Alaska Beacon state and legislative daybook for the week of Feb. 16, 2026

Alaska Beacon
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Here’s what’s happening in the Alaska Capitol and elsewhere across the state

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

At the Alaska Beacon, we’re constantly trying to figure out where we should put our attention. There’s always more news than there are people to report it.

Every Thursday, the Alaska Legislature publishes its committee schedule for the coming week. Public notices alert us to meetings and events. The governor’s office occasionally lets us know ahead of time that something’s coming down the pike, too.

Here’s what we know about for the coming week. If you know of something that’s coming up that you should think we should pay attention to, email us at info@alaskabeacon.com.

We can’t cover everything on this list, but we’re interested in them and we think you should know about them in case you’re interested in them, too.

This list is ripped from our notebooks, and it is likely to change over the course of the week. We’ll update it when we can.

Are you trying to keep track of when to testify on a bill? The Legislature has a website for that.

Monday, Feb. 16

House and Senate floor sessions in the morning
12 p.m. – Sen. Dan Sullivan talks to the Juneau Chamber of Commerce and Alaska Chamber of Commerce
1:30 p.m. – House Finance talks budget bills
3:15 p.m. – House Labor and Commerce hears a presentation and report on the number of nonresident workers in the state
3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources examines the governor’s oil and gas tax changes and an LNG import facilities bill

Tuesday, Feb. 17

Alaska Judicial Council meets in Bethel to pick nominees for Bethel District Court vacancy
9 a.m. – Senate Finance looks at constitutional amendment making veto overrides easier
9 a.m. – Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute holds a board of directors meeting in Juneau
9 a.m. – Alaska Board of Agriculture and Conservation meeting
12 p.m. – Frank Richards, president of Alaska Gasline Development Corp., gives a budget update to House Commerce, Community and Economic Development
1:30 p.m. – House Finance talks budget bills
1:30 p.m. – Senate Transportation hears an update on Typhoon Halong response by DOT
3:15 p.m. – House Health and Social Services holds a hearing on an as-yet-unintroduced (as of Friday) resolution about the rural health transformation program
3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs takes public testimony on the police masking ban and a bill creating a state education income tax

Wednesday, Feb. 18

Alaska Judicial Council meets in Anchorage to interview nominees for Anchorage District Court vacancy
House and Senate floor sessions in the morning
8:30 a.m. – Mental Health Trust board meeting begins, including CEO review
9 a.m. – House Finance considers supplemental budget bill and digital corporate tax bill
9 a.m. – Senate Finance gets a briefing on last year’s salary report study, similar to the one House Finance got last week
10 a.m. – State aviation advisory board meeting
11 a.m. – Sen. Dan Sullivan delivers his annual speech to the Alaska Legislature
1 p.m. – Borough mayors talk about gas pipeline impacts on local governments, in House Resources
1:30 p.m. – House Finance talks corporate internet tax bill and budget bills

Thursday, Feb. 19

Alaska Judicial Council meets in Anchorage to pick nominees for Anchorage District Court vacancy
8 a.m. – House Tribal Affairs hears a presentation on the federal-tribal subsistence hunting/fishing system in Alaska
8 a.m. – University of Alaska Board of Regents meeting
9 a.m. – Hearing on how local jails get funded by the state and federal government, in House Corrections budget subcommittee
9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears more new budget amendments from the governor, and the Office of Management and Budget answers senators’ questions
10 a.m. – latest information about chum salmon bycatch research in House Fisheries
10:15 a.m. – State militia response to Typhoon Halong, in House Military and Veterans Affairs
12 p.m. – Subsistence workshop by the president of AFN, noon lunch and learn
12:30 p.m. – DEC’s plans for reducing regulations, in House DEC finance subcommittee
1 p.m. – House Transportation talks about a bill regulating self-driving vehicles
1 p.m. – Seismic Hazards Safety Commission meeting
1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears the new budget amendments that Senate Finance heard at 9 a.m.
1:30 p.m. – Senate Transportation talks about pedestrian safety in Anchorage
3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs gets AFN’s report on the number of Alaska Natives in Alaska prisons
3:20 p.m. – Report on how the “Big Beautiful Bill” affects Alaska Medicaid and food stamps, in House Health and Social Services
3:30 p.m. – Senate State Affairs hears the report on Alaska Native people in prison that House State Affairs heard 15 minutes beforehand (are they double-booked?)

Friday, Feb. 20

House and Senate floor sessions in the morning
8 a.m. – House Education and Early Development finance subcommittee hears about federal changes are affecting school funding and how federal changes to foreign visas are affecting Alaska teachers
8:30 a.m. – State medical board quarterly meeting
11 a.m. – Council of Alaska Native languages meeting
12 p.m. – House Natural Resources budget subcommittee talks wildfire fighting budget
1:30 p.m. – Permanent Fund Corp. gives an update to House Finance
1:30 p.m. – Senate Judiciary hears the report on Alaska Natives in prison (is that three or four hearings this week?)
3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs talks about some internal legislative changes, a proposed U.S. Constitutional amendment and a proposed state constitutional amendment

• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.