From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

There are just three days left in the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session.

We expect lawmakers to meet o Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then adjourn.

Sidney Dye, the state's two budgets are one more step away from the governor's desk.

All that's needed for the general fund is for the House to concur with the Senate's changes.

And the same for the Education Trust Fund, where the Senate will need to concur with the House's changes.

We expect that as soon as tomorrow, including with the education budget.

This year is a new approach to funding the state's public universities.

Lawmakers approved an outcomes based model, setting aside a portion of funding tied to performance goal like student success, workforce alignment, and research impact, rather than enrollment alone.

The plan, referred t as the Cheers act, was developed with input from higher education leaders during the legislative process.

Gordon Stone, with the Highe Education Partnership, says that that collaboratio was key to ensuring universities had a seat at the table as the policy was written and ultimately adopted.

This particular bill does not say, hey, we've screwed up, we got to start all over.

It acknowledges the good things that universities are doing.

It acknowledges the positiv impact that we have with our $27 billion of economic contribution every year, you know, acknowledges the faculty that are doing really unique things in research and contributing that back is solving problems in Alabama.

But it also says, what about some new ideas?

What about some new things?

Let's set some goals.

And so it sets up a separate fund that we can use to meet those new things.

That's the outcome based fund.

And from that we can grow those dollars as we grow those projects that are that are working.

So acknowledging the the good that we're doing, while at the same tim having this collaborative effort to do even more innovative and difference making things, that's the best model for us.

And when you look at from the partnership perspectiv at what other states have done, we're just very thankful that we're at the table as a as a university community, because the states who didn't do that had to come back and create that narrative because it was just it's so easy to think, well, we'll just set one standard, but that doesn't really work.

When you have 14 public universities meeting different mission and serving different audiences.

We caught up with House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter after adjournment last week to get his thoughts on the Public Service Commission overhaul bill that passed the House and got sent to the governor.

He called it a positive development despite the original sponsors disappointment.

He said the goal is to save people money on power bills, similar to how they will save money from tax cuts.

I think it was a work in progress and always was.

You know, his bill wa the one had some changes in it.

We used quite a bit of his bill.

Yeah.

He made the bill better.

I mean, he is like any bill.

And I think you have to work through the good, the bad and ugly.

And so at the end of the day, I think we've come out with a good product, and, he ain't got anything be ashamed of or hurtful while we're on the h and I talked about this morning.

He has got a he felt good about what he wa able to accomplish in the bill.

And that's why he should have failed because it was positive.

So, yeah, I think it's one of those things.

We all have bills.

I've had bill before that I've had changed it.

I didn't really like all the changes.

But, at the end of the day, you know, getting it passed, having something positive.

Well, listen, we froze the rates for, rate payers for the next three years.

That's a big deal.

You know, they, you know with what we've done this week with freezing the rates for energy bills through, Alabama Power for the next three years is a big deal.

You know, the grocery tax holiday for two months there.

And the inflation thing, it' a big deal cutting the overtime tax, letting people be abl to report that on their income.

That's a big deal.

That's all in one week.

And I think sometimes I get a little bit frustrated and I'm not going to be, a lie about it, because we'v got over $1.5 billion in taxes, and ain't none of y'all had it in your headline.

Not the first one, you know.

Well, that's what matters to the people of Alabama, in my opinion, to some of those things.

So it's important it's important to do those things.

The Alabama law enforcement agency is teaming up once again with pals, people against a littered state for the annual Don't Drop It on Alabama campaign.

It's a statewide effort aimed at reducing litte and keeping communities clean.

Throughout the month of April, the nonprofit is coordinatin cleanup events across Alabama, providing free supplies to volunteers ranging from schools to civic groups.

State troopers say this is more about just appearances, reminding drivers especially those hauling debris or unsecured loads, that littering along roadways is not only harmful to the environment, it's also against the la and can carry serious penalties on the highways.

We're going to have people that are going to be out kind of being really intentional about those things because we know it goes on, and the reason we all know it goes on because you can't go down the roadways and not see what trash and litter, okay.

And unfortunately, that' something that we, we deal with.

But we are going to be ou looking for those opportunities.

Not that we're just going to be out there handing out tickets for this, but if we see somebody violating the law, we see somebody actively littering.

They're going to get pulled over.

They're going to be issued a citation or a depending on what the situation is.

And people need to understand this.

Litterin is actually a criminal offense in the state of Alabama as well.

Again depending on what you're doing, we'll take a quick break and be back with Senate Secretary Pat Harris and House Clerk John Treadwell.

Stay with us.

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

aptv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes on Capital Journal's Facebook page.

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.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

As I mentioned at the top, we're in the final week of the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session.

Just three days to go.

And Jordan is next to talk about that is Secretary of the Alabama Senate, Pat Harris.

And clerk of the Alabama House of Representatives John Treadwell.

Gentlemen, thanks for taking the time.

I know you're very busy this time of session.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, we appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, that's that's why I wanted to have you on, because here we are, three days left.

Starting tomorrow, going through Thursday.

And that's what we expect.

They've got some flexibility if they want, but I'm just thinking about not just y'all's jobs on the floor.

That's intense.

But I'm thinking about your staff, the mad dash toward the end of hey, if I'm a lawmaker and I've got a bill that just barely has a chance, I'm trying to get it through all the from committee to the floor.

Concurrence sometimes covers committee.

Just seems like there's a lot of paper moving around.

So talk about what happens.

Mr.

Secretary, I'll start with you.

What?

How do you prepare for the mad dash at the end the last three days?

Well, the best thing, Todd, that we have is, is a professional staff.

You know, severe, nonpartisan staff.

So most of our people have been here for a number of sessions, so they're used to the the concentration of all the effort towards the very end of a session.

Late nights, long days.

They're used to that.

So, we're prepared with, with, proffers people that have too engrosse all these amendments together, engrossed the conference committees together so they're ready and prepared.

And that's because they are professional and they care about what they're doing.

That's the bigges thing that we have going for us is the quality of people that we have working with us.

And, so they're ready for it.

They're used to it.

They know.

They know they're they're going to be here late either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday or all three.

So they're prepared for it.

And and so we know you've talked about the importance of staff before, Mr.

Clerk.

How is it different than, say the there's a lot of excitement at the first day of session.

But, man, the pressure cooker of the end of session must be different.

No, I think you nailed it earlier when you said paper is really moving toward the the end of session.

And, we all tell on another, expect the unexpected.

And, you've got to be on board and pay attention, to to small details and be ready to go at a moment's notice.

And, as Pat said, we have a professional staff that, are on board.

They're lookin at the special order calendar.

They're looking at messages that may be coming down from the from the Senate.

They're prepare and they're ready to go to act.

And, are in rolling and engrossing department is is hugely busy as as Pat's chambe as the Senate are passing bills and those are coming down to US House bills.

They're ready to roll in, be seen across the street to the governor.

You know, they're going through those.

We have a, we have provers who are proofing those bills to make sure everything was incorporated correctly.

And, and those wheels are moving to make sure everything keeps rolling in and everybody's on board.

So it takes everybody working together.

At some point you have to kind of slow down and, and pay attention to detail, but, be ready to go at a moment's notice and our staffs ready to ready to do that.

Well, take us behind the scenes a little bit in terms of what we see.

Because.

All right.

The Senate is on the seventh floor, house is on the fifth floor.

There's a stairwell there directly in between there.

So are you all literally, let's just say the Senate passe something that still has to be concurred with at the House.

Is it physically going down that stairwell or is it more electron like what's happening, especially towards the end, all these last minute stuff, it's physically going up and down those steps, in the back hall, taking them from, from our enrolling in an engrossing department or our journal rooms directly down to the House chamber, to th comparable, offices down there.

So it's physically, up and down those steps and usually down easier than up right now.

And it's a constant.

It's not jus we can gather them all together and send them a batch now and then wait and send another batch a few minutes from now, those bills are going u and down on a constant regular basis, up and down those steps.

And then of course, we've got sign in sign and come up from the, from the house and go between the House and Senate, because each bill has to be signed by the presiding officers before they go to the governor.

So all that's done to and all those, bills have to be so every bill has to come up and down.

I got a kick out of wha you said about the first part of the, session being a little bit exciting as opposed to we always loved the first part of the session because we can't finish until we start.

So it always works ou really well for the first part of the session until the end.

That's right.

I can imagine.

Well, we'll see how it all goes.

Hopefully it'll be a calm end of the session.

Look, I don't know what happene with this whole quiet session.

We were supposed to remember all that or all that.

I'll never believe that, again.

But here we are at th the end of this building's life.

Obviously, I want to get to what's happening across the stree with the with the new building.

But, Pat, I mean, you've been her the entire time, and, you know, what's it like to see this building which has honorably served its purpose?

I would say never meant to be the permanent home, but nonetheless has been the home of the Alabama legislature since 85, 86, 85, 85.

So, I mean, look, I know everybody's excited about going across the street.

We certainly are.

But there's a little bit of nostalgia to this place.

I remember walking in.

I remember my first time this building would would have been the early 90s when I was a Cub Scout leader meeting guy, Yeah, yeah.

And so and of course interned.

And they worked here.

So there's some nostalgia to this place.

Well, I've had the opportunity to work at all.

Well hopefully have the opportunity to work at all three chambers.

So when I started we were still in the old Capitol.

So the new the new move I'm looking forward to with the chambers being across from each other.

We were really excited when this building was redone in 85 and moved in over here.

I will not miss this building.

Okay.

There are a lot of people, however, that work in the legislative process that have never worked i any building but this building, and they're going to have an it's going to be an interesting transition from them to go to the new building with the chambers, like a set of chambers across from each other.

The the offices are going to be different.

They're all still going to be the public access to them all.

But it's all going to be different.

There won't be the if you've been t the state House, you know that they've got these lobbies where the people that have interest in bills kind of line up and wait till the members come past.

They can stop and talk to them.

It will not be the same.

That type of, set up in the in the new building.

Right.

And I want to get to some of those pictures earlier, but, Mitch Clark, layer your takes on this because you're newer to the, through the state House.

So I'm sure that I wonder what it was first like when you walked in, like, wait, you'll really work it, right?

Yeah.

It wa it was a little bit different.

And, I'm kind of like Pat, I'm so ready to to move across the street and experience all the wonderful thing and all the new accommodations that we're going to have across the street.

But we had the opportunity last week to convene and the old House chamber in the Capitol.

And there was a moment there when we were doing the Pledge of Allegiance, and everyone's in unison and there's that echo, in that, in that chamber that we can't replicate anywhere else.

I mean, that was, a very incredible moment.

And I just stood there thinking, wow, a lot has happened in this chamber.

And last Friday, as we were closing out the wee I was standing in our chamber, I was turning out the lights and no one's there.

And I'm standing there by myself in the chamber and just thinking, wow, there are a lot of things that have happened in thi chamber for the good of Alabama.

Yeah.

And, it's sort of sobering.

Again, I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to move across the street and get to this, get to this new building.

But I'm starting to have those, sentimental moments that that Pat's going to make fun of me for, for just a just a little bit.

He'll have them, too, but it's.

It's okay.

We'll talk about the new building.

Well, we'll throw a rendering up of the outside.

We'll start there.

And it's funny because they've made so much progress that this rendering I mean, you could just go across the street and it would look this way.

So talk about that first.

What what was the idea?

What do you want people to.

Because right now, the way this is rendered, like the the current buildin would be obstructing your view.

But what's the idea of like what?

What's the idea?

Do you want people to take in as they see this is where the seat of government is, where we, you know, especially want them to be very proud because that is what it is.

It is the seat of state government.

And what decisions and the laws that are passed in this building are the ones that are fit, affect probably everybody's everyday life more than anything else, whether it's your driver's license your hunting license, gas tax, whatever you're building, contractors licenses, all that, all those, decisions are made in this building.

And one of the biggest things main things that we wanted to do in this building was to increase public access.

This old building, we couldn't get people in.

The fire marshal was moving people out.

We people that were interested i whether it was dog hunting or, voting age or whatever, you just couldn't get those people into the into the building.

Parking has always been horrendous down here.

And we wanted to improve that ability.

Wanted to approve the, the working environment of the staff as well as the members.

Those type things all went in too, but we wanted it to be a stately building.

This is the first full state House buildin that has been built in the US.

Probably while I know Florida did theirs in the in the 70s, 70s.

Okay.

Is that the one behin the Capitol there?

That's okay.

But but no one has done an actual brand new building with chambers, with the both legislative chambers.

A lot of people have, excuse me a lot of people have of redone their, their capital and built new office buildings, but no one has done the entire project together.

And we wanted this to be a legislative building.

When we started in this building, and the attorney General's office was in here, there were a number of other.

The Secretary of State's office was in here.

There were a number of other.

The, funeral Home Board was in this building.

What we wanted to do was take a building and make it exclusively for the legislative body in the legislative process and the legislative branch of government.

And that's what we I think we've accomplished.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think we've got some committee rooms also that we can look at.

And this is important, especially when you're talking about access, because there are plenty of times that like we'll go to cover a committee meeting and it's one of those, you know weird sixth floor rooms or so.

There are some committee rooms that are just small.

I mean, if you can get a dozen people in there, you're doing good.

So, John, talk about, the prospect of some of these larger committee rooms.

And, I mean, you could have a congressional hearing.

Yeah.

No, the the size of th committee rooms are phenomenal, and they're really going to accommodate the public, and there's not going to be any standing in line, standing in the hallway outside of committee rooms, trying to get to where you can hear what's happening inside.

Everyone will have a seat.

We'll have large committee rooms, medium size committee rooms, small committee rooms, and access is going to be incredible.

You can see tha they all have a U-shaped dais, so that members are able to see one another and interact with one another, interact with, with those who are speaking in comparison to what we have now.

Because right now, the, I think pretty much all of them are just looking at the audience so that, well, there's there's some that do that.

The secret is this is the medium committee room that looks better than anything we have right now.

Exactly, exactly it is.

That's just the medium.

Yes.

Yeah.

And they're all they all seem to kind of have a sloped, audience floor.

To the medium and large and the joint committee room, all all have theater type seating.

Okay.

And they'll be fixed seating.

Not only will there be fixed seating, but there'll be large display screens up in those committee rooms, and there'll be areas that are designated so that the press is not having to squeeze in behind peopl that are trying to listen.

Yeah.

So those areas will be designated, and we're just excited about the ability of the people that come down and want to participate, want to watch, wan to understand what's going on.

We'll have the opportunity to do that.

They don't have the opportunity to do that in this building.

Yeah Funny mentioned about disabled.

We had a, disability advocacy group that was them.

I mean, the irony of that they were having access.

They were having problems accessing the building.

So I want to get to the chambers here.

But before that, the rotunda.

You mentioned the rotunda.

And the reason this is significant is we mentioned, you know, House on five, Senate on floor in this building.

It' going to be on the same floor.

That's going to be really cool.

Yeah.

So here we go.

All right.

This is the rotunda meaning.

And I don't know which is I think the on the left there's the Senate.

And the right there is the is the House.

So those are the two chambers right here.

But when you talk about the dynamic that's going to have with what would those two chambers lawmakers interacting.

Yeah it's going to be it's going to be a different process there.

Again there's no back stairway or stairwell where staffs moving up and down and transferring bills are going to be able to walk across the hallway.

The speaker is going to be able to the doors are open and going to be able to look out and see and into the Senate chamber if those doors are open, we're there in close proximity, which I think will probably enhance collaboration between senators and representatives as well as we're moving legislation through the through the process now.

And so here's the just right above that.

I mean, honestly it looks a lot like the Capitol.

I does this, you know, in terms of an upstairs balcony level.

And so you can kind of look down on there, I think that's going to be really neat.

And I want to get t the chambers here in a second.

Those door you can see here on the rotunda, those are the gallery doors that, that, that they can look down on the chambers themselves.

Right.

Let's go to the chambers her because we can start, I guess, with the Senate.

Do we have the Senate?

There's the Senate.

This this is a is if you're looking for the gallery, that's that's the house.

That's the house.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

This is if you're looking from the gallery.

Well, John, the first thing I notice, no column.

No column.

We, we are not going to miss those columns in the House chamber.

I can tell you Todd.

Right.

Because it's a loa bearing column in this.

Exactly.

You couldn't get rid of it.

But but also I mean, that's just a very good looking natural light.

Here we go from the Senate.

Now, that looks pretty similar when we go.

Y'all look pretty similar, but a lot, you know, just more ornate and everything.

It's going to be very similar to the old Senate chamber, because the presiding officer will be able to to come in from behind that wal where the presiding officer is now, the three people across the top, he'll be able to come in from behind that chamber and not have to come through the middle of the chamber every time when he when we go into session and it's the same, same for the speaker.

The speaker will be able to come in from behind the.

They're having a lot of questions about that, like, how are the lawmakers going to be able to sneak around the lobbyists and all that kind of stuff?

I mean, I've just kind of been curious about that.

I mean, to me, most lobbying happens on cell phones and everything anyway.

And in the house there's not much of a, but but yeah, the lawmaker themselves are going to have a, you know, better office space and things like that.

Access to the chambers and everything like that are, is, is that part of what y'all are doing?

Well, that they will not have to come through the rotunda if they don't want to, but there's still the are that they have to come through from their offices to the chambers is still public access, right?

So they can't sneak in the front or the back of the chamber.

They can avoid coming through the the large area.

If there's a big gathering in the rotunda, they can avoid that.

Well, they can take it.

Avoid that.

Now, if they wanted to go to a different floor.

But that's jus that's the kind of scuttlebutt that's like, well, something tells me those lawmakers are going to want those handshakes and especially access to the media and things like that, no doubt about that.

So we're real happy about the way the media rooms in both chambers, they're almost the same as they are now.

The media has their, fixed area, but it's got access, so much more access to being able to vie what's going on in the chamber.

Yeah, same way with the, galleries.

Now you'll have a different you'll be able to get a different aspect of what, what the chamber looks like while it's operating, because of different camera positions.

Yeah, we're grateful for that.

Well, I've got you.

We don't have much time, but, you know, apt studio here in this state House, y'all been kind enough to allow us space in the new building.

So we've got some renderings back on what our studio space is going to look like.

These are the sketches, and it might be kind of hard to see exactly what that is, but it's it's a very much improved space, higher ceilings as you know it really.

This is a this is retrofitted lik everything else to be a studio.

So here's what it's actually going to look like on TV.

And that's it's amazing.

Yeah.

It's great.

Obviously this was the old cafeteri retrofitted to be a TV studio.

All those screens, you see, those are interchangeable.

So it'll be kind of like a a green screen situation.

You can throw up anything you want.

We can do different kinds of shows.

I'm excited about the flexibility, the way anything can can be done.

In fact, when they sent over the the renderings, they, you know, in order to show how the screens could change, they threw a like Alabama football versus Michigan State or something.

I guess this is an out of state coverage.

So they though that would be appealing to me.

Right.

It was not.

Anyway, that's going to be great.

Y'all are an integral part of of state government, not just a legislative body, but a state government with the interviews and the shows that you do and the access to the, for the public to see and hear what people have to say.

So we thought it wa when we designed the building, we thought it was very important to have this studio, in that building so that you had direct access to the member and could get that information out to the public wh who are unable to be down here.

Absolutely.

And we take that responsibility seriously.

We're going to have more capabilities to do that.

And so we're grateful we're we're going to live up to that little get up to that screams, well, gentlemen, thanks again.

We're out of time.

But yeah.

Good luck on a on a busy week ahead of you.

Thank you.

I appreciate the opportunity.

And that's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night at the same time to cover the final wee of the legislative session here on apt for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.