Gov. Mike Dunleavy has once again issued an executive order to carve out a standalone Alaska Department of Agriculture, bypassing legislative inertia and aiming to consolidate agricultural policy under a single agency.
In a letter dated Aug. 1 to House Speaker Bryce Edgmon and Senate President Gary Stevens, the governor said he was exercising his authority under Article III, Section 18 of the Alaska Constitution to reorganize the executive branch. The order transfers agricultural duties currently housed within the Department of Natural Resources to the newly proposed Department of Agriculture. He already issued an executive order doing this on the first day of regular session in January, but by March the Legislature had met in joint session and disapproved it. Now he is at it again.
“The Executive Order will encourage the development of expertise, eliminate duplication of functions, and establish a single point of responsibility for state agriculture policy,” Dunleavy wrote.
The order moves key responsibilities — including those under Title 3 of Alaska Statutes — from DNR to the new department. The Alaska Board of Agriculture and Conservation would also shift to the new agency. Coordination between the DNR and the new Department of Agriculture would continue for land management, with both commissioners required to work jointly on classification, leasing, and sale of state agricultural lands.
The order also renames the Alaska Natural Resource Conservation and Development Board and adds the Agriculture commissioner as an ex-officio member.
When the governor resubmitted the order during the current special session, lawmakers refused to even accept it, sending a letter asserting that executive orders can’t be submitted during a special session focused on a separate topic. They did not even post his EO to the BASIS website.
Despite the pushback, there is no explicit prohibition in the Alaska Constitution preventing the governor from submitting such orders during a special session. And because the Legislature has recessed until August 19 — without officially rejecting the order — the 60-day review clock is ticking.
With no committee meetings scheduled during the window of August 19–29 and at least five senators excused for that period, it remains unclear whether the Legislature will act in time. If no disapproval vote is taken within 60 days of transmission, the executive order goes into effect automatically.
That opens the door for Dunleavy to move forward with the creation of the department unilaterally.
There is no clear purpose for the Legislature’s planned return on August 19. No bills are scheduled, no committee hearings are posted, and absent lawmakers are going to be a problem. In essence, Dunleavy appears poised to push forward with a significant reorganization of state government — not by legislative action, but by legislative inaction.
My only request of the Governor as he unilaterally creates the Department of Agriculture (which I strongly support) is that he select somebody other than the current division director as the new commissioner. Bryan Scoresby lacks the skills and abilities the new commissioner will need on day one.
Seattle has long controlled Alaska agriculture because it controls the price of meat. Alaska politicians do not allow enough COMMERCIAL ag land available to allow price for beef, pork and chickens at a level that can compete with Seattle prices.
Northern Canadian commercial ag feeds that whole country.
More State bureaucracy will not change this but elected officials are fed well in Juneau by Seattle Special Interests.
‘https://donnliston.net/2024/11/alaska-meat-packers-pig-in-a-poke/
About the only thing this legislature does is the wrong thing.
Voters need to remember at the polls.
Sounds to me like we’re all going to be share croppers for the state.
Forty acres and a mule. Great.
Asking for a lawsuit.
Odd way to operate Executive Branch.