HJR 40: Proposing amendments to the Constitution of the State of Alaska relating to terms of legislators, to meetings of legislative committees, and to the length of regular sessions of the legislature.
00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 40 01 Proposing amendments to the Constitution of the State of Alaska relating to terms 02 of legislators, to meetings of legislative committees, and to the length of regular 03 sessions of the legislature. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 * Section 1. Art. II, sec. 3, Constitution of the State of Alaska, is amended to read: 06 Section 3. Election and Terms. Legislators shall be elected at general 07 elections. Their terms begin on the second [FOURTH] Monday of the December 08 [JANUARY] following election when they shall take the oath of office [UNLESS 09 OTHERWISE PROVIDED BY LAW]. The term of representatives shall be two years, 10 and the term of senators, four years. One-half of the senators shall be elected every 11 two years. 12 * Sec. 2. Art. II, sec. 8, Constitution of the State of Alaska, is amended to read: 13 Section 8. Regular Sessions. The legislature shall convene in regular session 14 each year on the second [FOURTH] Monday in February. A [JANUARY, BUT THE
01 MONTH AND DAY MAY BE CHANGED BY LAW. THE LEGISLATURE SHALL 02 ADJOURN FROM] regular session may last no longer than ninety [NO LATER 03 THAN ONE HUNDRED TWENTY] consecutive calendar days , [FROM THE DATE 04 IT CONVENES] except that a regular session may be extended once for up to ten 05 consecutive calendar days. An extension of the regular session requires the affirmative 06 vote of at least two-thirds of the membership of each house of the legislature. The 07 legislature shall adopt as part of the uniform rules of procedure deadlines for 08 scheduling session work not inconsistent with provisions controlling the length of the 09 session. 10 * Sec. 3. Art. II, sec. 11, Constitution of the State of Alaska, is amended to read: 11 Section 11. [INTERIM] Committees. There shall be a legislative council, 12 and the legislature may establish other [INTERIM] committees. The council [AND 13 OTHER INTERIM COMMITTEES] may meet between legislative sessions , and the 14 legislature may authorize other committees to meet between sessions . They may 15 perform duties and employ personnel as provided by the legislature. Their members 16 may receive an allowance for expenses while performing their duties. 17 * Sec. 4. The amendments proposed by this resolution shall be placed before the voters of 18 the state at the next general election in conformity with art. XIII, sec. 1, Constitution of the 19 State of Alaska, and the election laws of the state.