Legislature(2017 - 2018)BUTROVICH 205
04/05/2018 03:30 PM Senate STATE AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB159 | |
| HB47 | |
| HB152 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | HB 47 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 159 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | HB 152 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HB 152-ORGANIZED MILITIA; AK ST. DEFENSE FORCE
4:18:31 PM
CHAIR MEYER called the committee back to order and announced the
consideration of House Bill 152 (HB 152).
4:19:02 PM
KENDRA KLOSTER, Staff, Representative Tuck, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, provided an overview of HB 152 as
follows:
This bill is part of a series of bills for updating
our Alaska Military Code. Our military code was in
1955 and we are just starting to work on updating it
now, so a lot of it has been out of date. So, this is
one of four bills going through the Legislature this
year to help update that code.
House Bill 152 will help ensure organized militia's
four components, which is the Army Guard, Air Guard,
Alaska State Defense Force, and Alaska Naval Militia,
have an efficient military force to respond to the
needs of Alaskans.
A couple of the key parts of this bill is clarifying
that the adjutant general (TAG) has control and
command of the organized militia under the direction
of the governor as the commander and chief. The TAG
already possesses statutory control over the organized
militia, but this bill will clarify command. Command
and control are important functions in any military
organization. Commanders are set for the response of
the organizations' priorities, goals, missions, while
people have the authority to direct people to
accomplish those missions; it's logical, however it is
not clearly set in statute, so this is one of the
clarifications in House Bill 152.
This will also ensure that the adjutant general has
the ability to adopt regulations as needed, it
clarifies and lists that the Alaska State Defense
Force may exist only with the express consent of the
U.S. Congress. House Bill 152 will also streamline
some of the day-to-day matters; for example, the TAG
can be able to accept resignations of commissioned
officers or place the name of commissioned officers on
a retirement list, right now it can go through the
governor, but we are moving that to the adjutant
general.
This also relaxes the requirement from militia units
to be served by an active armory. So, right now the
Department of Military Veterans' Affairs is trying to
grow that. Currently in some of our small communities
it doesn't necessarily make sense to build an armory
before we can have some of our State Defense Force
members there, it's just not needed at this point and
it costs a lot of money to build an armory, so that
part is being removed.
There's a tuition assistance program for organized
militia, we are adding the Alaska State Defense Force
to that statute. We are not increasing the fiscal note
or asking for any money for this, it's just allowing
to make sure that all members of our organized militia
are listed under there for the opportunity if money
does become available for tuition assistance.
Some of the changes that came out of the House, there
was some concerns over parts of the bill which were
removed and that was imminent authority going to the
adjutant general in certain times, I just want to
explain the history of how we got to this version. In
the first version it would expand the ability of the
TAG to call in an organized militia when the governor
was unavailable; for example, if he was unreachable
and we had another big earthquake and we couldn't get
ahold of the governor, the TAG would have been able to
call in an organized militia; at this time they cannot
do that you have to get ahold of the governor, but
there are a lot of concerns over that so we removed
that part, going to go on more discussion on that and
so that was really the major change in the State
Affairs Committee that was made.
4:22:51 PM
CHAIR MEYER asked if the bill was brought forward at the request
of the governor.
MS. KLOSTER answered that the bill is a committee bill that
Military and Veterans' Affairs worked on with the governor's
office.
CHAIR MEYER pointed out that the governor would be delegating
some of their authority to the adjutant general.
MS. KLOSTER provided a sectional analysis as follows:
Section 1
Clarifies control and command of the organized
militia.
Section 2
Describes the circumstances under which a governor may
order the organized militia into active state service.
Section 3
Describes when the adjutant general may call the
organized militia into active state service but
reviewed by the governor.
Section 4
Clarifies existing law specifying the Alaska State
Defense Force may exist only with the expressed
consent of the U.S. Congress.
Section 5
Adds the Alaska State Defense Force to the organized
militia definition.
Section 6
Establishes the adjutant general and the assistant
adjutant generals are subject to regulations under the
chapter and paid according to state law.
Sections 7-9
Authority going from the governor to the adjutant
general to allow the adjutant general to accept
resignations and add commissioned officers to the
retired list.
Section 10
Relaxes the authority to not have to build an armory
when expanding the Alaska State Defense Force.
Section 11
Allows the adjutant general to authorize when funds
are available for the tuition assistance program; or
adding in the Alaska State Defense Force with the Air
Guard, Army Guard, and Naval Militia for eligibility
under the tuition assistance program.
Section 12
Specifies regulations adopted in the statute cannot be
contrary to federal law.
Section 13
Directs regulations adopted under the statute must
conform when governing by the armed forces of the
United States.
Section 14
Allows the governor to delegate authority and provide
a sub-delegation except for the powers given to the
governor to convene a general court-marital.
Section 15
Repeals existing statute which is no longer necessary
or amended because of the bills that are currently
going through.
4:26:33 PM
CHAIR MEYER addressed section 4, lines 29-31 regarding members
of the Alaska State Defense Force performing inactive duty or
training and pointed out the line, "Shall receive benefits if
they suffer an injury or disability." He asked if lines 29-31
was new and a possible cost to the state.
MS. KLOSTER answered that lines 29-31 were also part of
conforming language. She noted that another bill was coming
through the Legislature that dealt with the part lines 29-31
addressed. She noted that the statute relates to "pay and
allowances, AS 26.05.260."
CHAIR MEYER reiterated that he wondered if there would be an
impact on the fiscal note.
4:28:20 PM
SENATOR COGHILL addressed section 2, "The organized militia may
not be used against to mitigate a lawful activity including
organized labor." He asked if the verbiage was something new as
a policy call or something conforming to a policy call that
already exists regarding organizing.
MS. KLOSTER replied that the part Senator Coghill referenced was
moved from another section and cleaned-up in the Military and
Veterans' Affairs Committee where language was added to ensure
the organized militia would not be sent out for lawful
activities.
CHAIR MEYER asked what would happen if the lawful activity
became unruly.
SENATOR COGHILL specified that the section says, "lawful
activity." He asked if the section was already in statute and if
it was a policy that has already been enforced and contemplated
or if it was new.
MS. KLOSTER explained that section 2 used to be much larger and
a lot of language was moved around via statute clean-up.
SENATOR COGHILL asked Ms. Kloster to address the "repealers" in
section 15.
MS. KLOSTER detailed as follows:
AS 26.05.170
A relationship between the governor and adjutant
general regarding control and command of the organized
militia.
AS 26.05.235
Mandatory annual active duty training at sites other
than regular bases.
AS 26.05.340
Use of organized militia against labor organizations.
AS 26.05.340(d)
Necessary regulations adopted by the adjutant general
and approved by the governor.
She noted that the sections addressed for AS 25.05.340 were
repealed and reenacted in another part of the bill.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if the sections address the authorities of
those taking place but were rewritten.
MS. KLOSTER explained that a lot of the bill is cleaning up the
statute at the same time.
4:31:43 PM
REPRESENTATIVE CHRIS TUCK, Chair of the House Military &
Veterans Affairs Committee, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau,
Alaska, said HB 152 clearly defines the control authority and
the command authority between the governor and the adjutant
general. He noted that Title 26 has not been changed since 1955.
He detailed that the first change occurred three years ago with
the Military Code of Justice and followed by a series of bills
to make it flow evenly so that everyone understands what their
roles are.
CHAIR MEYER pointed out that HB 152 has a zero fiscal note. He
reiterated that there seems to be the possibility that costs are
being added, specifically in section 4 regarding disability
while on the line of duty. He remarked that the zero-fiscal note
may be attributed to the fact that injury was not being
anticipated.
MS. KLOSTER disclosed that Representative Tuck has a bill going
through the Legislature where the Alaska State Defense Force is
covered for while on active-duty status for workers'
compensation. She detailed that the proposed bill, HB 126, would
include workers' compensation for training as well. She added
that HB 126 has a zero-fiscal note. She reiterated that the
three bills moving through the Legislature intermingle with one
another, so HB 152 is part of the conforming language between
the bills.
4:34:24 PM
CHAIR MEYER asked if the three bills are a "package deal."
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK replied there is a package of five or six
bills.
MS. KLOSTER detailed that there are three bills sponsored by the
Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee and there is one that
is also the Alaska Code of Military Justice update, so there are
four bills going through the Legislature to clean up the
statutes. She explained that the intent was to break up the
legislation into pieces due to complex issues that were going
on.
SENATOR GIESSEL referenced section 4 regarding the liability
issue and pointed out the reference to, "Or community service."
She asked if the reference to community service was also covered
or was being added.
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK explained as follows:
Right now the Alaska Defense Force, I believe, are
covered under community service but when they are
performing in active duty or training, that's where we
are covering them in case they get hurt because we are
still obligated but they are not covered under the
workers' compensation, it really costs us a lot more
when we have to pay right out without having insurance
coverage for them, so it encompasses them for all of
those activities now.
CHAIR MEYER noted previous testimony on section 4 regarding
liability concerns and asked Mr. Duffy from the Alaska
Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs if he anticipated
any costs associated with liability.
4:36:13 PM
BRIAN DUFFY, Administrative Services Director, Alaska Department
of Military and Veterans' Affairs, Joint Base Elmendorf-
Richardson (JBER), Alaska, answered questions regarding HB 152
as follows:
The only cost we have seen to date with members of the
Alaska State Defense Force being injured while in
service of the state but not on state-active duty was
one incident and I think it was a tort claim that was
settled for about $50,000, maybe with additional fees
for legal services to the department. We don't
anticipate a significant cost, it's a bit hard to
judge but what we will be able to gain through the
other legislation Ms. Kloster mentioned is coverage
for those members when they are in non-active-duty
status, but they are acting in service of the state.
SENATOR COGHILL addressed section 2 related to an organized
militia not being allowed to be used against or to mitigate a
lawful activity including an organized labor activity. He asked
if the legislation rewrites something that has already been
done.
4:38:46 PM
MR. DUFFY replied as follows:
You've seen other improvements covered elsewhere, the
Alaska Code of Military Justice affords the adjutant
general and chain of command opportunity to correct
behavior of the likes of which you described which are
counter to good order and discipline within the
National Guard.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if addressing organized labor as a lawful
activity was done for the first time.
MR. DUFFY answered as follows:
The intent here really is to ensure that it is
codified in statute that the elements of the militia
cannot be called into service to counter lawful
activities that are being done in the state.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if there was organized labor within the
state's militia.
4:40:09 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK specified as follows:
This section is dealing with any type of lawful
activity that civilians may be performing, whether
it's a demonstration, a march or any other lawful
activity including organized labor activity. I think
we've seen in the history in the past, especially in
the turn of the 19th century, organized militia was
used against [lawful activities].
SENATOR COGHILL remarked as follows:
I remember people putting flowers in guns at Kent
State. What I was wondering is would it ever be used
to prevent organized labor from saying," Well, we're
flight-line operators and we want to organize," and I
just didn't know if that was even within the realm of
possibility within our militia?
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK replied as follows:
That's a very good question because in the 1980s we
had the Professional Air Traffic Controllers
Organization (PATCO) strikes and at that time the
president said to return back to work according to law
and according to collective bargaining agreements. I
don't think organized militia was used or any type of
militia was used to enforce collective bargaining
agreements or to force people to return back to work
because it is a lawful activity to not have to return
back to work, but they did feel the consequences of
being terminated as a result of that. I don't know of
any time in history where people were forced to return
back to work. I can tell you that the Sherman Anti-
Trust Act one time had looked at any type of monopoly
including a loose monopoly in organized labor and if
you withheld or held back on commerce, labor was
considered commerce at the time, so you could be
jailed for not working; later on, there was an
amendment to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act that removed
labor from that so you that you couldn't use that as a
means of forcing people to go to work.
4:42:27 PM
SENATOR COGHILL asked if there was any organized labor within
the state's militia force and would they then be in a cross-
tension within the militia itself.
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK replied that he did not know. He noted that
military and agricultural workers are exempt from the National
Labor Relations Act.
MR. DUFFY explained as follows:
There are no organized labor elements within the
uniformed portions of the organized militia. The non-
uniform, normal state employees, certainly there are
bargaining units that govern them and if by chance a
member were to refuse his or her assigned duties or
refused to report, refused to preform, those are
matters the chain of command would take up in
accordance with the Alaska Code of Military Justice.
SENATOR COGHILL responded as follows:
That's what I was looking for, I didn't know what that
tension within the organization would be. I appreciate
the fact that we don't want to use the military to
intercede lawful civic activities.
4:43:59 PM
CHAIR MEYER remarked that the section dealing with the organized
militia appears to have been amended in Military and Veterans'
Affairs.
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK answered yes and noted that sections were
moved in the committee while making sure organized labor
activities were still included.
MS. KLOSTER concurred and specified that organized labor was
moved from one section to another and amended in the Military
and Veterans' Affairs Committee to clean up the language.
SENATOR EGAN noted that he served in the National Guard while
serving as a union worker and state employee in civilian life.
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK pointed out that Senator Egan served in the
capacity of a collected bargaining agreement as a union worker
in civilian life and then was called into active duty. He noted
that Mr. Duffy said serving in any type of organized militia
with a bargaining agreement is not allowed.
4:46:19 PM
CHAIR MEYER announced that public testimony would be left open.
He referenced a letter submitted by Mr. Wood regarding his
concern that too much authority was being delegated to the
adjutant general.
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK answered as follows:
There was a section that we had in the bill, it was
allowing the adjutant general to act on behalf of the
governor when the governor was incapacitated in any
way, within up to 72 hours; for example, we almost had
that situation with the recent earthquake at Kodiak
and tsunami warnings where the governor was about to
board an airplane, if he wasn't able to be reached we
were giving permission for the adjutant general to act
on behalf of the governor because we may not have time
to actually reach the governor and if the lieutenant
governor is not available, there's a little bit of
delay of saying that the governor is incapacitated and
then swearing in the lieutenant governor; a lot of
people had problems with that section, so we went
ahead and removed that.
SENATOR EGAN recalled when the adjutant general was lost in a
plane crash when responding to the 1964 earthquake.
REPRESENTATIVE TUCK replied that Senator Egan's example was the
reason why the previously noted provision was initially in the
bill but later removed.
MR. DUFFY addressed Mr. Woods' letter and commented as follows:
I would just offer one thought to the committee
members, the changes that are proposed in this
legislation, although they enhance the ability of the
adjutant general to perform command and control
activities, at no point is the authority of the
governor compromised, it remains supreme the entire
time.
4:49:40 PM
CHAIR MEYER held HB 152 in committee.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB 47 Version A.PDF |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Sponsor Statement.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Actuarial Letter.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents amended statutes.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents cities impacted by the floor.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents DOA-RAB letter.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents effected employers.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents Gross Salaries.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents Huntington PERS.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents PERS cities by 2010 population.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents PERS Employer Salaries for FY08 - FY12.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents testimony Korta PERS.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Supporting Documents Total PERS employers.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 47 Fiscal Note DOA OMB 64.pdf |
SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 47 |
| HB 152 Version N.PDF |
SSTA 4/3/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 152 |
| HB152 ver N Sponsor Statement.pdf |
SSTA 4/3/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 152 |
| HB152 Memo of Changes 3.20.18.pdf |
SSTA 4/3/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 152 |
| HB152 Additional Documents-DMVA Letter and bill info 3.19.18.pdf |
SSTA 4/3/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 152 |
| HB152 Supporting Document-DMVA Letter and Sectional 3.19.18.pdf |
SSTA 4/3/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 152 |
| HB152 Opposing Document-Letter Lawrence Wood 3.19.18.pdf |
SSTA 4/3/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 152 |
| HB 152 Fiscal Note.pdf |
SSTA 4/3/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
HB 152 |
| SB 159 Version A.PDF |
SSTA 3/20/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
SB 159 |
| SB 159 Hearing Request.pdf |
SSTA 3/20/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
SB 159 |
| SB 159 DOA Presentation in SSTA 3.20.18.pdf |
SSTA 3/20/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
SB 159 |
| SB 159 Tranmsittal Letter PERS and TRS.pdf |
SSTA 3/20/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
SB 159 |
| SB 159 Fiscal Note.pdf |
SSTA 3/20/2018 3:30:00 PM SSTA 4/5/2018 3:30:00 PM |
SB 159 |