Legislature(2019 - 2020)GRUENBERG 120
03/05/2019 03:00 PM House STATE AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Confirmation Hearing(s) | |
| Commissioner, Department of Military & Veterans' Affairs, | |
| Commissioner, Department of Administration | |
| HJR9 | |
| HB57 | |
| HB15 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | HJR 9 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 15 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 57 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HJR 9-ELIZABETH PERATROVICH COMMEMORATIVE COIN
4:52:47 PM
CO-CHAIR FIELDS announced that the next order of business would
be HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 9, Requesting the United States
Secretary of the Treasury to mint not less than 5,000,000 $1
coins honoring Elizabeth Peratrovich under the Native American
$1 Coin Act.
4:53:04 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DELANA JOHNSON, Alaska State Legislature, as
prime sponsor of HJR 9, stated that the proposed resolution came
about through discussions with 4-H youth who visited the capitol
and requested that the Elizabeth Peratrovich coin, scheduled to
be minted in 2020, not be just a collector's item but a coin
distributed for real use in Alaska. She paraphrased from the
sponsor statement, which read in part [original punctuation
provided]:
Through House Joint Resolution 9, the Alaska State
House of Representatives is asking the United States
President, Vice President, and the US Secretary of
Treasury to mint not less than a full run of 5,000,000
Elizabeth Peratrovich $1 coins and to deliver them to
the Seattle branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco for distribution throughout the State of
Alaska and to coin collectors.
4:54:51 PM
MARCY HERMAN, Staff, Representative DeLana Johnson, Alaska State
Legislature, on behalf of Representative Johnson, prime sponsor
of HJR 9, stated that specialty coinage is a way to honor
Alaska's past and reflect on its heritage. These coins are
typically distributed to coin collectors; the resolution would
ask that 5 million minted coins be distributed throughout Alaska
and to coin collectors. She paraphrased from the sponsor
statement, which read in part [original punctuation provided]:
In 2000, the US Mint released the Sacagawea Golden
Dollar which featured a portrait of Sacagawea carrying
her infant son, Jean-Baptiste. In 2009, the United
States Mint began minting and issuing $1 coins
featuring designs celebrating the important
contributions to the history and development of the
United States made by Native American tribes and
individual Native Peoples.
MS. HERMAN relayed that the Elizabeth Peratrovich [coin] would
be the twelfth Native American commemorative coin but only the
fourth coin honoring an individual, as opposed to a tribe. She
explained that Elizabeth Peratrovich was chosen for the Native
American $1 coin because she was an important civil rights
activist before there was even the term "civil rights activist."
Elizabeth Peratrovich refused to be silent in the face of
injustice, helping Alaskans see the reality of discrimination
and its devasting effect on those against whom discrimination
was practiced. She advocated for the passage of the Alaska
Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, which was the first anti-
discrimination law in the U.S., passed on February 16, 1945.
Elizabeth Peratrovich symbolizes the crucial role that the
public plays in the legislative process. She also served as the
grand princess of the Alaska Native Sisterhood and was name the
2018 honoree of the National Women's History Alliance. The
Alaska State Legislature has already recognized Elizabeth
Peratrovich by establishing February 16 each year as Elizabeth
Peratrovich Day; in 1992, the public gallery of the chambers of
the House of Representatives, formerly known as Gallery B, was
renamed in her honor.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON concluded by saying that in 2020, the
residents of Alaska will celebrate Elizabeth Peratrovich and the
75th anniversary of the Anti-Discrimination Act. That same year
is the year that the U.S. Treasury is scheduled to issue the
commemorative coin recognizing Elizabeth Peratrovich. She
stated that HJR 9 would ask the U.S. Treasury to continue the
campaign to encourage commercial enterprises to accept and
dispense the Elizabeth Peratrovich Native American commemorative
$1 coin in such a way that it would not be only a collector's
coin but would have a use in Alaska.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON pointed out that the 4-H young people who
came to the capitol demonstrate that a single person or several
people, speaking from the heart and working on something in
which they believe, can significantly and positively affect the
future of all Alaskans.
4:58:58 PM
REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked whether the number of coins to be
issued - 5 million - was arbitrary or a standard issue.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON replied that 3 billion Sacagawea [Golden
Dollar] coins were minted since 2000. The last year it was
minted was 2016, during which 2.1 million coins were minted;
every year about that number was minted. She stated that she
could not find out the number minted under a collector's run.
She relayed that the number - 5 million - came from a coin
enthusiast in Fairbanks who has been working with the Forget-Me-
Not 4-H club.
5:00:15 PM
CO-CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS asked whether Representative Johnson
would be amenable to an amendment adding the Congressional
delegation as recipients of copies of HJR 9.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON responded that it would be fine.
[HJR 9 was held over.]