From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today was one of the last significant committee days of this session.

As lawmakers try to get their bill in position for final passage, with just six legislative days left in the session.

We'll start tonight in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which today considered a bill to expand legal immunity for police officers.

House Bill 202 from State Representative Rex Reynolds, is known as the back of the Blue Act and is meant to help local police departments recruit and retain officers.

After years of a police shortage.

But the bill drew sharp criticism from committee Democrats, including state Senator Roger Smitherman who had concerns about the bill going too far to protect police.

I don't care what it is, black folks do not get the benefit of the doubt, okay?

And that's the problem.

If we wouldn't dealing with that aspect, then you could probably look at it in A and A, I could in a more favorable light.

But that's the realities of life that we have.

And because of that, this bill is going to cause a lot of black people to get killed.

And it's going to be done under the name of community.

I wore this suit this morning because the last three police officers I buried at Huntsville PD, I wore this this suit right here.

So I take what you said and I flip the coin, and I worry about that split second decision they've got to go through.

And what if they hesitate?

And then what if they are killed?

And then secondly, you talk about the the, you know, unintentional aspects of this case.

I mean, we've got to have that discretionary authority there because we have an escalation in force.

So we train our officers.

It was mentioned earlier about, you know, verbal communications, non-lethal weapons, deadly weapons.

But our officers have to escalate during that discretionary moment, sometimes in a second, to match what what the suspect does that makes it office feel like that he's in danger.

No vote was taken on that bil because it was a public hearing.

But lawmakers are expecte to revisit the bill next week.

The House Financial Service Committee considered legislation on the issue of immigration and money transfers.

House Bill 297 from Stat Representative Jennifer Fiddler would add a fe to international cash transfers, like Western Union, and use the revenue to help local areas dealin with high immigrant populations to fund education, hospitals and law enforcement programs.

We really look at our penalty schedule, and we increase the data that is required for some of our businesses, for anything over a thousand, anything over 2000.

And any suspicious activity must be reported.

And if you don't and the records have to be kept for five years.

And then there's, penalties that are increased, any fines or penalties that have will be collected are then put in the general fund.

The general fund has a line item for the sheriff's education and training fund.

And then that's where that money goes.

You mentioned that these proceeds will be going towards training education purposes.

Yes.

Why are we put in these fund and general fund instead of ETF?

Because we always are drawn out of our ETFs and we don't have enough to do what we have to do.

But your presence.

So why are we not putting it into the Educational Trust Fund for training educational purposes instead of general fund?

The line item that is in the Ways and Means general fun is for the education training.

That's basically a replacemen for the pistol permit funding.

That bill was approve and now goes to the full House.

The House Judiciary Committee considered legislation on voting right for the formerly incarcerated.

Senate Bill 153 from State Senator Linda Coleman.

Madison would require the Board of Pardons and Paroles to post instructions for how to go about getting your voting rights restored, and would require them to notify those individuals when their rights are restored.

This is a bill involving restoration of voting rights and notifications of those that have been convicted and seekin to restore their voting rights.

Right now, you have to still go through pardons and paroles, and basically this bill requires them to post notification for those people that are about to get out or what have you, or maybe even already out o parole, that you, what process you need to go through to get your rights restored?

It requires that they post, for those individuals so that they will know and, that the board of registrars be notified by the, pardons and parole for those individual that have met all the criteria.

The current law is tha they have to meet for criteria.

And so I don't have that other section with me.

But I was going to ask you about that because felt there was a conflict wit the existing law with this bill.

That bill was carried over by the committee and did not advance.

The Alabama Senate is preparing to unveil its version of the state's general fund budget, following the House's approval of a $3.7 billion plan earlier this month.

State Senator Greg Albritton, who chairs the Senate General Fund Committee, is set to introduce the Senate's proposa in committee tomorrow morning.

We caught up with him today for a preview.

He emphasized the challenges ahead, citing increased spending demands and declining revenue projections.

It's in flux.

We've had meetings, both with House leadership and with Senate leadership and with, every senator in the last 2 or 3 days.

Most every one of them, and and we're just trying to make get the numbers correct.

It's not, it's a complicated issue.

I wish I could tell you a little bit more, but, things are going to change from where we are.

Part of it is that we're spending more.

The difficulty comes in is that the estimates that we have for the next year is lower.

So we've got increasing spending and and decline in revenues.

We've got to find a balance in that.

Governor Ka Ivey today was on the Gulf Coast to help dedicate a new state facility that will play a key rol in protecting the environment.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management' new coastal office in mobile now bears the name of its long time director, Lance LaFleur, who is preparing to retire after 15 years of service.

LaFleur leadership include guiding the agency through the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and overseeing the construction of this very facility, which will serve as a hub for coastal emergency response and environmental oversight.

Governor Ivey and other state leaders praised LaFleur, who has been the longest serving director but also the longest serving of any in the nation.

This 15,000 square foot coastal offic will promote greater efficiency and monitoring our coastal environment against future challenges.

I'm equally excited abou the fact that this new facility today will bear the name of a longstanding champion of Alabama's environment.

Les has truly been a partner and a contributor to cell level success as a state.

And under Lance's leadership, A&M has helped ensur that environmental remains pure.

It's a tremendous honor to and quite humbling, that this building now bears my name.

Ideally, however, the building of the names of all the many people who made it possible, it truly is a testament to a lot of work by a lot of people, and I'm just pleased that I have had the opportunity to be part of it.

I applaud the hundreds of people who work every da to serve the people of Alabama and protect public health and the environment.

Congratulations, Lance.

When we come back, I'll sit down with state Senator Clyde Chambliss.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is state Senator Clyde Chambliss from Prattville.

Senator thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you, sir.

I appreciate you having me.

Well, a lot to talk about.

What's going on this session.

You've got a lot of legislation moving one or a couple of kind of companion bills that passed the Senate last week having to do with inappropriate material on cell phones, especially when it comes to children.

Right.

One having to do with a filter on smartphone devices.

Also another one having to do with the App Store and age verification.

Can you kind of start from the top and tell us what these bills do and why?

Sure.

Both of these bills are similar in nature, in that what they are trying to do is to prevent, children from bein able to access illicit material, pornographic material, especially unintentionally.

And that is happening, unfortunately, they go about it two different ways.

The filter bill is a bil that's been around for a while.

It's made it through the House twice.

In previous years.

So we decided to bring it from the Senate this year, to see if we can, you know, get it through the entire process.

What it does is it requires the manufacturers to turn the filter on for obscene material that is already on the phone.

Okay.

The nobody has to develop anything or build anything.

It's already there.

So my phone has has an existing filter, but it's not the detonator.

Okay.

So if a phone is activated for for a child, then that default filter would, would turn on.

And so that would prevent them from unintentionally, coming across this material.

The second bill again does the same type thing, but a different way.

Let's say I have a child that already has a phone.

Well, that activation process has already occurred.

So it would require the app stores, just like we have physical stores.

This is a digital store.

It would really kind of put them in the same game.

They, they have to to, to block children from getting this material ask age that kind of thing.

So just lik you go to a convenience store, you might see this, obscene material that's covered.

We need that same typ barrier, on from the App Store.

Okay.

On the filter, bill, how does it work in practice?

You know that I have a child.

Go to a store, go to a, you know, Verizon store or something like that and purchase an iPhone.

Is it at the store where they're activating the device, or is it at the manufacturer, or they sell them that way?

Who actually turns it on?

It's at the store.

And the way I understand it, and first of all, our bill is patterned after you, Tal, who's already doing this, and other states all around are doing okay.

We're trying to pattern them all the same.

But the way I understand it, they'll either know that this is a mine or as that the age, that kind of thing that is inpu during the activation process.

And then it would be automatic from there if it's a minor.

And so I'm just thinking about, I know you said unintentionally, which is an important word when it comes to this, but how do you deactivate like I mean, kids know cell phones better than any of us do.

So, I mean, is there a passwor involved in something like that where parents can have control over that?

Currently there's no there were for my understanding that you could go in there and you could actually turn it on, and maybe a parent could have a passcode, that kind of thing.

This would make that more automated and would require that passcod to be entered, upon activation.

And then the parent would have to deactivate it.

The child could not be activated.

And I think we can all agree that it's a noble goal to keep children from becoming exposed and certainly addicted to some of this pornographic, pornographic material and all that.

But what about the argument that this is just too much government?

This is overregulation, too onerous and things like that.

What do you say to those arguments?

Well, those type arguments of going all the way to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court has has ruled that we as a society, not only have, an ability, but also a right, a duty to protect children.

Their brains are not developed enough to handle this type of information.

And, we do that with all kinds of, things alcohol, drugs, cigaret, tobacco.

This is another one of those.

And, it unfortunately, I have, testimonials, from within our state.

We're not talkin about a problem somewhere else.

We're talking about in our state, testimonials of unintentional, exposure to unfiltered through unfiltered devices that ruined lives of children, not only the children, but their families.

Those are from here in Alabama.

Those are firsthand accounts.

And if we can do something, like these two bills to prevent that, again, it doesn't do anything for adults, doesn't affect them in any way.

This is only for minors.

And, to me, it just seems like something that we should do.

So, like I said, we pu it past the, Senate on Thursday.

What are its chances to actually get through the House?

Because time's getting short here.

Time's getting short.

I think we'll have six legislative days left.

Counting tomorrow.

So there's plenty of time.

You you can introduce a bill and get it all the way through the process in five legislative days.

So the both bills have been assigned to committee.

I'm hoping, that they'll get out of committee and then have 5 or 4 legislative days left.

So, there's there's plenty of time.

And what my urge would be is that we, as a legislature, make these a priority.

Because every day that goes by, there's there' accidental exposure that leads to destruction for, fo for children around our state.

And we can prevent that.

We should prevent that.

And, my hope is that we'll get it done.

We will be watching that for sure.

Switching gears, I wanted to ask you about this meeting you had two other day and related legislation having to do with the Pardons and Parole Board.

You had some really tough words for the chair.

And there and the board itself being responsive to the legislature and y'all's oversight role, I found those really striking comments.

And you've got legislation, kin of reforming the board, which.

Yeah, I guess going back to 2019, that's the last time this was really taken up.

Talk about that oversight rol and what your legislation would do.

As you mentioned, there are several roles for the legislature.

One of those is to, appropriate funds.

Another is to set policy, which we call laws.

And the other one is oversight.

We are a, third and independent branch of state government.

We are part of the checks and balances.

We pass laws and we have various oversigh committees, joint House, Senate oversight committees that will make sure that the executive branch, state government is doing what we, you know, scheduled for in the law and not doing things that we've not allowed.

So that's part of our role.

And, when those, oversight committees ask questions of the executive branch, those questions should be answered promptly.

And to go 14 months, without those answers, it's time for a change.

And, and to make some administrative changes that, that will that will move the dol these are public funds.

There's there's got to be accountability.

And, we deserve our questions to be answered or either change, change the system.

So, we didn't get our questions answered timely.

So we're going to try to change the system.

So what would the legislation increases?

The number of, members of the parole board.

Currently there are three members.

This legislation would take it to five.

It would also change the chai being elected by those members.

And me having served at the local level on a five member board and being elected by those members, that changes the dynamics.

You're really working together type system right now, is it the governor right now The governor appoints the chair.

And so the other tw really don't have a say in that.

And that that in in our opinion, my opinion, has created some of the problems.

So, we want to just change that.

We're, we're a state of five plus million people.

And for these very, very serious matters, five members, making decisions on those we think is I think is more appropriate.

That's interesting because it's a it's a pretty small seeming change, but maybe has a big impact on actually where it was.

This is such a tough issue because, okay, prior to 2019, in that reform effort, you had, you know, that unfortunate, situation where a someone on parole had committed those murders.

So, okay, the pendulum swings and we're going to lock them up, throw away the ke and hope it paroles go to a halt and then you know so.

And the pendulum maybe swings too far back.

So is that kind of what we're dealing with in terms of trying to get it just right.

In terms of maybe there's not a magic number in terms of percentage, but folks ought to be eligible for parole.

I agree completely.

There's not a magic number in my opinion.

We've gone to some of the hearings in the days that we were there, the parole rate was zero.

And I think every I know everybody on our committee agreed that it should be zero that day.

There were people tha just don't need to be let out.

The pendulum swings as is.

I think the issue, we've had years where we were well over 50%.

We've had years that we're in single digits, that pendulum swing, in my opinion.

And the purpose of this bill, I think we will minimiz that pendulum, pendulum swing.

It will always move back and forth based on who you're considering, who the members of the board are, that sort of thing.

But we need to minimize that swing.

You know, it shouldn't be tha dependent on individual members.

So I think a five member board will mak that a little more consistent.

And we won't have those extremes either way.

Right.

Going forward.

Well, what about that bill?

Is it going to.

It's got a good chance of passing.

Well I'm pushing and I hope that it may be on the floor tomorrow in the Senate.

So then we would still have, you know, five days or so to, to get it through the house.

So, there's a lot of bills trying to get get through that funnel.

We can only do so many, but, my hope is because this is a joint, an effort, a joint effort that it'll it'll be able to get through.

Switching gears again, I wanted to ask you about this axle.

Wait, bill, you had legislation from Senator Williams that you spoke on the floor.

You offered an amendment, kind of this compromise having to do with the axle limit, weight limit for log trucks, essentially.

And they're saying they need to, increase the axle weight limit because they're having some problems.

What was this compromise that y'all reached?

Well, this is a real issue that me particularly, I'm pulled in two different directions.

One is because of my family's history in the paper process.

And, and, thus the logging industry, I want to do everything that I can to help in that regard.

But then also from the engineering, you know, perspective, extra weight on an axle means more wear and tear on bridges and roads, and they they they don't last as long.

Yeah.

So I have this back and fort and we've met and talked a lot about different options and different ways.

At the end of the day, we really didn't get, somethin that really helped the industry.

So I'm looking at maybe this summer, maybe looking at that mor and trying to figure that out.

But some of the things that we did do that will hel the industry is, is will limit the number of trucks on side the road to five trucks, so other trucks will keep passing by.

So we're sampling We're not weighing every truck.

But when that truc sitting on the side of the road, they're not able to make money to, put food on their table.

And if you take an hour or two out of their day you take out all their profit.

So, you know, I'm very sensitive of that.

So we reduce that to five.

And then we also put in an a process for appeal.

The newer brake systems not brake but weight suspensions are air balanced.

And that creates some, some error in axle weights.

So if they go to a mill or yeah, a mill they can that has a certified scale they can take that information and send it to Alea and, you know, send an affidavit.

We'll take care of it.

So it'll streamline that appeal process.

Well, speaking of which, you mentioned log trucks.

Highway 82 is a is a big, thoroughfare for I mean, I grew up, just a stone's throw from from the highway, and it had its big opening where it's finally four lane all the way through town.

I know that was a huge priority of yours, even going back to rebuild Alabama and everything.

So what's that been like?

It's been really nice to be abl to ride through there, and I'm thinking and trying to visualize what it was like before.

But one place in particular I can remember, a bank right on the 2 or 3ft off the edge of the road, straight up.

And all this traffic back and forth and a lot of log trucks and, now other industries in the area.

So the big takeaway i it's going to be so much safer.

Yeah, safety is a big deal an it's going to be so much safer.

But then also especially with commuting patterns, it's going to allow that to be a lot better.

So a huge project a long time in coming, but, very, very good for all Tyle County and, and even our state, Montgomery to Tuscaloosa type, travel.

So I'm very proud that we were able to get that one doing.

It's interesting because, you know, a project like that, it takes a long time from dreaming it u to actually seeing it get done.

And, you know so that's worth mentioning that it takes dedication and, you know, until following up and doing all that, you know, Senator, we're out of time.

Thanks so much.

And we'll, follow up on all this legislation.

Great.

Thanks for having me.

We'll be right back.

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The USS Alabama is a World War Two era battleship that first served in the Atlantic theater, but was better known for helping to take Japanese held islands in the Pacific between 1943 and 1945.

During the battle of the Philippine Sea, the Alabama State of the Art radar alerted the fleet to incoming aircraft, providing the American enough time to scramble fighters and decimate the attacking force.

Later, the Alabama serve during the Battle of Lady Gulf and anchored in Tokyo Bay t unload Allied occupation forces.

In 1964, the state of Alabama took possession of the battleship Alabama.

School children raised $100,000 in nickels and dimes to help bring the ship to mobile an create battleship memorial Park.

The park features the Alabama, the World War II era submarine USS Strom, and an American military aircraft collection battleship memorial Park as one of the state's most visited attractions.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

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

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.