Sponsor Special Concurrent Resolution 1 - "Disapproving Executive Order No. 107, relating to the transfer of certain functions of the Department of Fish and Game to the Department of Natural Resources and to the transfer of certain functions within the Department of Natural Resources."
Click for PDF: http://www.akdemocrats.org/sponsor/SSCR1_ss_sen_elton.pdfSenate Special Concurrent Resolution 1 negates the governor’s executive order transferring the Habitat Division of the Department of Fish & Game to the Department of Natural Resources. Executive Order 107 threatens the future of Alaska’s abundant fish stocks, trophy-sized salmon and trout, and the viability of our coastal communities’ economies. Before the executive order, Alaska had a fast, efficient, responsive permit system that allowed development, but also had a cabinet-level advocate for protecting fish habitat. If the legislature allows the executive order to take effect, our habitat protection staff will be placed in a department whose mission is development, without an equal advocate for habitat. The costs of habitat degradation are slow to accumulate, but they are great. The State of Oregon has simply lost many of its anadromous fish populations, and several others are considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Under the executive order, Alaska would have a lesser standard of habitat protection than Oregon. Executive Order 107 also oversteps the constitutional limits on executive orders in several ways, amending statutes on retirement and benefits, creating powers that do not currently exist, conferring rule-making authority on a deputy commissioner, and allowing a deputy commissioner to delegate powers outside the agency. Under the Alaska Constitution, this legislature must approve SSCR 1 in joint session no later than April 13, 2003.