From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today was the 24t legislative day of the Alabama Legislature's 2025 regular session.

That leaves just six meeting days left.

If lawmakers choose to use them, the legislature could adjourn signing Day as soon as May 8th on the legislative business.

Today, the House took up legislation on the issue of voter information integrity.

House Bill 479 from State Representative Brian Brennan would codify int Alabama law the state's adoption of a new statewid ID voter database known as Avid, and moving away from th previous system known as Eric.

The legislation comes after Secretary of State Wes Allen, already made the switch when he took office in 2023.

There was lengthy debate on the bill, some of which seemed to more aimed at slowing down the process.

But in the end, the bill passed along party lines.

When the current Secretary of State came into office in 2023, Alabama participate in the Electronic Registration Information Center to provide voter information and its database.

The purpose is to identify voters whose addresses have changed so that we can have accurate voting rolls.

This bill removes Eric as the database that we use.

I was looking at how the not the driver's license would be able if a person changed a driver's licens or non driver's license address that could be used fo to detect people voting change.

And even if they came from state to state.

My concern and the problems I've had in my district is people from count to county voting in one county, then coming to Jefferson County and voting.

And I've observed i mostly doing national elections in areas of Birmingham that used to be predominantly white.

The Senate today took up legislation regarding religious instruction for public school students.

Senate Bill 229 from State Senator Shay Sheldon, would require local school boards to adopt policies to allow hig school students to leave campus to attend religious instruction courses.

The House version of this bill was voted down in committee two weeks ago, but the Senate version has gained momentum since Lieutenant Governor Wi Ainsworth came out in support.

Supporters, including Shell Nut say the bill promotes parental choice and religious freedom, but critics warn it could undermine local control and blur the line between church and state.

Many of you have asked, why do we need this bill?

Since we passed a law in Alabama in 2019 allowing school districts to enact policies?

Since that time, very few school districts have adopted release time policies.

Currently, there are 1219 more school districts have policies coming.

We know there's a demand by parents for more program.

4500 parents have signed a petitio for religious release program.

We have over 100 district that have expressed an interest, but do not have a policy in place.

Parents are approaching superintendents and school boards throughout the state and are being told no.

I just feel for our superintendents and our school board members who have a whole lot more to deal with.

So much funding that' going to be cut for education.

Rather than talking about letting a child be released from school to go and learn about religion where they should be getting it when they go to church on their Sabbath day.

That bill passed 26 to 5 and now goes to the House following today's Senate session.

President Pro Tem Garland governor addressed some of the lingering tension that surrounded the chamber in recent days, including last week's procedural standoff when Republicans invoked cloture to end the Democrats debate and advance their legislative priorities.

Governor said it was tim for the GOP to reclaim control after what he called weeks of delays by Democrats.

He also previewed several key bills still ahead for the remainder of the week.

This is the actions that happen on both sides of the aisle.

And I think last week, the Republicans said, hey, we need to pass some bills and reclaim our time because the Democrats have been taking a lot of the time over the last few months.

And so that's what they did last month.

And then obviously, you saw today get back to normal.

And as it get back to normal, we you move through the calendar, on both sides.

Everyone was cause we were able to deliberate back and forth.

And so it was a it was a good day when we have a little bit of tension that's in the state House overall with the Birmingham Waterworks bill.

We're dealing on both sides of the aisle with that particular issue, and that will be coming u probably Thursday of this week.

Then after that, you still get the health care bill that will be coming up, and then we still have some energy bills that we're doing.

So we've still got a full plate, and then we still will have to concur on some bills that are in the House coming back up.

So we're going to have our hands full all the way till the end of session.

Some big news today.

President Donald Trump has announced that he will be giving a commencement address at the University of Alabama.

According to a post on Truth Social, Trump said, quote, I have agreed to do the commencement address at two really great places the University of Alabama and West Point.

Stay tuned for times and dates in quote.

Spring commencement exercises are scheduled for May 2nd through May 4th at Coleman Coliseum there on campus.

US Senator Katie Britt this morning confirmed the president's plans and said she's thrilled to have him coming back to her alma mater.

Today is Yom Hashoah, the day o remembrance for the Holocaust.

Lawmakers paused their sessio to gather for a special ceremony marking the occasion and honoring an 87 year old Holocaust survivor named Isaiah Jack Shaker.

Yom Hashoah is a time to pay tribute to more than 6 million Jews that were killed during the Holocaust.

I want to begin by quoting Robert Frost, who said that the righteous person is never quite certain whether his or her actions are right in the eyes of the Eternal One.

And in reflecting upon that, I think of our sacred Scripture that says, said executor Dov, righteousness.

Righteousness you shall vigorously pursue.

Ofte translated as justice, justice, you shall vigorously pursue.

Our laws must not only be just and fair, they also have to strive.

And it's not always possible, but strive that they be righteous as well, and sensitive to the needs of those whom this legislature, this beautiful body, represents.

Tomorrow, Alabama lawmaker will take on their counterparts from the Mississippi Legislature on the softball diamond, the second annual battle of the Tombigbee softball game is set for Wednesday night at 6:00 at Riverwalk Stadium, downtown Montgomery.

Last year, the game was played in Jackson where Alabama's team won 7 to 5.

The charity event will benefi Children's Hospital of Alabama.

You can get tickets at the game and Children under under 12 get in free.

And hopefully if tomorrow doesn't get out of control here in the state House, we can have some video footag to share with you from the game.

Coming up next I'll sit down with Congresswoman Terri Sewell to get an update o what's going on in Washington.

Stay with us.

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Capital Journal episodes are also available on AP TV's free mobile app.

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Alabama Public Television is your place for quality educational services.

Free professional development for educators and childcare providers with access to free, curriculum aligned videos, lesson plans and instructional resources with PBS Learning Media and all the PBS kids programs, parents know and trust.

Learn something new every da with Alabama Public Television.

Visit us at AP tv.org/education to learn more.

From its establishment in 1969 by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as the Swampers.

Until the mid 1980s, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield, Colbert County was one of the most sought after recording studios in the nation.

Muscl Shoals played a prominent role in American popular music, both as a production facility and as a stylistic embodiment of southern regional music.

The studio also held a unique place in the narrative of soul music in the early 1970s, from the Rolling Stones to Aretha Franklin.

Performers who recorded at the studio represent some of the most notable and popular recording artists of the time.

The remarkable consistency of the music created by the Swampers is a testament to the synergy of the players and their dedication to the art of recording.

The studio's legacy, which is internationally recognized, testifies to music's ability to bring people together.

Muscle Shoal Sound Studio was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 2nd, 2006.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Congresswoman Terri Sewell, representing Alabama's seventh district.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thanks so much.

It's great to be here today.

Well, you're here in the statehouse today.

Yeah, a meeting with lawmakers and everything.

I was curious, what is your message to them?

What are you here to talk about?

You know, I think every year I do an annual visit to the state House.

I think it's good to give an update of what's going on in Washington, or rather, what's not going on in Washington.

And also to hear directly from lawmaker about how we can better partner to represent the people back home.

So I think that it's really important to stay engaged.

And so my message, frankly, about what's going on in Washington now is chaos.

I think there's only one word for it.

And, the amount of cuts, the slash and burn, efforts of the Trump administration have not, have not voted well for vulnerable and underserved communities.

And, so there's been a lo of pushing back, when it comes to, the, the executive orders that he's, that he's that he's, that he's espousing.

I wanted to get into that because, I mean, I don't know if we have enough tim to talk about all of the cuts, but let's we can start with Medicaid.

That's kind of on the horizon a little bit.

I was talking with your new colleagues congressman figures about that.

But let's talk about what is existing now.

Yeah.

Snap.

You've got the Lounds County situation.

Can you shed some light on that?

Because I don't think it' really been talked about enough.

We had these grants that were going towards water and sewer infrastructure in Loudoun County.

We've been working on it for years.

And so is that just is it just done or what?

Well, I mean I think at the end of the day, the Department of Justic came in and did an investigation and really, held the state of Alabama, public Health Department, in charge of trying to clean up that mess as well as, all the various grants that I've gotten over the years, to try to address this issue.

I think we all know that the soil in Lowndes County is so is not porous enough.

And so it makes it really hard to have, lines put in.

And so most of the water and sewer septic tanks and then we have folks who are who can barely make ends meet, let alone buy a new septic tank or buy a septic tank or, or maintain one.

So it's been a really tough, road to hoe.

But the people of Lowndes County are amazing.

You know, I my mom grew up in Lowndes County.

My, my, my my maternal side of my family is all in Lawrence County.

And so we have been working, with, Alabama's delegation, over the years to get more resources, there.

And we finally got the DO to come and do an investigation.

And there was a consent decree.

I sent consent letter, that the state of Alabama, through the, the state public health department, pledged to do certain, improvements, make certain improvements, and, and finally put some resources there.

And we got federal resources to help them out.

And so now all of a sudden, the Trump administration has done away with that consent letter, and it's no longer an agreement.

And, it is my hope.

I've no, I've, I've spoken to Scott Harris and others at the Alabama Public Health Department that Alabama will step up and do its part.

I mean this is at the end of the day, this is about, human rights, not about die.

It's about making sure that every American has clean sand it, you know, clean water and proper sanitation.

And it's just simply unacceptable tha that, folks have straight pipe, which means that there are, parts of Lowndes County where, there's just puddles and puddles of, of feces in the front yard.

It's unacceptable in this day and age.

It's just unacceptable.

So, you know, I think that it means that we have to continue to really hold our state more accountable, for helping us with this effort.

And I will continue to do my part by making sure tha federal resources are available.

That's been hard with this administration making cuts like that.

You know, we were able to appropriate a certain amount of money.

And, this president has been doing away with, you know, appropriated funds, which I think is illegal.

It's called empowerment.

If the if the Congress authorize money to be spent a certain way, only an act of Congress can unravel that.

And, so I just think that, this has bee a real test to the Constitution.

Three co-equal branches of government, not just one.

And, unfortunately, my Republican colleagues are not stepping up to the plate and enforcing our right as a Congress.

We actually have the powe of the purse, it's good to say co-equal, but article one article one really could put it.

You could say Congress really should have, greater powers.

But let me ask you about that, because it seems like you're almos playing a game of whac-a-mole.

Right?

It's it's, the NIH, UAB.

Yeah.

It's, and that's Greyhound, right?

Lots of jobs.

It's the Tuskegee Airmen, all these, all these cuts.

And y'all have been the Democrats have been really outspoken about it.

Republicans not outspoken, but have kind of seen work behind the scenes.

So is that kind of the way it works?

We all kind of working behind the scene with your Republican colleagues to say hey, let's try to get the Trump administration to listen to us to ease some of these cuts or pause them at least.

You know, I think that the strategy, for the the House Democrats, anyway, has been sort of three fold.

It's to legislate where we can legislate.

We are legislators.

So pushing back on the data, protection to make sure that those, those bro's don't get access to personal and identifiable information.

In pushing back on, dismantling the Department of Education and the like, through legislation.

And then we also have litigation and obviously, you know, this this president has only passed four bills in the first 100 days.

But he's issued 180 or so, executive orders.

And a lot of thos are being challenged in courts.

So we're pushing back in the courts.

We're pushing back, in the legislature, and then we're mobilizing, organizing our constituency.

I think it's really importan that the constituents understand what these cuts will mean to their everyday lives.

When you think about, the fact that this, administration has laid off, you know, thousands of Social Security employees and then at the same time has done away with telephone the use of the telephone and actually to get to get answers about Social Security.

Of course, there was a court order that stopped that.

So it hasn't gone into effect.

But, you know, the fact of the matter is, is that it was taking us a long time to do our casework on Social Security.

Anyway.

And now all of a sudden, we're going to have, you know, one third of the staff gone, is simply unacceptable.

Behind every cut is not only, a person.

It's not only it's a service as well.

So the services are going away or going to take longer to, actually accommodate, my constituents.

And so I think that it's really important that we understand what's going on.

So in every, town hall meeting that I'm hosting and I'm inviting the health care professionals and the educators and, those who are doing Meals on Wheels and and those just to tal about what they're going to do.

Because these cuts are draconian and they really do affect the ability to service the people.

And frankly, you know, when I think about Snap benefits, 1 in 5 Alabama get Snap benefits.

That's a lot of folks, over 750,000 or so, in the state of Alabama depend upon that.

And likewise, there's no way that we can have this tax bill and, you know, without major cuts, I mean, a $4 trillion tax bill that the Trump administration is really making its hallmark, piece of legislation.

I mean, what they're doing i they're they're they're cutting, essential services for underserved communities.

And, and they're doing so in order to give a tax cut for the wealthy and the well-connected.

It seems it's just not fair.

Let me ask you, though, because from the Republicans perspective they say, look, he ran on this.

He ran on the federal government.

It's too bloated spending too much money.

Cuts are needed.

And they would argue he was elected to do exactly what he's doing.

And I don't think that folks really thought that he was going to dismantle the Department of Education, that he was going to do away with USAID.

I think that, you know, it's one thing to to try to, to to fight waste, fraud and abuse.

And frankly, I join in on that.

I mean, nobody wants inefficient government.

But there's a way to do it.

There's a, there's a way t do it with a process in place.

And this, this is not the way to do it.

The way to do it is not to just throw everything ou and then just see what sticks.

And that's literally what I think that this, administration is doing.

The Clinton administratio tackled waste, fraud and abuse.

And they they reviewed everything for six months, and they literally made every agency justify its existence.

That makes sense.

You can see what people are doing and and where we can make those cuts.

But to just summarily dismiss, whole parts of government is not only disruptive and, and but it is actually unAmerican.

I think, because there ar so many, programs that were so vitally needed that are now being cut.

And when you think about UAB, NIH is our I think about all the grants that we get.

Last year, we had over $30 million worth of grants for UAB.

This is really the research for cancer research and importan research on health disparities.

And now all of a sudden, health disparities is considered die since wind does everything that has, you know, that deals with, diverse populations unacceptable.

I mean, we are part of the American fabric and I think that this is a population that obviously that still needs to be served by an American president.

I can sense the frustration in In your Voice.

And it strikes me because I'm thinking about your tenure in Congress.

Yeah.

Going back to when you firs came in, it was President Obama who you had an uncommonly close relationship with.

He and the first lady, you had an uncommonly close relationship with Joe Biden.

It's different now, obviously, but it seems to me back during those days, like you had that relationship, and I know that your Republican colleagues would call on you to when if somebody needed something, right, they'll call this call and I call on them as well.

When it was Trump the first time.

Absolutely.

And so that's why I was going to ask him, does it feel different this second Trump term.

It does.

It does that relationship feel any different.

Well, I think that the relationship is there.

Our delegation has worked well together.

I think, you know, tha I really stepped up, when, the with the Biden administration, took Space Command away from Huntsville.

Huntsville won that fair and square.

And playing politics with, our national security is something that we shouldn't have.

And you spoke out about and I spoke out about it and made sure that we had, meetings and that all of us were invited, not just me, to those meetings.

And so, you know, look, I think that, my colleagues have always shown themselves to be helpful when they can be helpful, and I expect nothing less.

I mean, I still see, early days in this administration when the attacks against the Tuskegee Airmen, doing away with the Tuskegee Airmen section of the of the manual for the Air Force, it just seems untenable.

Right?

I mean, at the end of the day this is not about black history.

It's about American history.

Proud Alabama history.

I would I would add and so I was happy to see tha our senator, you know, Senator Barrett, stood up, against that and was was helpful in that, in that respect.

Likewise, the Freedom Rides Museum.

I mean, on the day the actual 60th anniversary of the voting Rights Act, they come out with, GSA's list of 500 properties that they have to sell.

And one of them is the Greyhound bus station here in Montgomery, which houses the Freedom Rides Museum.

We spoke out about that.

I was, honored to have Shamari as, as my partner in that effort as well as, frankly, the Alabama delegation, because once again, this is not just about, black history.

It's really about Americans and Alabama history.

Yeah.

Let me as you about congressman figures.

He was on the show just the other day.

He was kind of markin his first 100 days in Congress.

From your perspective, has that been going great to have a partner, Democratic partner in in Congress?

You know, I've been the lon Democrat for the last 15 years.

And while our, delegation has worked well together, the reality is that when African-Americans make up 27, 28% of the voting population in the state and their seven representatives, and there's only one representative that they can elect.

That's not fair.

And so this is about making a balanced and, fair representation in Congress.

And he's doing a great job so far.

I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues across the aisle as well.

I often tell my staff that no matter who's in the white House, our job stays the same.

Our job is to help, to provide better resources and better opportunities, and more resources for the amazing people in Alabama.

Seventh Congressional District.

And we can't do that alone.

We're one vote.

And so working acros the aisle has been imperative.

And I, I don't have to com to the front of the white House as long as, you know Katie and Dale and Mike Rogers and Robert Aderholt are carrying some water for me as well.

A great tradition of working together.

And the Alabama delegation.

And when you when you said Tuskegee, it just reminded me of all the work that went in to getting the F-35.

And now to see them flying in red tails.

Absolutely.

It's just it's it's phenomenal.

Yeah.

And then that wouldn't have happened had Martha Rob and I had not worked together.

And so, I think the secret sauce for our state is the fact that, despite our differences we come together when it affects the state of Alabama and our economy.

And, and that's a good tradition that I know will continue.

And I know that Shamari will be a great added addition to that tradition.

Absolutely Thank you so much for your time.

And we'll see you again soon.

Sounds great.

We'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

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The Heisman Memorial Trophy is the oldest, most prestigious awar in college football, and state teams have produced five winners for the Alabama Crimson Tide running backs Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry won the Heisman in 2009 and 2015, respectively, for the Auburn Tigers.

Quarterbacks Pat Sulliva and Cam Newton won the trophies in 1971 and 2010, while Bo Jackson was the winner in 1985.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night with more coverage of the Alabama Legislature here on APT for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.