Alaska Legislature

Lawmakers in support of a measure to strengthen the state’s corporate income tax on the oil and gas industry said it was essential for boosting state revenues.

Lawmakers are calling for the Trump administration to waive the fee for teachers hired through the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to recruit highly-skilled workers from overseas. The federal government raised the fee from $5,000 to $100,000 for each new applicant to the H-1B visa program in September 2025.

The extension allows state agencies to continue responding to ongoing needs associated with the storm. House Republicans said the administration's approach could be legally vulnerable.

The 36-year-old former state representative from Sitka says the state’s core problems come down to Alaska not getting its “fair share of our oil resource.” He’s one of three Democrats vying against a dozen Republicans and two independents in the race to be Alaska’s next governor.

A delegation of lawmakers made an impromptu visit to the school on Feb. 6, calling the conditions and deteriorating facilities "deplorable."

Lawmakers with the bipartisan majority caucus have expressed support for more funding for schools, but point to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s history of vetoes as a major roadblock.

On Feb. 9, the Alaska Senate voted 19-0 to extend a state of disaster until early March, retroactively extending a disaster declaration that expired Feb. 6.

Bethel Democratic Sen. Lyman Hoffman recently visited his hometown, where he says he plans to spend some quality time after doing what he can to help fund the state's ailing budget in his final legislative session.

Chronic absenteeism has remained high since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the reasons for why students are missing class are difficult to define and vary widely across the state.

Roughly half of Alaska’s school districts qualified for the five-year grant program, which is managed by the state’s education department.