A maintenance worker cleans the front of the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on April 2, 2024. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
More Alaskans will be eligible for food stamps and access to health care for school-age children and young adults will increase under a bill that became law without Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature on Aug. 30.
Dunleavy sponsored the original bill, whose goal was to expand the services covered by Medicaid to include things like workforce development and food security. The bill takes advantage of a a federal waiver that allows states to consider the underlying causes of ill health. It was amended to include a proposal from Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, and Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, aimed at increasing SNAP access after the state’s Department of Health failed to process thousands of applications within the legal timeline in a backlog that left thousands of Alaskans without food aid for months at a time. Over the last two years, Dunleavy’s administration has added more than $70 million to state budgets to fight the crisis.