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Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alabama House and Senate clash over local legislation as session nears end
Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro (left) looks at the phone of Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, on the floor of the Alabama Senate on May 7, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The Senate saw two filibusters on Wednesday: one from Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham that would have allowed the governor to appoint members of the governing board of the Alabama Department of Archives and History without Senate confirmation; the other from Singleton in protest of the House not taking up a bill he considered important for his district. The Alabama Legislature ground to a halt on Wednesday afternoon amid a dispute between the Alabama House and a senator over a gambling bill for Greene County. The stand-off on the next-to-last legislative day of the session punctuated a tense day in the chambers that saw another filibuster on a bill that would change the governance of the Alabama Department of Archives and History and two Republican representatives getting into a shouting match on the House floor. 'The question about ending it today was the right decision, I believe, so that everyone stopped, we had a clean break, and then we're going into the last legislative day, knowing exactly what's in front of us,' said President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, after the Senate adjourned, adding that cloturing the Democratic filibuster would 'create a little bit of animosity towards each side of the aisle, and we don't want that.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The disputes left the fates of high-profile legislation and dozens of local bills for individual districts up in the air. The last day of the session is May 14. '[Next week] looks slow because I'm settled in They've got 40 more House bills,' said Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, who filibustered a Senate calendar for most of the afternoon. 'I'm willing to talk 40 more hours.' Singleton wanted the House to pass a SB 90, a bill for Greene County that would update the distribution of local gambling revenue in the county and change the appointing authority for Greene County Racing Commission members from the governor to the legislative delegation. Wednesday was the last day for lawmakers to get bills to the governor's desk before Gov. Kay Ivey can wield a pocket veto over legislation. Singleton said Ivey's staff said she wasn't going to sign his bill, and that a Senate agenda of 10 bills taken up by the chamber on Wednesday 'needed to get out' because 'she's not going to sign the bills.' 'The governor has said to leadership that there were certain bills that she was not going to sign … That's why you saw all those bills because they needed to get out today, so that therefore they could override the veto on the last day if she decided to veto them,' Singleton said. Gina Maiola, a spokesperson for the governor, wrote in a text message Wednesday 'that's not necessarily true regarding issues with local bills,' saying that the governor met with leadership to discuss the final days of the session and agree to a final schedule. Singleton filibustered the local calendar but allowed the first five local bills on it to pass. The House did not put Singleton's bill on a calendar on Wednesday, likely dooming it for the session. In the House, Rep. Curtis Travis, D-Tuscaloosa, requested to bring SB 90 to the floor out of order, a move that requires four-fifths of members present to approve. After an hour and 45 minutes of debate, Travis withdrew the motion. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said after the House adjourned that all gaming bills must be brought to the floor on a special order calendar, regardless if they are local legislation or statewide bills. '(Singleton) was really adamant about getting on the floor, and gave a chance for Rep. Travis to have a conversation about it,' Ledbetter said after the House adjourned. 'And I think that's what he wanted to do. And unfortunately, our rules and rules in the Senate aren't the same. And anything that's got to do with gaming in the House, it's got to be general and going to the House floor.' Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, who co-sponsored a comprehensive gambling package last year, supported the motion saying Alabamians gamble anyway. 'I do feel that we failed our citizens last year by not voting on a comprehensive gaming package,' Whitt said. 'This is a great demonstration of what happens when we let this patchwork gaming happen all across the state, and it will continue to happen. If you don't think gambling and gaming is happening in your communities, you're all wrong.' The House had its own internal drama Wednesday when Reps. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, and Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, had a heated discussion on the House floor over an amendment to SB 82, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur. The bill requires municipal court magistrates and circuit court clerks to annually audit and recall outstanding warrants for Class B and Class C misdemeanors and violations that have not been served within 10 years. Faulkner's amendment allowed the presiding judge to decide if a warrant would be recalled. Simpson asked Faulkner to change his amendment to also alert the prosecuting attorney. 'We're not amending the amendment,' Faulkner said. 'You can amend the bill.' Simpson argued Faulkner could not do that. 'I can have this debate with you right now because I'm asking to amend the amendment,' Simpson said. 'Let's let the body ask to amend the amendment.' The pair got heated, then the bill was carried over to the call of the chair. The pair continued their debate away from the podiums on the House floor, then moved to a side room for about an hour. They emerged, but the bill was not brought back up. Both chambers of the Legislature will return on Wednesday afternoon, but the battle between the chambers may not ease. Ledbetter said Singleton's bill will not be on the calendar when the House returns. But Singleton said after the Senate adjourned that he still wants his bill passed 'like all other local bills.' The Senate minority leader noted the Senate still had to pass about 50 local bills and approve confirmations, and warned that he was willing to filibuster most if not all of them. 'That's where we will be. If that's what game they want to play, I'm willing to play, and I think most of you know that I can play that game,' Singleton said. 'We probably have another 25 confirmations out there. Somebody's not going to get confirmed, and some local bills will die.' The impasse could also threaten high-profile state bills, including a bill broadening police immunity that Ivey called for in her State of the State address in February. A bill to change the governance of the Alabama Department of Archives and History also stalled after Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, objected to the bill removing Senate confirmation of board members. The bill will go to a conference committee. 'As of right now, the local legislation is my main priority because all politics is local. We want to make sure that we try to take care of our members here and the members in the House,' Gudger said after the Senate adjourned Wednesday. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill to redo Alabama medical cannabis licenses draws strong opposition
Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence (center) speaks with Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro on the floor of the Alabama Senate on Feb. 6, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Advocates and business leaders opposed SB 72 in a public hearing, warning that the bill would further delay Alabama's already stalled medical cannabis program. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Advocates and business leaders in the medical cannabis industry voiced frustration Wednesday over continued delays in Alabama's medical cannabis program. In a public hearing, every speaker objected to SB 72, sponsored by Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, which would scrap previously awarded medical cannabis licenses for integrated facilities and conduct a fresh evaluation of applicants. Every speaker said new legislation could further stall access to treatment. 'While this may appear to be a reasonable action on the surface, in reality, it is a move that will create further delays, more litigation and more suffering for Alabama patients who have already waited too long,' said Amanda Taylor, a potential medical cannabis patient with multiple sclerosis. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Melson indicated before the meeting started that he wanted to delay the bill at least one week to allow lawmakers and the public to review the legislation. The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) has faced multiple lawsuits from applicants who were denied licenses. The courts issued a temporary restraining order late last year, preventing regulators from finalizing dispensary approvals and halting the industry before it could begin operations. Antoine Mordican, CEO of Native Black Cultivation, one of cannabis cultivators awarded a license, asked lawmakers to prioritize dispensary approvals and allow smaller operators to sell products directly to consumers. 'We fought too hard and invested too much to be shut out of the very industry we helped build,' Mordican said. 'The market must open now fairly, equitable in the opportunity for all the operators and not just a select few.' Several speakers urged lawmakers to let the judicial process play out, with the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals expected to issue a key ruling soon. Opponents believe AMCC conducted the third and latest round of licensing fairly and should be allowed to complete its review process. 'The way forward is to get behind the commission, stick with the answers that they've given us, because they put countless hours of work into this process to get to this point,' said Joey Robertson, owner of Wagon Trail Hemp Farms. Melson defended the bill, arguing that choices the commission made led to legal disputes that stalled the program's launch for nearly four years. 'I think the commission started out trying to do the process, and I think they either got bad advice or didn't follow good advice, and they went down trails they shouldn't have gone down,' Melson said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
