The proposal advances to the Alaska Senate, where lawmakers appear more skeptical.
Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, talks to fellow Republican lawmakers during a break in budget debates Wednesday, April 5, 2022 in the Alaska House of Representatives.
“This is sort of the Defense Department of the state of Alaska,” said Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole. “The Biden administration has just been extremely hostile to the state of Alaska. We have no idea what they’re going to do next.”So far, the state has used its defense fund to payon a variety of topics, including support for federal land transfers to the state, opposition to limits on air pollution and opposition to a national moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal land.
“We’re talking about the ways we are constantly under attack,” he told the House Finance Committee last month. Money from the fund hires private legal firms who work on behalf of the state. Contracts worth $1.3 million have already been signed, Lee said, and another $500,000 contract is in the works. About $600,000 had actually been spent by the end of February, she said.
Other lawmakers — including some Republicans — said that the Department of Law should approach the Legislature when it needs funding and not seek money in advance.
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