The Alaska House of Representatives has been a factory for legislation this year.
Through Thursday, the 73rd day of the legislative session, members of the House had introduced 204 bills for consideration. This week, that figure will top 212 — the number of bills the House introduced in the entire extended 2015 regular session.
It’s possible that House lawmakers will even approach the 90-day record of 246 bills in 2009. There’s a reason for that legislative flood — this is the first year since 1992 that Democrats (albeit as part of a coalition) have held the leadership of the House.
The result has been a spray of legislation on topics ranging from shellfish hatcheries to the state’s $2.8 billion deficit.
Like a shotgun fired at a clay pigeon, however, there’s no guarantee that the sheer number of bills will hit their mark.
Through Thursday, only 20 bills have been approved by the full House, and of those, only two have also been approved by the Senate.
While the House is controlled by a coalition majority and the Senate by a Republican-led majority, there’s no evidence that the Senate Majority is deliberately sabotaging House majority bills.
Members of the Senate have specifically denied it.
“The answer is no,” said Senate Majority Leader Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna. “We hope those games aren’t played toward the end of the session here. We certainly don’t plan to play that game.”
House Majority Leader Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, agreed.
“I don’t think they’re deliberately slowing bills,” he said.
Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole, said there’s a practical reason for the slow work so far.
“The House and Senate are still figuring out how to talk to each other,” he said.
In the 2016 elections, 15 of the Legislature’s 60 lawmakers were replaced, either moving to new positions or coming from public life. That has resulted in a learning curve.
Since the Legislature began trying to follow 90-day sessions in 2008 (in reality, only the 2009 and 2013 sessions have kept that limit), about 20-25 percent of the bills proposed by the House will become law by the end of the first year of the two-year Legislative session.
Many bills are passed in the final days and hours as the 90th day approaches, and this year, with the Legislature expected to work past 90 days, many more may be considered in the extra time.
The effectiveness of the House’s assembly-line approach, while already nearing some records, will be determined in the next few weeks.
“We’ll soon find out,” Tuck said.
• Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 419-7732.
