Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, has represented Unalaska's state House district in the Legislature for almost 20 years. Last month, he picked up the gavel again to take his seat as speaker of Alaska’s House of Representatives for the first time since 2021.
Edgmon’s term as speaker runs through 2026. For this new session, he has a lot of big initiatives on his mind, and he walked KUCB’s Andy Lusk through some of them.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Bryce Edgmon: This is the third time I've been Speaker of the House. I'm not necessarily new to the job. I'm a veteran legislator who has served in just about every leadership position in the House over my almost two decades of service. I'm very familiar with how things work and the budget process, having served on the Finance Committee for a decade — and probably a little bit longer when I include subcommittees.
I use my position to the best of my ability in terms of protecting programs in the operating budget, services that are very critical to people in Unalaska and throughout the entirety of my district. In the capital budget, when there's any opportunities to put items into the budget … I'm all over it. I'm very cognizant of the community's needs, and certainly will be meeting with the city's delegation when they come into Juneau: the city manager, the mayor and others.
Andy Lusk: We've spoken a couple of times about the seafood task force, but I don't think I've actually told our audience yet what that is and the type of work that you do. So, what's the rundown you’d give to someone who's never heard of it before?
BE: It's a task force that the Legislature created to really stand back and — somewhat in isolation, through the eyes of eight members of the legislature — take a hard look at the industry as a whole and recognize that the seafood industry in Alaska is facing perhaps its most challenging times with global market dynamics, what's happening in Russia and China, and aging infrastructure all throughout the coast of Alaska. (The task force takes) a hard look at what this state could do to provide a helping hand, and also to — very importantly — elevate the importance of the seafood industry and to set the stage for work to be done beyond this session and into next year.
Our first meeting was in August, and our last meeting was [a few] weeks ago here in Juneau, just to wrap things up. There is a report that you can get your hands on and maybe help guide your sense of what the recommendations were that we came up with. The next step is to take those recommendations and weave them into a bill, or probably several bills, then see if there's any room in the budgets.
I think we're going to come up with some pretty decent things we can do, but I'd be remiss if I leave an impression that we're going to sort of wave a magic wand and make major changes that are going to really be short-term in nature and involve many, many millions of dollars. We simply don't have that capability, so I caution people to think in terms of what's realistic and what we might be able to accomplish in this first session.
AL: Out of the pre-filed bills, has anything surprised you about what your colleagues are interested in?
BE: A lot of the bills that have been introduced, have been introduced before and didn't quite make it through the process, but now are coming back again. The pension reform bill that is going to begin the conversation on reinstatement of a defined benefits plan in Alaska — there's going to be a lot of interest in that, and it's going to be a real priority of the caucus that I serve in.
Elections reform is another area that we talked a little bit about when I was down in the studio there with you in person in September of last year. That's another topic that I think is going to get a lot of focus from the legislature.
The bill at the moment, and the focus of the legislature at this point, is permanently increasing the base student allocation. That’s a critical part of K-12 education funding. I'll be talking with (Unalaska’s) superintendent and school board members about that here in the short term.
In terms of being surprised … reacting to (President Donald Trump’s) executive orders. We had to pass a resolution — which passed the Senate, but it went through the House initially — to encourage our delegation to do whatever it took to make sure that Denali remains Denali and doesn't get renamed by the Department of the Interior.
Lusk: Speaking of the national level, pretty much anyone you ask who has even a little bit of federal funding in their budget is on edge right now. What is the Alaska State Legislature planning to do to support these folks? Are you receiving any information that you can share with the public who are maybe worried about their job security or the security of their organizations?
BE: It's a big topic. We've had many organizations already come through the office talking about their federal funding sources being paused, and their sense of optimism that they'll be okay in the end.
Right now, I would say we are in an alert status, a wait and see status, and we will have the delegation of Sen. Murkowski, Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich all coming through Juneau here within the next month, giving their joint addresses to the Legislature and making themselves available to talk to legislators on all subjects.
I'm very eager — more so, I guess, than any time I can remember — to have those conversations, get their interpretations and also to get their sense of whether or not there's going to be another huge fight over a possible government shutdown.
Lusk: We're talking about a shutdown at the federal level.
BE: Yeah, at the federal level.
Lusk: Is there anything else you want our listeners to know?
BE: It's been a very interesting start to the session with a lot of focus on education. Oil prices are down a little bit; that's kind of constrained what we can do in operating the capital budgets.
But we talked about what's happening back east and I think there's apprehension, there's trepidation. I can feel it here in the Capitol in terms of what to expect next from the new president and his administration. Maybe more than anything, there's uncertainty. There's also optimism that resource development opportunities in the state might have a better go at it, if you will, under the Trump administration versus the Biden administration.
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