Print article JUNEAU Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Wednesday the future of Alaska’s COVID-19 response is in the hands of the Alaska Legislature, but if lawmakers do not extend a state of emergency that has assisted vaccine distribution and treatment, he will use all remaining tools to continue to fight the pandemic. Alaska has been in a COVID-19 emergency since March 2020, but the emergency is set to expire at midnight Sunday morning, and the Legislature appears unlikely to pass a bill extending it. While the state Senate is expected to vote Friday to extend the emergency for 30 days, the state House is tied 20-20, disorganized and unable to act.
Print article JUNEAU After a testy hearing that saw a Alaska state senator questioning the state health commissioner’s constitutional loyalties, the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy has twice declined to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee led by Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River. On Monday, Reinbold said on the Senate floor and in an email to fellow legislators that she has canceled two hearings because the administration refused to testify in person about public health mandates intended to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic. A spokesman for Dunleavy said Reinbold will be able to ask questions of administration officials during a Tuesday hearing of the Senate committee on Health and Social Services. Reinbold does not chair that committee and cannot set its agenda.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy says he will propose an executive order that would split the state’s Department of Health and Social Services into two, separate agencies. Dunleavy will introduce the order when the legislative session starts, which could be as soon as Jan. 19, 2021, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. The […]
Print article Seeking efficiency, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is preparing an executive order to split the state’s largest agency in half, he said Tuesday. The order, which will be introduced at the start of the legislative session, will separate the Department of Health and Social Services into a Department of Health and a Department of Family and Community Services. The health department will be in charge of Medicaid, public health and public assistance. The other agency will be in charge of children’s services, juvenile justice, Pioneer Homes and the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. In a written statement, Dunleavy said the “reorganization will not reduce programs or services to Alaskans who are currently served.”
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He and Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum say the department is too big, too unwieldy and needs sharpened focus to better serve Alaskans.
Crum says his department has more than 3500 employees, the largest in the state.
We are operating under the tyranny of time. There is just not enough time and bandwidth in the day for the commissioner’s office and staff to do anything other than move from fire to fire and crisis to crisis.
Dunleavy’s plan is to create two new state agencies through an executive order that has not yet been drafted.