Is from our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey, welcome to Capital Journal.

Today was the 10th day of the Alabama Legislature's 2025 regular session.

That means that we are technically one third finished with this session.

Of course, that's a little deceiving.

There are two sprin break weeks planned for March, and the session is expected to last until about mid-May.

Plenty of legislative activity today, but leading the news is the groundbreakin of the Alabama Port Authority's Montgomery Intermodal Container Facility, or ITC.

Of this state of the art facility will enhance freight mobility and stimulate economic growt throughout the state and region.

Containers that come into the Port of Mobile will be unloaded onto rail and transported to this new Montgomery inland port.

It gives the port more capacity and it means less truck traffic for Interstate 65.

We are celebrating the Animoto Container Transfer Facility project right happening right here in Montgomery.

It will be one of the most efficient container terminals in the United States, and no doubt it will expand one of the most efficient containe terminals in the United States.

And no doubt it will expand the port's economic impact.

One of our great strengths as a port, more importantly as a state, is really three things the connectivity, efficiency and reliability.

And this pervade through all sorts of businesses, including transportation and logistics.

And it's because of these strengths that we are here to break ground on the Montgomery ICT.

From capital investments going in the ground in your port, in mobile to the shi channel, deepening and widening, that really is tied to this more than most people probably realize, and to the entire stat for even bigger global markets.

Right?

This really opens up global markets in a way that is going to be unheralded for for our state.

Coming up tomorrow, I'll sit down with Port Authority Director John Driscoll to talk in more depth about this project.

Governo Ivey took time after the event to take questions from the press.

One big topic was the legislation overhauling the Alabam Department of Veterans Affairs, which has gotten pushback from some veteran and conservative organizations.

Ivey was undeterred, telling reporters that veterans groups like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars are supportive of the bill because they understand its intent is to improve services for veterans, but that a lot of veterans are supporting this bill.

And it's the right thing to do.

We have 400,000 veterans in this great state, and we want to serve all of them and give them a great pipeline and information, and we will improve and prioritize the service to our veterans.

The Alabama Senate today came to a grinding halt as a filibuste from Senate Democrats drag out.

For most of the day, they were objecting to legislation from Senator Chris Elliott that would alter the governance structure of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Elliott originall brought the bill last year after he raised concerns about a lunch event at the archives about the history of gay and lesbian Alabamians.

The bill never actually came u because Democrats made it clear that they would use every tool of data at their disposal to slow down the flow of legislation.

Minority Leader Bobby Singleton and other Democrats filibustered for multiple hours.

I mean, when you start talking about in the mean spirited that this is this is bringing you're wiping off, you already passed, you're wiping black members off this bill.

Would you have a vacancy in district seven, which is black would probably come from.

So we don't we don't know what this new board would do.

What they're trying to set it up to do.

And so that the bill did when you start talking about the wiping out history, what you say they won't get ove archives and wipe out history.

We just need to make sure that this board stays intact.

This board stays as independent as it possibly can to continue to do the great work that has been doing for this state, so they can preserve the history of the state.

If it's on the agenda next week, it's the same thing.

We're not back int how we work through immigration, which I thought that wa we should not have been doing.

We work through that.

We worked through some of the crime bills.

So we all want to stop crack.

And we could have filibustered a lot of those bills.

But we work through and try to work throug those unintended consequences.

Know we don't want this bill and we're going to do everything we can to keep this bill from being passed.

Two bills did pass the Senate today.

Senate Bill 83 from Senator Arthur.

Or would require public entities to install adult sized changing tables in bathrooms for future projects.

And Senate Bill 140 from Senator Jab Waggoner, the Coach Safety Act.

It would mandate that youth athletic associations ensure that their coaches receive training on preventing and managing injuries.

Both those bills now go to the House.

In the House, lawmakers spent considerable time today debating a bill that would amen Alabama's public nuisance law.

House Bill 280 from State Representative Cynthia Ormond would give cities and universities the ability to sue those wh create public nuisance nuisances that aren't properly permitted.

It would also shield property or business owners from being liable for any damage is done by the public nuisance.

Who represents Tuscaloosa, said the bill was about cracking down on out-of-control alcohol fueled college parties.

Currently, municipalities and public institutions of higher education are able and have legal authority to abate nuisances.

Public nuisances.

The purpose of this bill is to allow them, in very particular, narrow circumstances, called unpermitted events, when they have to shut down an unpermitted event and they incur extraordinary costs, which they often do to be able to file suit and against the promoters of the event and attempt to recoup their costs.

What determines if a person needs a permit, and what would they need to request a permit for?

If you can't just kind of help me get some clarity, I'm not going to be abl to numerate all the situations.

But I can tell you the primary one is if you're selling alcohol, you need a permit, a license to do that, and you also need insurance to do that.

And that's the context of that's the proble we're having across the state, is it's definitely a problem in all of our major cities, but it happens in the counties as well.

And so that's what this bill is about.

People selling alcohol, having large events that they have not gone through the proper process to get a permit to, to sell alcohol.

And and yeah, I guess I'm confused when, when the ABC board and the local authorities already have the option to sit down.

Absolutely.

And that's that's my point.

They already have the ability to do this.

We're not granting them an additional authority to do this.

Except all we're all they're asking for this.

The city of Tuscaloosa for example, will spend upwards of $100,000 on a weekend, shutting down these parties.

They're extraordinary costs, and we don't feel the taxpayer should have to bear the burden.

They're not your normal thing to send a cop out to shut down a party.

And everybody scatters like some of y'all did in high school.

But, you know, it's a it's a it's immense manpower to shut down.

So that means a lo is a huge public safety issue.

That's really what it is.

So that bill passed 70 to 22 along party lines.

It no goes to the Senate this morning.

A Senate committee considered legislation aimed to protect children online.

Senate Bill 186 would require smartphone manufacturers to enable filters for inappropriate conten on devices at the point of sale.

Senate Bill 187 would require age restriction verification for certain for the downloading of certain apps.

They are both sponsored by State Senator Clyde Chambliss.

The Senate Children and Youth Committee heard testimony from bill proponents and thos who have practicality concerns.

I'm here because the committee is considering various proposals to keep teens safe online, all of which require app to know the age of their users.

And while meta has a multi-layered approach to determining age, we are only one part of the online ecosystem.

The reality is that kids are getting smartphones and increasingly younger ages, and they hop from app to app to app.

It is estimated that teens are on an average of 40 apps per week.

Parents are overwhelmed and they want to understand what their kids are doing online.

We believe that the easiest most accurate, and most privacy protective solution is to require app stores to verify ages and get a parent's approval any time their teen under 16 wants to download an app.

But I would like to point out that this bill was introduced in Louisiana last year, and they did not pass it.

It was due in North Dakota.

They did not pass it.

South Dakota, they did not pass it.

It's been all over the state now is pending in Alaska, Utah and South Carolina and Alabama.

Of course, there's no requiremen to verify anything.

So it's not a website bill.

So this is not going to take care of that problem.

This is obviously a problem across the whole country.

So why don't we take advantag of what everybody else is doing and what they're finding out.

Before we leave, just ask us to go slowly.

The committee advanced both bills and they now go to the full Senate.

Coming up after the break, I'll sit down with State Representative Matt Woods to talk about his legislation on adult education.

And after that, Cla Scofield of the Business Council of Alabama joins me to discuss the business community's opposition to pharmacy benefit manager legislation.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is state representative Matt Woods from Jasper.

Representative thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you Todd.

I appreciate you having me today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you had a bill on the floor this week having to do with workforce development, really?

Adult education called the Reach.

Can you kind of walk me through what this bill does?

Sure.

Well, the reach act stands for restoring educational attainment of completing high school.

It's a bill that I've been working on for several months now with the community college system adult ed department to reach a segment of our population that's not participating in our labor force, that really should be.

And that's high school dropouts.

And so this bill specifically addresses that segment.

And we're going to do our very best to reach them as the bill is named, and make them aware of their opportunities through the adul ed departments across the state.

So it's something I'm very passionate about and care a lot about.

So.

So how might that work?

How might we reach those who, like you said, you know, unfortunate situation, drop out of high school, maybe years go by.

Sure.

And they haven't you know, we don't want to forget them.

And so how do we go about reaching.

Well, that speaks to the issu as to why we're bringing a bill.

So currently when a student drops out of high school, there's an exit exam and, excuse me, an exit interview.

And, that that's the last communication really on the education fron that we have with that student.

And so the adult ed departments in the state didn't realize these student had withdrawn from high school.

And so this will, create a data sharing agreement between the state Department of Educatio and the community college system so that they will know sooner or at least quarterly as that studen is withdrawing from high school so they can reach out to them and bring them back into an educational pathway.

And I think it's importan for the folks watching to know the community college syste offers a lot of, skills based, training, G.E.D., a high school diploma option.

A lot of folks don't realize they can go back to school and get their high schoo diploma at, community college.

And so if you wait too long, you know, that students got off on a different path.

And one thing we know for sure is that high school dropouts tend to be, chronically unemployed or underemployed or a higher rate of being incarcerated.

And so, you know, with 5%, give or take, of the students in our state dropping out, this is a lot of folks that we could be, you know, putting on a better pathway.

What's important to know that that that decision to dropout is not the end.

That's right.

You know, maybe your mind changes.

Maybe, you know, you grow up a little bit and realize, man, I need that GED.

I need, you know, to support my family or whatever else.

And so that I guess that segment of the population, we're hoping to say, you guys are not over yet.

You still have an opportunity.

That's exactly right.

And, you know, people drop out for all kinds of reasons, you know, not not because the just don't like school anymore.

Right?

Could be a family obligation.

Things happen, for sure, but we want them to know they have other options.

And that's really speaking to the point of the bill, is that they didn't weren't not aware of their options.

And the state has these wonderful resources and programs available, but it does no good if if the students not aware of them.

So this bill will help in that regard.

It also aligns the age that are eligible to participate in the high school diplom option through adult education.

Currently, a student having to wait till age 19 to enroll in that program, we're going to drop it down to 18.

Most high school dropouts in our state are 18, and so they won't have to wait an additional year to enroll to get their high school diploma, which helps them be more employable.

It's a better option for them t get a job and an a better job.

So, so much being done on the workforce front because of that labor force participation.

I know the community college syste is engaged in every bit of it.

Well, I have you I have to, ask you have made news recently.

You've jumped in the Senate race, obviously.

Gregory, state senator, former state senator step down to run the workforce.

Department, you've thrown your name in the hat to run for Senate.

So you want a promotion?

Move upstairs.

That's right, that's right.

I've really enjoyed serving in the house.

I've had a great senator and Senator Reid all these years, with his, new promotion will say, that created a vacancy.

And, I'm just looking forward to continuing to serve the people of district five.

I guess there's plenty of overlap between your current hous district and the larger Senate.

That's correct.

Yeah, it's a lot bigger area, as you can imagine.

But the election is not until June.

So that if you do if you are successful to be for next session.

That's correct.

Yes, sir.

Well, we'll be following that election.

Yes, sir.

Mr. woods, we're out of time.

Thanks again.

And we'll be watching your bill.

All right Thanks so much, I appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

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Alabama Public Television is your place for quality educational services.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Do you want to be next?

It's Chloe Schofield, executive vice president the Business Council of Alabama.

Glenna thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

I'm used to having you as a state senator because that was a couple of years ago.

But, I appreciat you coming on in your new role.

Not so new, but this role at BCA, we're talking about PBMs pharmacy benefit manager.

It's a big topic this session.

It was a big topic last session.

Pharmacies sa they're really getting fleeced, having troubl staying in business.

But there we have the two bills, two pieces of legislation pretty far reaching in terms of their impact.

BCA has come out against these PBM bills.

Can you walk me through your opposition and, from the business community?

Absolutely.

And thank you for the opportunity to, to to get in front of everyone and go over our concerns.

These are serious concerns.

And, and the, the the employer, community and employees around the state need to understand, you know we're we're coming from on this.

Everything in these bills aren't, aren't bad.

And we couldn't agree more that that that PBMs, are definitely harming our, our our our Alabama pharmacist.

There's no question our problem and strong opposition to, to these bills as written is it places the cost on employers and their employees, without fixing the problem.

The the the the business community.

Employers didn't cause this problem.

But they are asking in these bills for us to shoulder the burden to, to fix it.

And I don't know in what world that that is.

Okay.

And so we're, we're strongly opposed to the fee system that is in here.

It will place a $10 and 64% fee.

Both bills had that SB 99 places and even higher one.

They're claiming that the PBMs will just eat that increased cost.

Now that that fee goes on, every prescription and it's a dispensing fee, every prescriptio filled in the state of Alabama, the closest numbers that we could get on that were from 2019, and in 2019, there were over 40.5 million prescription filled in the state of Alabama.

That's just on the commercial side of which we're talking about here.

If you multiply that number times $10.64, that's over $430 million.

So if the PBMs aren't going to eat it and they're saying that they are, but we all know that that's not how it works.

I'm going to get to that, because last year it was the $10 fee was at the point of sale, right at the counter, if you will, for consumers.

And that was one of the big objections this year.

It's kind of more, intertwine in the transaction for the PBMs.

But are you saying that jus when it comes out in the wash, those costs get passed along to consumers and employers?

There's no question.

They claim that there's guardrails in here and there are guardrails to to keep the the PBM from passing them down with increased copayments or anything like that.

But but premiums, we don't see how premiums don't go up.

We just don't don't see that.

We also know give you an example.

If the legislature passed a bill that said that if fuel prices go up, trucking companies can't pass on that increased cost to their customers.

Well, there's a million different ways that the trucking companies could figure out how to pass that down.

That's just common sense economics.

It's economics.

And so although they claim that the PBM big bad PBMs are just going to eat this cost, it's going to fall back on t employers and their employees.

There is no question.

Well, when it was in committee and it's you know what.

Probably have a few more committee hearings and everything.

We keep hearing the word compromise.

The bill sponsors themselves.

Other members of the committee keep saying, well we want to get to a compromise.

We want to look at.

It's not possible on this issue.

Do you see a common ground?

I think so.

You know, again we're not opposed to everything in these bills.

What we are opposed to simply is that that employers and their employees should not, bear the costs of fixing a problem that they didn't create.

The problem is still going to be there.

It's just going to transfer wealth from employers and employees to pharmacists to pharmacy owners, not just pharmacists, pharmacy owners.

And it's not just small independent pharmacies.

It's it's big box stores too.

So, it's i this comes with the big price.

I absolutely think that there's compromise here.

But but there is no compromise, no compromise.

And making employers and employees bear the cost of something that they didn't create.

Well we'll be following it.

And I appreciat you explaining that opposition.

We have the other side on the other day.

And so I really like t for our viewers to understand, you know all sides of the issues.

While I have you I saw the announcement come this week about 2026 the elections around the corner.

I mean, it really will be here.

And this is the state election.

This is governor, all the legislature all the constitutional offices.

The BCA sent out this announcement saying y'all are beefing up.

Y'all are preparing for 2026.

Want to be really engaged in that election.

What what comes with that?

What should we look forward to in terms of y'all's engagement in the 2026 elections?

Absolutely.

Great question.

We're really excited about this.

We we, as you know, announced it at our governmental affairs, conference last August.

And we have been, putting the, the blocks, the building blocks in place to to to get us there structurally.

We want to handle it a lot differently.

In the past, and not just with campaign contributions alone.

We want to get in the, you know, we want to make sure that, number one, we're backing the right candidates, that that want to focus on job creation, on economic development workforce development, you know, moving our state's econom in a very positive tive, manner.

And number one, focus on the we're backing the right candidates.

But but their campaigns are going to be successful and not just striking a check to them, but but running an in-kind operation that we we're handling their direct mail.

We're, we're handling, their get out the vote, to make sure that that those, those, candidates are going to be successful.

And so we're very excited we've announced, our new political director, Scott McClintock, who is, it was former chief of staff, for for governor Bryant in, in, in Mississippi, has extensive DC experience.

And he, he is he is going to start at the end of the month.

We're we're very excited.

So, we're going to be very intentional.

We're going to be very strategic.

But but we are we're going to be focused on, on, on supporting the right type of candidates that are going to be focused, on the economy of the state of Alabama, big election.

Like I said, it'll be here before you know it.

It's probably going to be one of the biggest election since maybe 2010, I'm thinking, because, you know, everything's open.

So much is open at least governor on down.

And of course, every legislative seat is going to be on the ballot.

Clay, we're out of time.

Thanks again for coming on the show.

We'll be following these issues moving forward.

Thank you.

Todd, we'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online at Video adaptive.org.

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

Gainesville native Burl Jaybird Coleman was an influential blues musician.

In 1927, he recorded 17 tracks in Birmingham.

In 1930, Jaybird went to Atlanta for two recording sessions as a member of the Birmingham Jug Band.

Coleman was one of the first to both sing and play the harmonica on a solo recording.

Although Jaybird was never famous, his records made a big contribution to the classic sound of the blues.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night after the high school basketball championships here on apt for our Capital Journal's Week in Review.

I hope you'll stick around for that.

For our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacy.

We'll see you next time.