Finance committee adds $1M for Food Bank, rejects PFD cut; forwards operating bills to rules
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Summary
On April 3 the House Finance Committee adopted amendment 64 to add $1,000,000 for the Food Bank of Alaska, rejected amendment 95 to reduce the proposed PFD to $1,000, and forwarded committee substitutes for the operating and mental‑health trust budgets to rules. Roll call tallies were recorded for the amendment votes and committee reports.
The House Finance Committee voted on budget amendments and committee reports during its April 3 meeting. The committee adopted amendment 64, a $1,000,000 add for the Food Bank of Alaska, rejected amendment 95 (a proposal to lower the proposed Permanent Fund Dividend to $1,000), and voted to forward the committee substitute for the operating budget and the mental health trust budget to rules.
Adopted amendment: Food Bank funding
Chair Josephson moved amendment 64 to add $1,000,000 for the Food Bank of Alaska. After discussion and public testimony excerpts read into the record, the committee called the roll. The membership vote was: yes—Representatives Jimmy, Johnson, Hannan, Tomasevski, Stapp, Galvin, Bynum, Foster and Josephson (9); no—Representatives Allard and Shroggy (2). The clerk recorded the motion as adopted 9‑2. The amendment directs an additional one‑time appropriation to the Food Bank of Alaska; the committee record shows the group and partners distribute food to dozens of communities across the state and had raised operational concerns tied to SNAP processing backlogs.
Rejected amendment: PFD reduction
Chair Josephson next moved amendment 95, which would have set a $1,000 permanent fund dividend for eligible Alaskans (the committee substitute contained a larger dividend tied to current draft language). The roll call was: yes—Representatives Galvin, Hannon, Shroggy and Josephson (4); no—Representatives Johnson, Stapp, Allard, Bynum, Tomaszewski, Jimmy and Foster (7). By a vote of 4‑7, amendment 95 did not pass.
Committee reports and forwarding motions
A co‑chair moved to report committee substitute 62 (operating) as amended and authorize staff to make technical and conforming changes; the motion passed on a recorded vote of 6‑5 (yea: Hannon, Jimmy, Galvin, Foster, Shroggy, Josephson; nay: Johnson, Allard, Bynum, Tomaszewski, Stapp). The committee also voted to report the mental‑health trust budget (HB 55) and authorized technical edits; that measure was approved without objection and will be sent to rules for calendaring.
Why it matters
The $1 million award to the Food Bank of Alaska responds to ongoing SNAP processing backlogs and local food insecurity reported in multiple communities. The PFD vote reflects the committee’s tradeoffs among statutory dividend expectations, the permanent fund draw limits and an operating budget the committee must balance. Forwarding of the budget bills advances the measures to the next stage in the legislative calendar.
Ending
Committee staff will prepare technical edits for the reported bills. The committee adjourned and announced public testimony on House Bill 78 scheduled for the next day at 1:30 p.m.
