00 HOUSE SPECIAL CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1                                                                               
01 Disapproving Executive Order No. 84.                                                                                    
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03  WHEREAS women continue to suffer significant wage disparities in the workplace,                                        
04 serious personal harm from rising rates of domestic violence, and have not achieved full                                
05 equality of treatment within our society; and                                                                           
06  WHEREAS the problems of women as individuals, as wage earners, and as consumers                                        
07 of health and other services require focused attention for the redress of inequitable conditions;                       
08 and                                                                                                                     
09  WHEREAS children increasingly live in poverty without adequate nutrition or health                                     
10 care and suffer from rising rates of child abuse and neglect; and                                                       
11  WHEREAS the health and well-being of Alaska's children must be the concern of all                                      
12 people, not just their parents, because we all have a stake in their ability to become self-reliant, literate, and prod 
13 adults; and                                                                                                             
14  WHEREAS there is currently one commission focusing on solutions for inequities and                                     
01 needs involving women and one commission focusing on solutions for the problems and needs                               
02 faced by children and youth; and                                                                                        
03  WHEREAS the governor, under authority of art. III, sec. 23, Constitution of the State                                  
04 of Alaska, has proposed to combine the functions of the Alaska Women's Commission and                                   
05 the Alaska Commission on Children and Youth; and                                                                        
06  WHEREAS the consolidation of the Alaska Women's Commission and the Alaska                                              
07 Commission on Children and Youth dilutes the focus and attention required to solve the                                  
08 problems facing women and children; and                                                                                 
09  WHEREAS the consolidation of these commissions perpetuates the misperception that                                      
10 the concerns of women inevitably include the concerns of children and that they are so closely                          
11 linked that they cannot be considered separately; and                                                                   
12  WHEREAS the consolidation of these commissions suggests a caretaker paternalism                                        
13 in which women and children are treated alike as persons without individual identity; and                               
14  WHEREAS art. III, sec. 23, Constitution of the State of Alaska provides that unless                                    
15 disapproved within 60 days of a regular session by resolution concurred in by a majority of                             
16 the members of the legislature in joint session, an executive order becomes effective at a date                         
17 designated by the governor;                                                                                             
18  BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that Executive Order No. 84 is                                          
19 disapproved.