Alaska Beacon state and legislative daybook for the week of Jan. 26, 2026

The Alaska State Capitol is illuminated by the rising sun on the morning of Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)

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 as we can.

Monday, Jan. 26 through Friday, Jan. 30

Alaska Marine Science Symposium takes place in Anchorage

Monday, Jan. 26

Morning: House/Senate floor sessions

1 p.m. – Local Boundary Commission meets to discuss cutting regulations

1 p.m. – House Judiciary Committee hears roundup of Department of Law cases 

1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears presentation on governor’s budget vetoes from OMB

1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears pension bill and bill about electronic pull tabs

3:15 p.m. – House Labor and Commerce hears presentation about rising cost of health care

3:30 p.m. – Senate Education Committee hears information about four-day school week

3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources Committee talks gas pipeline issues

Tuesday, Jan. 27

8 a.m. – House Tribal Affairs Committee hears discussion of what an Alaska Native tribal education consortium might look like

9 a.m. – Senate Finance discusses effects of governor’s vetoes on state transportation projects

9:30 a.m. – Special meeting of the Alaska Alcohol Control Board

1 p.m. – House Energy committee has a roundup of the proposed Cook Inlet natural gas import projects

1 p.m. – House Transportation talks about the effect of the governor’s transportation vetoes on state projects

1:30 p.m. – House Finance takes a first look at the fast-track supplemental budget bill

1:30 p.m. – Senate Transportation has an update on state snowplowing efforts

3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs considers bill naming the giant cabbage Alaska’s state vegetable 

3:30 p.m. – Senate State Affairs hears an update on what AIDEA is doing

Wednesday, Jan. 28

Expected: State population estimate released

Morning: House/Senate floor sessions

8 a.m. – House Education gets an update on the tribal compact program for education

9 a.m. – Regulatory Commission of Alaska meets to discuss natural gas supplies in Anchorage/Southcentral amid cold weather. Call 907-276-6222 or mail LOA.RCA@alaska.gov for access to the teleconference.

9 a.m. – Big Game Commercial Services Board meets.

9 a.m. – Board of Optometry meets to discuss cutting regulations

9:30 a.m. – Annual meeting of the Alaska Sustainable Energy Corp.

10 a.m. – Alaska Housing Finance Corp. meeting

1 p.m. – House Resources gets an update on North Slope oil production from Hilcorp, ConocoPhillips, and Santos

1 p.m. – House Judiciary Committee hears a bill that would add “sexual orientation or gender identity” to the list of aggravating factors to be considered at sentencing for hate crimes; and a bill that would prohibit businesses from charging fees for paper copies of documents, instead of paperless

1:30 p.m. – House Finance discusses the state’s jobs forecast (record high employment expected this year?)

1:30 p.m. – Pension bill again in Senate Labor and Commerce

1:30 p.m. – How will gas pipeline construction affect roads/highways/ports, etc.? Senate Resources asks DOT about it.

Thursday, Jan. 29

8 a.m. – Director of the state’s emergency operations center explains emergency response to a joint session of the House Community and Regional Affairs and Tribal Affairs Committees

8:30 a.m. – Professional Teaching Practices Commission meeting 

10 a.m. – House Fisheries Committee hears a resolution to support continuing a ban on Russian seafood

1 p.m. – How much should electric utilities be liable for wildfires caused by their power lines? House Energy Committee takes up a new bill.

1 p.m. – Will the Alaska Railroad transfer land to Whittier? House Transportation talks about it

1:30 p.m. – House Finance takes up the Senate’s big elections reform bill

3:15 p.m. – Public testimony on giant cabbage bill (and bill restructuring AIDEA leadership) in House State Affairs

3:30 p.m. – Health commissioner Hedberg talks about the federal “health care transformation” funding and what it does

5:30 p.m. – Juneau legislative delegation town hall meeting at Mendenhall Valley Public Library

Friday, Jan. 30

Morning: House/Senate floor sessions

1 p.m. – House Judiciary takes up bill that would deal with AI-generated child sexual abuse images like the ones created by X/Twitter

3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources hears from DNR and AOGCC about natural gas availability on the North Slope

4 p.m. – Deadline to submit public comments for the Alaska Commission on Human Rights’ plans to cut regulations

• 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.