Legislature(1995 - 1996)
01/30/1996 03:03 PM House HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
STANDING COMMITTEE
January 30, 1996
3:03 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Cynthia Toohey, Co-Chair
Representative Con Bunde, Co-Chair
Representative Gary Davis
Representative Norman Rokeberg
Representative Caren Robinson
Representative Tom Brice
Representative Al Vezey
MEMBERS ABSENT
None
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
HOUSE BILL NO. 366
"An Act relating to marine safety training and education programs."
- CSHB 366(HES) PASSED OUT OF COMMITTEE
HOUSE BILL NO. 387
"An Act relating to minors, to programs relating to minors, and to
the use of citations for noncriminal offenses when the offenses are
committed by minors; authorizing disposition of those noncriminal
offenses by citations that require performance of community service
in lieu of a court appearance; establishing a curfew for minors,
authorizing municipalities to establish curfews by ordinance, and
establishing the offense of school truancy; relating to the
detention of minors and establishing the offenses of evading legal
custody and evading detention; and amending the criminal
jurisdiction of the district court to provide for the disposition
of certain offenses involving minors."
- SCHEDULED BUT NOT HEARD
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: HB 366
SHORT TITLE: MARINE SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAMS
SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVE(S) AUSTERMAN,Ivan
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
12/29/95 2362 (H) PREFILE RELEASED
01/08/96 2362 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
01/08/96 2362 (H) HES, TRANSPORTATION, FINANCE
01/16/96 (H) HES AT 03:00 PM CAPITOL 106
01/16/96 (H) MINUTE(HES)
01/30/96 (H) HES AT 03:00 PM CAPITOL 106
WITNESS REGISTER
REPRESENTATIVE ALAN AUSTERMAN
Alaska State Legislature
Capitol Building, Room 434
Juneau, Alaska 99801-1182
Telephone: (907) 465-2487
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions on CSHB 366
AMY DAUGHTERY, Staff
to Representative Alan Austerman
Alaska State Legislature
Capitol Building, Room 434
Juneau, Alaska 99801-1182
Telephone: (907) 465-2487
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented CSHB 366
MARK JOHNSON, Chief
Community Health & Emergency Medical Services Section
Division of PUblic Health
Department of Health & Social Services
P.O. Box 110616
Juneau, Alaska 99811-0616
Telephone: (907) 465-3027
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on CSHB 366
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 96-4, SIDE A
Number 001
The House Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee
was called to order by CO-CHAIR BUNDE at 3:03 p.m. Members present
at the call to order were Representatives Bunde, Robinson, Vezey,
Toohey, Rokeberg and G. Davis. A quorum was present to conduct
business. CO-CHAIR BUNDE announced that HB 387, Juvenile Code
Revision, would not be heard today.
HB 366 - MARINE SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAMS
CO-CHAIR BUNDE said the only bill to be heard today would be HB
366, which had been in the House HESS committee before. He asked
Representative Austerman, sponsor of HB 366, to address the
committee substitute.
REPRESENTATIVE ALAN AUSTERMAN, sponsor, commented he would like his
staff person to come forward to explain the committee substitute.
Number 144
AMY DAUGHTERY, Staff to Representative Alan Austerman, said that
following the last hearing on HB 366, which was before the House
HESS Committee, they discovered that only 2,000 people out of the
7,000 people trained last year by AMSEA were commercial fishermen.
She explained the language "commercial fishermen" was removed from
Section 2, subsection (b) because the training benefits more than
just commercial fishermen. It benefits the public at-large,
children, as well as commercial fisherman and they felt it was a
mispresentation as to whom is actually trained by AMSEA.
CO-CHAIR BUNDE noted that Representative Brice arrived at 3:05 p.m.
Number 225
CO-CHAIR TOOHEY made a motion to adopt Work Draft 9-LS1333\C as the
working document. Hearing no objection, it was so ordered.
Number 250
REPRESENTATIVE GARY DAVIS referred to subparagraph (b) which
states, "This Act does not create a dedicated fund." and commented
he had not seen this language before. He asked if this was
something new being done with draft legislation.
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN answered he wasn't certain, but thought
perhaps it was for clarification purposes.
CO-CHAIR BUNDE commented it was his understanding that in
discussing the fishermen's fund, this language was to clarify that
the legislation did not create a new dedicated fund, which is
prohibited by the constitution.
Number 322
REPRESENTATIVE AL VEZEY thought that was indeed the point: A
dedicated fund could not be created by the legislature, even if
they wanted to. He has seen a legal opinion that basically stated
if the legislature were to start tinkering with existing dedicated
funds, funds that were in existence prior to statehood, there was
a risk of convoluting or destroying the dedicated nature of those
pre-statehood funds.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS remarked that Representative Vezey's comments
had shed some light on the rationale for the inclusion of the
language, because this program was in existence at the time of
statehood.
Number 380
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN stressed this does not get into the
dedicated fund at all. It uses the interest only; funds that go
into the general fund.
Number 425
REPRESENTATIVE NORMAN ROKEBERG asked Representative Austerman to
clarify the existence of a federal statute that required this type
of training and that was one of the reasons for this legislation.
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN answered he was not positive what the
federal law was, however, he was aware that national hearings were
held in reference to safety at sea and the Coast Guard did come up
with regulations that required some safety aspects. He added he
was not sure if there was a federal mandate.
Number 500
MARK JOHNSON, Chief, Community Health & Emergency Medical Services
Section, Division of Public Health, Department of Health & Social
Services, testified there is the Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety
Act, passed in 1988, which requires safety equipment and training
on commercial fishing vessels, depending on where they fish; in
other words, the further offshore, the greater the requirements.
He added the Coast Guard does have regulations on that. The
particular training provided by the Alaska Marine Safety Education
Association (AMSEA) meets the requirements under the Coast Guard
regulations. He added that the AMSEA training programs address
broader groups than just commercial fishers.
Number 566
CO-CHAIR BUNDE asked Mr. Johnson to assume the amount of money will
grow and to speculate on how it might be used for people using the
waters for recreational purposes, people living around the water,
et cetera. He commented on the incredibly high drowning rate and
very poor water safety record in Alaska.
MR. JOHNSON said it was his understanding that Alaska was the only
state in the United States that doesn't have a boating safety act.
Alaska has the highest drowning rate in the country; it actually
competes with motor vehicle crashes as a cause of injury deaths.
He commented they have tried to help AMSEA and other agencies with
small amounts of temporary grants that run for two, three or four
years and then stop. He thought AMSEA was looking for a more
stable source of funding and added their targets are somewhat
limited depending on their source of funding. For example,
sometimes their target would be commercial fishing groups because
they would get money from the National Institute of Occupational
Safety & Health (NIOSH) or National Marines Fisheries, and other
times they would target children because their funding source was
EMS for children federal funds. He pointed out there is a wide
range of groups of people who need water safety training; rural,
recreational, commercial, etc., and AMSEA has tried within their
limited funding sources to address all of those groups. He said
AMSEA has a very good reputation in terms of quality and their
ability to leverage funds and get a lot of people trained with a
small amount of money. It is their intent to do more training for
the recreational community, but they have been limited because of
their funding sources.
CO-CHAIR BUNDE asked Mr. Johnson if it was his view that AMSEA
would be reaching out for more training in the recreational area if
more money was available.
MR. JOHNSON said that was his understanding.
Number 700
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said he wanted to make sure that everyone
was aware that Alaska does not have a safe boating act, and this
training basically takes the place of that. He spoke of the
accomplishments of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association
over the last 10 years which include marine safety training for
40,000 members of the public; 2,500 were fishermen and the rest has
been directed toward water safety for the rest of the people in the
state.
MR. JOHNSON explained to committee members that a few years ago
they looked at the number of people dying in boating and drowning
accidents versus other forms of death, such as deaths from motor
vehicles. At that time there was virtually no money, at least from
the state, going into this area compared to the amount of money
directed toward trying to make our highways safe. He said the
Coast Guard is obviously trying to address this problem, but they
are spread very thin and do not have a presence all over the state.
In Mr. Johnson's view, AMSEA has done an outstanding job of
reaching out across the state to places where there is no one else
addressing the problem and the statistics are beginning to show
that it is making a difference.
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said he had been led to believe the
Governor has placed $80,000 in his budget for this program. He
indicated they would be going before the Finance Committee to fight
for the remainder of the money to keep this program solvent. He
believes AMSEA is a good program, it should be continued, and
expanded if at all possible. Representative Austerman said the
money coming into the fishermen's fund, which generates the
interest earnings, is from the fishermen themselves and they have
no opposition to using the money for this program.
CO-CHAIR BUNDE encouraged Representative Austerman to fight the
good fight and wanted to publicly thank the commercial fishermen
for wanting to help public safety. CO-CHAIR BUNDE closed the
meeting to public testimony.
Number 863
CO-CHAIR TOOHEY made a motion to move CSHB 366(HES) from the House
HESS committee to the House Transportation Committee with
individual recommendations and zero fiscal note.
CO-CHAIR BUNDE asked if there was any objection. Hearing none,
CSHB 366(HES) passed out of the House HESS Committee with
individual recommendations and zero fiscal note.
CO-CHAIR BUNDE adjourned the meeting of the House HESS Committee at
3:17 p.m.
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