Latest news with #HouseStateGovernmentCommittee
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New committee, same result: Religious instruction bill stalls in Alabama House
Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, speaks to the House Education Policy Committee while holding a binder that reads "Religious Release Act" on March 19, 2025, at the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Alabama. The Senate version of the legislation was effectively killed on Wednesday in the House State Government Committee. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) A bill that would require local school boards to adopt policies on extending academic credit for 'religious instruction' outside the classroom failed an Alabama House committee on Wednesday. SB 278, sponsored by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, is identical to HB 342, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, that failed the House Education Policy Committee on April 2. DuBose presented the legislation to the House State Government Committee. 'This bill simply allows public school students to enrich their school opportunities with an optional religious class. The bill simply requires our school districts to create a policy that allows students to attend an off campus religious class during the school day,' DuBose said. The Senate passed the legislation 25-6 on April 22 after the Senate Education Policy Committee approved it with one 'no' Legislature passed a law in 2019 that allows school boards to adopt a policy on released time religious instruction (RTRI). The 2025 legislation would mandate such policies. But House members have been far more skeptical about the legislation, citing pushback from school superintendents. Sunnie Cotton, the director of LifeWise Academy in Alabama and a proponent of the legislation, called it a parental rights bill. 'This bill strengthens parental rights and protects religious freedom while giving parents the choice to provide religious instruction for their children during the school day,' Cotton said. According to LifeWise's sample curriculum, the organization teaches the Christian belief that 'God created all things good' to a list of virtues that the nonprofit describes as 'LifeWise qualities.' Cotton said the organization is operating in about 600 schools nationwide and is prepared to launch over 900 programs this year. DuBose claimed 4,500 Alabama parents have signed a petition in support of the legislation. DuBose has not presented the petition when requested Wednesday. Ryan Hollingsworth, executive director of the State Superintendents Association, has been a consistent opponent of the legislation. Hollingsworth said Wednesday he is not convinced that the petition has been signed by Alabama parents. 'I don't believe those are verified as being the parents of Alabama students in public schools if they are,' Hollingsworth said. 'Even if they are, we have about 725,000 students, so that's about a half of 1% of folks that have signed it.' He said the bill is lacking key definitions of religious instruction, core instruction and sponsoring entity. 'We have 1,080 hours in the school year to cover everything the state board requires,' Hollingsworth said. 'There's 8,760 hours in the calendar year. That means the parent has the responsibility of the child about 88% of the time.' Scott Suttle, St. Clair County Board of Education president and Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB) president-elect, echoed similar concerns. He said the legislation is government overreach in schools. 'Our local leaders have been abundantly clear that we don't want another overreach into our school systems,' Suttle said. 'It works as it is. Let's please leave it as it is.' Sally Smith, executive director of the AASB, said after the bill failed that she is thankful the committee listened to school board leaders. 'We are pleased with the committee outcome. We think that the law as it is is working fine,' she said in an interview after the meeting. Jennifer Riggs, a mother from Huntsville, brought her son to the meeting, like she did at the Senate Education Policy Committee public hearing on April 15. She said the program has helped her children learn about the Bible in public schools since they cannot afford to send their four children to private school. 'Five days per week, seven hours per day, and in public school, the Bible is not being taught. We believe a release time for religious instruction program would bridge that gap,' she said. 'I believe this is legislation that upholds parental rights by allowing us to choose Bible education for our children without having to incur the financial burdens of private school.' Rep. Marcus Paramore, R-Troy, who also serves on the House Education Policy Committee, said he would not support the legislation because of its failure in the first committee. 'So here we are in another committee trying to get a bill that was voted down, back out and on the floor in a different format,' he said. 'I just want to make some comments and make it clear for what Mr. Hollingsworth said earlier this has already been before a body in this house once this year, and here we are again.' The committee had a tie vote on the legislation 4-4 with Paramore; Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster; Rep. Barbra Boyd, D-Anniston; and Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, opposing it. In order for the legislation to receive final approval from the House, a House committee would have to approve the legislation on May 14, the final day of the 2025 session. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rep. Pugh bill would move mail-in and absentee ballot deadline back
Apr. 30—WILKES-BARRE — Rep. Brenda Pugh on Wednesday announced she introduced legislation to move the mail-in and absentee ballot deadline back so voters have enough time to return their ballots to ensure they are counted. "Currently, voters can request a mail-in or absentee ballot up to seven days before the election," said Rep. Pugh, Dallas Township. "In reality, waiting until the deadline makes it nearly impossible for the ballot to be mailed to the voter and returned by 8 p.m. on Election Day. By changing the deadline, voters will have enough time to receive it, fill it out and have it back to their county's board of elections office so it is counted." Rep. Pugh said House Bill 1298 would move Pennsylvania's deadline to request a mail-in or absentee ballot to 15 days prior to Election Day. The bill has been referred to the House State Government Committee for consideration. In addition, in the near future, Rep. Pugh said she plans to introduce legislation to strengthen mail-in and absentee ballot security by only allowing drop boxes at the permanent office of the county board of elections or county courthouse. Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘No state on its own' can replace federal election cybersecurity resources, Pa. voting official says
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt speaks Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at a House State Government Committee hearing on the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors, Pennsylvania's voter registration and election management system. (Capital-Star photo by Peter Hall) The Shapiro administration is reviewing President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order that overhauls U.S. elections. Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said Thursday Gov. Josh Shapiro will do everything in his power to protect voting rights. 'There's a lot there for us to assess, whether it's from providing in person, documentation of citizenship when registering to voting, to what voting systems can be certified,' Schmidt said in a press briefing on Trump administration cuts to a federal agency that monitors and warns states of threats to election security. While an executive order could not overrule federal and state election law, staff at the Pennsylvania Department of State and Gov. Josh Shapiro's Office of General Council are working to identify possible consequences and what issues could be litigated, Schmidt said. Trump signed the order Tuesday requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. It's aligned with the president's campaign trail rhetoric about non citizens voting in federal elections and his strongarm tactics on immigration. Republicans have prioritized passing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which would codify parts of the order. Trump's order uses the threat of losing federal funding to compel states to comply. It directs the Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grants, to require people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship such as a passport or state-issued ID. Last week, Schmidt warned U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that cuts to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency program that helps monitor and prepare for election threats will 'make elections less secure.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Thursday, Schmidt said the resources CISA provides aren't available anywhere else and withdrawing them will affect the state and counties' capabilities. 'They participated in our election threat task force that Governor Shapiro set up in advance of the 2024 election, so that federal, state and local partners were in regular communication with one another,' Schmidt said. 'We saw the value of that … when we did have some threats targeting our county election operations on Election Day,' he said. Several county election offices received bomb threats around the time polls closed on Nov. 5. In the week before the election, a fake video showing mail-in ballots cast for Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) being destroyed and thrown away was linked to a Russian disinformation campaign. 'CISA was able to quickly identify not only that it was fraudulent, but also the source of it, so that we could share with our counties and we could share with the public so confidence in the election wasn't undermined,' Schmidt said. Suzanne Spaulding was under secretary for cybersecurity and infrastructure at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. CISA is responsible for protecting assets, systems and networks 'necessary for our ways of life,' Spaulding said in the press briefing. 'It's clear that election infrastructure meets that definition, and it was officially designated as critical infrastructure in 2017,' she said, noting that Trump's latest order maintains that definition. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The election security mission took on heightened importance in 2016 when the presidential election brought a marked uptick in cyber espionage, Spaulding said. Primarily from Russia, it targeted election infrastructure ranging from voter registration processes and databases, ballot preparation, tabulation, reporting results and news wire services that informed the public. Initial efforts to help state and local governments safeguard their systems were met with skepticism from officials who were wary of a federal takeover of elections, Spaulding the following eight years, CISA worked to build trust by providing nonpartisan assistance over a range of election-related cyber, physical and informational realms. 'Sadly, the election security work related work at CISA seems to have stopped. The men and women who are doing this vital work at CISA have been placed on administrative leave. The funding has been eliminated,' Spaulding said. Deborah McCarthy, former U.S. ambassador to Lithuania, lead a team at the United Nations negotiating an international treaty to allow American law enforcement to pursue cyber criminals around the world. Russia remains a serious threat to cyber security, she said, but Iran and China have also shown clear intent to influence elections through fake social media posts and phony news reports and by building relationships with state and local officials. China has also engaged in cyber attacks on U.S. communications infrastructure. 'Now they've penetrated our U.S. telecoms companies and internet providers, accessing messages, text messages, IP addresses and, in some cases, audio recordings. It's unclear what they're going to do with this information, but they hold a lot and they're still present,' McCarthy said. Asked why the Trump administration implemented cuts to the election security program, Schmidt said they are aligned with the false perception that election administrators are adversaries. 'I can't really speak to their motives,' Schmidt said. 'I can't really speak to their thought process. But clearly, the fact is that election administration has been perceived as being partisan, political and seeking to influence the outcome of elections, which is not the case in Pennsylvania.'
