CHAIRMAN LEMAN brings up SB 357 (REQUIRED REPORTS OF STATE AGENCIES) as the next order of business before the Senate State Affairs Committee. The chairman calls the first witness. Number 470 LINDA REXWINKEL, Analyst, Division of Budget Review, Office of Management & Budget (OMB) states SB 357 is the culmination of a study by OMB. OMB worked with departments to identify annual reports which were either duplicative and unnecessary, or could be amended to a biennial, rather than an annual report. MS. REXWINKEL states the committee has been provided with a sectional analysis of the bill. That analysis identifies bill section, statute citation, a brief summary of the report itself, and the cost the departments believe is currently associated with the production of that report. SB 357 is seen as an efficiency measure. Zero fiscal notes accompany the bill. Ms. Rexwinkel then reviews the sectional analysis. CHAIRMAN LEMAN asks Ms. Rexwinkel about section 11, which deletes the requirement that the Department of Military & Veteran's Affairs (DMVA) submit a report. The chairman asks if there is a provision elsewhere requiring DMVA to submit a report. MS. REXWINKEL responds it is her understanding that this reporting requirement may have been in place when DMVA was a subset of the Governor's Office. Now it is a regular department, so the actions and activities of that entity would now be covered in their regular operating budget. So having a separate report is extraneous. Number 500 SENATOR DUNCAN asks the reasoning behind section 11, making the APOC (Alaska Public Offices Commission) report on lobbying a biennial report. Senator Duncan asks what is in the annual report from APOC regarding lobbyists. Number 506 SHARON BARTON, Director, Division of Administrative Services, Department of Administration responds she is not familiar with the content of the report, but the logic behind making the report biennial is that the APOC staff is small, and the information in the report is generally available at all times. A biennial report would relieve the staff's workload burden. Number 520 SENATOR DUNCAN says he is concerned because the report is not just a report to the legislature, but is also a report to the public. CHAIRMAN LEMAN adds perhaps the APOC report on the legislature should be biennial also. SENATOR DUNCAN says the reason for APOC's existence is public disclosure. Number 528 SENATOR TAYLOR says the only persons interested in APOC's reports are the newspapers. Perhaps we should just report the information directly to the newspapers and save money. Number 530 SENATOR DUNCAN says he is concerned with section 11, and is not sure the APOC's report on lobbying should be changed to a biennial basis. Number 532 CHAIRMAN LEMAN states he had planned to hear SB 357 today, and perhaps move the bill next Wednesday. That will give the committee a chance to become familiar with the bill. CHAIRMAN LEMAN asks if, relating to the language under section 31 deleting the requirement to report to the legislature every year on medical assistance, that information is made available in some other place. MS. REXWINKEL replies that information can be found in the department's regular operating budget, so the reporting requirement is duplicative. Number 549 SENATOR DUNCAN is concerned with item 4, page 4 of the sectional analysis, which states, "Repeals the annual reporting requirement by APOC to publish copies of Conflict of Interest Statements to lobbyists to facilitate the filing of their reports. Information is made available on an individual basis for lobbyists." MS. REXWINKEL responds the thought behind that item is that the Department of Administration and APOC felt that the information was already available, rather than going through the time and expense of publishing a report. Lobbyists can simply ask questions as needed, which would save the department time and effort. SENATOR DUNCAN asks Ms. Rexwinkel to clarify that this provision would not stop the publishing of a disclosure report. CHAIRMAN LEMAN replies this provision would make information available to lobbyists to help them with the filing of their reports. SENATOR DUNCAN states if that's what the provision would do, he no longer has a concern with it. He would only be concerned if it halted the publishing of a report of disclosure to the public. MS. REXWINKEL states she will follow up on Senator Duncan's concern to make sure it would not affect the publishing of a report of disclosure to the public. Number 569 CHAIRMAN LEMAN asks if there are further questions for Ms. Rexwinkel. The chairman asks if anyone else wishes to testify. Hearing none, he announces the committee will set SB 357 aside and take up again on Wednesday.