The Alaska Senate Labor and Commerce Committee reported Senate Bill 11 from committee on April 4, 2025, after a third hearing in which the sponsor outlined the bill's goal to establish a state-level flood-insurance program.

Senator Bert Stedman, sponsor of SB11, said the bill would establish a state program to supplant the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program in parts of Alaska where he said federal premiums and building restrictions have been costly. "Senate Bill 11 looks to put in a program at the state level to supplant the FEMA flood insurance program," Stedman said, adding the goals are to lower premiums, increase benefits, and return more control over shoreland building to local communities.

Stedman told the committee that many Alaska communities have planning commissions and local planning authority capable of managing development and that a state program could better reflect Alaska's loss history and community planning. The Division of Insurance director, Lori Wing Hyre, was present to answer technical questions about how flood maps and a state authority might interact with federal maps.

Wing Hyre explained the bill would create an authority that would evaluate maps; in some places the authority might accept FEMA maps and in others create state maps to identify exposures. "The authority would have to look at the maps," she told the committee. "Probably some of them, they would use and agree with what the federal government put out. And I would think in other areas, we would look at our own. Create our own and identify the exposures of the properties that we now have flooded or that we now have never flooded and probably won't."

Committee members expressed support for the discussion and requested municipal input. Senator Greg Jackson referenced a planning department letter cautioning against creating a public authority that might facilitate development in hazard-prone areas. The committee closed public testimony after hearing no in-person or online speakers during the reopened public testimony period. The committee then moved to report SB11 version 34-LS0134\A from committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note; the motion carried with no recorded objection.

Why it matters: SB11 would create a new state-level mechanism for flood insurance and map evaluation, potentially changing insurance costs, development restrictions, and local control over shoreland planning in affected communities.

Next steps: SB11 was reported from committee with a fiscal note and will proceed through the Senate process.