Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced Senate Bill 56 on Jan. 25 to extend Alaska’s public health disaster declaration another six months. Alaska first declared a public health disaster last March. Dunleavy’s proposed extension, if passed by the Legislature, would mean Alaska would be in disaster mode for more than 16 months, from March 2020 to Sept. 2021.
Dunleavy’s bill allows for him to continue issuing orders, proclamations and regulations aimed at dealing with COVID. It also states that he could end the emergency declaration if the state’s commissioner of health deems that there is no longer a “present outbreak” of COVID or a “credible threat of imminent outbreak.”
COVID cases have dropped steadily over the past two months and are now at Oct. 2020 levels. Statewide, there are only 47 people hospitalized with the virus as of Jan. 25, and roughly half of hospital beds are unused.
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In addition to allowing the state to continue to spend federal disaster money on COVID related issues, the bill allows for a continued suspension of many laws and regulations pertaining to professional licenses, permits and certification in a number of sectors. It also allows health providers more leeway regarding telemedicine and lets shareholders and nonprofits continue to meet telephonically to conduct annual business.
“Extending the public health disaster until the end of September 2021 allows the state’s ongoing response to be able to have the tools and resources need to help Alaskans,” said Governor Dunleavy. “This bill includes a number of important provisions to protect the public and economic health of Alaskan residents during this unprecedented public health emergency period.”
The existing public health disaster declaration expires on February 15, 2021. Only the Alaska Legislature can extend the public health disaster beyond 30 days. The full text for SB 56 can be found here.
17 Comments
Enough already. No!
If Alaska has the best vaccination going in the United States, then why extend through September?
“Only the Alaska Legislature can extend the public health disaster beyond 30 days. ” If this is a fact then your last 2 Disaster Declarations were unlawful! Stop the fraud on the Alaskans NOW!
Let’s get this stopped in the State Senate. Please send a note to your senator to vote NO. The government response has done far more damage than the virus ever will. The State Constitution should never again be suspended indefinitely for an “emergency”. If the problem is restrictive laws and regulations that will go back into effect, how about rescinding or suspending those ruled instead of destroying the Constitution.
K, E, & E Martin
To:
Sen. Lora Reinbold
,Sen. Peter Micciche
,senator.mike.shower@akleg.gov
representative.ben.carpenter@akleg.gov
,representative.sarah.vance@akleg.gov
and 2 more…
Mon, Jan 25 at 1:58 PM
Lora, SB 56 is a ” go no where ” Bill, it is not needed in fact! The legislature is in session currently to act !
Please question these quoted statements on the Governors announcement page:
1) “This bill would extend the public health disaster emergency period to the end of the federal fiscal year, September 30, 2021, ”
Question : Where is the science in this time frame ?
2) “Only the Alaska Legislature can extend the public health disaster beyond 30 days. ”
Question : If this is an admission of law then why was the last (2) ” Emergencies ” extended by him? They should be invalid before & the one now in effect!
Lora , please ask these question(s) at your earliest convenience of the Dept. of Law & the Governors Office if not sooner !
Thank you Ed & Kathleen Martin
If you don’t drag that monster kicking and screaming from power you will never get it back.
Fake Pandemic, Fake Republican Governor, Fake Pedophile Chinese Puppet President, Fake Vichy US Congress…………………..Is anything government does these days not Fake and Illegitimate?
What a disappointment. I’m going to start calling him Caveman Dunleavy. Not because of his big stature but because he “caves” on every issue. PFD anyone? No one outside of the left wants this and it is apparent it is NOT the emergency we were led to believe it was. To say it is justifiable to suspend the constitution based on this “emergency” is laughable to anyone outside the halls of government, where power is the desperately desired commodity. This is more “caving” from fear of being labeled by media and the other screaming leftists. HAVE COURAGE Governor Dunleavy and represent the people who elected you. We do not want or need your protection at the cost of our freedom.
Lockstep with his handlers The communist Chinese…Destroying our economy and the mental health of our children is the goal of this monster. We better wake up to the big picture Alaska. Power has corrupted…
GOD sees through all of this, As we the people only see in shades, Dunleavy knows what he is doing is against all that is right and good in Liberty but his knees are way too weak to defend the oath he took. I believe he has bowed to the devil and is now serving those that seek our Nations demise. Mike its not too late to do the right thing. You say you honor the Marines Soldiers and Sailors that gave all ,,,Do. you really when you spit on our Constitution? The Oath and Constitution is what they died for.
GOD bless our Air Force,,
Government and medical tyrants 4th reich.
Trying hard to contain my disappointment in Mike Dunleavy to respectable words. If he hadn’t come from within my own ranks here in the Valley it might not be so bad but I know him, helped him up, trusted him to make a difference when elected. He seems to gaze right through us, and continues to monotone the narrative of fake science that lock-downs are for the state’s benefit and our health. You do not need to extend your powers another 6 months, Mike, this is NOT an unprecedented public health emergency. You are the public health emergency! and I hope enough elected officials in the legislature see through your attempt at extending the Big Government disaster handouts. Don’t stand in the way of people who need and want to get back to work and out from under heavy nonsensical government control.
The World Health Organization has admitted that the cycle threshold, (CT) of the PCR tests has been too high thus giving thousands, if not millions, of false positives. Anything more than a CT of 33 is really of no use. With that in mind, what was the CT of tests done on Alaska residents, 40, 45? Some CTs were as high as 45. So the leftists and useful idiots, such as Dunleavy and Zink, have been making public policy based on a test that, more often than not, returns a false positive, which is especially true of people who have zero indicators that they’re infected. This ‘junk’ science that the leftists keep touting works really well for them because they do want to control people by removing basic civil liberties. Dunleavy has no excuse. He’s getting bad intel and/or has no spine to do the right thing like Noem of South Dakota did. If you look at the ‘infection’ rate graphs of the states they pretty much all follow the same curve. Lockdowns and mask mandates have not and do not work. Time to demand of our elected officials that we get back to normal. Dunleavy needs to be voted out of office at our earliest convenience.
F U Dunleavy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I read an article about how they detected a new variant in Alaska the other day. LOL, you guys are boned! Emergency orders forever!
Well until you drag these monsters from their thrones, but we know how likely that is. Last frontier HA! Well maybe Seattle’s new frontier is a better slogan. Alaska: our blue hair social justice warriors sometimes wear plaid!
South Dakota has zero mask mandate and zero shutdown orders this entire time and is doing just fine. Can one of you fine folks point out to your dear leader how some actual republican run states are fairing?
*are faring. Gah wish you could edit comments here!