Lawmakers are gearing up to return to Juneau for the 2nd Regular Session which begins next Tuesday, January 18, 2022. Several bills have been submitted for introduction/first reading before the session began and a multitude of the bills on the prefile list for the state House of Representatives come from legislators on the Kenai Peninsula.
Rep. Ron Gillham (Kenai) has seven bills on the prefile list. They include two-thirds voter approval for annexation, municipal property tax senior exemption, James “Hobo Jim” Varsos Day, prohibition on requiring medical procedures, and school district boundary maps. Two in particular have to deal with COVID-19:
- HB 237 relates to pharmacists dispensing medication for treatment of COVID-19 and related diseases. Part of the legislation reads that a person dispensing medication is not required to evaluate whether dispensing the medication is in the patient’s best interest.
- HB 238 relates to the objections of vaccines. Section 3 of the legislation reads that a business, employer, state agency, municipality, the University of Alaska, or a school district may not require an individual to be vaccinated against a specific disease if the individual objects based on a religious, medical, or philosophical grounds to the administration of the vaccine.
Rep. Sarah Vance (Homer) has two bills on the prefile list, including what’s called the Israel Anti-Discrimination Act, and an act relating to the right of patients to have a support person present during the treatment and during stays at certain facilities, which has also been co-sponsored by Rep. Ben Carpenter (Nikiski).
A senate bill that was on the prefile list is SB 151, sponsored by Sen. President Peter Micciche, which would extend the termination date of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and provide for an effective date.
Below is the entire list of prefiled bills:
2022-Prefiles-First-Release
Photo credits – image courtesy of www.akleg.gov.