Senators Joe Paskvan, Dennis Egan, and Gary Stevens during the closeout hearing of the Senate Finance DEED Subcommittee, March 20, 2012
This blog contains highlights from the Alaska Education Update. The update is issued daily during session and contains detailed summaries of education issues under consideration by the Alaska State Legislature. If there is a hearing on a Monday, a report will, with few exceptions, be released by Tuesday morning. There is also a weekly edition of the update. During interim, reports are issued only when there has been action. Interim action may include hearings, bill signings, the release of the Governor's proposed budget for the next fiscal year, and other items that may be of interest to the education community.

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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Information on the Alaska State Legislature

The legislature’s website is a great source of information. Their homepage is: http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/index.php . The homepage always lists floor sessions and committee hearings scheduled for whatever day you happen to be viewing it.

At the top of the homepage on the fourth tab over is a tab called “BILLS & LAWS,” also referred to as BASIS, which links to legislation, committees, hearings, and many ways to sort and find information on legislation. Here is a link to that page: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/start.asp

Some of the many helpful links on the BASIS page are “Bills in Committee,” “Subject Summary,” “Member Information,” “Hearing Schedules,” and “Bill Tracking Management Facility (BTMF).” BTMF is one of my favorite pages. Here is a link: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/btmf_login.asp?session=26 . On BTMF, anyone can set up an account and select bills to receive notification of any action on those bills, including being scheduled for a hearing or a floor vote. It’s very helpful if you’re tracking a particular bill and don’t want to keep checking the website.

Another helpful page has links to all legislators and committee members:
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/commbr_info.asp?session=26