Alaska Legislature passes sweeping crime and public safety bill

JUNEAU, Alaska - The Alaska Legislature passed a 65-page package Tuesday that encompasses changes to over a dozen areas of public safety and criminal law, from raising the age of consent to cracking down on mail theft.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill Tuesday, and the House voted to concur with changes in the bill 39-1 on Wednesday, the final day of the session. The legislation ultimately rolled 14 bills and two other provisions into one package.

As the bill heads to Gov. Mike Dunleavy's desk, Rep. Sarah Vance, a Homer Republican and contributor to the bill, said "I double-dog dare" him to veto it, referencing the broad support the bill saw in the Legislature.

But Jeff Turner, a spokesman for the governor, on Wednesday cited concerns raised by some lawmakers that the bill "may not have received adequate deliberation."

"HB 239 will require careful analysis by subject matter experts in the governor's office and the Department of Law," Turner said. After that, he said, "the governor will be briefed by his staff before deciding to sign it, veto it or to let it become law without his signature."

The underlying bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, an Anchorage Republican, would allow tougher sentences for fatal hit-and-run offenders. Kopp introduced the bill in response to the death of Chase Bowerson, a 26-year-old who was struck last year on the Glenn Highway by a driver who left the scene.

Also rolled into the package are bills that would criminalize generating child sexual abuse material with artificial intelligence and put in place stricter evidence processing times for sexual assault examination kits.

Sen. Matt Claman, an Anchorage Democrat and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led the process of assembling the package. He read through the bill's many provisions before the Senate floor vote Tuesday. In an interview after the vote, he said putting the bill together was an effort involving the inclusion of bills from each party, chamber and caucus.

"We looked for legislation that not only had broad support, but addressed public safety concerns that people could express," Claman said.

The question of whether or not the package would move forward had caused anxiety for sponsors and advocates for individual measures earlier in the session.

Rep. Andrew Gray, an Anchorage Democrat, sponsored the measure in the package that would raise the age of consent. Advocacy organizations for survivors of sexual assault have said that raising the age of consent to 18 is best way to protect teens from predatory relationships with older adults.

Last month, as the session carried on and the age of consent bill remained in the Judiciary Committee as Claman built the package, Gray said he would prefer that the age of consent provision move forward on its own. When Claman unveiled the omnibus package and the age of consent measure was included, advocates for the bill called on Claman to move the bill forward.

After the bill's passage, Gray said despite the difficult process, changing the age of consent law was the most important outcome, particularly in a state where rape and sexual assault are significantly higher than the national average.

"The challenge of that heavy lift cannot be exaggerated," Gray said. "I was told countless times that this would never happen, but we did not stop."

Sen. James Kaufman, an Anchorage Republican in the minority caucus, said he was impressed with the content and the quantity of bills of the package in his review in the Senate Finance Committee, which ultimately added several provisions of its own.

"We hear of sausage making in the legislative process. This is a big piece of sausage," Kaufman said.

Large omnibus bills are typical late in the session, particularly in year two of the two-year legislative cycle, after which all bills still under consideration die. The governor two years ago signed a 50-page crime measure that, among other provisions, introduced stricter sentences for certain drug offenses in response to the fentanyl crisis.

This year's package was assembled through a method known as "bill stuffing," a fast-tracking technique where measures are added into a bill that already passed one chamber. In this case, the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees added provisions to a bill that had already passed the House. That meant that when the bill went back to a House vote for concurrence, members could only vote up or down, without making amendments.

Nikiski Rep. Bill Elam, a member of the Republican minority, cast the lone no vote on the bill, but was one of multiple legislators from both chambers who raised concerns about they characterized as a lack of oversight in the process.

"There was a lot of hard work put into a lot of these bills, but to come back with a dozen bills bundled into one and say up-or-down concur - I thought we were talking about due process," Elam said.

Rep. Sara Hannan, a Juneau Democrat, sponsored a bill that was first introduced this session, which addresses a loophole in state law that came to light during a high-profile sexual assault case brought against a Juneau chiropractor, who was acquitted on some charges. Hannan posited that the "expedited pathway" helped her bill, because it may have not have drawn the support needed to make it across the finish line this session on its own.

In its entirety, the bill would:

- Raise the age of consent from 16 to 18, allowing for some close-in-age exemptions. It would comprehensively update criminal code by expanding protections for minors to include teens under 18, up from 16.

- Elevate the punishment for hit-and-runs involving an injury to a class B felony, and those involving a death to a class A felony.

- Mandate that those convicted of criminally negligent homicide in a case involving the additional death of a fetus must serve consecutive criminal sentences.

- Ban the generation of obscene child sex abuse material using artificial intelligence. It also updates criminal code so that a person may not be prosecuted for prostitution if they're 17 years old or younger.

- Close a loophole in existing statute that stipulates that a victim of sexual assault by a healthcare provider must be unaware that assault was occurring in order to prosecute. The bill would remove the unawareness language from statute.

- Update rules for processing sexual assault examination kits. Victims must be notified of the location and testing date of the kit, and law enforcement must follow definitive timelines for submitting evidence to laboratories for testing and for that testing to occur. This legislation was introduced by request of the governor.

- Create a confidential address program for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, as well as for law enforcement and correctional officers and their families.

- Expand the definition of Victim Counseling Center to include those run by tribal government agencies, which would ensure that Alaska Native victims who use those services receive the same confidentiality privileges in conversations with counselors.

- Restrict the release of some criminal records for minor marijuana convictions.

- Criminalize airbag fraud. Those who knowingly sell, install or manufacture counterfeit or nonfunctioning airbags would be liable.

- Expand the Board of Parole from five to seven members, to be appointed by the governor and subject to confirmation by the Legislature. It also stipulates that the board consist of one licensed medical provider, one advocate for the victim, one member with experience in drug and alcohol addiction recovery or recovery support, and one member of a federally recognized tribe.

- Transfer the Controlled Substances Advisory Committee from the Department of Law to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

- Add mail theft as a standalone third-degree offense regardless of the value of stolen goods (this measure was by request of the governor) and add definitions for types of mail and mail infrastructure.

- Authorize the Department of Corrections to release incarcerated people who are seriously or terminally ill and pose no threat to the public on electronic monitoring. It would also put in place a tribal liaison position at the corrections department. DOC requested the change.

- Update the law to stipulate that possessing or accessing obscene material depicting sexual conduct between human and animals be added as a new category of animal cruelty. The Department of Public Safety requested that change.

In all, the bill would cost about $2.7 million to implement in the first year, with multiple departments adding positions and technologies to account for the new workload associated with responding to the updated criminal codes and public safety laws.

Vance, who sponsored a companion bill to the AI child sex abuse material bill, was one of several legislators elated with the package's passage.

Asked if she was anticipating a veto from the governor, Vance said, "I would think this would be a proud piece of legislation for him to sign, and I look forward to that day."

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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 9:07 PM.