House committee hears bill to set 15% apprentice labor goal on large state construction contracts

At a House Transportation Committee meeting on Thursday, April 24, 2025, Committee Co-chair Carrick introduced House Bill 186, a bill that would require that, “to the extent practicable,” state-funded construction projects advertised at $2,500,000 or more have not less than 15% of labor hours performed by registered apprentices in a specified list of occupations.

Griffin Sacayo, staff to Co-chair Carrick, presented the bill. He outlined the bill’s intent to encourage apprenticeship utilization as a workforce-development tool and to return a policy similar to earlier administrative orders. “Apprenticeship programs set Alaskans up for employment in the future,” Sacayo said, and he cited a Department of Labor figure that 92 percent of apprentices who complete registered apprenticeship programs are still employed nine months later, earning an average annual income cited in the presentation.

Under the draft text, the requirement applies when the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities or the Department of Administration advertises a construction contract worth $2,500,000 or more. The bill lists 23 occupations that count toward the apprentice hours goal, and it requires the commissioners of the Departments of Transportation and Administration to provide Labor and Workforce Development with project-level data (project name, dollar value, prime and subcontractor names and contacts, the percentage of labor hours to be performed by apprentices, and the occupation titles of apprentices used). The commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development would collect actual apprentice hours and, with assistance from DOT and Administration, report to the legislature on apprentice-hour percentages for fiscal years ending 6/30/2026 through 6/30/2030, with a final delivery to the Senate secretary and House chief clerk on or before 09/01/2030.

The bill includes an exemption: the section does not apply if applying it would cause the state to lose federal funding. The bill also defines “apprentice” as a person enrolled in a registered apprenticeship under the federal statute cited in the text and defines “labor hours” consistent with state wage-rate classifications.

Committee members pressed on enforcement, procurement consequences and data availability. Representative Stutes asked whether projects would stop if apprentices were unavailable; Sacayo answered that the statutory phrase “to the extent practicable” means projects would not stop and that the bill contains no penalty that would halt work. Andy Mills, special assistant and legislative liaison for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said the department would update its contract boilerplate to include the requirement and that contractors and union hiring halls would largely bear the onus of meeting apprenticeship obligations. "We would update our... boilerplate contractual language," Mills said.

Representative McCabe asked whether a procurement would favor a bidder that proposed a higher apprentice percentage when another bidder proposed less. James Woods, chief contracts officer for DOT (on the line), said the state currently awards to the lowest proposer and that how to treat differing proposed apprenticeship percentages in bid evaluation may need further research. "Currently, it would go to the lowest proposer," Woods said.

Jeremy Applegate of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour office said his office does not routinely hold the historic data requested by the bill but offered to take the question to the commissioner's office for follow-up. Chris Stein of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters said the bill is intended to rebuild Alaska’s workforce and described it as nonpunitive; “This isn't meant to be punitive,” Stein said, and he noted the bill’s "to the extent practicable" wording leaves room for areas that cannot meet the goal.

After questions, the committee set House Bill 186 aside to gather additional answers to procurement and data-tracking questions and indicated it will take public testimony and invited testimony at the next committee meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.