Coming to yo live from our state house studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey, welcome to Capitol Journal.

The Alabama legislature is still in session here on its final day.

At this very moment, the Senat is still debating legislation.

Whil the House is patiently awaiting any action from the Senate tha will require its final approval.

So why the late night Democratic senators today led a prolonged filibuster effort on the Senate floor, delaying an agenda full of non-controversial local legislation.

First came State Senator Bobby Singleton, who was upset that his Greene County gambling bill did not get a vote in the House.

House members did not se the legislation as a local bill, but rather one with statewide implications on gambling.

Singleton used Senate rules to procedurally slow down legislative actio on each local bill that came up.

As of right now, the Senate has only been able to pass ten such bills, despite an agenda of more than 50.

And later in the day.

State Senator Maric Coleman, protested the enactment of legislation reconstitutin the Birmingham Waterworks Board.

She said that law diminishes Birmingham's voice on that key panel.

Here are some of their comments from the floor.

And again, people, we don't have to be in this posture.

We we're all in this position.

This is where y'all want to be.

You want to be because this is your home.

You in control.

We got them under control.

This is what you want to show the public.

And then nobody think about whether y'all are under control or not.

All I do is see me stand up and a Bible sayin that I never run in the Senate.

And y'all don't like that when they say that.

We just want to make sure that we're being treated equally in this process.

You're not going to run over us, you know because at the end of the day, if you take this mic and you do this, it's just time for us.

That's all it is.

It's just time.

You waste it.

I waste it in this process, the way it is.

Go down and.

No, you can't g back in your office and sit down because every 20 minutes you go out to vote.

It's about the oath that I took to uphold the laws.

The rules.

And you don't change the rules because you can.

Now, when it comes down to this calendar and all of these bills on here are local bills, we've never had a calendar.

This almost look like the Big Bertha calendars.

We've never had a calendar like this long.

All of these bills are the ones that we could have passed if we had just been fair about home rule of others, and my apologies.

That was state Senator Linda Coleman Madison, not state Senator Marica Coleman.

And we tried catching u with the Republican leadership for their response to the Democratic filibuster, but none were available as of Showtime.

Of course, we'll have their thoughts after adjournment tonight, and you can catch that on Capitol Journal's Week in Review on Friday.

Another reason for today's slowdown, and frankly, the last few weeks of session, has been the bac of the blue legislation aiming to offer more legal protections to police officers.

House Bill 202 from State Representativ Rex Reynolds would impose higher legal thresholds to prosecut or sue law enforcement officers.

It would allow for the early dismissal of charges or lawsuits in which a judge deems the officer's actions lawful and constitutional.

The bill has been championed by its supporters as a tool to improve police recruitment and retention.

With Alabama's major citie facing severe police shortages.

The Senate took up the bill this evening and as of this broadcast is still debating it on the Senate floor.

Should the bill pass, it will need to go back to the House for final passage.

This defines what gives the protections and what law enforcement officers need if a law enforce officer is acting outside.

But their roles are standard to our constitutional limits.

It does not protect them.

HB 202 does not protect officers from prosecution if they use constitutionally excessive force.

This is something that's needed in the state of Alabama to clarify where they stand, what they do.

We asked law enforcement officers to go into our communities and protect us.

We asked them to take care of us, keep us safe in our homes while we sleep at night.

This bill will give the the assurances that we back them and back the blue.

It just disappoints me that the goal of somebody get pissed off because you don't like the fact that we don't won't get blown away.

I see the attitude.

You think we both be happy getting blown away?

I mean, really, you know.

You need to look at yoursel if you think something is wrong with me standing up here telling you we've been to get blown away.

If you think that there's something you need to examine yourself.

Get an attitude.

Because I don't want my people getting bumped off.

Again debate on that bill is ongoing right this moment and we'll have an update for you at the end of the show.

Well, switching gears, the bill banning cell phones in Alabama's public schools is now law.

Governor Kay Ive put her signature on the Focus Act today.

The law requires students phones to be turned off and stored off of their person during the school hours.

The bill does certain it contains certain exception for children with health issues that necessitate the use of a cell phone.

For example, diabetics who monitor their blood sugar with a mobile app, or students with a personalized education plan involving a smartphone.

Some schools alread banned the use of smartphones, but the Focus act will require all school systems to do so.

Leaving it up to the school systems to decid how the devices will be stored.

The Focus act also requires the Alabama State Department of Education to offer social media safety training for all students before entering the eighth grade.

Alabama joins a number of states across the country in banning cell phones in the classroom.

And Governor Ivey also signed into law the Powering Growth Act.

It's a bill designed to accelerate energy infrastructure project to boost industrial development in the state, particularly in rural areas.

The bill will establish the Alabama Energy Infrastructure Bank, a division of the State Industrial Development Authority.

It will be charged wit financing energy infrastructure projects that support economic development.

The law authorizes the agency to issue up to $1 billion in bonds to provide loans and other financial assistance to eligible project.

And other bills bein signed into law by Governor Ivey include Senate Bill 33 from State Senator Dan Roberts.

This is the one that reconstituted the Birmingham Waterworks Board to add seats from communities surrounding Birmingham that are also customers of the system.

Supporters say the change is necessary due to skyrocket skyrocketing water and sewer fees that they attribute to a dysfunctional board.

House Bill 307 from State Representative Jim Hill, known as the Speedy Trial Act.

The law will allow the chief Justice, at the request of the Attorney General or a district attorney, to assign a retired judge or a judge from a different circuit to provide over violent crim cases where there is a backlog.

House Bill 445 from State Representative Andy Witt will limit and regulate hemp based consumable products like vapes, gummies and drink containing THC or Delta eight.

I'll talk with Mr. Witt about this bill in more detail later in the show.

And House Bill 152 from State Representative Neil Rafferty, which eliminates state sales taxes on diapers, baby supplies, maternit clothing and feminine products.

And Mr. Rafferty will be in studio later in the show to talk about that bill.

And we'll be right back with those interviews.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is State Representativ Andy Witt from harvest, Alabama.

Representative thanks for coming on the show.

I thank you for inviting me, and it's always a pleasure being here.

Here we are at the end into the legislative session.

We finally made it.

We finally made it after, several months of hard work.

It's the last day, and it's it's almost builds up like Christmas.

It's here.

The rip the rip package open, and next day it's over with.

So I think some might dispute that we are happy too.

Happy to be at the end.

Well, you've had som legislative success this year.

I really wanted to focus on your THC bill.

This was a heavy lif and it was amended many times.

Public hearings I mean, you had some pushback.

Can you just first remin our audience what the bill does?

Sure.

And I'll be glad.

And let me build a bac story of why we're here today.

The hemp industry was basically the Wild West since the 2018 farm bill, and it created numerous loopholes in the state of Alabama.

And it began with edibles.

It began with gummie at our local convenience stores.

It morphed into THC infused beverages, and then it morphed and also, beverages being sold at restaurants, bars, things of that nature.

As I was, spoke in committee, you could come down 65 and get a 50 milligram THC infused slushie on your way to the beach.

So, yeah, it was it was a lot of scary products out there.

And and, in the, in the committee meetings and even on the floor I brought some of those samples and things for the members because this is a lot of products they're not familiar with.

But I think all of Alabama is that, that that visits a convenience stores, sees all of the Delta eight nine.

No, they see the flags and the vape shops and things like that.

That's advertising, these, these drugs basically, and synthetic that are targeting our children.

Understand?

There is no, no State Department that's over those, Elliott doesn't manage it.

The health department doesn't manage it, and ABC doesn't manage it.

So no one has the authority to go in.

Todd, you and I could make this product and put it in convenience stores and sell it.

That's the way.

And you approve without any approval, any testing, any regulation or anything.

So, you know, how safe is that?

It's not safe, and I I've.

I can show you multiple emails, phone calls, text messages I've received across the state where children had ingested this product and ended up, contacting the Alabama poison control, ended up being in a coma, etc., maybe med flighted from their local hospital.

About, purchased, some product that, it 1/16 of the gummy was considered a, serving size, serving size of that gummy.

Well, you know, as well as I do as a child or, high school or maybe even adul will not flip the package over to say that one serving portion was a 16th of that gummy.

That 1/16, contained over 200mg of of delta eight.

It contained delta nine THC and other drugs.

And as the research showed, and that that I was shown with AB and Department of Public Health, ten milligrams is considered intoxicating.

Anything above that is, is strictly for intoxication.

And, so that' where the legislation came from.

It was the Wild West.

I felt that the, that this legislatio would come through my committee, the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee, and so I just took it upon myself that over the last ten months I've worked on this, traveled the state much a I have with other legislation.

I'm a hands on guy, and brought it to the floor.

And it was it's been successful.

And, it passed the House and Senate.

And so now ABC will be charge with overseeing that, regulate.

That's that's correct.

So it will be, in 2 and over stores only, all the, all the Inhalable products, when you would go into a convenience store or a vape store and you would see, these jars of look like bud or, marijuana, rows and rows of that, all of the smokable, the inhalable, all of that is is outlawed in this piece of legislation.

Everything else is capped at ten milligrams, and moved into 21 and over.

ABC will not sell it.

You know, the state stored in that business.

But, we did understand that there is, has been a need for this product in its it is useful, for arthritis, people's pain medication, things of that nature, you know, eating cancer, things of that nature.

And, you know, I supported the medical marijuana legislation 3 or 4 years ago.

So one thing this is not it's not a complete ban on the hemp product in Alabama.

I was going to ask you about that because you received some criticism from API Alabama Policy Institute basically from the right, saying this doesn't go far enough We should have an outright ban.

How do you respond to that?

Yeah.

So, you know, I look at the states that has had to outright ban, and I think they they referenced Colorado.

I don't think Alabama wants to be Colorado.

I will never support recreational marijuana in the state of Alabama.

Period.

And sometimes there is a compromise.

But again, with the 2018 farm bill, this is what Alabama was left with, and this is what we had to deal with.

So an outright ban, as you see in Colorado and Missouri and some of these other states, the recreational marijuana, as I understand in Missouri, is a $4 billion industry.

Alabama does not want to be Colorado or Missouri when it comes to that.

Well, while I've got you, I want to ask you about the issue of gambling.

It obviously did not surface this year.

I mean, you had Mr. Albritton starting to bring up a bill, but the pro tem said, nope, we're not going there.

So obviously not this session.

Next session, a, election year, a lot of people, conventional wisdom says it's not coming up that year.

So is that correct?

When when might you see another push like y'all did last year on gambling?

Yeah, I think you'll have to wait and see what comes out of the Senate.

Again.

I was very disappointin this year that something didn't make it out of the Senate.

I believe, Chairman Chris Blackshear and myself put in the tim and effort at the past session.

We've built a great foundation to build upon, it's going to take comprehensive gamin to get across the finish line.

Everyone ask about a lottery.

Only we know that.

I mean, that tha has and has plagued us forever.

And it it just simpl will not work in the state here.

The votes are not there.

So.

And then you've got 18 constitutional amendments across the state that you have to deal with and that patchwork that you've seen, over the last 20 or 30 years, it's been allowed in Alabama has got us to the chaos at the end of this session, this time, with Senator Singleton and several other senators that has local gaming bills.

And they feel that it is a local issue and that, I respect their constitutional amendment where they went out and voted on the legislation 20 or 30 years ago.

But again, Alabama can't move forward.

Patch working the gaming together.

Let me ask you this question, though, because I totally understand.

I explain all the tim why standalone lottery you know, as the vehicle right now it can't pass itself.

But what about the in Fort Gill's bill last year had a lot of enforcement mechanism.

That was kind of the the big impetus behind it.

Right Could you pass that standalone.

Could you do enforcement first and then it's kind of like the immigration issue, like deal with the border before you deal with the deal with it.

Yeah.

Would that be a possibility?

Yeah, I don't know.

Again we were waiting for the Senate to do something this year.

I was I was always very optimistic, that the Senate would do something last year you saw something that I've never seen in Alabama politics, where we go to a conference committee and it comes out six no.

Six oh, and the conference committee and the senator that carried the legislation in the Senate last year voted against it, voted against his own bill, and it failed by one vote.

So, Todd, I don't know what the Senate's going to do next year.

The House has shown that it can pass gaming.

We done it twice last year and we're ready to take it up.

But the number one thing that I get asked, and I would assume most legislators are when are you going to allow us to vote on the lottery or gaming in Alabama?

And people in legislators need to remember this, that we're only allowing the people to the right to vote on it.

And that's what I stand by.

And when you take that awa from people, and you deny that, I think they will remember that in the polls.

It does come up all the time.

Thanks again for coming on the show.

It's, congratulations on the end of the session.

And safe travels back home.

Thank thank you.

And you have a have a fun summer.

We'll try.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Click on the online video tab on the main page.

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

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is State Representative Neil Rafferty from Birmingham.

Representative thanks for coming on the show.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Here we are at the end.

Finally, finally.

It sounded, Yeah.

Praise be.

Well, look, you've had successful legislative session.

I wanted to talk about a couple of your bills.

You had this bill that deals with sales tax on certain products, right?

Describe how this came about and what it does.

So this bill is a multi-year effort.

It was really kind of inspired first by representative Roland Hollis bill that dealt with period of poverty in schools.

And then this seeme like a natural next step for it.

So what the bill does is eliminates the state's portion of the sales tax.

From, menstrual hygiene products, diapers, breast, pumping equipment, formula, maternity clothes, baby wipes and some other really essential needs that young families and people with young children need on a day to day basis.

So we're hoping to, you know, put a little bit more money into their pocket so that they can maybe put it, put it towards investing for college or, buying their first hom or something along those lines.

Yeah.

Making those products more affordable.

I mean, it is it's tough to make ends meet for a lot of families out there.

And even that little bit of sales tax off it can make a big difference.

Is that kind of the idea?

That is definitely the idea.

I mean, I have many, families, young families around my immediate neighborhood and just kind of going around and asking them, how much do you think this will help them?

And they're saying, you know, upwards of like a thousand and $2,000 a year that they're going to be saving just for themselves.

That's real money.

Yeah.

Real money.

Well, congratulations on that.

And that's law now, right?

That is law.

Yeah.

Kay Ivey signed it, on Friday just in time for Mother's Day.

So.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Good timing.

Also, your bill dealing with, portable benefits, correct?

Yes.

Y'all had this commission.

We covered it some, I guess during the summer, maybe.

Yeah.

You know, had this commission exploring the idea because.

So much of our, workforce these days is gig economy right here at Ube and DoorDash, things like that.

But they may not get health benefit or retirement benefits, right?

What is y'all's commission kind of find?

So we found that there's a couple of our state that are trying to do something.

But, you know, the, my co-chair, senator or and I were very insistent on making sure that we make something that works very well here in Alabama and for Alabama.

So we had peopl who are consumers who would be, you know actual gig drivers themselves, even they were on the, on the, commission to have a say in an input.

And they're kind of asking more what they want, be able to make sure that it worke with the Department of Revenue and all these things.

I mean, they we really crafted a great piece of legislation that that gets, the ball rolling on this portable benefits here.

And the big thing is Alabama really is setting the pace.

We really are the innovators here when it comes to this portable benefits idea.

So if I am an Uber driver or DoorDash, what could I expect in terms of what is now available?

Right.

So what would happen?

All this bill did was just establish these accounts that would be tax free.

That would be then used to, accrue money that you would match with whatever platform based app that you're using or that you're using, to put the money in there.

And then you can use it for things like, you know, sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, possibly even paying for health care premium and that kind of thing as well.

And you can take it from job to job and you can take it from job to job.

So and it will allow them to establish, you know, this relationship or this, contract with, that with that app, to then match them as far as how much money they're putting into that account, I see.

So Uber, DoorDash, I know singling those out.

There's a ton of these.

Right.

A lot of them no are offering some kind of match, but you've got to have the account first, but you got to have the account first, right?

You have to make sure that it is used appropriately and for the reasons that it's supposed to be used, as well as, you know, for the tax free, that part of that.

Right, part of the account as well.

Well, congratulations to two, interesting bills, two bipartisan bills, you know, so much which we talk all the time because a lot of stuff gets the headlines is the the bickerin and the really, partizan things.

But the good examples of two bipartisan bills that, you know, really weren't controversial just complicated, complicated, and required a lot of work to kind of make sure we're working through all the processes to make sure that we're creating something that's actually useful and beneficial, not just something that, yo know, you want to get out there.

You can make a headline, but something that can actually really make a difference in people's lives.

Absolutely.

Well, congratulation on the end of another session.

I gues we'll be back in January.

Yep.

Be back in January.

Maybe later, maybe soon, or you never know.

Right?

Right.

Well, thanks again for your time.

Thank you.

Todd, we'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

And joining me now is Jef Sanders, who covers the Senate for Capital Journal.

Jeff, been a long day, but I understand there's an update on House Bill 202, the back the blue act.

Yeah, it di finally pass in the Senate here just a few minutes ago.

I believe the vote was 26 to 5 after a lengthy filibuster by Democrats.

And they had the bill read out loud to the auto reader, which takes, a good amount of time that now heads to the house where, most likely they will, concur and then send it to the governor's desk.

Yeah I think there's plenty of time.

You know, here we are, approaching 11:00.

There's probably plenty of time before midnight for th for the House to pass that bill.

But that's not the only thing on the Senate agenda.

They're still in session right now.

I know there are other things.

A lot of local bills.

There's that archives bill.

That is a conference committee report but we're running out of time.

What kind of opportunit to the rest of the bills have, I don't know.

Democrat are still in a filibuster mode.

I'm looking at the special calendar I here, there's about 40 bills on here.

They have about 30 something to go.

So, we'll se how far they get through that.

If the Democrats keep filibustering, even with cloture, you're getting two, maybe 2 or 3 bills, tops.

As far as that archives bill, it's not on this calendar, so they would have to, to bring that up.

It would seem like the time for that bill is running out pretty quickly.

Yeah.

And again, if it comes back up, it seems like all they would have to do is filibuster it again, maybe even do a read at length thing.

Again.

When you're running out of time, you're just kind of against th wall.

You're against the wall.

And that conference committee today, what they did was they removed the House amendment, whic took away Senate confirmation.

So it's the original Senate version basically now.

But again, it's just it's time is it's 1055.

It just seems like it's going to be hard to get to.

Right.

And, you know, that's an interesting way to put it, because when it came out of committee, a conference committee, Democrats said, okay, well, we're fine with it.

But look, all you got to do i slow things down a little bit, to make that a problem.

So we'll be watching that.

We're not done yet.

Still watching as we go right up to these local bills are ver important to to the leadership.

Yeah.

And we may be back in January passing legislation that doesn't get across the finish a little bit.

Look, I'll let you get back up to the Senate because we're still going.

But, thanks for your explanation.

And, we'll look for a full update on we can review Capitol Journa on Friday looking forward to it.

Thanks, Tom.

All right.

And that's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back on Friday with our Capital Journal Weekend Review 730 here on APT.