Alaska Legislature

Alaska’s Right to Ivory Sales and Tradition Act or the ARTIST Act This act prohibits states from imposing bans on marine mammal products produced by Alaska Natives. Specifically, states may not prohibit the interstate commerce, importation, sale, transfer, trade, barter, or possession of marine mammal ivory, marine mammal bone, or baleen legally produced by an Alaska Native as an authentic Alaska Native article of handicrafts and clothing.

Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act of 2025 This act waives a statutory core township selection requirement for the Cape Fox Corporation and allows Cape Fox to receive other lands to fulfill its remaining land entitlement. Cape Fox is an Alaska Native village corporation for the Alaska Native village of Saxman, Alaska. Specifically, the act states that Cape Fox shall not be required to receive its previously selected land of approximately 185 acres located within the township in which the Alaska Native village of Saxman, Alaska, is located. Instead, the act allows Cape Fox to receive land outside of Cape Fox's current exterior selection boundary upon written notice of the new selection to the Department of the Interior.  In particular, if Cape Fox submits written notice of its selection of approximately 180 acres of surface land within the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to Interior within 90 days of the act's enactment, then Interior must convey the federal land to Cape Fox. Upon conveyance of the surface estate of the federal land to Cape Fox, Interior must convey the subsurface estate of the federal land to Sealaska Corporation (the Alaska Native regional corporation representing southeastern Alaska). The act reserves a public access easement on the federal land conveyed to Cape Fox and Sealaska.

This bill allows hydropower project license holders to request up to 6 additional years to begin construction on projects that received licenses before March 13, 2020. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may grant extensions in two-year increments, but the total extension cannot exceed six years. For licenses expiring after December 31, 2023, FERC can reinstate them to immediately apply the extension.

HJRES 140 is a procedural resolution seeking congressional disapproval of a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule published in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 6308, January 31, 2023). The resolution targets Public Land Order No. 7917, which proposed withdrawing federal lands in Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, Minnesota. If passed, this resolution would block the BLM rule from taking effect by invoking the disapproval process under Chapter 8 of Title 5, U.S. Code. It directly affects the implementation of the land withdrawal proposal but does not alter the underlying land status or create new policy.

HR 224, the Disabled Veterans Housing Support Act, modifies how income is calculated for housing assistance programs by requiring that veterans' service-connected disability compensation (from the VA) be excluded when determining eligibility for low/moderate income housing. This directly affects disabled veterans who receive VA disability payments, ensuring these funds do not count against them for housing assistance under HUD programs. The bill amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to mandate this exclusion in income calculations. Additionally, it requires a report within one year examining how disability compensation is treated across HUD programs and recommending improvements to better serve veterans.