<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t“This is a dangerous place to be in the eyes of the public,” Vance said. “We need to be sure that Alaskans are walking alongside us in this.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Committee meetings would still be available to the public via state access programs live Gavel Alaska and the Alaska State Legislature website.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
In the midst of the debate, Edgmon called an at ease and then quietly announced a lunch break. It was minority leader Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage, who relayed the announcement to the rest of the body.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Shortly after the break was announced Edgmon and several other majority caucus members held a press conference with reporters to make the case for the resolution.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We have to prepare ourselves to react in a matter of days,” Edgmon says. “Things are happening outside the Capitol that dictate the Legislature update its pace.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Edgmon, joined by Reps. Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins, D-Sitka; Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage; and Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage; said the economic fallout resulting from the pandemic would be dire for Alaska. There were things such as providing special access to unemployment insurance that could help soften the blow of a coming economic disaster.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“This is not just an impending health disaster,” Spohnholz said, “this is an economic disaster. This is a disaster that is coming down at us on so many levels.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Several of Alaska’s key industries — tourism, fishing and oil — were already being affected by the crisis. Workers living paycheck-to-paycheck would need assistance if they were forced to stay at home due to some health mandate, representatives said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“The stakes are great, but we have tools,” Kreiss-Tompkins said, citing things like emergency access to unemployment insurance and other programs for needy families. On the floor of the House Kreiss-Tompkins said he believed that if the Legislature didn’t vote to pass this resolution Monday, circumstances would force it to in the near future.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Under the uniform rules, the House needs two-thirds of the legislature, or 27 votes, to suspend rules. The Senate, which would also have to pass the resolution after the House for the resolution to take effect, would need 14.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, who rose in opposition to the bill on the floor, said he found it “frustrating” that members of the House Majority decided to hold a press conference instead of continuing debate.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The break in the session could have been used to have a conversation with the minority, Carpenter said, but instead was used to hold a press conference meant to put pressure on the minority.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Carpenter declined to comment further on his opposition to the resolution, saying that conversation would take place on the floor of the House.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
• Contact reporter Peter Segall at 523-2228 or psegall@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Suspension resolution suspended. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":59207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-59206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/531"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59206"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=59206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}