SB 173-2012 REVISOR'S BILL  2:00:11 PM CHAIR FRENCH announced the consideration of SB 173. KATHRYN KURTZ, Assistant Revisor of Statutes, Legislative Legal and Research Services Division, Legislative Affairs Agency, explained that that SB 173 is the general revisor's bill. It suggests improvements to the statutes by correcting or removing conflicts, deficiencies, and obsolete provisions. This year it contains a lot of fixes to obsolete provisions. Sections 1 and 2 remove obsolete date references. Section 3 removes a reference to federal territorial law. Section 4 updates the name of the "municipal harbor facility grant fund" to the "harbor facility grant fund" to reflect earlier changes to the program to cover more than just municipalities. 2:02:19 PM SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI referred to Section 3, and asked what was included in 48 United States Code (U.S.C.) 473-479. MS. KURTZ explained that those sections were omitted from the federal code because they related to Alaska as a territory and thus were obsolete. Language was retained that makes the Alaska National Guard and the Alaska Naval Militia subject to all applicable federal laws, but the reference to adopting regulations that are not inconsistent with law that has essentially gone away at the federal level wasn't helpful. CHAIR FRENCH observed that the legal profession is slow to change its verbiage. If the statute were written today it might say "consistent with" rather than "not inconsistent with." MS. KURTZ agreed it would sound better. 2:04:47 PM CHAIR FRENCH noted that Section 5 [removes a reference to "the effective date of this subsection"] and inserts a specific date that might sometime need to be removed. MS. KURTZ agreed that the specific date would eventually need to be changed, but the reference to the effective date of the section was deleted because it wasn't helpful. Sections 5-12 deal with definitions that were repealed, but still referred to someplace. Section 5 removes a definition for "renewable energy resources" by reference to AS 42.45.045 since that section is subject to a delayed repeal that is scheduled to occur in 2013. Section 6 inserts in a new subsection AS 42.05.711(s), the definition for "renewable energy resources" currently in AS 42.45.045. Now the same definition will appear in two places; one will sunset and the other will not. Sections 7-12 deal with the definition of "school district." Section 7 amends AS 43.20.014(f)(1), which defines "school district" by reference to the definition in AS 14.03.126, which was repealed in 2006 and effective in 2009. This section removes the reference to AS 14.03.126 and inserts the text of the definition in AS 43. 20.014. Sections 8-12 refer to the definition of "school district" given in AS 43.20.014. Section 13 amends AS 44.62.190, relating to notice of the proposed adoption, amendment or repeal of a regulation. The paragraph amended, AS 44.62.190(a)(6) that provides for electronic notice of these changes to legislators. The amendment deletes the qualifying phrase "if the state agency has the technological capability," because, according to the regulations attorney at the Department of Law, all departments have this capability. This section also deletes the clause permitting an agency to furnish the notice by other means if the agency doesn't have the capability to furnish the notification electronically. Section 14 repeals AS 21.27.380(f), which provides for the renewal of two year trainee licenses issued to a managing general agent, reinsurance intermediary broker, reinsurance intermediary manager, or surplus lines broker. The provisions permitting issuance of those two year trainee licenses - AS 21.27.600, AS 21.27.680, AS 21.27.740 and AS 21.27.800, were repealed in 2004 so the renewal provision is superfluous. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if the definition for "school district" in Section 7 is the same definition that was in AS 14.03.126. MS. KURTZ answered yes. 2:08:43 PM CHAIR FRENCH announced he would hold SB 173 in committee.