Editorial: Why has the Alaska Senate refused to raise the age of consent?

In a state with some of the highest rates of sexual abuse in the nation, why are Alaska’s lawmakers so slow to act on a bill aimed at protecting minors?

House Bill 101 unanimously passed the House last session but has since languished in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it’s been shielded from any action. The reason for that? Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Matt Claman, an Anchorage Democrat who is running for governor, wants to use the bill as an anchor for an omnibus crime package that’s yet to be unveiled. The bill’s sponsor, Anchorage Rep. Andrew Gray, also a Democrat, wants to keep HB 101 a standalone item, arguing it has a better chance of becoming law on its own rather than being watered down in an omnibus package with who-knows-what legislation yet to be attached — and he’s right.

The crux of the bill itself is simple: Raise the age of consent from 16 to 18. It’s a no-brainer of a bill, and it should be passed on its own rather than be cobbled into an omnibus behemoth.

Omnibus bills have a track record of becoming legislative junk drawers — catch-all packages that often include legislators’ pet projects, broadly sweeping proposals or last-minute amendments that can sink legislation. What starts as a clear bill can quickly derail into a diluted version of itself, which benefits no one at the end of the day. It’s exactly for those reasons that some lawmakers — in this case Sen. Claman — build omnibus bills in the first place, and it’s bad governance.

That offense is especially acute here. House Bill 101 didn’t just pass the House — it passed unanimously. That’s a rare feat in this age of partisan gridlock. Ensconcing it in a multi-layered package is pure politics, an attempt to create a prop on which to hang a gubernatorial campaign.

Rep. Gray has been correctly explicit about the danger. The more pieces you weld onto a bill, the more chances you create for opposition to form. A measure that could pass 20-0 in the Senate on its own today suddenly becomes vulnerable when tied to unrelated policies slated for tomorrow. And it’s not just that an omnibus package is harder to pass — the building of these mega-bills is expressly undemocratic. Voters and lawmakers should be able to clearly support initiatives that rise or fall on their own merits. When multiple laws are packaged together, lawmakers are forced to accept or deny the whole package rather than each individual proposal. This subverts a full debate and leads to broadly unpopular laws being passed against voters’ wishes.

There also is a time factor at play. With the legislative session rolling fast toward a scheduled May 20 close, pushing forth a yet-to-be-seen omnibus package is like hitting the emergency brake as the train pulls into the station. In a Legislature where time is short and priorities compete for attention, an omnibus rollout is a risk lawmakers should hesitate to embrace.

Alaska consistently ranks at or near the top in the nation for sexual assault and abuse. More than half of reported sex offenses in Alaska involve crimes against children. The current law leaves a gap that predators can and do exploit. At 16, a teenager in Alaska can legally consent to sex with someone of any age. That means when a 16- or 17-year-old is targeted by a much older adult, the burden often falls on the teen to prove in court that the encounter was not consensual — a high bar that can complicate prosecutions and discourage reporting.

House Bill 101 aims to fix that by shifting the legal framework in a way that better protects minors and gives law enforcement clearer tools. It puts the responsibility where it belongs — on the adult, not the child. Teens ages 13 to 15 could still legally engage with someone up to four years older, and 16- and 17-year-olds with someone up to six years older. The goal is not to police teenage relationships but to draw a clearer, more defensible line when adults prey on minors.

Lawmakers can and should vet this and all bills thoroughly, including fiscal impacts and how the law would be enforced. But those debates belong in the open, on the record, with amendments if needed and votes taken accordingly. They are not a justification for keeping the bill parked in committee or folding it into a broader package that hasn’t even been introduced.

Alaskans deserve to know where their senators stand on this issue. Families, educators and advocates want clarity on whether lawmakers are willing to strengthen protections for minors. And despite Sen. Claman’s grandstanding, victims — past and future — deserve a system that doesn’t make accountability harder than it needs to be.

There is a simple path forward. Move House Bill 101 out of committee as a standalone bill, bring it to the floor and take the vote.