From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today was the 28th day of the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session, leaving just two days remaining.

Leading the news tonigh is the advancement of a proposal to require voters to register with a political party before voting in a primary.

It was the subject of sometimes heated public hearing today in the Senate State Government Affairs Committee.

The bill, sponsored by Stat Representative Ernie Yarbrough, already passed the House on a 63 to 35 vote.

It would shift Alabama from an open primary system to a closed one starting in 2027, but it would not impact the current election cycle.

Supporters say it protect party integrity, while opponents argue it could shut ou thousands of independent voters.

The committee approved the bill along party lines, setting up a potential vote on the Senate floor before the session ends.

Here's some of that discussion.

Primary elections are not public free for alls.

They are the mechanism by which political party select its own nominees.

When the process is ope to those with no real commitment to the party, it ceases to be a reflection of shared tenant and becomes an open invitation to manipulation and possible intentional interference due to heavily gerrymandered districts.

The outcome of a primary often determine who will ultimately hold office by excluding independent and unaffiliated voters from these elections.

HB 541 would effectively shut thousands of Alabamians out of the most consequentia part of the democratic process in the House.

How many Democrats?

We have 28 downstairs.

Out of 105 members in the Senate, 35 members, 812345678 Democrats with open primaries.

So for me, I don't understand.

If you're winning, why do you change the process that you've been winning in?

Republicans control every branch of government in the state of Alabama.

They've got the governor's mansion, every constitutional office, all the Supreme Court and a supermajority in the Alabama legislature.

They're already choosing already in the primary, right?

Like that's wha that reality already exists in.

Their choice of a primary ballot is already public record, right?

It's with the secretary of State.

We can all access that and see.

So the idea that you're, you're being, you know, forced into some sort of public identification badge you don't want is a misnomer because all that data is already public.

And when you go to vote in and Alabama primaries, you're already choosing already, right?

So there's nothing different about that.

Right.

So the reality is, is that and this bill passed when you come in and vote, if it passed in this session, as it is right now, if you go in to vote, in a primary, you know then you're going to request re, and you have to do nothing else and that will automatically register you with that party.

There are still mixed reviews, whether that's on, House or Senate floors.

We're just trying to make sure that we're continuing to move that and make proces with that in progress with that.

And, you'll be seeing progress with that this week.

You do support that?

Yes.

You do.

Yes.

So you it's it'll be o the Senate floor, do you think?

I believe it will be.

There was significant discussion today in the House over legislation that would allow for speeding cameras at construction zones.

Senate Bill 34 from State Senator Josh Connelly would create a pilo pilot program to test speeding cameras at construction zones along Alabama's highways, but it ran into trouble with State Representative Jim Hill, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

He had constitutional concerns with the bill.

Pilot program to stud if automated enforcement works to slow down traffic and reduce accidents and save lives.

We want people to slow down in construction zones.

We need two state troopers at each work zone to enforce the law.

We do not have those resources.

Therefore, we are forced t consider automated enforcement.

This is not about generating revenue.

It is about saving lives of the traveling public and the people that work in construction zones on a daily basis.

Let me leave you with this statistic.

In 2019, there were 14 death in Alabama construction zones.

In 2023, there were 24.

A car drives through a conjunction zone speeding record.

Right.

Oh, yeah.

We filmed that car drivin through the construction zone.

Right.

We take a picture of what we'r able to do is identify the car and the car tag.

Is that right?

That's my understanding.

Yes, sir.

What about the individual driving?

That i not part of the process as yet.

This is a pilot program.

They could do things later on if they wanted to.

Yeah.

We're going to take a picture of a car and a car tag.

Right.

And we cannot identify the individual that's driving the car.

That bill eventually passed, and that's final passage.

Let's take a look at other notable bill receiving final passage today.

At the top of the list is the Education Trust Fund budget package.

The House concurred with the Senate changes and it now goes to the governor.

The general fund is still awaiting Senate concurrence.

House Bill 98 from stat Representative Allen Treadaway, which will provide up to $2,500 in tuition assistance to the spouses and children of long serving law enforcement officers.

Senate Bill 209 from stat by State Senator Shay Shell Nut, which would revise sex education curriculum in public schools to include sexual avoidance.

Senate Bill 106 from State Senator Tom Butler, which will exempt jury service for those over the age of 80.

House Bill 604 from State Representative Terri Collins, would create an Accountability Council to recommend improved standards for public schools.

House Bill 329 from State Representative David Faulkner would update Alabama's school curriculum to include computer science and align us with national standards.

And House Bill 255 from Stat Representative Russell Bedsole, which will extend the period that victims of crime or their families can apply for the Crime Victims Compensation Fund.

Incidentally, I'll be talking with Representative Bedsole in more detail about that bill later in the show.

Dozens rallied at the statehouse today in support of Beau's law, a measure that would make keeping a dog outside without adequate food, water and shelter punishable by a class C misdemeanor.

Supporters want the bill brought to the Senate floor before the session ends, and they gained a supporter today in the form of leader of the Senate President Pro Tem Garland, governor.

I've always believed tha the true character of a person is revealed by how they treat those who are weaker, more vulnerabl and less powerful than they are.

While that belief can certainly be applied to how the powerful treat others within the political circles, I believe it is most telling and how individuals treat their pets and animals.

It's why Proverbs 1210 tells us whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

Senate Bill 361, known as Bo' Law, is not a complicated bill.

Ladies and gentlemen, it simply requires us to provide our pets with kindness, love, and basic moral decency that they deserve adequate food, adequate shelter, adequate water, and then the shelter from the elements.

Collars that do not choke and tethers that do not cause pain, harm or extreme duress.

That's all this legislation demands.

And who can argue with any pet that should be denied thes basic and fundamental elements that contribute to a quality of life?

We'll take a quick break and be back with tonight's guests.

Stay with us.

Since 1997, Alabam Public Television has provided programs, services, and resources to childcare professionals, teachers and parents.

Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is State Representative Russell Bedsole from Shelby County.

Representative thanks for coming on the show.

Todd.

Thank you.

It's always a pleasure to hav this opportunity to to join you.

So thank you.

Absolutely.

Well, we're we're getting towards the end of this, you know, really sleepy, uneventful session.

You know, no drama whatsoever or just, you know, going through the motions, you know.

Yeah.

No.

That's right.

You know, you never know what to expect year to year in any legislative session.

But, this this last year is certainly we all talk about we just want to come here, pass the budgets and go back home.

But that's neve seems to happen, does it?

Right.

Yeah.

I'm never going to believe that again.

But it's been interesting.

Good.

Good for TV.

Yeah.

That's right.

I want to talk to you because your bill, the victims compensation bill, is through to final passage in the Senate today.

This is a big accomplishment.

I wanted to ask you where this bill came from and hopefully explain to our audience what it does.

Yeah, well let me say, first of all, it's been a privileg to be the sponsor of this bill.

I carried the bill last year.

Unfortunately, we didn' get it across the finish line, but excited this year, that the members of the House and Senate have have taken up this bill.

And, you know, simply put, when we talk about the mode of the criminal justice system in and of itself we have a lot of focus on the, apprehension of the offender and bringing them to justice.

But I think what we continue to need to do a better job is, is also that piece of the criminal justice proces is taking care of our victims.

And what this bill will do will help us better take care of the victims in our state.

And so I'm super excite that we've got it to this point.

Looking forward to the governor putting her signature on it.

And so it basically extends the window because right now there's a there's a period of a short period relatively that they can people can appl for that victims compensation.

Right.

Yeah.

You just said it right.

There is a short window.

And that window right now is a year period in which a victim or the family of a victim can apply.

And the reason why we say it's short is because there is so much emotional trauma that is going on in that first year and some of these truly horrific crimes.

I mean, the victim and their family are certainly thinking about things about apprehending a offender.

They're thinking about the da that that person gets in court and they're waiting on the verdict.

And meanwhile, the calendar is clicking along and they're hyper focused on that piece of it.

And they miss out on an opportunity to apply for some needed funds whether those funds help them, and they're, they're getting back and forth to court or if they have to and forward to use them to bury a loved on that was the victim of a crime.

And so we're going to extend it through this bill from a one year period to a two year period.

We're doubling the amount of time.

The goal here, and I think the legislature, the state of Alabama, sends a clear message to say that we want to take care of the victims in our state.

Yeah.

And I think that's right.

No rational and that's reasonable to say, okay, you don't get cut off after a year, especially as as you mentioned.

I mean, you're right.

I think you're right up in terms of focusing on victims.

You know, the TV shows like Law and Order, you end with a verdict, right?

Or you end up wit some kind of dramatic thing and, you know, talk about the months and years that, you know, after and they're living with that.

And, you know, we saw, we saw and heard some of that when, victims marched on the Capitol.

Yeah.

You know, hundreds of people coming to Montgomery saying, you know we need to do more for victims.

You spoke at that march That had to be really something.

I did it was it was a bit of an emotional event to have the opportunity to speak at the Survivor Speaks rally and to hear fro so many people across our state.

And one of the things that really struck me is when the organizer of the event asked anyone in the audience the participants of the rally, to raise your hand if you received assistance and not one single hand was raised.

And I don't think it was because no one simply just didn't know about the ability to claim these funds, although education is a large part of it.

But I believe going through the criminal justice process and then being so hyper focused on that part of it, they simply ran out of time.

And, you know, when you talk about giving victims a little help and assistance, it shouldn't be measured on such a short calendar.

And that's why we had to do more.

And again, I'm very pleased with the legislative outcome that we're doing more for our victims.

So we'll talk about it from a, law enforcement perspective.

You are a law enforcement officer, Sheriff.

Sheriff's deputy.

You know, y'all see this, y'all see crime, and y'all y'all interac with victims in a different way than I would in a different way than any anybody else would.

Does that give you a different perspective about why this kind of thing is needed?

Yeah.

You know, that's why I said immediately when I was, approached about the possibility of carrying this bill.

It was something a little bit more personal to me.

I mean, there is that healthy professional boundary between law enforcement and the victims they serve.

But you can't help but build a relationship with families when you're right there with them in one of their darkest days.

And so when you have an opportunity to do a little bit more for them, and on this side, my opportunity to do more for them was to b the proud sponsor of this bill.

And do everything I could to se that victims across our state, had more time to claim these funds.

Sure, absolutely.

Wanted this opportunity.

But I would say that my law enforcement career has a lot to do with that.

And seeing, these victims in their darkest days.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, congratulations.

It's going to make a difference.

And I think, like you said, maybe more awareness on the issue in general means more people will hopefully take advantage of these funds.

Well, look, we'r we're we're almost at the end.

Two more days.

Y'all are about to adjourn sunny day.

Go home campaign, things like that.

Have you thought in general about this session?

Have you felt like it's been productive?

I mean, I know there have been bumps in the road.

Where are you?

You know, confident and, pleased with how the session is going?

Yeah, it's like the last week of school.

Everyone's excited, right, to go home.

But but overall, please, I think over the last four years, I'd say that the, the people of the state of Alabama have a lot to be happy about the legislature, although sometime we don't get it completely right and we don't make everyone happy.

I think there's been a lot of good work done, but most importantly, like I'm looking towards the future already, I look forward to the opportunit to continue to serve our state.

We're going to have a lot of changes in leadership, you know, from the governor's office on down.

And so I think the people of our state are going to have a great opportunity to have some new leadership.

And I'll just say, I think things for the people of the state are very it's a very bright future for the state of Alabama.

I like to hear that.

Well, look, thanks for your time.

I'm sure I'll see you again before signing up, but thanks for coming on Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is State Representative Sam Jones of Mobile.

Mr.

Jones, thanks for making time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Well, here we are at the end.

Almost there Almost through the finish line.

Can you taste it?

Well, yes, I think that, when you get to this point in the session, everything that's going to get out is trying to be pushed out now.

So, you know, we have some pretty long nights, over the next couple of days, but, I think that we everyone know about where we're headed from.

That's right.

Yeah.

What I saw this morning that both the Senate and the House, the length of the calendar.

Oh, yeah.

I made it pretty long.

I better, better pack some dinner tonight.

We still got a couple of pages left.

Right?

Yeah.

So I wanted to ask yo about the issue of affordability because you and the res of the House Democratic Caucus, really at the very beginning of the session, kind of laid out your agenda.

And it all had to do with affordability, various kind of items on that, agenda.

But it all had to do with the price of goods, the price of just living these days.

And we're and it's kind of been the watchword of the session.

So now that we're toward the end.

I wanted to catch up with you and ask, you know, are you pleased with what the legislature has done?

Have enough of those items been been accomplished to where you feel like affordability has been addressed?

We don't think so.

Because, when we first started, we didn't have the big gasoline crisis we have now.

And so some of the things that's taking place.

But, the other thing is that you know, we had some problems with people being able to get proper nutrition because a lot of the foo problems were addressed as well.

As, you know, we've been working quite a bit with dealing with people on various industries.

We put together package a bil that will kind of actually help those various industries, like aerospace and the maritime industry, some of the industries in Alabama and, the bills were actually introduced, but they hadn't made it out of committees to the point where we could pass them.

So we're not really pleased wit where we are on affordability.

We think that the stat has to do something to really do something with this burden that we put on people.

A lot of it done from the national level.

We even had a package of bills to address the tariffs that were put on.

Yeah.

And how it would hel Alabama, help people in Alabama.

So that was our initial goal, trying to do something positive about affordability that's taking place in the state in Alabama.

Right now.

And then on top of that, since we got over into Iran and Venezuela, and now we've got a real oil crisis.

And that's the only people even us, who have to drive back and forth to Montgomery.

It is quite expensive now to, to buy gasoline.

Yeah.

I've been delaying filling up my truck, just hoping, like, okay, maybe something's going to happen, but I guess I gotta bite the bullet.

Let me ask you specifically about rural health care, because this is an annual kind of thing that comes up.

Then some things done, I'm thinking about the Rural Transformation Task Force.

I was talking with Mister Daniels about his participation there.

We still don't know exactly what's going to happen, but, you know, 200 and something million dollars is something.

But there was als that ambulance bill that passed.

A lot of people didn't expect that.

But that's aimed at kind of improving ambulanc services in a rural health care.

Those are some some steps in the right direction.

I think they are.

I think they are in i a lot of metropolitan areas now.

Various ambulance services as well as municipal governments have the public safety departments that actually run embassies in rural areas, if somewhat different.

And most of those guys that they are either in volunteer systems, they are in system.

They're just trying to serve rural areas.

Some counties, as Mobile County has a rule system that actually serve unincorporated areas, and then they have the cities that have their own services.

So we're not similarly situated with cities that don't have that because what ends up happening is very difficult to get amily services in.

And so what you want to be able to do is have an adequate response time where you really make a difference to saving lives.

And so we were really interested in that, and we were happy to see that passed, because that's one thing that we needed.

But the Affordable Care Act is having a tremendous impact on communities in Alabama with the elimination of the Affordable Care Act and how it's being curtailed by the federal government.

It's almost impossible for some families to get insurance coverage, and that is very dangerous.

Now we've got familie that are trying to work together to try to piecemeal enough funding to handle some medical problems, but it like the subsidies going away and things like, oh, sure, sure, the substance is all going away, now.

And it's not it's I think people don't don't realize it.

It's not just for peopl who own the Affordable Care Act, but it's also had an impact o insurance programs for everyone.

I mean, I think it will have an impact on the state and a lot of other large employers because the insurance rates are going up regardless of who is on the Affordable Care Act or not.

And that, we think, is something that we really need to look at in Alabama, because especially the peopl who are low to moderate income is really, really a burden.

And now we hear that, there's some proposals to to do something with cutting child car and also cutting Snap programs.

Those are things that really devastate families in a state like Alabama.

But I also want to ask you about, the Public Service Commission, because that's another issue.

Now, we didn't know going into session this was going to blow up.

And like the biggest deal.

But when that bill in its final iteration, that's exactly what they were talking about.

Senator Chambliss and some of the other supporters of that bill saying, we're trying to address powe rates, we're trying to address electricity rates.

Are you do you think that that will also address the issue of affordability?

Do you think that measure down?

I know it's going to take time, but down the line might lead to lower power rates.

Well, I think it ha the possibility of doing that.

I don't know if it will because of some of the other mitigating circumstances that we are seeing from Washington and we are seeing from that industry, most of those industries who are actually dealing in power rates, people who use coal or they use all or they use some other fuels and fuel cost is just getting skyrocketing to a point where it's going to be passed on.

I think that the effort that we made here in the legislature, we had to negotiate a lot of that.

But when we got to a point where we could get stuf that everyone could live with, it was a much better than where we are.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Compromise.

No everybody gets what they want.

That's kind of the name of the game.

And I mean, that's kind of where the caucus has to do work, right?

Because, I mean y'all are in a super minority, so you can't expect all of the legislation to get passed.

But you've got to be strategic, I suppose.

Talk about that.

Talk about how being strategic and working to get your bills on the calendar and finding ways to figure that out, because at any moment, the super majority could always just say no.

I think that our caucus has been very successful in that area.

We really sit dow and talk with, with both sides of the aisle about the needs of the people in Alabama.

We've been successful in some areas this year.

We don't think we've been successful in other areas because we would like to see some thing go much farther than they have.

But overall, I think, the two caucuses, the Democratic caucus, the Republican caucus, the leadership all sit down and talk.

And sometimes we reach a very good compromise.

Sometimes we don't reach a compromise.

But so far this year, I think we've done quite well with the people we have.

One of the things that I think is of benefit to our caucus, we have people that have experiences in a whole different area.

So when we start talking about a subject, we can pull people in from the caucus who are really expert and a lot of those discussions, and that's helped us quite a bit.

Yeah.

Well, and I actually wanted to get to your, term, third time as mayor and mobile because, lots going on down there.

You got the airport relocating to Brooklyn, downtown, which is going to b this is going to be fun to see.

You've got, you know, submarines coming, you know, all that construction coming.

I mean, you've got the port now dredged and widened and I've had the Port Authority on the other day to talk about that and this exciting new Amtrak service to and from New Orleans, the Mardi Gras line.

Talk about that, because, I mean, that' something you talked about back when you were mayor a long time ago.

It it took some time to get that done.

We met from mayor with mayors from New Orleans.

All the way up to Jacksonville, Florida, trying to get support for that route to take place.

And we were successful in getting it from New Orleans to Mobile.

And it's really overwhelmingly successful.

It's very, very successful.

Right.

But most of the things that you're seeing happen in mobile now is because of a foundation that was built several years ago.

We had some revenue issues to deal with.

We had some an excellen annexation issue to deal with.

We had to do all of those to build a foundation for the city to move.

And now what you're seeing is some movement from all of those things that happened in the past.

Yeah, I think that's absolutely evident.

You know, it used to be kind of a lot of gridlock and things like that and lost a lot of cities.

Experienced that.

But it is remarkabl if you just look back 25 years or whatever it is, seeing the progress.

And a lot of people have a lot to be proud of an as do you wade in some of that.

Well, I think one of the things that was very successful, us, we had a community wid economic development partnership where the city, the county, the state chamber of commerce and local businesses all sit at the table and put together packages to really compete for new industries.

Most of our industry, the industry, the the international industry, right.

So we had to do a lot of traveling.

We went to Singapore in one area and Germany and another in Spain and another in Japan.

All of those places, the places that we went.

But when we went, we went ready to do business.

We didn't go speculate.

We weren't ready to do business in all of those entities, a I mentioned, were at the table.

And when they get at the table at one time, it's very, very easy to make the kind of decisions you have to make the big appealing to new industry.

Absolutely.

A lot of progress.

Mayor, thanks again for coming on the show and we'll see you before th session ends.

Thank you so much.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night at the same time, with more coverage of th Alabama Legislature here on app for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.