STUDENT CONCUSSION BILL SIGNED INTO LAW

Doogan bill will protect athletes from serious brain injuries

JUNEAU – Today the governor signed a bill sponsored by Representative Mike Doogan (D-Anchorage) to protect student athletes from serious brain injuries resulting from multiple concussions.

The bill (HB 15) requires that a student with a suspected concussion be removed from play or practice and not return until cleared by a qualified medical professional. It will prevent potential serious brain injuries that can be caused by multiple concussions.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL WE’RE DONE! WE’RE DONE! (SORT OF) EDITION

My most recent e-news was last Friday. Saturday, we pulled the plug on the special session. It’s like I’ve always heard: In comedy, timing is everything.

What did we do in 117 days of sessions – 90 days of regular and 27 of special? We introduced 477 bills and resolutions. (Some were duplicates, introduced in both houses.) We passed 40 bills and an equal number of resolutions.

Only the bills really count. (Resolutions are notes we send to the Congress, the federal government and, all too often, to ourselves.) Some, like the capital budget (SB 46), are important. Others, like Alaska Public Gardens Day, less so.

Democratic Budget Amendments Would Reduce Budget

Doogan, Gara attempt to cut budget by more than $2 billion

JUNEAU – In a year when the Alaska State Legislature is working on capital and operating budgets that total more than $12 billion, House Democrats offered amendments in an attempt to restore some restraint and responsibility to the budgeting process.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL THIS IS (MAYBE) THE END EDITION; Deep Pockets and Little Shame

There’s some chance that this will be the final e-news for awhile.

That sound you hear is me cheering.

I’m more than ready to go home. We have spent most of the past month engaged in spectacularly unproductive politicking. There are lots of reasons. You can argue about them if you have the time and energy. What do I think? Let’s just say that the people with the most political power have earned the most blame and leave it at that.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: Special Can’t I Go Home Now Edition!

Save It For a Rainy Day? Perish the Thought

We are poised to pass an operating budget today. A mental health budget, too.
(I’ll pause here while you get the legislature-mental health jokes off your chest.)

The operating budget is the big casino, the money to pay for the day-to-day costs of state government. This year’s operating budget is just less than $9 billion – that’s $6.6 billion in state funds, $2.1 in federal funds. Next year’s operating budget, the one we’re working on now, is just more than $9 billion – that’s $6.9 billion in state funds, $2.1 billion in federal funds. That’s an increase of about 4 percent in state funds.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: Special All Talk, No Process Edition

Government by Press Conference

There’s been a lot of talk about process in the Capitol the past two weeks. In case you’ve missed it, and you very well might have, legislators are still down in Juneau, trying to figure out if we’re going to have a budget next year. So far we’ve been at that for 12 days of special session, and we’re pretty much right where we started.

Maybe that’s because everybody is talking about process, mostly in dueling press conferences and interviews, but nobody seems to actually be applying a process.

House Democrats Propose Common-Sense Solution to Budget Impasse

All parties should stand down and work together in good faith

JUNEAU - Today, Alaska House Democrats announced a simple, common-sense solution to the budget stand-off that has the Legislature locked into a special session.

“We have a way out of this mess. It isn’t all that complicated,” said Representative Beth Kerttula, House Minority Leader. “We say this without blame and in the spirit of being helpful.”

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: Special Halls (and falls) of Government Edition

Moving fast, but not getting far

We’ve been in special session since Monday morning. In that time, the House has met four times. The powerful House Finance Committee, of which I am a weary member, has met three times. And the House and Senate have sent three bills (HB 126, SB 42 and SB 84) to the governor.

One way to look at that is this: We should meet in special session all the time. Our bill-production rate is three times the rate of the regular session.

Rep. Doogan in Juneau: SPECIAL NOT-SO-SPECIAL SESSION EDITION

I’ve been to two goat ropings and a county fair, but I ain’t seen nothing like this before.

Last night, the first session of the 27th Alaska Legislature came apart like a cheap suit in a hard rain. First the Senate, then the House came crawling to the governor to get them out of a jam that the same governor had helped them into in the first place. It was, bar none, the saddest performance yet by state officials in the 50-plus years of the state’s history. And that includes a governor who was impeached (but not convicted) and three legislators who were indicted AND convicted.

SENATE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES STUDENT CONCUSSION BILL

Doogan bill would protect athletes from serious brain injuries

JUNEAU – Today the Alaska Senate unanimously passed a bill that would protect student athletes from serious brain injuries resulting from multiple concussions.