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The Alaska Legislature approved a broad omnibus crime bill that will increase criminal penalties for a variety of offenses and streamline victims services. The bill includes over a dozen pieces of legislation and garnered bipartisan support.
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The Alaska Senate unanimously passed House Bill 239 on Tuesday, after assembling the combination bill package over the last several weeks. Lawmakers in the House concurred with the Senate’s changes by a vote of 39 to 1 on Wednesday morning. It now advances to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.
The omnibus crime bill includes provisions to create stricter criminal penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material, hit-and-run incidents and sexual assault by a healthcare worker. It also raises the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old and restructures the Alaska Board of Parole, among other items.
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Sen. James Kauffman, R-Anchorage, spoke in support of the omnibus bill on Tuesday. “We hear of sausage-making in the legislative process — this is a big piece of sausage,” he said. “And having seen it in Senate Finance, I was impressed with the content, the quality of how so many things came together, and it came together so well.”
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