Senate committee adopts amendment and reports bill to extend six professional licensing boards

The Senate Labor and Commerce Committee on Feb. 6 adopted amendments and reported a committee substitute for Senate Bill 211, a proposal to extend the sunset review periods for six state professional licensing boards.

Chair Senator Bjorkman opened the third hearing on SB 211 and asked staffer Matt Churchill to recap the measure. Churchill said the bill would extend sunset dates for six boards scheduled to expire June 30 and that the proposal follows recommendations in the state’s 2025 audits.

Chairs of the affected boards gave invited testimony in support. Crystal Herring, chair of the Alaska Board of Professional Counselors, said the board ‘‘exists to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Alaskans’’ by licensing counselors, setting education and supervision requirements, and updating rules for modern delivery models such as telehealth. Noah Shields, chair of the Board of Marital and Family Therapy, told the committee the board’s licensure and discipline work supports public safety and access to mental-health care. Cheryl Markwood, chair of the Alaska Real Estate Commission, said the commission enforces licensing and disciplinary processes that protect consumers in significant financial transactions.

During committee discussion Senator Dunbar moved amendment n.2 to add a mid-period reporting requirement tied to corrective-action follow-up on audit recommendations. Legislative Auditor Chris Curtis described the change as a limited, targeted review (not a full audit) to be conducted in 2028 and summarized the plan to provide a memo to the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee on whether boards and the division have addressed the audit recommendations. The committee then adopted a conceptual amendment inserting the date April 17 alongside June 5 to reflect audit completion dates, and there was no objection to adopting the amendments.

Following the amendment votes an unidentified senator moved to report the committee substitute for SB 211 as amended from committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note; the motion carried with no recorded objection. The committee authorized legislative legal staff to make conforming changes.

Next steps: SB 211 was reported from committee as amended and will move forward with the committee’s recommendations and fiscal note. The legislative-auditor review required by the adopted amendment is scheduled as a limited review to be performed in 2028 unless statutory language or scheduling changes elsewhere alter that timeline.

Quotes used in this report come from invited testimony and committee discussion recorded for the committee hearing.