SENATE BILL NO. 334 "An Act relating to guidelines and standards for state training programs; and relating to the Alaska Human Resource Investment Council." Senator Torgerson suggested the committee adopt the CS, which could then be distributed to the Legislative Information Offices and other interested parties. Co-Chair Sharp agreed, observing this would give the bill its first hearing, and therefore start the process. Senator Pearce moved the committee adopt the workdraft CS, Version "H" for SB 334. Senator Adams objected. He said he supported the legislation, but wanted the senator from Kasilof to have a chance to explain the CS. Senator Torgerson spoke to the workdraft, saying: "Section One of the original bill had the members of the AHRIC committee reduce from 26 down to nine. What this amendment does is reduce it to 21. Basically, Mr. Chairman we took the commissioners of Commerce and Economic Development, Community and Regional Affairs, Education and Labor and made them non-voting members of the council." "Section Two just designates that the council members may appoint as designee, anybody on the council. Currently, the only designees that can be appointed are the ones from the state. This says that anybody that's on the council may appoint a designee that can attend the meetings." "Section Three outlines the appointment of the Governor saying that one person can hold more than one seat, trying to keep that number down as small as we can. The one person who is selected to hold two seats still only gets one vote and his designee still only gets one vote." "Section Four - staggered terms, this is a conforming amendment." "Section Five - basically what section five does, Mr. Chairman, is allow the private members to receive per diem while they're meeting as the AHRIC committee. Currently, they are not entitled to per diem and it has been a barrier we've had." "Section Six, Mr. Chairman says the chairman and the vice- chairman of the committee must be appointed, elected by the committee and they must somebody from business and industry that holds that seat. Currently, it says private sector, but we wanted to be more direct and put business and industry." "It talks about quorums in Section Seven. Section seven also creates the executive committee and establishes four permanent committees and it also establishes that the chairs of those permanent committees that make up the executive committee are from the private sector. So that gives us an entire executive committee that is business and industry or private sector. It outlines the committee." "Section Eight goes through some of the performance measures of each one of the committees and their work." "Section Nine outlines some more performance standards for the council. It gives the council the authority to adopt regulations, to identify what administrative costs are, and then caps administrative fees at 15 percent or whatever is mandated by the federal government. It requires them to submit an annual report to the Legislature by a certain time." "Section Ten again outlines more performance standards. We'd have to get into more detail on that." "Section Eleven just outlines the programs that come under AHRIC. We split them between the ones that are currently under AHRIC and the ones we are adding to the AHRIC committee, which are all the training programs in the state. Section Eleven is a transition period." "Section Twelve is immediate effective date." This concluded Senator Torgerson's presentation on the CS. Senator Adams removed his objection on adoption of the CS. There being no objection, the workdraft CS was adopted. Co- Chair Sharp asked Mike Andrews to look at the CS and be prepared to offer his comments when the committee brought the bill back to the table. This concluded the Committee's bill actions. Senator Pearce had some announcements. She said the committee would again meet at 5:30 that evening. The committee would first take up HB 53 Lease Purchasing, hearing public testimony via teleconference and in-person. She advised committee members come to the table with any questions for representatives, who would be on-line to answer them. She added that the entire meeting would be broadcast live via Armed Services Radio to the Delta Junction Area. She continued saying that the committee would take up the supplemental budget bill with the intention of moving it from committee and getting it to the floor the next morning. She hoped to get some of the supplemental monies out to the departments quickly. She asked for the concurrence of Senator Sharp in bringing SB 334 back before the committee on Friday morning. She noted the meeting had been scheduled to begin at 9:00 am but said she would be willing to start at 8:00 to add this bill to the agenda. Co-Chair Sharp agreed. He added there could be other bills left from today's meeting that would also be ready for another hearing at the Friday meeting.