16 days down, 14 to go: What’s left for the 2025 Alabama legislative session

The Alabama Legislature is just over halfway through the 2024 Legislative Session with Tuesday marking the 17th day of session. 

Gov. Kay Ivey laid out her priorities for the session in her State of the State address in February. Some have already been signed into law, like the What is a Woman Act and the Glock switch ban. But what is still moving through the legislative process?

To the governor

• SB 97, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster, also known as the What is a Woman Act, was one of the first pieces of legislation to make it to Ivey’s desk this session. Critics say the law is discriminatory and that passage was rushed. It received final passage on the fifth legislative day, which is the minimum number of days it takes to pass a bill. 

The law defines “sex” as the “state of being male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth” and provides further definitions for male, female, man, woman, boy, girl, mother and father. It also prohibits males, as defined by the law, from being in female spaces, as defined by the law, and vice versa. 

• Ivey signed a ban on Glock switches, which turn semi-automatic firearms into automatic firearms, on March 19. 

SB 116, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, for a person to own or sell the combination of parts that create a Glock switch. The bill was the first firearm restriction legislation to pass the Legislature since 2010. Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, carried the legislation in the House and had done so for the past two sessions.

• The Legislature also passed a bill altering the Veterans Affairs Board to give Ivey control over its commissioner and policies. SB 67, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, the board will retain its current size of 17 members, but the governor will appoint the commissioner. The bill also removes the board’s ability to enact policies and rules on veterans’ issues, reducing them to an advisory role in the governor’s office.

Ivey appointed Jeffrey Newton, a retired brigadier general, as commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs last week. 

“We will use this new structure to focus on what matters most — serving those who sacrificed so much for our freedoms — our veterans and their families,” Ivey said in a statement after signing the bill.

• Ivey supported paid parental leave for educators in her February speech. Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, tried to pass the legislation last year, but it did not get a House vote. This year, Figures and Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg, teamed up to pass SB 199 on March 20. 

The law allows women who give birth, have a stillbirth, or a miscarriage after 12 weeks to receive eight weeks of paid leave. It also allows a father to take two weeks of paid leave under those circumstances. If a couple adopts a child under 3 years old, either parent may have eight weeks of leave.  

It awaits a signature from Ivey, which she said last week in a social media post she would sign it. 

“Thank you to Rep. Ginny Shaver and Sen. Vivian Figures for carrying this important legislation. I look forward to receiving the bill and getting my signature on it,” she wrote.

To the floor

• On the education front, Ivey called for a ban on cell phones in classrooms. HB 166, sponsored by Rep. Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena, and SB 92, sponsored by Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, bans cell phone use in public schools from bell-to-bell with few exceptions. 

According to the legislation, cell phones could be used in emergency situations, by students with Individualized Education Plans and Section 504 plans, and when necessary for instructional purposes. 

Both bills are waiting on floor votes in their respective chambers of origin. 

• SB 55, sponsored by Sen. Chris Elliot, R-Josephine, attempts to invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued without legal presence verification. It passed the Senate in February and the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee in early March. It awaits a vote on the House floor. 

• HB 297, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Fidler, R-Silverhill, would impose a 4% fee on international transfers, often used by immigrants to support family overseas. It is similar to SB 77, sponsored by April Weaver, R-Alabaster, but the House version does not impose as much of a fee that Weaver’s bill proposed. It passed a House committee last week and awaits a vote from the full House. 

• HB 7, sponsored by Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, would give sheriff’s deputies and police officers authority to arrest and detain people without citizenship and to transfer them to the custody of federal law enforcement. It passed a House committee in February and awaits a floor vote in the House. It is not on the agenda for April 1, when the Legislature returns from a weeklong break. 

Committee conversations

• A bill that would allow felons convicted under the Habitual Offender Act before 2000 to have their sentences reviewed passed the Alabama Senate last week and moves to the House Judiciary Committee. As of Wednesday afternoon, that committee has not posted its agenda.

SB 156, sponsored by Barfoot, also known as the Second Chance Act, got support from Ivey. The criminal justice reform measure is designed to ensure state prison space is used for the most serious offenders.

• SB 63, sponsored by Sen. Lance Bell, R-Pell City, would require fingerprinting and DNA collection from non-citizens in custody. The bill passed the Senate in February and is awaiting a vote in the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee. 

• SB 53, sponsored by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, establishes a process to determine immigration status detained by law enforcement and creates a new crime of harboring or concealing a person without legal immigration status. The bill received a lot of criticism for containing language that mirrored the Fugitive Slave Act. That language has been removed from the bill. It passed the Senate in February and is awaiting approval from the House Judiciary Committee. 

• HB 3, sponsored by Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, enhances penalties for people without legal status when they are charged with a felony where the victim is a minor. It passed the House last week and awaits approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which does not have its agenda published yet. 

Studies have repeatedly found that immigrants without legal status commit significantly less crime than the U.S. population as a whole. 

• HB 302, sponsored by Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, requires companies that hire people without legal status to register their employees with the Department of Workforce. The sponsor said the bill aims to cut down on human trafficking. It passed the House last week and awaits consideration from the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee, which does not have its agenda published yet. 

• Ivey also called for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public schools, including colleges and universities, despite a federal court ruling on a similar Louisiana law deeming the display unconstitutional. 

SB 166, sponsored by Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston, received opposition and support in a March committee meeting. Opposition primarily came from religious leaders from across the state, while support stemmed from Western civilization’s foundation. The legislation has yet to be moved out of the Senate Education Policy Committee, and it is not on the committee’s agenda for next week.

• On public educator benefits, a bill giving public educators workmen’s compensation was stalled last week in the House Ways and Means Education Committee. SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Sam Givhan, was carried over without a vote due to Republican committee members’ concerns about how the legislation mirrors the benefit given to state employees. 

• HB 202, sponsored by Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, raises the bar for prosecuting law enforcement by creating a round of hearings on a law enforcement officer’s immunity prior to trials or hearings. The bill passed the House along party lines in early March and awaits approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• A bipartisan supported public safety bill, HB 287, sponsored by Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, requires law enforcement agencies to report their staff numbers annually. It passed the House in February and awaits a vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• The House Judiciary Committee last week approved a constitutional amendment expanding Aniah’s Law, which was approved by voters in 2022. The expansion would make more charges subject to bond denial, including having a firearm or firing a gun into places with people, or soliciting, attempting or engaging in a conspiracy to commit murder. SB 118, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, awaits a vote from the full House.

Money, money, money

• The General Fund and Education Trust Fund (ETF) budgets are not usually considered until the back half of the session. This year is no different. Ivey submitted her recommendations for the ETF and General Fund, which total at $9.2 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively. 

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter supports an overhaul on the funding formula for the ETF. Legislators approved a hybrid model in February. 

“It’s time to get something different,” Ledbetter said on Feb. 4. “They’re looking at a weighted funding which, you know, the areas which are more poverty stricken, it certainly would help them, as well as ESL students. I certainly believe it’s positive.”

Lawmakers previously outlined three options: maintaining the existing system, which allocates money based on daily attendance; overhauling it entirely, or adopting a hybrid with additional funding for specific student populations, such as special education and English language learners.

Members decided to go with the hybrid approach, which would maintain the current foundation program while introducing additional funding based on student needs. As of Wednesday, no bills had been filed to make the change. 

• The House passed five tax cuts that mostly affect the ETF. The cuts take $205 million from the ETF, which is less than the $230 million hole left by the overtime tax exemption that is set to expire this summer. 

Ledbetter said he likes the overtime tax exemption, but the five bill package would impact more Alabamians. 

“I think those are the largest tax cuts that’s ever been passed in this state, and it affects everybody, not just a small segment of the population,” Ledbetter said last week. 

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, filed a bill that would extend the overtime tax exemption and commission a study on its economic impact. There is not a fiscal note attached to HB 467. 

• Lawmakers said in February they are prioritizing essential services as federal COVID funds disappear. COVID funding and historically high income and sales tax revenues left state coffers flush over the last several years, allowing legislators to pass supplemental funding bills near the start of the legislative sessions. 

Alabama Medicaid requested $1.2 billion in state funding at its budget hearing in February. While that is a $229 million increase from last year, Medicaid gets $8.9 billion from the federal government. 

The General Fund will start in the House this year and the ETF will start in the Senate. Ledbetter said last week that he expects to see the budgets in committee next week.

“We’ll probably see them the first week of April, but a lot of work’s already been done behind the scenes going into that,” Ledbetter said last week. “Committees have met, they’ve met with agencies, and so I think we’re in a place where we start moving those through.”

Gov. Ivey said in a statement Thursday morning that she looks forward to getting the rest of the public safety package and the cell phone ban to her desk.

“The governor is confident her other legislative priorities will make their way to her desk, including the remainder of the Safe Alabama public safety package, the bill to get cell phones out of the classroom during instructional time, among other items,” the statement read. “We are pressing full speed ahead!”

This story was updated at 9 a.m. Thursday to add a statement from Gov. Ivey.