HB 292-2014 REVISOR'S BILL  1:09:50 PM    CHAIR KELLER announced the first order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 292, "An Act making corrective amendments to the Alaska Statutes as recommended by the revisor of statutes; and providing for an effective date." 1:10:11 PM  LISA KIRSCH, Assistant Revisor, Legal Services, Legislative Legal and Research Services, Legislative Affairs Agency advised this bill is the legislature's opportunity to correct and remove any deficiencies, conflicts and/or obsolete provisions. Primarily, the bill updates the names of agencies that have changed due to changes in federal law. The bill also captures several instances of the term "adoptive child," which is not the standard term for a child who has been adopted. The correct terms are "adoptive parent" and "adopted child." Ms. Kirsch informed the committee another reference had been discovered and thus there is an amendment to change the "adoptive child" reference to "adopted child." The bill also updates obsolete date references to the boiler code, and changes the word "stimulation" as it was a typographical error in the statute related to oil wells and hydraulic fracking. 1:12:01 PM   CHAIR KELLER referred to the deletion of the language in Section 5, "after January 1, 1974," and opined the dates were valuable bits of information, which often marked when a bill passed. He noted three or four sections similar to Section 5, in that they delete dates. He asked whether this bill included a comprehensive list of such date markers in statute and whether such changes had occurred. MS. KIRSCH confirmed that per Title 1 routine review occurs to remove obsolete dates from statute. She explained that [January 1, 1974] has meaning when there were people who had rights predating that date. However, 1974 is so many years ago that the likelihood of anyone having a right arise prior to that date is very low to nonexistent. She further explained that once the date is far enough back in history, relative to the context it is in and the nature of the section, the date may be determined to be obsolete. Although dates could [be relevant] for 20-30 years, at a certain point the date becomes obsolete and is removed from statute. 1:14:45 PM CHAIR KELLER asserted it is good he is not setting the standards for drafting as he believed the value of a date is for historical context. He then questioned whether Section 3 is a substantive change. MS. KIRSCH stated the revisor's bill cannot include a substantive change. The section of statute being added in Section 3 is AS 40.25.295, which is just the short title. Short titles of an article or section are located at the very end. She noted that these provisions, being added in Section 3 are in the Alaska Public Records Act. 1:16:25 PM CHAIR KELLER offered his belief the change of the term "adoptive" to "adopted" is a substantive change, particularly since the two have different meanings in terms of time sensitivities. In the English language adoptive means something different than adopted. MS. KIRSCH explained that the adoptive parent is the person who becomes a parent by virtue of adopting a child. The child is not the one taking the action, the child is the party who is acted upon and is adopted. The aforementioned is the standard usage of those terms. 1:17:58 PM CHAIR KELLER suggested that an adoptive child could be a child in the process of being adopted as opposed to a child who has been adopted sometime in the past. MS. KIRSCH expressed her understanding that the statutes refer to a child who has been adopted, not a child in the process. CHAIR KELLER maintained concern with the change and asked if other committee members had a similar concern to which there was no response. 1:19:31 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved that the committee adopt Amendment 1, labelled 28-LS0904\C.1, Kirsch, 2/14/14, which read: Page 10, following line 13: Insert a new bill section to read:  "* Sec. 20. AS 39.52.960(11) is amended to read: (11) "immediate family member" means (A) the spouse of the person; (B) another person cohabiting with the person in a conjugal relationship that is not a legal marriage; (C) a child, including a stepchild and an adopted [ADOPTIVE] child, of the person; (D) a parent, sibling, grandparent, aunt, or uncle of the person; and (E) a parent or sibling of the person's spouse;" Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. CHAIR KELLER removed his objection. There being no further objections, Amendment 1 was adopted. REPRESENTATIVE LYNN moved to report HB 292, as amended, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. CHAIR KELLER stated there being no objections, CSHB 292(JUD) was reported from the House Judiciary Standing Committee. 1:21:09 PM The committee took a brief at-ease.