Rep. Kaufman bill to reduce paperwork passes House

Rep. James Kaufman, in his first year in office, has been working on ways to make state government more efficient. His first piece of legislation, in a suite of bills he has been championing, has passed the House unanimously.

HB 187 is a paperwork or document reduction bill that would require agencies to examine what publications they are producing each year and assess whether they can be consolidated, eliminated, or moved to digital delivery.

The bill received warm reception in the House, where it had 21 cosponsors, including a handful of Democrats. It passed unanimously last week.

HB 187, which now must work its way through the Senate, would require state agencies to use an existing yearly list of publications to identify and highlight those that are outdated, duplicative, or excessive. In other words, the state already builds a list of its hundreds of publications, and would now simply be required to go through that list to assess the actual need for each document.

Kaufman ran for office to represent District 28 (now District 11) in South Anchorage in 2020 on a theme of making government more efficient, and he has other active bills that continue this theme. One year into his first term in office, it looks like his first bill could have smooth sailing through the Senate.

Any bill that doesn’t make it through both legislative branches this year would need to be reintroduced next year and start the process all over again.