SB 66-MEMBERS LEG COUNCIL; LEG BUDGET & AUDIT  5:19:10 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that the final order of business would be SENATE BILL NO. 66 AM, "An Act relating to the membership of the legislative council; and relating to the membership of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee." 5:19:44 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS moved to adopt Amendment 1, labeled 32- LS0410\A.A.4, Nauman/Wallace, 4/23/22, which read: Page 2, following line 2: Insert a new bill section to read:  "* Sec. 2. AS 24.20.020 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: (b) The legislative council shall have four alternate members in addition to the members designated in (a) of this section. The president of the senate shall appoint two alternate members, at least one of whom is from the senate minority. The speaker of the house of representatives shall appoint two alternate members, at least one of whom is from the house minority. The alternate members shall serve on the council when a meeting of the council has been called and the chair determines that there will not be enough members in attendance at the meeting to provide a quorum. Only a member of the minority may serve as an alternate for a minority committee member. While serving as alternates, the alternate members have the same duties and responsibilities as council members appointed under (a) of this section, and are entitled to the same travel and per diem allowances." Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. Page 2, following line 14: Insert a new bill section to read:  "* Sec. 4. AS 24.20.165 is amended to read: Sec. 24.20.165. Alternate members. The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee shall have four [TWO] alternate members in addition to the members designated in AS 24.20.161. The president of the senate shall appoint two [ONE] alternate members, at  least one of whom is from the senate minority. The [MEMBER FROM THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE AND THE] speaker of the house of representatives shall appoint two [ONE] alternate members, at least one of whom is [MEMBER] from the house minority [HOUSE FINANCE COMMITTEE]. The alternate members shall serve on the committee when a meeting of the committee has been called and the chair [CHAIRMAN] determines that there will not be enough members in attendance at the meeting to provide a quorum. Only a member of the  minority may serve as an alternate for a minority  committee member. While serving as alternates, the alternate members have the same duties and responsibilities as committee members appointed under AS 24.20.161, and [THEY] are entitled to the same travel and per diem allowances." Renumber the following bill section accordingly. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN objected. 5:20:01 PM MERCEDES COLBERT, Staff, Senator Tom Begich, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of Senator Begich, prime sponsor, explained that Amendment 1 created four alternates for both the legislative council and the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee (LB&A). The alternates were members of the senate minority, senate majority, house minority, and hour majority caucuses for both committees. She noted that under existing law, legislative council did not have alternates in statute. Section 2 of Amendment 1 would create those alternates, she said. 5:22:43 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN suggested eliminating the requirement that alternate members would only serve on the committees when there were not enough members in attendance to provide a quorum; thereby allowing the alternates to participate at their discretion. MS. COLBERT indicated that the bill sponsor was open to considering that proposal if it was the will of the committee. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN expressed his interest in introducing a conceptual amendment that would remove the quorum requirement, such that the alternate member representing the minority could fill an absence from the minority member, regardless of whether quorum was met. 5:24:20 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS moved to table Amendment 1. There being no objection, it was so ordered. 5:24:34 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS indicated that SB 66 was held over.