From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

And happy saint Patrick's day.

I hope you didn't get pinched.

The Alabama legislatur is set to return tomorrow after being on break the last week, the 14th legislative day.

We'll start with the house gambling in at 1:00 and then the Senate at 2:00.

The Senate is set to focus on a key annual task renewing the authorization of state agencies, boards and commissions.

Before the break.

Senate President Pro Tem Garlan governor was asked about major legislative priorities that lawmakers could address upon their return as well.

As well as what to expect for the remainder of the session.

Main focus going to be sunset bills.

We have five days to get those out of the basket, run through committee, and then back onto the floor to vote on.

So there's 25 of those, and we have to focus on those to get those out.

Budget chairs ar working diligently to make sure that we get everything in that we need to for the state of Alabama and for the, our constituents.

And so from that, they're working really hard on that.

And that'll be coming up as we move forward.

When do you expect the archives bill to come back?

We're not sure about that.

We're trying to schedule fro now to the end of the session.

You know, when's the right time to drop certain bills.

And that's one that obviously everyone's looking at.

So we're going to be waitin and we'll plan that accordingly.

And any updates on gambling?

No, there's not been a bill dropped in the details.

The devil's in the details on that.

So until a bill is dropped, there's really not any details to be looking at.

So right now my focus is in other places that I think the state of Alabama has to be focused on.

In the House.

Lawmakers are expected to take up a number of tax cut bills before leaving for the break.

The House Education Budget Committee passed a series of four bills aimed at cutting taxes in a variety of ways.

And now those bills are ready for the House floor.

Let's take a look.

Let's take a look at what those bills do.

House bill 386 would accelerate the removal of the state sales tax on groceries.

You may remember the legislature enacted a plan that graduall reduced the grocery sales tax.

But that bill came with guardrails that have required certain revenue levels.

This bill would take that second penny off the state sales tax on groceries right away.

House Bill 387 would allow local governments to reduce or remove their own sales taxes on groceries.

House Bill 388 would double the state's exemption for withdrawals from define contribution retirement plans.

And House Bill 38 would increase the income floor and the amount of the optional standard deduction.

All of those bills are sponsored by State Representative Danny Garrett, who chairs that budget committee.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said that they are always looking to find targeted tax relief that can make a difference.

We have been working on during the last few weeks a number of tax cuts.

And so ATF is meeting as we speak now to get those bills out of committee.

So I think we'll see those on the floor next week excited to do that.

You know, I think if we get those out, durin this quadrennial, we've had over 15 tax cuts, the largest tax cuts in Alabama history.

We're excited to be able to do that.

I think it's because this body is being served with the budgeting process.

And who made sure that the money goes where it needs to be.

And and we've got it.

So taxpayers in Alabama as a whole is going to get more relief than they've ever had.

Two years ago the legislature enacted a bill that removed income taxes from overtime wages.

It was originally projected to cost the state about $30 million in revenue, but the actual amount ended up being closer to $300 million in revenue.

That law is set to expire in July unless unless lawmakers take action to renew it.

However, Speaker Ledbetter, so that these new tax cut proposals are more sustainable and impact more Alabamians.

If you look at what we've done with these bills, the tax cut, are going to be greater based on the number that we've given to start with.

As most of you remember, there was, estimation of $30 million, which that wasn't the case.

And so this is actually about six times what we thought we were going to get with overtime tax.

So we'll see how that goes.

But, I feel like this probably is, you know, it's like I say this a lot more than what we had been projected originally.

And not only that, everybody in the state of Alabama gets a tax cut.

And also our senior citizens use benefit from this.

Another issue awaiting lawmakers as they return is a bill that would allow heavie log trucks on Alabama highways.

Senate Bill 110.

And it's companion.

House Bill 204, have both cleared committee and are awaiting a vote in their respective chambers.

The bill's proposed increasing weight limits for log truck axles, something supporters say will benefit the timber industry and prevent log truck drivers from being unfairly penalized with court fees and fines.

They argue that drivers are often fined for exceeding axle weight limits, even when the overall weight of the trailer is within legal limits.

But state troopers and transportation officials warn that heavier loads could be more damage to roads and bridges and a greater risk to drivers.

We just want to make sure that everybody that gets o Alabama roadways makes it home.

So so that's why we're involved with this particular piece of legislation, and that's why we are concerned about it.

Because again, for us and a lot of people that are in law enforcement, not just troopers, this could be sheriff's deputies this could be police officers.

We see the aftermath, you know, we see the families.

We come in contact with, the families of the people when they lose a life.

So we really want to create a situation where everybody can be successful.

Right.

So is are we doing that?

If we put an extreme amount of weight on these vehicles and on these trailers, is that really creating a situation for that driver to be successful?

And if the answer is no, then we have to look at that.

Addressing violent crime wa the subject of a recent Chamber of Commerce weekly breakfast here in the capital city.

Governor Kay Ivey, Aliya Secretary Hal Taylor, Montgomery Mayor Stephen Reed and Montgomery County Sheriff Derek Cunningham all talked about working together to support police and address crime.

Taylor mentioned the importance of banning machine gun conversion devices and other crime bills moving in the legislature.

We needed that bill very badly because you can ask the mayor understands.

And there, we needed that.

We needed a local bill.

We need a state bill.

And that helps us with ATF down the road when we're making cases here in Alabama.

So that's huge.

Because we get to hold them now and not only is it having that with the gun or in the gun, it's in possession of the device itself.

So if you have that device in your hand, you're going to go to jail.

I tell yo what we have going on right now with this metro area crime suppression unit.

We're doing really good work here.

It's it's alea it's the county Cunningham sheriff's office.

It's the city of Montgomery, the AG's office, the AT and some other state partners.

We started working on this task force back in June of last year.

Training together, working together, working out communications.

Just a multitude of things that has to happen before you put all those agencies together and you're out here working.

There's a lot that goes into it.

And we work really hard to make sure that we had everything as dotted and t's crossed, and it's working really well.

The legislature and the governor are are going to help with some additional funding, so we can train and prepare to take this, to replicate what we're doing here with mags and take it to other areas of the state if needed.

When we come back, I'll sit down with Nancy Magnuson, legislative chair of the Alabama Midwives Alliance, to talk about their midwifery bill.

After that, Samantha Bassett joins me to talk about her upcoming event, raisin awareness about veteran suicide.

Stay with us.

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welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Nancy Melanson, legislative chair of the Alabama Midwives Alliance.

Nancy, thanks for coming on Capitol Journal.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

Well we want to talk about midwifery and everythin that's going on legislatively, but I wanted to ask you to kind of clarify for our audience what is a licensed midwife, and what's the difference betwee that and other, types of nurses?

So there are nurse midwives, certified nurse midwives, and there are certified professional midwives better than licensed with the state.

There are two different boards that actually regulate these individuals.

The nurse midwives are underneath the nursing board.

And then in 2017 licensed midwifery was established underneath a midwifery board.

So there's two differen entities governing these bodies.

The licensed midwives performed strictly and out of hospital settings.

Nurse midwives can perform deliveries in any setting and are really more commonl found in the hospital setting.

Okay, you mentioned that 2017 legislation.

That was a really big step, for that industry and your profession.

But I know that there are you know, there's been talk of continued legislation, including this year.

Can you talk about what y'all are looking for in the legislature from the legislature this year?

Yeah.

So we have, SB 87 that's out this year and HB 2 to 57.

That's out.

We're being seen in the Senate first, and this is going to clarify some language that's going to clear up some like misspellings that were done at that initial statute.

We're going to make the board flow a little better.

Some funds will be allowed to come in through donations.

Just changing a little language there.

Some of the bigger hot topics though, were related to a language with birthing centers, and we were going to take out language about insurance at the end of the statute.

Those have been highly contentious.

And then the big one that we're focusing on is newborn screenings.

It's a three part process that screens newborns at 24 to 48 hours old.

Okay.

We'll talk about that newborn screening process, because I think, yeah, there's going to be a lot of the details matter there.

Can you talk about what the law is now and what it might be if your bill passes?

Yes.

The current statute says that midwives shall order the newborn screenings.

And it relates to the code, under references there.

Then in 2018, after we had already been statute established the Department of Public Health issued a rule that says licensed midwives must refer newborns to a licensed physician within 24 hours to complete their newborn screening process.

So there's confusion where we were given the right to order and now.

But who administers?

Okay, s you want to clarify that in law.

Why is that important for your, you and your colleagues to have that clarity?

Because most newborns have difficulties getting into a licensed physician's offic within that 24 hour time frame.

There are there are many reasons businesses are booked.

The pediatricians may not have an opening that same day or even the next day.

We have many family doctors that serve, and they like to see the newborn at two weeks old.

But let's get into a newborn that's born on a Friday.

That mother and father can't even call their local pediatricia until Monday morning to get in.

You're alread outside of the 48 hour window.

Just a call to try for an appointment.

And these babies are being delayed in their screenings.

So would that, put you at risk of losing your license if you missed that window under current law?

No.

No, I don't believe so.

Because they, has told us clearly, so long as you refer, okay, that that's how the statute is being fulfilled currently, right?

Right.

We'll talk about the screenings, what all is involved in a newborn screening?

I mean, I hav no idea, so please educate me.

Yeah, it's a whole program.

There's really three things that are involved in the newborn screening.

The first one that most people think about is a blood spot card.

And I brought a an example today.

Okay.

So it's a it's a blood spot card that you fill out.

And then little droplets of blood go here in five places is from the newborns heel.

It's a simple heel stick.

The blood goes there.

The card goes mailed directly t Alabama Clinical Laboratories, and then they actually run the test to determine if any of those diseases are showing up to where they would need to follow up with the pediatrician and verify that those conditions exist.

Okay.

One of the other parts is going to be a newborn.

Screening for, critical congenital heart defects.

And that's done with a simple, pulse oximetry.

So you've ever been to the doctor and they've put the little thing on your finger and it reads your heart rate and your oxygen is the same concept.

It's just using a different devic that's motion sensitive, okay.

That way we can establish a clear view of the newborn.

It has to be neonatal, regulated to use that.

And it's done on the hand.

Solid palm.

There's n blood even involved with this.

Also goes on the foot as well.

And then there is a a flow chart that you have to follow if anything's outside of that flow chart.

That newborn is also referred for further intervention and testing.

Usually those babies that are referred go critical call it quick.

If these tests are not done for them in 24 to 48 hours, those babies crash pretty quickly around day 4 or 5.

Things like, transposition of the greater arteries in the heart.

So you've got blood oxygenating just to the lungs and blood oxygenating just to the body, but not crossing.

So nothing's actually getting oxygen for real.

If that's not treated very quick Okay, so so these tests will they will pick that up.

They do.

They pick up the reason tha you should see somebody further.

And we're talking a specialist.

This isn't just going to the pediatrician's office.

If the cardiac is defect is detected, you're going into a local hospital.

If you're if you live far away from a larger hospital or you're going straight to in Alabama, UAB Children's Hospital and you're getting a pediatric cardiologist is looking over this child when these are identified i the hospital at 24 to 48 hours, these babies are airlifted out of those hospitals to a larger facility for testing and treatment.

Yeah.

Well, you mentioned the bill.

I think there's a public hearing coming up.

What what do we need to know ahead of this public hearing?

That's going to be on your bill.

Yeah.

So we had a public hearing two weeks ago.

Oh.

Let me let me ask.

Let me ask that again.

Now, we had a public hearing on this bill.

What did we learn from the from the public hearing?

Specifically the legislatio there, there was confusion as to whether midwives could provide this, the screening.

It is in our national regulation and testing as far as what we're trying to do.

To, administer these screenings to perform them, all three of them including the hearing screening that I didn't bring an example with today.

So we discussed that there was we were providing education.

There were some questions that the senators asked.

We derailed a few times on some other topics, just wanting them, wanting to know more information about midwifery in Alabama.

One person wanted to know how much, how many benefits and what counties are we serving, where we're serving al but three counties in the state and they referenced, pediatricians available to b able to refer these children to.

There are 23 counties in our state that have no pediatrician yet.

We're serving all but three.

So there are some difficulties in accessing this care, even though it may look good on paper to just refer, it's not being effective.

We also learned that Mississippi, has cards as well that their unlicensed midwives are performing their State Department checks in with them quarterly.

Do you need more paper?

Dean, are you reporting everything?

Can we get any more help to you?

They won't want the babies missed.

We learned that in Georgia.

We have a midwife that serves that area of the state.

And some of those babies will be born in Alabama, but then their closest pediatrician is in Georgia.

I say, so they'll cross over.

But Georgia, if you're going to see their pediatrician in house, they don't want those babies left behind either.

So the Georgia State Department, who also doesn't license midwives for home birth, is giving our licensed midwives screening cards to perform at the Alabama home birth because they're following up with a Georgia pediatrician.

We also learne some women are leaving the state to have their births out of hospital, so that the newborn screening process will be simple instead of difficult, because every other state the licensed midwives perform this, we're the only one that's causing restriction.

Interesting.

Well do you what are the prospects?

What are you hearing from lawmakers?

Their feedback.

Do you expect there to be a vote?

Do you expect it to b a successful vote in committee?

We're very hopeful that it will be.

It makes perfect sense to us.

We're continuing to tr to educate legislators on this.

There is opposition or pushback, of course.

There were there was no one who spoke in opposition at the public hearing.

I'm guessing hospitals in the some in the medical community correct that that is who we're hearing from.

And we've been having conversations with these different organizations since December.

They had a copy of our bil before we even filed with LSA.

We've been trying to work through the details and like I said recently, we did concede on any birthing center language and we're leaving the insurance language, so we're attempting to work that.

But the lives, the health and safety of these newborn getting these three screenings, as the screening program is so critical to having life in the longevity of life and a happy life that we can't keep delaying it just because of bureaucracy, just because it looks good on paper to refer.

We have many, many examples as to where it's just not happening.

They're either being delayed or parents are getting so frustrated trying to get them that they're like, oh, my baby's old enough.

It would have shown I'm going to give up.

And then we're not screened at all, not screened.

And that's so important We'll look, we're out of time.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming on and explaining some of this.

And we'll be following, as th legislature gets back to work.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Preventing veteran suicide has been a big issue of discussion here in the state House and across the country.

It's also the focus of an upcoming awarenes event here in the capital city.

Joining me next to talk about that is the event's organizer, Samantha Bassett.

Sam, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Hey, Todd.

Thanks for having me.

We'll get to the even a little bit later, but we will talk.

We're talking about the issue of veteran suicide, and I know this has hit you personally.

I was hoping that you could share with our audience just how the issue has impacted you, your personal life.

Okay, so for me, with my personal experience as my husband, Mitchell Bassett Jr. And he di seven years in the Marine Corps and he was medically retired back in 2014.

So from 2014 to 2024, last year, he dealt with severa different mental health issues, including PTSD, moral injury, alcoholism, depression, and then of course, the physical, problems that he dealt with.

Afterwards.

He got hit by an ID over there and Afghanistan, which put him with the wounded Warrior Battalion, and he had three fuzed discs in his lower back, which caused him a tremendous amount of pain, not only weighing on the physical disabilities that he had, but also putting more stress on the mental that he was dealing with in that moment.

Unfortunately for everybody, and tragically, on Thursday or Thanksgiving of last year, he committed suicide.

And what we're doing with this ride is trying to bring awareness to the situation of what veteran suicide is, an to put that into scope for you.

Just between 2001 and 2021, Browns did a study around the university, did a study where they analyzed veterans suicide.

And during that 20 year period, we experienced the loss of what we know of 30,177 U.S. military members, active and retired, versu the 7057 that we lost in combat.

Now, what that means is that our veterans are literally taking themselves out four times faster than the enemy ever could.

So that's a war that we're dealing with on the U.S. side.

That is not war that we're dealing with overseas.

So I just want everybody to realize tha while we leave war over there, the war still follows a lot of these veterans home.

They talk about wounds.

We cannot see those, you know mental and psychological wounds that sometimes do result in the end and suicide.

You're wearing your shirt 22 a day.

October.

Awareness about that.

We were talking off camera about it, actually, maybe more than 22 veteran suicides a day.

Talk about that as, as part of the awareness.

Absolutely.

And so 22 is a symbolic number.

It was a number that was given to u by the VA back in 2000 and, 15.

So that was over ten years ago going on ten years.

Yeah.

It's 2025.

Time goes by so fast.

But they gave us that number 22.

That number does not include self-injury, which is overdose within those veterans.

And then we take in consideration a lot of these veteran will do anything that they can to make it look like an accident.

So you have, suicide by cop, you have overdoses.

You have a lot of veterans that are homeless, that are not being considered veterans when they die because nobody's taking the time.

They're just conside John knows that we're homeless.

So that number really does loo a little closer to 44 day.

Wow.

But that's not something that we've seen recognized within the VA. Well, let's talk about the ride.

How did this get started and what should people know about it?

So the ride for me, that is a benefit ride.

And it will come back to me financially as far as the despair that I've been left in, but also, 25% of everything that is raised during this ride will go back to another organization called Vhb for 22, that is veteran bikers for 22 a day.

Now they're organizing a ride in 2026 Veterans Day week, and everything that they raise from that ride will go back to other families of the impacted by 22 a day.

And you're talkin about motorcycle riders, right.

You've got all kinds of different groups.

I understand it starts out at the Harley Davidso place here in Montgomery.

Yes.

And so we're going to start off with the Harley Davidson on March 29th.

That's going to be the last Saturday of March, not this Saturday but next.

And we kick up 12:00.

What do kick stands out.

Registration starts at 1030.

And then we have multiple stops.

We'll go throug Millbrook, American Legion post.

That's going to be 133.

Then we'll go through Prattville at 122.

American Legion Post, and then 1349 the VFW post.

And then we're going to take the ride all the way back to Cloverdale, which is my side of town.

Also, Mitchell did a lot of work over there, so we know several people in the Cloverdale area.

It should be impactful for a personal reason there.

The reason that I chose Cloverdale on top of that is as far as I'm aware, Cloverdale has never seen a bike ride.

And when it comes to these bikers and veterans, they stick together.

And I'm really hoping to show a very impactful event, along with something that is considered extremely important right now, something that should be recognized.

And while the in 22 a day is very recognizable within the veteran community, outside of the veteran community, not a lot of people know what we're talking about, and that's what needs to change.

So all about is raising awareness.

So even if you're not a rider like me, it's I can still come to the event.

The end game is at Pine ball, right?

Absolutely.

And when it comes down to it, it is a poker run.

So you don't have to be on a bike to participate in the ride as well.

You can come along and participat to every, every stop in the ride without having a bike.

And then you can also join us at the last stop without participating in the ride itself.

And we're going to have several big raffles there as well.

We'll have a little bit of music.

I have a guest speaker from the Till Valhalla project coming down.

He's going to talk, and I'm still in talks with the Marine Corps about having his 21 gun salute down there.

Oh, wow.

Look, Sam, we're out of time.

Thank you for coming and sharing so much about this important issue.

Good luck with the ride and I'll see you there.

Thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

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.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night at the same time right here on Alabama Public Television.

For our Capital Journal team I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.