Committee adopts substitute and moves payroll‑card bill (SB 79) out of House Finance

The House Finance Committee on May 17 adopted a committee substitute (CS) for Senate Bill 79 and moved the measure out of committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes.

Senator Jesse Bjorkman described SB 79 as a bill to allow employers to pay employees via payroll cards (wage cards), intended to help workers who do not have bank accounts avoid check‑cashing fees. Brody Anderson, staff to Co‑Chair Foster, summarized the committee substitute: it removes the banking and securities sections (including prior interchange fee language), eliminates sections related to securities and severability, establishes an effective date of July 1, 2026, and returns the bill to the form that had passed the 33rd Legislature (after which prior late‑session vetoes affected final enactment). Anderson said the CS also removes a Commerce fiscal note tied to the banking sections.

Committee members questioned consumer protections in the CS. Representative Ballard confirmed that interchange fee language had been removed. Representative Galvin and Representative Hannon asked whether payroll card users would have at least one cost‑free withdrawal per pay period, whether replacement cards for lost cards would be free once per calendar year, whether garnishments and withholding would function the same as with paychecks, and whether accounts were FDIC/NCUA insured. Senator Bjorkman said the CS requires a cost‑free method to check balances, at least one cost‑free withdrawal per week or pay period, and that an employee is entitled to at least one free replacement card per calendar year; he said garnishment and tax withholding laws apply the same way because the payroll card is an access device for net wages. Representative Bynum added that payroll accounts are insured as a pass‑through under FDIC/NCUA mechanisms per the CS.

Amy Miller, senior director of government relations at ADP, testified in support of the CS, urging the committee to eliminate the paper paycheck requirement and noting the CS preserves collective bargaining rights and state employee pay rules. She said electronic pay can reduce delays caused by weather and mail and cited a NACHA statistic that 93% of American workers are paid by direct deposit. Jeremy Applegate, chief of Wage and Hour for the State of Alaska, presented the Department of Labor’s fiscal note and said it is $0 — the department anticipates no fiscal burden in administering the CS as drafted.

After procedural discussion, Representative Sharaghi moved the CS out of committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes, and the motion carried with no objections recorded on the transcript. Legislative Legal was authorized to make technical and conforming changes. The committee closed public testimony on SB 79 and asked members to sign committee reports.

The CS’s consumer protections noted on the record include free balance access, at least one cost‑free withdrawal per pay period, and one free replacement card per calendar year; federal law and wage withholding rules remain applicable to amounts placed on the payroll card.