Legislature(2013 - 2014)BARNES 124
03/05/2013 08:00 AM House LABOR & COMMERCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB71 | |
| HB84 | |
| HB76 | |
| HB74 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 71 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 84 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 76 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 74 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HB 84-MILITARY TRAINING CREDIT/TEMP. LICENSE
8:26:40 AM
CHAIR OLSON announced that the next order of business would be
HOUSE BILL NO. 84 "An Act relating to applying military
education, training, and service credit to occupational
licensing and certain postsecondary education and employment
training requirements; providing for a temporary occupational
license for qualified military service members; and providing
for an effective date."
KIM SKIPPER, Staff, Representative Dan Saddler, Alaska State
Legislature, speaking on behalf of the sponsor, Representative
Saddler, stated that HB 84 relates to military training credit
and temporary licensing. The goal of HB 84 is to help
separating service members transition quickly and effectively
into the workforce. Each year, approximately 1,200 service
members separate from military service in Alaska. Americans in
the military service receive world class training, education,
and experience during their time in uniform, which are assets
that should not be lost to them or Alaska's communities. This
bill asks the Department of Commerce, Community & Economic
Development (DCCED), Division of Corporations, Business and
Professional Licensing (DCBPL), the University of Alaska (UAA),
and the Department of Labor & Workforce Development (DLWD) to
evaluate military training and education and assign civilian
credit where appropriate, without comprising current licensing
standards. This bill would improve the probability of veterans
finding jobs by accelerating the state's licensing process and
early education credits. Service members often experience
delays and lost opportunities qualifying for licenses and
academic credit, even though they have the applicable training
and experience. As of July 2012, 19 states have enacted
legislation and over 30 states are considering similar
legislation in 2013. She related that this bill concept
originated last legislature by former Representative Bill
Thomas, who introduced a similar bill. She explained that
factors such as budget cuts and federal sequestration will see
more veterans seeking civilian jobs. The state has an
obligation to find ways to give veterans opportunities to
leverage their military experience into academic credit, job
certification, or vocational training credits. She concluded
that bills such as HB 84 help make that happen to everyone's
benefit.
8:29:22 AM
CHAIR OLSON asked about the fiscal notes.
MS. SKIPPER answered that the effective date of HB 84 is
12/31/2013. The DCCED's fiscal note of $137,000 is for the
DCBPL to meet requirements of the bill.
8:29:47 AM
REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON, referring to page 2, subsection (b),
asked if the committee should be concerned about the required
experience, degree, or diploma or certificate listed.
MS. SKIPPER responded that the certification or credits require
substantial equivalence. Thus any substantially equivalent
experience, training, or academic credits can be considered for
licensure. She deferred to the DCBPL to expand on this.
8:30:48 AM
REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON referred to subsection (c) [on page 2,
lines 22-24] and inquired as to the expedited procedure for
licensure.
MS. SKIPPER answered that this subsection would give veterans a
priority for licensure to speed up the licensing process.
8:31:27 AM
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD said she thinks HB 84 is a good bill.
She stated that the U.S. has already paid for the training for
the military with federal tax dollars so it only makes sense to
transfer the experience. She commended the bill.
8:31:59 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HERRON asked whether a new board would be created
[in the DCCED.]
MS. SKIPPER answered no; but to meet the effective date 11
affected boards would need to schedule meetings and review the
requirements. She deferred to the department to more fully
respond.
8:32:43 AM
SARA CHAMBERS, Professional Licensing Operations Manager,
Division of Corporations, Business, and Professional Licensing,
Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development
(DCCED), introduced herself.
8:33:26 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HERRON said he supports the bill. He then asked
whether HB 84 could ask existing boards to accomplish the tasks.
MS. CHAMBERS answered that many boards don't meet frequently
enough to review the requirements for equivalency or propose
regulations to articulate the equivalency to staff to properly
administer licensure. She estimated an additional meeting for
each of the effected boards in order to deliberate and work
through the regulations process. She said an additional handful
of programs the division administers will also be affected.
Thus, part of the fiscal note includes the cost of adopting
regulations and properly noticing all licensees.
8:34:40 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HERRON asked the House Finance Committee to
review the fiscal note.
8:34:52 AM
CHRIS CHRISTENSEN, Associate Vice President, State Relations,
University of Alaska (UA), read from prepared testimony, as
follows:
For the record, I am Chris Christensen with the
University of Alaska. I'm here today to talk about
Section 2 of the bill, which directs the University's
president to adopt policies and procedures to award
credit for military training, education, and service
time. While the bill hasn't yet become law, I'm
pleased to tell you that the university is in
compliance with this mandate.
I'd like to begin by noting that the university is
committed to offering quality educational experiences
to active military, veterans, and their dependents.
GI Jobs, which is a magazine and web portal that
exists specifically to serve military members in their
transition back to civilian life, has designated both
UAA and UAF as "military friendly schools". Only 15
percent of all the colleges, universities, and
vocational schools in the country have earned this
distinction. He said this is probably one of the
reasons that the Department of Defense (DOD) is
pushing this legislation nationwide. It's actually a
pretty sad commentary on education in the Lower 48 -
that so few schools actually get this designation.
The web portal guidetoonlineschools.com, which bills
itself as the most comprehensive authority on distance
education has last year put out a list of the most
military-friendly online colleges in the country, and
we're proud that the University of Alaska was ranked
number five. As the entity that made that rating
possible by your support, we think you should be very
proud of that also.
8:36:37 AM
MR. CHRISTENSEN continued to read prepared testimony as
follows [original punctuation provided]:
I'm based in Anchorage so while I work for the
statewide system I am most familiar with UAA. That
campus has close to 2,000 active duty military and
veteran students, which is close to 10 percent of the
student body. After winning the military friendly
designation three years in a row, UAA didn't just rest
on its laurels. Last year, it formed a Military and
Veteran Student Task Force which is currently
inventorying all the existing services that we
provide: programs, academic and administrative
policies, and recommending improvements. Last year
UAA opened a Military & Veteran Student Resource
Center in the student union to act as an on-campus
central service point for military and veteran
students and their families. The UAA is one of just
11 schools in the entire country selected by the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs to participate in the
"VetSuccess on Campus" program, which places full-time
V.A. coordinators on campus to work with our resource
center servicing the military veteran students and
their families.
In the short time I've been with the university, the
single issue I have heard about the most is transfer
of credit. This is a subject that arouses great
passion, and military transfer credit is just one
piece of this bigger issue.
The Board of Regents has adopted a written policy that
the campuses must accept in transfer as much credit as
is appropriate to a student's new degree and
graduation requirements. All three campuses have
established transfer credit policies designed to give
maximum credit for courses and training taken
elsewhere, including in the military.
8:38:16 AM
MR. CHRISTENSEN continued to read prepared testimony as
follows [original punctuation provided]:
We do believe that awarding appropriate credit for
military training is one of the university's core
responsibilities and another way we can show our
commitment to our military and veteran students.
While testifying last year [on similar legislation] I
discovered there are tremendous misconceptions about
what the university is doing, which is why I wanted to
testify today, Mr. Chair.
Transfer credit processes at the university are
managed at the campus level, although there is
necessarily a great deal of uniformity in the system.
All three campuses transfer credit based on
recommendations made by "ACE," which is the acronym
for the "American Council of Education." ACE has had
an agreement with the Department of Defense (DOD)
since the end of World War II to review military
training and experience for the award of equivalent
college credits. Its recommendations on equivalent
college credits are utilized by thousands of colleges
and universities across the country.
8:38:35 AM
MR. CHRISTENSEN continued to read prepared testimony as
follows [original punctuation provided]:
Each of UAA's three campuses actually has written
agreements with the defense department to use the ACE
recommendations. Our three campuses are also members
of the SOC consortium. "SOC" stands for the "service
members' opportunity colleges." This is a consortium
of over 1,000 colleges and universities across the
country that enroll military, veterans, and dependents
in special degree programs, both on-campus and through
distance learning. Its purpose is to let the military
members actually get degrees, instead of just
accumulate credits as they move from base to base.
The UA has signed written agreements with the other
members of the consortium to, among other things,
follow specific guidelines to ease transferability of
credit. For example, a military students working on
an associate's degree at UAA only need three UAA
credits to earn the degree. UAA will accept all of
the rest of the credits from other schools in the SOC
consortium.
UAA is currently accepting approximately 51 credits on
average from military students at any of the
regionally accredited military institutions, such as
the Community College of the Air Force, the Service
Academies, and others. At UAF, a military student can
use approximately 30 credits of typical training for
the Bachelor of Emergency Management Degree, or 90
credits for a General Studies BA that doesn't require
satisfying particular major requirements.
Neither UAA nor UAF has any limitation on the number
of military transfer credits that they will award.
They used to, but they've done away with it in the
past few years, as part of our continual process to
review the system and make it better.
I could go on - but the bottom line, Mr. Chair - while
I don't have figures for the entire system, UAA alone
awards over 21,000 hours a year of military transfer
credit for training, for education, and even for time
spent in the service, and the number is increasing
every year. As of this year, approximately 99.5
percent of the students who requested military
transfer credits received those credits. Alaska is
widely known to service members as a state that
welcomes and appreciates the military and I think that
Alaska's university, as demonstrated by our existing
policies reflects those prevailing social values
pretty accurately.
I'd be happy to answer any questions that members may
have.
8:41:40 AM
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD characterized this effort as
outstanding. She asked whether he does his own follow-up.
MR. CHRISTENSEN said he would follow-up personally.
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD said she asks this question because some
agencies did not provide the information requested to the
finance subcommittees. She recalled that Mr. Christensen
testified that an online publication attributes UAA as being
military friendly and rated number five. She asked for more
information on the publication. Additionally, she requested
information on the SOC program. She thanked the UAA for working
on making it possible to transfer credits since this is a "hot
button" issue for her as well as for others. She appreciated
the effort and sees the university as moving in the right
direction.
8:42:55 AM
CHAIR OLSON pointed out that several military veterans serve on
the committee. He also offered his appreciation for the bill.
8:44:04 AM
MARK SAN SOUCI, Regional Liaison, Military Families for the
Northwest; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military
Family and Community Policy, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD),
related his support for HB 84. He noted he has been watching
and listening to testimony on this bill. He agreed with Ms.
Skipper's outline and concurs with Mr. Christensen's comments.
He then provided some abbreviated comments from his written
testimony submitted to the committee.
MR. SAN SOUCI said two years ago, the U.S. Department of Defense
began asking states to give separating service members credit so
that they may not be held back from finding employment or
finishing a degree. As Representative Reinbold remarked, the
training has been paid for through federal taxes. Last year the
legislature passed identical language in a bill introduced by
Representative Thomas, but the bill languished on the Senate
floor and died on the last legislative day. He acknowledged the
language in this bill was ever so close in passing. He reported
that the DOD is making efforts due to the unemployment rate -
primarily in September 2012 - of over 736,000 unemployed
veterans, the jobless rate for post 9/11 veterans at 9.9
percent, and an unemployment rate of 18.1 percent for young male
veterans ages 18 to 24.
MR. SAN SOUCI echoed Ms. Skipper's testimony that in the past
two years, about 25 states enacted new laws to help grant
veterans credit towards licensing and/or academic credit. Thus
far in 2013, 30 states are in the process of considering similar
legislation. He said he appreciated the legislature considering
HB 84, which only seeks to obtain academic and training credit
where credit is due and does not ask for direct licensure if it
is not equivalent. In cases in which the regulatory agency or
board determines partial credit, it will still save time and
money.
8:46:48 AM
MR. SAN SOUCI said another point to consider is that the more
credit given to a veteran towards licensing or a degree or
certification, the more school slots can be made available to
civilians, especially in programs where there may be waiting
lists. The Department of Defense (DOD) recognizes that if it is
going to ask credentialing bodies to evaluate military training
and experience it must also be easier for them to do so. In
that respect, the DOD is working feverishly with the U.S.
Department of Labor to link service transcripts of military
occupations with civilian to private sector licensure
requirements, while also asking state regulatory authorities in
six pilot states - Washington, Illinois, Maryland, New York,
Virginia, and Colorado - to review select military occupations
to determine whether the training and experience are sufficient
to be useful in rendering licensing credit in a given
occupation.
8:47:33 AM
MR. SAN SOUCI noted one point Mr. Christensen did not mention is
that as of March 1, 2013, the DOD has also worked with the
respective military services to create a joint service
transcript, or JST, which will be a common purple transcript -
generic to all military services for uniformity. The JST will
be an official tool designed to ease the burden of translating
one service's coding and course descriptions and training to
another. He anticipated this will streamline and standardize
the process to evaluate credits.
8:48:53 AM
The committee took an at-ease from 8:48 a.m. to 8:51 a.m.
8:51:21 AM
CHAIR OLSON, after first determining no one else wished to
testify, closed public testimony on HB 84.
8:51:47 AM
REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD moved to report HB 84 out of committee
with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal
notes. There being no objection, HB 84 was reported from the
House Labor and Commerce Standing Committee.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB71 Supporting Documents-Assorted Letters of Support 3-1-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 71 |
| HB84 ver A.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 84 |
| HB84 Sponsor Statement.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 84 |
| HB84 Sectional Analysis.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 84 |
| HB84 Supporting Documents-Letter Ed Kringer DOD 2-11-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 84 |
| HB84 Supporting Documents-Testimony-Mark San Souci Regional Liaison NW DOD 02182013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 84 |
| HB76 ver A.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Transmittal Letter 1-17-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Sectional Analysis 1-21-2012.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Fiscal Note-DOLWD-CO-1-17-13.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Fiscal Note-DOLWD-UI-1-17-13.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Supporting Documents-DOLWD Q&A 1-28-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Supporting Document-UI STEP TVEP flow chart 1-29-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Supporting Documents-UI Trust Fund Balances 2-14-2013 pdf.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Supporting Documents-Letter NFIB 1-18-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Supporting Documents-Treasury Offset Program 2-14-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Supporting Documents-Historical UI Rates 1-21-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Opposing Documents-Letter AK AFL-CIO 2-20-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB76 Opposing Documents-Letter AK District Council of Laborers 2-25-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-AIDEA-AEA Policy Presentation 3-4-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-Op Ed Newsminer - Fairbanks Chamber 2-16-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-AIDEA Project Analysis Process 2-26-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-Committee Questions & Answers 2-26-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-Interior Energy Plan.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-Letter-GFCC 2-15-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-North Pole Resolution(1) 2-4-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-North Pole Resolution(2) 2-4-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |
| HB71 Draft Proposed CS ver U.PDF |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 71 |
| HB76 Opposing Documents-Letter Teamsters Local 959 3-4-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 76 |
| HB74 Supporting Documents-Letter Teamsters Local 959 3-4-2013.pdf |
HL&C 3/4/2013 3:15:00 PM HL&C 3/5/2013 8:00:00 AM |
HB 74 |