in the statement.

The second fishing-related bill was House Bill 116, which allows commercial fishing cooperatives to act like insurance without being regulated like insurance.

In some cases, fishing boat owners create pools of money to act as insurance funds to pay liability and damage claims themselves, bypassing the high rates charged by insurance companies.

Three pools already exist in Alaska but are organized under Washington state law because Alaska did not permit them. The new law enables pools under Alaska law, encouraging a cheaper alternative to traditional insurance.

House Bill 121, which also became law last week, lowers the training requirement for new accountants if they can substitute experience for classroom time. It also aligns some state accounting laws with model legislation used in other states.