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Committee hears proposal for bipartisan legislative task force on artificial intelligence
Summary
Lawmakers heard testimony on HCR 3, which would create a seven-member joint legislative task force to study AI use in state government, economic opportunities, ethics, workforce and long-term strategy. Sponsors and witnesses emphasized education, bipartisan structure and the need to define AI; committee set the resolution aside for later action.
The Alaska House Community and Regional Affairs Committee on March 27 heard a presentation of House Concurrent Resolution 3, a proposal to establish a seven-member joint legislative task force to study artificial intelligence use in state government and related economic, ethical and workforce issues.
Representative George Rauscher, sponsor of HCR 3, told the committee the panel would be a “focused and bipartisan way for the legislature to get ahead of these changes.” He said the proposed task force would study “how AI is used in state government, access its economic potential, especially for data centers and tech infrastructure, and explore the ethical, legal, and workforce implications.”
The resolution, as described by Craig Valdez, chief of staff to Representative Rauscher, would create a seven-member group with four House members appointed by the speaker (one to serve as chair) and three senators appointed by the senate president (one to serve as vice chair). Valdez said the task force’s duties would include evaluating department use of tools such as Copilot, assessing economic opportunities including data centers and energy needs, investigating ethical and legal concerns including deepfakes and election interference, exploring workforce and training needs, recommending policy or legislation, and developing a long-term responsible-AI strategy. Valdez said the operations would include a combination of virtual and in-person meetings supported by legislative staff and the Legislative Affairs Agency, and he gave a target final report date of January 31, 2026, with an organizational sunset (passport) date of February 2, 2026.
Rose Feliciano, executive director for the Northwest region of TechNet, provided invited testimony and offered the group’s assistance. “AI is big and it’s complex, and it’s a very fast developing technology that we are all… impacted by,” Feliciano said. She recommended the task force begin with an “AI 101” briefing and said TechNet could help convene private-sector experts and clarify how state agencies are incorporating AI.
Committee members acknowledged the breadth of the topic and discussed scope and timeline. Representative Justin Refridge said the job “may be too much” for a seven-member panel and suggested subgroups or working groups on infrastructure, machine learning applications for government, and risks from generated content. Representative Kai Holland and Representative Mike Prox urged clarity on definitions and on whether to include agency and university participants or to limit initial membership to legislators. Rauscher and staff said the proposed structure was a starting point and that membership, scope and timeline could expand or be extended as work proceeds.
No formal action on HCR 3 was recorded at the meeting; the sponsor set the resolution aside for further refinement and committee consideration.
The committee also heard committee members’ suggestions that the task force emphasize government efficiency and workforce development, and several members urged language that avoids reducing “AI” to only large-language-model chat tools.
What’s next: Committee staff said they will continue to refine the resolution language and invited input on membership and scope. The resolution was not advanced at the March 27 meeting.
