HB 83 - FEDERAL REGULATIONS & EXECUTIVE ORDERS  1:34:42 PM CHAIR KELLER announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 83, "An Act relating to certain federal statutes, regulations, presidential executive orders, and secretarial orders; relating to the duties of the attorney general; and providing for an effective date." 1:35:00 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt the proposed committee substitute (CS) for HB 83, Version 28-LS0328\C, Gardner, 3/4/13, as the working document. There being no objection, Version C was before the committee. 1:35:26 PM JIM POUND, Staff, Representative Wes Keller, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of the sponsor, Representative Keller, explained that under Version C of HB 83, the legislative findings outlined in Section 1 have been changed; the bill's proposed new subsection (h) to AS 44.23.020 now uses the phrases, "attorney general concludes" and "report the conclusions", instead of the phrases, "attorney general finds" and "report the findings"; and the bill's proposed new AS 44.23.020(h)(3) now contains a proposed new subparagraph (D) that requires the written opinion included in the attorney general's report to also explain litigation the attorney general is a party to or aware of regarding conflicts with a federal statute, [federal] regulation, presidential executive order, or secretarial order. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG questioned whether the phrase in Version C's proposed new AS 44.23.020(h) that reads, "but also finds" should be changed to the phrase, "but also concludes". CHAIR KELLER, speaking as the sponsor of HB 83, relayed that he didn't want to limit the number of reports the attorney general provides. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG agreed. He offered his belief, however, that the more correct word to use in the context of Version C's proposed new AS 44.23.020(h) is "concludes", rather than "finds". 1:42:01 PM DAVID JONES, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Opinions, Appeals, & Ethics Section, Civil Division (Anchorage), Department of Law (DOL), disagreed. If the intent is to ensure that the attorney general provides a report before waiting until he/she is absolutely certain that a federal statute, [federal] regulation, presidential executive order, or secretarial order is unconstitutional or was not properly adopted, then using the word, "finds" or "believes" or "determines" would be better than using the word, "concludes". REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG indicated that he would be amenable to using the word, "believes". MR. JONES, in response to a question and comments, said it couldn't hurt to add the term, "presidential executive action" to the list of items the bill is addressing. MR. POUND, in response to further comments, suggested that HB 83 be changed such that the list of items it's addressing also includes presidential executive actions and secretarial actions. CHAIR KELLER, offering his understanding that no one else wished to testify, closed public testimony on HB 83. 1:48:45 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG made a motion to adopt Amendment 1, to add the words, "and actions" on page 1, line 1, after the term, "presidential executive orders", and on page 1, line 2, after the term, "secretarial orders". CHAIR KELLER noted that there were no objections. [Although not formally stated, the committee treated Amendment 1 as having been adopted.] 1:49:45 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG made a motion to adopt Amendment 2, to add the words, "and actions" on page 1, line 10, both after the term, "presidential executive orders", and after the term, "secretarial orders". CHAIR KELLER noted that there were no objections. [Although not formally stated, the committee treated Amendment 2 as having been adopted.] 1:56:55 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG - after brief discussion regarding the scope of changes the committee and sponsor wished to make to Version C's proposed new AS 44.23.020(h) - made a motion to adopt Amendment 3, to delete the word, "concludes" on page 2, line 15, and insert the word, "believes"; to delete the word, "finds" on page 2, line 18, and insert the word, "believes"; and to delete the word, "conclusions" on page 2, line 21, and insert the word, "findings". There being no objection, Amendment 3 was adopted. [During the aforementioned brief discussion, Mr. Jones had indicated that Amendment 3's proposed changes would clarify that subsection (h) is not addressing absolute determinations regarding preemption and constitutionality; in other words, the attorney need not be "absolutely certain" before providing a report to the chairs of the House and Senate Standing Judiciary Committees.] MR. POUND noted that with the adoption of Amendments 1 and 2, conforming changes should be made elsewhere in the bill with regard to adding presidential executive actions and secretarial actions to the bill's list of items it's addressing. 1:58:20 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG made a motion to adopt Conceptual Amendment 4, to conform the rest of HB 83 with the changes made via Amendments 1 and 2 with regard to adding the words, "and actions" to the bill's list of items it's addressing. There being no objection, Conceptual Amendment 4 was adopted. 1:59:11 PM REPRESENTATIVE LYNN moved to report the proposed CS for HB 83, Version 28-LS0328\C, Gardner, 3/4/13, as amended, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG objected and asked whether any other technical changes ought to be made to HB 83. MR. POUND offered his belief that none were needed. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG removed his objection to the motion. CHAIR KELLER, noting that there were no further objections, announced that CSHB 83(JUD) was reported from the House Judiciary Standing Committee.